HHS Secretary: Americans, Congress Will Enjoy Parity in Health Care in 2014

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says not only will Americans have better health care in 2014, but they will enjoy the same type of insurance coverage that the members of Congress have.

"What's underway as one of the features of the affordable care act is building toward state-based insurance exchanges where private companies compete around a set of benefits and those who cannot afford to pay for 100 percent of those benefits,Rift Gold will get a tax credit to help them get there," said Sebelius, during a roundtable discussion on health-care reform Thursday that AOL Health participated in.

The roundtable was held as an extension of President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday, during which he called on a bipartisan Congress to work to improve the current bill rather than repeal it.

AOL Health Vice President Marjorie Martin asked the secretary a question from Jack from Kansas who wanted to know when, if ever, RIFT PlatinumAmericans would enjoy the same health benefits that the federal government provides to the members of Congress.

"Not only will Jack and others be able to purchase insurance from a state-based exchange," Sebelius said, "but it will be the same kind of insurance as Congress will have in 2014."

In 2014, the more than 2,000-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 will go into full effect. The plan is being phased in slowly, however,rift gold with small steps being taken to bridge the gap between the nation's current health-care system and the future health-care system.

In response to a question on why adults are still being denied insurance coverage if they have preexisting conditions, Sebelius said the government is first making sure children with preexisting conditions are covered.

"The way the new law is working is that starting [this year] insurance companies can no longer deny children who have preexisting conditions coverage," she said. "That's been a long-time discrimination that we've been trying to fix. ... In 2014, with the new exchange marketplaces up and running, RIFT Platinumno company will be able to have an exclusion for adults with preexisting conditions."

In the meantime, Sebelius said every state has a high-risk pool where adults with preexisting conditions can get coverage. But she conceded that the coverage is often expensive.

And although 2014 seems like a long time to wait for a health-care system that covers every American, Sebelius said enacting the plan is a balancing act.

"2014 seems like a long way down the road, but to the team coming together to build the [state-run insurance] exchanges, it feels like tomorrow," she said. "It's really a balance. First we're fixing some of the features of the current marketplace that don't work right now ... like denying children with preexisting conditions coverage on their parents' policies. TERA GoldSo we're offering these bridge strategies and building some of the workforce we need ... and building the community centers we need to handle the additional 30 million to 35 million Americans who will have insurance in 2014. We have to have a framework in place to deal with all of the people so we don't overload it."

Some of that framework, Sebelius said, involves working to fix the primary care physician and nursing shortages in the country by offering scholarships and building geographical models to determine what type of care is needed, as well as where it is needed throughout the country.