Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is divided into 10 titles and contains provisions that became effective immediately, 90 days after enactment, and six months after enactment, as well as provisions phased in through to 2020. Below are some of the key provisions of the ACA. For simplicity, the amendments in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 are integrated into this timeline.

a.^ Note: The 2014 FPL is $11,670 for a single person and about $23,850 for family of four. See Subsidy Calculator for specific dollar amount. b.^ DHHS and CBO estimate the average annual premium cost in 2014 will be $11,328 for a family of 4 without the reform.

During the implementation of the law, there were interim regulations put in place for a specific type of employer-funded insurance, the so-called "mini-med" or limited-benefit plans, which are low-cost to employers who buy them for their employees, but cap coverage at a very low level. The waivers allowed employers to temporarily avoid the regulations ending annual and lifetime limits on coverage, and were put in place to encourage employers and insurers offering mini-med plans not to withdraw medical coverage before those regulations come into force, by which time small employers and individuals will be able to buy non-capped coverage through the exchanges. Employers were only granted a waiver if they could show that complying with the limit would mean a significant decrease in employees' benefits coverage or a significant increase in employees' premiums.

By January 26, 2011, HHS said it had granted a total of 733 waivers for 2011, covering 2.1 million people, or about 1% of the privately insured population. In June 2011, the Obama Administration announced that all applications for new waivers and renewals of existing ones had to be filed by September 22 of that year, and no new waivers would be approved after this date.

The limited-benefit plans were sometimes offered to low-paid and part-time workers, for example in fast food restaurants or purchased direct from an insurer. Most company-provided health insurance policies starting on or after September 23, 2010, and before September 23, 2011, may not set an annual coverage cap lower than $750,000, a lower limit that is raised in stages until 2014, by which time no insurance caps are allowed at all. By 2014, no health insurance, whether sold in the individual or group market, will be allowed to place an annual cap on coverage.

...
Wikipedia