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What reform can do for you

Posted by: Erin Kelly on Dec 15, 2009

With the nitty-gritty details of health reform changing every day, it's pretty difficult for most people to not only keep up, but also to figure out what's in it for them. Let us help you out.

A while ago we posted 14 Changes to Health Care Coming on Day One a blog on how the House health reform bill will affect Americans right after it passes. But health reform isn't about a list of amendments; it's about the people who will finally receive the life-preserver they've been so patiently waiting for.

PBS Newshour is currently profiling six people who exhibit why we're fighting so hard for reform and how health reform would change their lives. One of those people is Samantha Long.

Samantha Long is like many young Americans: She is too old to qualify for her parents' coverage, but she cannot find a job that will provide health insurance. Premiums were just too expensive for her to purchase as an individual, so she chose to go without. And then she got sick.

After she developed a bladder infection and went to the hospital, she was slapped with a $7,000 bill. In order to avoid facing a similar situation in the future, Long tried to buy health insurance. She was denied coverage because of her visit to the emergency room and she was told that she should try again in a year.

Long had what insurance companies call a "pre-existing condition," so they denied her application.

According to Newshour,

Last year, she estimates, she made about $24,000 between that [new] job and other part-time work. But she still does not qualify for the firm's health insurance coverage, which is offered only to full-time employees, and she remains uninsured.

So what exactly will health reform do for Long? We're glad you asked.

Newshour notes that,

Under health care reform, the insurers that turned Long down because of her hospital stay would have had to accept her. That's because proposed regulations in both the House and Senate bills bar insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

Under the house bill, she would also be eligible to qualify under her parents plan because dependants up to the age of 27 could still use their parents' insurance.

If health reform passes, Long will now have two choices-a stark contrast to what she currently has: none.