Administration highlights 2011 benefits of its healthcare reform law

{mosads}The messaging push comes as public support for the law remains split. The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll shows 41 percent of Americans in favor of the law, versus 43 percent against it.

Sebelius’s blog outlines eight benefits of the law that have already taken effect:

• 2.5 million more young adults are now covered by their parents’ healthcare plans;

• Insurance plans have to publicly justify rate hikes of 10 percent or more;

• Insurance plans have to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care or offer rebates to customers;

• An array of preventive services now have to be offered without copays;

• Medicare deductibles are dropping even as seniors gain access to free preventive measures and pay less for their prescription drugs;

• The National Health Services Corps is expanding;

• Hospitals are encouraged to improve patient care; and 

• New fraud fighting tools helped the government recover $2.9 billion from the healthcare sector.