Missourians are already seeing changes in healthcare coverage since the Affordable Care Act was first implemented. According to Ryan Barker, Director of Health Policy for the Missouri Foundation for Health, changes already affecting Missourians include provisions allowing young people to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until the age of 26, Medicare coverage of preventative services without a co-pay, and a new rule that requires some insurance providers to partially reimburse customers if they don’t limit overhead and administrative costs.
“And we saw about $65 million come back to Missourians in health insurance premiums that they had paid and not gotten the benefit of," says Barker.
Barker goes on to says that some elements of the Affordable Care Act could be affected if federal leaders don’t reach an agreement to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff". He says that programs that were authorized, but scheduled to be funded in the current budget, could be subject to sequestration cuts.
A group of public health professionals gathered in Columbia Tuesday to discuss the impact of the Affordable Care Act in Missouri. The seminar was sponsored by the Missouri Public Health Association and the Missouri Foundation for Health.