You may not yet be aware, though, of another notable improvement to insurance, a change that could save a consumer or family hundreds of dollars a year. Under the new law, insurers must offer preventive services — like immunizations, cancer screenings and checkups — to consumers as part of the insurance policy, at no additional out-of-pocket charge.
The idea is that healthy Americans will be less costly Americans.
“This is transformative,” says Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, a nonprofit organization for large employers. “We’re moving from an insurance model that was based on treating illness and injury, to a model that’s focused on improving an individual’s health and identifying risk factors.”
The trend toward offering free preventive care has been gaining steam for a decade among large companies that provide employee health benefits. “Employers recognize that if they want to control costs, they have to persuade their workers to be healthier, including their children,” Ms. Darling said.
Three out of four large companies now offer free preventive health services to their workers, according to a 2009 survey by Mercer, a benefits consulting firm. Smaller employers, though, and individual health plans have been less likely to offer free care of any type.
But under the new law, more generous “wellness” benefits should eventually be available to almost all Americans with insurance.
“Eventually” is the operable word, though. Although this feature of the law goes into effect at the end of September, it will apply to new insurance policies only. That means if you switch to a different policy, or buy a new one, the preventive services will be offered.
This is a very good thing in the long term. Current US Healthcare incetivizes treatment as opposed to prevention. This is one of the reasons for the high healthcare costs. Offering free preventive care will serve to reduce expensive treatment in the long run and lower costs.