How health care law affects lives of 7 Americans

Obamacare, officially known as the "Affordable Care Act", is quickly proving to be so unaffordable that neither businesses nor labor unions want anything to do with it.

(nateOne)

This guest column by Secretary Locke was published in the Seattle Times on Friday.**********WHEN Republicans vote next week to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they are voting to repeal a new level of control that American families have over their health-care decisions. They are also voting to make American businesses less competitive in the global economy. Because just 10 months after its passage, the act has brought badly needed change to the American health-care system. The law: • Prevents children with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage; • Eliminates lifetime caps on the dollar amount insurance companies will spend on enrollees' benefits, like cancer treatment; • Allows children to stay on their parents' insurance plans until they are 26; • Gives tax credits to small businesses to help them afford health care for their employees; and • Takes meaningful steps to lower costs and improve the quality of health care for all Americans But from my perspective as U.S. commerce secretary, one of the most important benefits of the law is that it will make American businesses more competitive by reining in rapidly increasing health-care costs. As President Obama has noted: "We are in a fierce competition among nations for the jobs and industries of the future." The Affordable Care Act will allow American businesses, large and small, to improve their performance against foreign competitors, most of whom have significantly lower health-care costs. The cost savings are real, and they will grow over time.

Insurer UnitedHealth vows to honor some provisions of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, such as preventive screenings at no cost, regardless how the U.S.

By Suzy Khimm President Obama’s health law has brought the Democrats closer than ever to achieving their dream of universal coverage, with their plan predicted to insure some 95 percent of Americans who are legally in the country. But even if everything goes according to plan, there will still be some who will face major barriers to accessing coverage -- including groups that the Affordable Care Act goes out of its way to exclude.

Something I haven’t been 100 percent clear on is whether health plans offered under the exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act will cover birth control. Sharon Lerner explains that it’s actually just not entirely clear:

By Suzy Khimm I wrote last week about how the fate of health reform depends on the states, given their starring role in carrying out major parts of the Affordable Care Act. They'll be hugely responsible for setting up the new insurance exchanges -- which have to be running by 2014 -- and enforcing the beefed-up insurance regulations. But there are changes already underway that will give us an early preview of what's to come.