ObamaCare: No Extra Charges on Gender or Health Status

One of the salient features of ObamaCare is its strong objective to end gender discrimination forever. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACT), people can’t be charged due to gender or health status on individuals or small group plans, which are sold after 2014. Many factors such as age, tobacco use and family size can be taken into consideration to determine insurance cost to the consumers.

As per the statistics, women used to pay $1 billion more than men each year for same health plans. However, ObamaCare 2014 ended this discrimination and ensured that women are not charged more and health status is not used as a factor in determining the insurance cost.

Unlike previous occasions, pre-existing health conditions, medical claims history, gender, occupation, duration of coverage etc. won’t be used as reasons to increase insurance premiums.

About 50% of people in America are women. They had been facing the discrimination for long and forced to pay more for healthcare services. As things are settled now, another key feature is to allow young men and women under 26 to stay on their parents’ plan.

Part I of Title I of the Affordable Care Act contains the sections that seek to get rid of discrimination in health insurance.

* Sec. 2701 establishes that premiums in the individual and small group markets may vary only by family structure, geography, the actuarial value of the benefit, age (limited to a ratio of 3 to 1), and tobacco use (limited to a ratio of 1.5 to 1).

* Sec. 2704 outlines no group health plan or insurer offering group or individual coverage may impose any pre-existing condition exclusion or discriminate against those who have been sick in the past.

* Sec. 2705 prohibits discrimination against individual participants and beneficiaries based on health status.

* Sec. 2706 prohibits discrimination against health care providers acting within the scope of their professional license and applicable State laws.