March 23 marks the second anniversary of the Affordable Care Act being signed into law. While the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments from March 26 to 28 challenging its validity, millions of Americans are currently reaping the benefits of the law and its reforms.

 

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, nationally 2.5 million young adults gained health insurance, more than 40,000 Americans with pre-existing medical conditions, such as cancer, accessed affordable coverage, 350 community health centers were built and nearly 19,000 jobs were created. Premium tax credits helped small businesses provide coverage for employees. And, more than two million seniors saved over $1.2 billion on prescription drugs. But now, those and other benefits could end.

 

For Florida, ranked number one in the nation with its percentage of elder citizens, revoking reforms could mean no more prescription drug discounts or other benefits for 3.2 million Medicare beneficiaries. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius reported that in 2011, Medicare enabled 238,362 residents to save $141,948,339 on their prescription drugs and provided about 2.8 million Floridians with at least one free preventive service, including the new annual wellness visit. Lowered premiums resulting from reducing Medicare’s overpayments to private plans may increase without reform regulations.

 

Also set to rise if the law is struck down is the number of residents in Florida without health insurance. To the more than four million uninsured residents, including more than 500,000 in Miami-Dade County and 400,000 in Broward County, add students like University of South Florida’s Luis Silva, who is under 26 and will get dropped from his parent’s health plan. And children like asthma sufferer Justin Kemler, as well as adults who will again be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition. Under the Affordable Care Act, more than one million uninsured Floridians were on track to gain insurance coverage by 2019.

 

Florida’s uninsured could have benefitted from a health insurance exchange which is being considered by many states. An exchange provides individuals with a wide variety of choices and ensures coverage, whether they change jobs, lose a job, move or get sick. It would also help the 1.1 million Floridians who currently purchase policies in the individual insurance market to get quality coverage at competitive prices. 

For approximately 2.8 million Floridians or 15 % of the population, affordable coverage would help – but they don’t even have access to a primary care provider due to a shortage in their communities. Health insurance reform will provide provisions for expanded and improved programs to increase the number of health professionals, including doctors, nurses and dentists. Remember, nearly 19,000 jobs were created when hundreds of community health centers were built across the United States to provide services to the 50 million Americans living in medically underserved areas.

 

The protections under the Affordable Care Act were moving us forward to a time when every citizen won’t wait to be so ill they enter the health care system through an emergency room for the most expensive care. They will have coverage to go to a family or primary care doctor. The law invests in universities and communities to innovate ways to deliver care at lower costs.

 

As we await the Supreme Court’s decision on the Act’s constitutionality, Health Foundation of South Florida remains committed to working with state and local agencies as well as other community-based organizations in identifying opportunities to build a better health delivery system focused on care coordination, primary care and prevention. As we have reaped benefits from health reform, let us continue to sow a solid, brighter and healthier future for all Floridians.