How will the health overhaul affect you?

Nonprofit and advocacy Web sites, online "chats" with government officials, and hotlines for lawmakers are getting barraged with questions about how the health law will affect Americans, Kaiser Health News reports. "No matter which source they turn to, consumers are asking about every element of the bill. People who don't have health care coverage want to know how they can enroll in the high-risk pools that are scheduled to be up and running within 90 days. Parents want specifics on how they can keep their adult child on their health insurance plan. Small business owners are asking how they can get the tax credits to help them afford coverage" (Mary Agnes Carey, 4/12).

The Wall Street Journal: Medicare recipients - an active constituency when it comes to health care - can expect changes beginning next year that will include cost-free access to certain preventive care and more complete coverage for drugs. "But upper-income participants should prepare for higher premiums and, in some cases, higher taxes, too." Those higher costs will also go into effect next year, and some higher-income people will begin paying new taxes in 2013 (Tergesen, 4/11).

Los Angeles Times: Although uninsured people will see the biggest changes resulting from the recently passed health legislation, workers could see some changes as a result of the new healthcare law." The LA Times offers answers to common questions from workers who get health insurance through their employer, including information on premium changes and efforts to insure young adult children (Levey, 4/11).

Meanwhile, The Associated Press points out, "The nation may be divided over the wisdom of President Barack Obama's big new health care law, but it largely delivers on more than 30 specific promises he made as a candidate. Americans basically got what the majority voted for when they elected Obama in 2008, although many people today might not realize there are costs as well as benefits in the health plan's fine print" (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/12).

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This article was reprinted from khn.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.