Healthy Help for Kids and the Mississippi Primary Health Care Association joined forces to host a community forum to provide information and address questions and concerns citizens have regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Held at the Jackson Medical Mall, the forum featured keynote speaker United States Department of Health and Human Services Regional Director Anton Gunn. During his PowerPoint presentation, Gunn stressed the last sentence of a statement President Barack Obama made after signing ACA: “It is the law of the land.”
“It’s not an idea; it’s not a policy; it’s not just a conversation piece. It is the law,” Gunn reiterated. “At the Department of Health and Human Services, our job is to implement the law, and that is what we are trying our best to do.”
He said there is so much misinformation circulating about ACA, and that is why he goes around the country to help educate the citizens about this law. He urges everyone to visit the website, healthcare.gov, which has the most accurate and factual information about the ACA.
He also discussed the federal government’s role in extending health-care coverage to millions of Americans and preventing insurance companies from denying people with pre-existing conditions.
During his presentation, Gunn pointed out that ACA has already provided 14,000 Mississippi seniors with a one-time $250 check to pay for prescription drugs. This closes the Medicare prescription-drug coverage gap.
Gunn also talked about the additional funding Mississippi will receive from the bill such as $400,000 for epidemiology, $100,000 for HIV/AIDS prevention and $1.5 million for health clinics.
“Many people are expecting health care to just change overnight, and it won’t,” he said. He gave a time table from 2010 to 2014 of the various implementation steps.
Gunn said the ACA has five major themes: expanding coverage; offering new consumer protections and consumer choice, making health care more affordable, improving quality and improving prevention and public health.
He stressed that each state is required to have a State Health Benefit Exchange Plan in place by Jan. 1, 2014. Senior Staff Attorney Aaron Sisk of the Mississippi Department of Insurance was on hand to share some of the state’s efforts in that regard.
Also addressing the audience was panelist Dara Antrum, who oversees the efforts of the Southern Health Partners program funded by the Public Welfare Foundation.
According to Keri Abernathy, director of Health Help for Kids, “The forum was an opportunity for citizens to speak to representatives from agencies responsible for the implementation of ACA.
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