Healthcare reform’s preventive coverage rule that kicked in last year is already making big waves, according to the latest report from the federal government.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just announced that the healthcare reform law provided approximately 54 million private health plan participants with at least one new free preventive service in 2011.
In 2011, the healthcare reform law put employers on the hook for preventive care by prohibiting co-pays or deductibles on things like mammograms, Pap smears, colonoscopies, well-child visits, flu shots and other medical services designed to catch and prevent serious conditions before they become bigger problems.
The law also made preventive services free for most people on Medicare, and it’s estimated that another 32.5 million people on Medicare received at least one free preventive service in 2011.
That brings the law’s beneficiary grand total to 86 million.
A report issued by the HHS also broke down how each major ethnic group benefited from the preventive coverage rule in 2011.
By far, Caucasians benefited the most, with 44.3 million with private insurance benefiting from the preventive coverage rule. It’s also estimated that 6.1 million Latinos with private insurance benefited, as well as 5.5 million African Americans, 2.7 million Asian Americans and 300,000 Native Americans.
