This blog is part of the HERVotes blog carnival

Happy Birthday ACA! You’ve made it another year, ushered in more reforms, and gave more people access to health care. Pretty good for such a youngster. Among the highlights:

• No more pre-existing conditions for children
• No more co-pays for preventive care like well-woman exam or birth control
• No more getting kicked off your insurance plan for getting sick
• No more lifetime limits
• Parents can cover their children up to age 26
• Insurers have to spend more of their money on medical costs and less on CEO salaries, marketing and overhead
• Domestic violence screenings with no co-pays

As for senior citizens (from the White House blog):

• You get free preventive services. Medicare now covers certain preventive services, like mammograms or colonoscopies, with no cost sharing. You also can get a free annual wellness visit.
• You get cheaper prescription drugs. If you’re in the donut hole, you will receive a 50 percent discount when buying brand-name prescription drugs covered by Medicare Part D. The discount is applied automatically when you fill your prescription—you don’t have to do anything to get it. These changes are already saving seniors billions of dollars. And by 2020, the donut hole will be closed.
• Your doctors are supported to better coordinate your care.  Many doctors, hospitals, and other providers are taking advantage of new programs to help them work better as teams to provide you the highest quality care possible. They are working to get you the care you need at the time you need it.
• The law fights fraud and strengthens Medicare. The Affordable Care Act builds on our efforts to combat fraud and abuse. These efforts are saving billions of dollars in money that was being stolen from people with Medicare. And thanks to these efforts and other improvements, the life of the Medicare Trust fund has been extended.
• Your Medicare coverage is protected. Under the new health care law, your existing Medicare-covered benefits won’t be reduced or taken away. As always, you will be able to choose your own doctors.

And there’s more to come! By 2014, no one will be a pre-existing condition, access to Medicaid will be increased, and annual limits on coverage will be eliminated, to name just a few coming attractions.

Of course, I’m far from the only person excited about this. Lil ACA, you’re making a lot of lives better. The National Women’s Law Center and the Obama administration are collecting stories of people who have been helped by health care reform.

From the NWLC:
Thanks to the health care law…

• a mother who is diagnosed with breast cancer can focus on her treatment and not worry about whether her insurance company will drop her because she got sick;
• a young boy who has type 1 diabetes won’t have trouble getting health care coverage because of a pre-existing condition or face a lifetime cap on coverage;
• a young woman can go to her gynecologist and get a pap smear without a referral and without paying a co-pay

And here is Helen’s story

*photo credit: forum.make-the-cut.com