One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act – the new federal health reform law – is to help consumers purchase health insurance coverage that meets their health care needs. The law attempts to do that by requiring insurance companies to offer a standardized set of essential benefits and by prohibiting them from continuing certain practices that limit coverage. These changes are expected to make the coverage that Kansans purchase more robust. But they also are expected to increase the cost of some policies.
This brief — the second in a series on how health reform affects Kansans — examines the new benefit requirements in the law and those that impose new regulations on insurance companies.