Group says health care law will improve overall health

Many Fort Smith area residents got their first introduction to the Affordable Care Act through a presentation at St. James Missionary Baptist Church on Thursday night (Aug. 15).

The session, "The Affordable Care Act – What does it mean to Arkansans," was presented by the Arkansas Minority Health Commission to about 120 individuals in attendance at the Fort Smith church.

According to Idonia Trotter, executive director of the AMHC, the goal of the program was to clear up misconceptions about what the ACA does and does not do.

"The Minority Health Commission saw a great need for the grassroots community to be learning about what's happening with the Affordable Care Act, not just when it was implemented or signed into law, but early on. So for about a year now, we've been educating citizens about this law is, about the benefits that are currently available and about what benefits that will be available in the future so that they can get connected."

Trotter said by having the public insured, it would improve overall health. And that, she said, was the point of the ACA and the more than 17 informational meetings the AMHC has hosted across the state prior to tonight's event.

During the event, Trotter and Marquita Little, director of policy and planning at the Department of Human Services, presented information and answered questions.

Backing up Trotter's assertion that an insured populous would improve overall health, Little told the crowd of the risks if they did not sign up for healthcare, as required by the act signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010.

"Having insurance makes the difference between having regular medical and dental care and not," she told them, adding that about 500,000 Arkansans are currently uninsured.

With the high number of individuals who are uninsured across the state, Little said, hospitals and medical clinics often times treat patients who have no way to pay for their treatments, which she said was the cause for what many say are increasing health insurance premiums year after year.

Little said the group AMHC caters to, minorities, are the most disproportionately affected by a lack of health coverage, either through circumstances such as joblessness or by employers not offering coverage. According to Little, 21% of African Americans and 32% of Hispanics were uninsured in 2009.

"It tends to be disproportionate impact on minorities, but we know it's an issue that affects us all," she said.

As part of her presentation, Little informed residents that the ACA provided many benefits, including:
• Children can stay on their parents insurance policy until the age of 26;
• Insurance companies can no longer deny coverage of a child under the age of 19 due to health conditions;
• Lifetime benefit limits are eliminated and annual benefit limits on insurance coverage are regulated until 2014;
• Rescinding coverage by insurance companies is prohibited unless due to fraud;
• Premiums can only be increased due to age, geography, tobacco use, and type of coverage (in the future);
• No out-of-pocket cost to the consumer for preventative care, such as wellness visits, mammograms, colonoscopies, etc.; and
• Coordination of care improvements will be implemented, such as electronic health records.

For business owners in the crowd, Little pointed out that tax credits could be a part of the ACA – if business owners shopped for coverage on the new health insurance marketplace.
www.arhealthconnector.org/homepage.html

She said individuals would have the option to shop on the marketplace if they did not have an employer-provided health care option, though only if the plan made available through their employer exceeded 9.6% of their annual income.

Most of the crowd listened without questions or with questions clarifying points made by either Little or Trotter.

Fort Smith resident George Willis said he came to the meeting because "normally there's a loophole. I just want to see what it is." Willis said he has not had many questions about the act after calling an information hotline tied to the Arkansas Health Connector, or the marketplace. He said he was a supporter of the ACA because it would require that all American citizens obtain insurance.

"(I supported it) because I believe insurance should be available to everybody that needs it. Most of the industries have cut people out of jobs and when they lose their jobs, they lose their benefits."

Trotter said she was impressed with the work passing not only the Affordable Care Act at the federal level, but also the expansion of Medicaid in Arkansas (also known as the private option), which is expected to move hundreds of thousands of uninsured Arkansas into the privately insured category, initially at federal government expense.

"I think the legislative body should be commended for …the tough work that they had to engage in during the session to get us where we are today. It's not a perfect law, certainly there's going be as we all go along, and we're going to see some things that need to be changed. However, it's a step in the right direction we believe."