If you haven't been able to get real, affordable coverage for at least 6 months due to a pre-existing medical condition, you may now qualify for coverage through a new program called the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, or PCIP. Click here to learn more through our fact sheet.

The Affordable Care Act allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health care plan until age 26.   Before the President signed this landmark Act into law, many health plans and issuers could and did in fact remove young adults from their parents’ policies because of their age, leaving many college graduates and others with no insurance.

Free (or charity) care refers to “free or discounted health services provided to persons who
meet a [health care] organization’s criteria for financial assistance and are thereby deemed
unable to pay for all or a portion of services.”

One important piece of the stimulus legislation passed by Congress last February was financial assistance that slashed COBRA premiums by two-thirds for workers who lose their jobs before December 31, 2009 (and their families). The 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act extends this assistance.