President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in March. We discuss new health insurance consumer protections that will take effect beginning Thursday.
Under the new law, children will no longer be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, coverage for young adults will be extended and insurance companies will be banned from dropping people when they get sick.
Guests:
Sarah Varney, health reporter for KQED Public Radio
George Miller, U.S. congressman (D) and chair of the Education and Labor Committee
Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access
Aaron Keshishian, senior at Cal State Northridge who cannot afford health insurance, but who can get insurance under his parents' plan until he turns 26 thanks to new health care provisions
Julie Walters, mother of Violet, a two year-old with a rare form of epilepsy who, without the new health care provisions, would have reached her lifetime insurance limit at age four or five