Experts ponder questions regarding law's 'essential benefits' package

Connecticut Mirror: Health Experts Struggle With The Question: 'What's An Essential Benefit?'
When it comes to health insurance, deciding what is an essential benefit — and what isn't — is a political and medical minefield, with far-reaching consequences. ... As part of federal health reform, the Department of Health and Human Services is required to design an "essential benefits" package. That definition will have direct implications on the kind of health insurance coverage available through the state-based insurance exchanges, to be set up in 2014. Any insurer that wants to participate in the exchange will have to offer at least the basics, as set out in HHS's definition (Shesgreen, 3/9).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.