Essential Benefits

The ACA requires health plans, beginning in 2014, to provide a certain set of minimum benefits similar to what employers typically offer today.  The law outlines 10 general categories of benefits that are to be used as a benchmark when determining what qualifies as an “essential health benefits package.” These categories go beyond the coverage that many individuals and small businesses purchase today – meaning millions of Americans will have to “buy up” to purchase more coverage than they currently have.  Further expansion of the essential health benefits requirement will result in less affordable coverage for individuals, families and small employers by forcing them to “buy up” and purchase more coverage than they may want or need.