Kaiser Video Demystifies Healthcare Reform

A terrific little animated video created by the Kaiser Family Foundation surfaced today, explaining in layman's language what's in store for us with the recently passed Health Reform Law.

Narrated by the wonderful Cokie Roberts, this video attempts to simplify the vastly complex law, with the emphasis on those portions of the bill that impact us as regular folks and as healthcare providers.

Cokie starts by outlining The Problem (well known to most of us physicians) and then goes on to describe what will happen with those provisions of the law that predate January 1, 2014.

This Phase 1 includes items such as free preventive care covered by Medicare, lower drug costs, children being able to remain on their parents policies until age 26, and certain tax breaks.

Moving onto Phase 2 which starts on January 1 2014, she outlines provisions such as Medicaid expansion, health exchanges, the disappearance of pre-existing conditions and the impact of the law on small businesses who may be eligible for certain tax credits and who will also be responsible for making sure their employees have health insurance coverage!

The video doesn't shy away from highlighting the vociferous opinions of the naysayers and yaysayers, either.

Additional links on the site you or your patients may find useful include:

• Health Reform Subsidy Calculator
• Implementation Timeline for Health Reform
• Explaining the Basics of Health Reform

You may find this information useful to parse and dissect for your next few patient newsletters!