Dania Palanker, Senior Counsel

Have you ever tried to compare health plans? It isn’t easy. Insurance companies design brochures to sell their plans. They have pictures of people holding hands, pushing a child on a swing, smiling in the doctor’s office and just being happy. They highlight everything that is great about the plan and, by the time you get to the chart summarizing the benefits, you would think this is the best insurance plan ever.

Then you look at another plan’s brochure that also makes the plan seem like the best insurance plan ever. But you try to compare the benefits and you aren’t really sure what you are comparing. The brochures use different terms and different formats. You can’t find a description of maternity coverage. You are trying to figure out how all the dollars and percentages add up to actual costs.

Starting today, things are different. That is because plans now have to provide all applicants and enrollees a standard Summary of Benefits and Coverage (called the SBC for short) and a uniform glossary. The Summary is simple to read, short, and provides a standard chart of benefits and coverage examples that every plan must use. The Glossary provides standard definitions of important health insurance terms that impact your coverage.

I cried a few times yesterday. Not bawling tears, but a few drops of relief. A few drops for those who have been standing up to fight for our health care. A few drops for my friends’ children who will grow up in a country that provides them with the resources they need to thrive. A few drops for the women whose lives will be saved by learning about a condition from a simple preventive service. A few drops for the uninsured who will finally have affordable coverage in 2014. And a few drops for myself.

The promises of the Affordable Care Act are safe for one more day. There are so many promises of the law. These are a just a few promises the law makes to me:

• I will not be denied coverage for a preexisting condition.
• I will have access to preventive services without copays or deductibles.
• When I become eligible for Medicare (in many, many, many years), I will not have to worry about a gap in my prescription drug coverage.
• My friends don’t need to worry that their young children will hit an annual or lifetime dollar limit on their insurance.