The Affordable Care Act: Patients’ Bill of Rights and Other Protections

The Affordable Care Act offers several new protections known as the “Patients’ Bill of Rights.” We published several fact sheets explaining these protections and how they can help consumers. This brief is a compilation of those fact sheets, which discuss these protections:

• ensuring coverage for people with pre-existing conditions
• ensuring the right to choose a doctor
• ensuring fair treatment of emergency care
• making sure policies can’t be canceled unfairly
• ending annual and lifetime limits
• enhancing access to preventive services
• ensuring the right to appeal health plan decisions
• ensuring health coverage for young adults
• protections under “grandfathered plans”