New Health Care Law's Effect On Union Trust Funds

[DainBramaged]

The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, signed into law March 23, 2010, by Democratic President Barack Obama, is starting to affect health insurance plans that union members and their families are enrolled in.

So far, the two biggest changes are that children will be able to stay on their parents’ health plans until they turn 26, and that plans won’t be allowed to impose lifetime dollar limits on claims for essential services.

Those changes must take effect whenever an union health trust’s “plan year” begins -- and no later than Sept. 23, 2011.

If an employer-paid health plan previously covered employees’ children, those children will now be able to stay enrolled until their 26th birthday — even if they’re not living with their parents, are not in school, are not claimed as dependents on a tax return, and even if they are married.

http://www.smwia.org/Default.aspx?tabid=87&EntryID=325

[Omaha Steve]

1. K&R!