OBAMA CARE / THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

Now that the fiscal cliff has been avoided will President Obama  make "compromise" a theme of his second term, one thing is for certain: the Affordable Care Act, widely referred to as "Obamacare" is going to take effect. The States are scrambling to line up. The lion's share of the law is to be implemented on January 1, 2014. There are major tenets that will impact Americans including the individual mandate and the pre-existing conditions clause that will not allow insurers to refuse coverage to anyone, even if there health is poor.

 

 

When you examine it what does this all mean for consumers and the broader health care industry? To answer that, we  look at Breakout who welcomed Les Funtleyder, a healthcare strategist for nearly two decades and author of Healthcare Investing: Profiting from the New World of Pharma, Biotech, and Health Care Services. He said that "the next 13 months are gonna be a flurry of activity" as the states, insurers and the insured prepare for the law to be fully enacted. He admits he is not sure January 1, 2014 is a hard-and-fast date, citing a recent delay in the deadline for states to tell Washington, DC whether they want in on the federal plan or if they plan to handle it on the state level.