Here’s a bird’s-eye look at ACA’s provisions:If you’re already insured, you’ll find new benefits and protections. If you’re not insured or if you purchase insurance on your own, a new state-based system will help you get coverage that fits your needs, perhaps at a rate more affordable than you could find before. If you choose not to get insurance, however, and aren’t covered under an employer’s plan, you may have to pay a penalty. The goal of the new system? Preventing situations like the one in which Cindy Crowley* has found herself. When she was laid off from her job at a start-up company in 2012, Crowley, 54, lost her health insurance. Her monthly $2,000 in unemployment needed to cover her mortgage, food, utilities, and car payment, as well as her daughter’s college expenses, so she couldn’t afford the $400-a-month premium to continue coverage under her employer’s plan. Buying her own plan would cost hundreds, if not thousands, more—if she could even find coverage. Crowley knows she’s been playing medical roulette. She has already postponed her annual physical exam and mammogram because she can’t afford the out-of-pocket costs. “It’s scary,” she says. “There are so many ways you can get hurt, and it would be financially catastrophic if something happened to me.” But Crowley can stop rolling the dice on January 1, 2014. That’s when the cornerstone of the ACA kicks in: the insurance-coverage requirements. Also, the insurance you can purchase now through a state insurance marketplace takes effect that month, too. *Name changed to protect privacy More from Prevention: Already Have Insurance? What The ACA Means For You
