Congress took the historic step to pass a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system. Now what does that mean for you, particularly if you're uninsured?
The legislation will extend insurance coverage to 600,000 more Marylanders -- some 63,000 in Baltimore alone, according to an analysis by Baltimore HealthCare Access, a quasi-public agency that helps link low-income people with Medicaid.
Breaking that down further, according to the group's analysis:
--About 309,000 non-elderly low-income people will be eligible for coverage through an expansion of Medicaid--about 32,000 of them in Baltimore.
--The health care plan comes with an individual mandate that requires nearly everyone have coverage, or face a tax penalty. Low and moderate income people can get help through government subsidies to purchase insurance through new health insurance exchanges. In Maryland some 315,000 will be eligible for subsidies, which kick in for people earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. In Baltimore, about 32,000 people would be eligible for such help. For example: a family of three making $54,930 (which is 300 percent of poverty) would qualify for a subsidy to buy a health plan in a new health exchange. The premium to cover that family wouldn't exceed $5,218 or 9.5 percent of their income.
Important note: the expansion of Medicaid, the creation of the health insurance exchanges and the tax penalty don't kick in until 2014.
We'll bring you more analysis on what the bill means for other groups... For now, here's a good Q&A consumer guide from the folks at Kaiser Health News.