The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): What it means for Texans
January 24, 2011
LBJ School, Bass Auditorium
12:15-2:15pm
"Puh-pack-uh? Is that some kind of llama?" quips Kaiser Health News writer Marilyn Werber Serafini in a January 3 article in the Washington Post. In fact, PPACA, an acronym for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is the new health care law of the land. Please join us for presentations and discussion featuring expert panelists to provide state and federal perspectives about how the Affordable Care Act will affect access to care and its impact on Texans. Panelists are:
- Katrina Daniel, Senior Associate Commissioner, Life, Health & Licensing Program, Texas Department of Insurance;
- Marjorie Petty, Regional Director, Region VI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;
- Dr. David Warner, Acting Director of the Center for Health and Social Policy (CHASP) and LBJ School of Public Affairs Professor.
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides information about the Affordable Care Act at http://www.healthcare.gov/law/introduction/index.html
- The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation has detailed information about the act on their Health Reform Source webpage, found at http://healthreform.kff.org/
- Health Affairs dedicated its July 2010 issue to discussing the impact of health care reform. The issue can be read here: http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/29/7.toc
About the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:
President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010. The federal government describes the act as an effort to increase the number of Americans who have access to health coverage and to provide Americans with better quality health care. Specific reforms include increasing the number of children who receive health care coverage, banning insurance companies from most annual and all lifetime care limits, and mandating that the majority of U.S. legal residents and citizens possess health insurance. Some reforms have already been enacted, such as rebates for seniors experiencing the Medicare "donut hole" and small business tax credits. Other reforms will be required for new health plans and for current plans when they are renewed. The act will be implemented in stages over the next three years.
More information about the Affordable Care Act can be found via the links listed below.
