How the Health Care Bill Helps You: Key Benefits for Virginia

This is a reminder that, although not perfect, the Healthcare Reform bill does have real benefits for everyday Americans. This summary of how Healthcare Reform has benefited Virginia comes from the Virginia Organizing Project:

Key Benefits for Virginia

* Provide tax credits for up to 99,565 Virginia small businesses to help make coverage more affordable.

* Prohibit insurance companies from excluding coverage of pre-existing conditions for the 1.8 million children in Virginia, starting this year.

* Close the donut hole and improve other Medicare benefits for 1.1 million Virginia seniors.

* Allows young people to stay on their parents health insurance plan until they are 26.


* Reduce Medicare premiums for the 934,000 Virginia seniors who are not enrolled in Medicare Advantage and will no longer subsidize these private insurance plans.

* Ensure affordable coverage options for 1.2 million Virginians who are uninsured and 344,000 Virginians who purchase health insurance through the individual market.

* Ensure immediate access to affordable insurance options for as many as 111,961 uninsured Virginians who have a pre-existing condition.

* Provide tax credits for up to 684,000 Virginians to help make health insurance more affordable, bringing $11.1 billion in premium and cost-sharing tax credits into Virginia during the first five years of the health insurance Exchange.

* Reduce family health insurance premiums by $1,550 - $2,210 for the same benefits, as compared to what they would be without health reform by 2016.

* Provide more federal funding for 146 Community Health Centers in Virginia.