PPACA Overview
- Full Text Statutes. PPACA consisted of two separate laws: HR 3590, was the Senate version of health care reform, and HR 4872 was the reconciliation bill that made some fixes in the law to make it palatable to the House of Representatives. The reconciliation combined text is also available.
- Regulations and Guidance. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists all PPACA regulations issued to date on various issues (e.g. coverage for children under 19). It also has maintains a Requests for Comments page on draft regulations and comment deadline dates. American Benefits Council maintains a comprehensive listing of official source documents related to PPACA regulations. The Congressional Research Service has issued a series of reports regarding PPACA regulations:
- Bill Summaries
- Kaiser Family Foundation, Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has a detailed bill summary.
- Wall Street Journal has a comparison of the bill as passed with versions originally enacted in House and Senate.
- National Association of Health Underwriters side-by-side comparison chart outlines what was contained in each bill. NAHU has a separate side-by-side comparison chart of all four pieces of legislation considered by the 111th Congress.
- Organization Charts
- Glossaries
- Print Glossary of Key Health Reform Terms (Kaiser Family Foundation)
- On-line Glossary (George Washington University)
- Understanding the Health Care Debate: Your Indispensable Guide (Time magazine)
- Getting Past the Lingo of the Health Care Debate (CNN.com)
- Glossary (Health Care and You)
- Frequently Asked Questions.
- DHHS has a site on PPACA implementation FAQs.
- CNN Truth Squad: Health Care Fact Check.
- Read the Q & A from NAHU’s health reform webinars.
- Timelines. Several different groups have prepared timelines that codify when various PPACA provisions take effect, including Kaiser Family Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, and HealthReformReport.com.NAHU provides a detailed timeline on health care reforms and their effective dates, and a simplified timeline of implementation that outlines how the health care reform legislation will impact individuals and employers. Health Care and You has an interactive timeline allowing users to select a year and to select the group being affected by the law (everyone, under 65, over 65, small business owners and health care professionals).
- The Basics
- U.S. DHHS maintains the official site for health reform, HealthCare.gov, containing text and video explanatory materials.
- Kaiser Family Foundation, The Basics
- NAHU’s “Plain English” primer summary of some of the changes to health benefits consumers and clients should be thinking about.
- Health Care and You’s What is the Affordable Care Act? summarizes the Act in bullet points, with links to follow-up pages describing each provision in more detail.
