President Obama signed health care reform into law on March 23, 2010.

After a several days of intense debate, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of the health care reform proposal previously passed by the Senate. It will take some time to get a better idea of how the proposal will impact people with disabilities. However, here is a summary of a few of the major provisions:

• Private health insurance cannot exclude people due to pre-existing conditions;
• Private insurance policies cannot have annual or lifetime benefit caps;
• Expands Medicaid eligibility to individuals with incomes of up to 133% of the federal poverty level;
• Reduces the “doughnut hole” for prescription drugs in Medicare;
• Includes the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act.  This creates a national long-term care insurance program.  This will assist many people to meet their long-term care needs by providing a daily cash benefit without the need to “spend down” to become Medicaid eligible;
• Includes the Community First Choice option.  This will lessen the institutional bias in Medicaid because it will encourage states to help cover the cost of personal care services in the community.  Federal matching funds will be increased by 6% under a state optional service plan instead of through the waiver system for such services;
• Increases federal share of Medicaid. Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for home and community based services and during periods of economic downturn:
• Provides funding to help improve training of health professionals on how to more effectively serve people with disabilities;
• Requires collection of data related to access of people with disabilities to primary health services;
• Requires prevention programs to include focus on people with disabilities.

(Information provided by the Arc-Wisconsin)