November 29th, 2010 
Admin After more than 50 years of debate, deliberation and (more often than not) discord, there is new health care legislation. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – aka, the ‘Patient Protection Act’ – was signed into law in March. The big goals behind this massive legislation are to slow down the escalating costs of health care for everyone and bring health care coverage to more than 32 million people who are currently uninsured.
Some of the key concepts of the reform include:
• extending insurance coverage to adults and children with pre-existing conditions, starting in 2014;
• extending employer-provided health coverage for adult children up to age 26;
• the creation of State Exchanges/Health Insurance Marketplaces where individuals can compare costs and benefits and purchase insurance;
• tax credits for individuals and small businesses to help purchase/offset the costs of insurance;
• penalty tax for businesses (with at least 50 employees) who do not offer minimum essential insurance coverage; and
• a penalty for individuals who do not maintain insurance coverage.