Six months ago, President Obama signed into law the historic health care reform law. Starting today some provisions go into effect, including the provision that all plan must allow young people to remain on their parents’ plan up to their 26th birthday (this protection is limited to young people who do not have access to their own employer-sponsored coverage.)

These reforms will hopefully improve the coverage people get through their employers and individual health insurance policies, that they buy from insurance companies. That’s the idea anyway. The following information is from My Word: Patients’ Bill of Rights Starts Today by Representative Pete Stark in the Oakland Tribune

–All insurance plans must stop the practice of “rescissions” — dropping people’s coverage when they get sick.

–All employer plans and new individual plans are prohibited from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.

—All plans must allow young people to remain on their parents’ plan up to their 26th birthday (this protection is limited to young people who do not have access to their own employer-sponsored coverage).

–Other reforms will prevent consumers from getting stuck with sky-high medical bills, and improve the quality of insurance:

–All insurance plans are prohibited from imposing lifetime limits on coverage — so people with costly diseases won’t see their coverage evaporate when they hit a certain spending cap.

–All employer plans and new individual plans are restricted from setting low annual limits on coverage.

–ll new plans must have an effective internal and external appeals process — so that if you want to appeal a decision your insurance company makes, your appeal isn’t lost in corporate bureaucracy.

All of these provisions take effect for the next plan year starting on or after today. That means that they’ll be in effect the next time you purchase a new plan or during your next open season.