What the New Health Care Law Means for Child Care and Early Education

With all the debate over the new health care law over the past two years, there has been little focus on one group that stands to benefit significantly—the early childhood community. Worse, there has been a lot of misinformation about what the new law does and does not do. The health care law will make a real difference both for child care teachers—only one-third of whom currently receive health benefits—as well as the children in their care and the children’s parents. Child care teachers can learn more about how they can take advantage of the law to improve their own health care and can play a role in informing the children and families they serve about the health care law.

While a number of the health care law’s provisions do not go into effect for several years, some other important provisions have been in place since this past September. Many of these provisions greatly benefit women—including those in the primarily female early childhood workforce—as well as the children in their care and their own children.

Early childhood providers in their early to mid-20s, will benefit from a new rule that allows young adults to remain on their parents’ health insurance policy as dependents until age 26.  In addition, all new health plans are required to cover certain recommended preventive health services for women, with no co-payments or deductibles; these services include mammograms, smoking cessation treatment, cholesterol and blood pressure screenings, and pap smears.  Health plans are prohibited from imposing lifetime limits, meaning they can no longer limit the amount of money they will pay for benefits over an individual’s lifetime; this protection applies to every health plan and is especially important for women with high health care expenses, such as those with chronic conditions, disabilities, or serious illnesses.  Women will also have “direct access” to obstetrical and gynecological care, which prohibits new health plans from requiring referrals when women seek this care.

There are also provisions that help children. Most health care insurance plans are now prohibited from denying coverage to children ages 0 to 19 with “pre-existing conditions,” such as asthma and diabetes. Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), (sometimes called SCHIP), was also extended until 2015. (CHIP offers low-income children who are ineligible for Medicaid, yet cannot afford private insurance, a means to be insured.)

And small employers—including non-profits—with fewer than 25 employees can obtain tax credits to help provide health insurance for their employees.

These are just a few of the pieces to know about in the new law. To learn more about the new law, please join us for the National Women’s Law Center’s conference call on Wednesday, December 8 at 3:00 p.m. for more information about why the health care law matters for the child care and early learning community. The call—What the Child Care and Early Learning Community Needs to Know About the New Health Care Law—will explain the basics of the new health care law and how it works as well as discuss the provisions important to the early childhood community.