Pressure rising on healthcare long before overhaul takes effect

Millions will struggle to keep coverage until the law sets up a safety net in 2014.
By Noam N. Levey, Tribune Washington Bureau
June 21, 2010

Despite passage of the landmark healthcare overhaul this spring, the nation's existing health system is continuing to fray, raising the prospect that the country could experience a crisis before the law establishes a new safety net in 2014.

Three months after President Obama signed the law, state governments struggling with budgets savaged by the recession are contemplating further cuts in healthcare aid for the poor, despite the promise of more federal dollars.

At the same time, several million laid-off Americans and their families who have used federal assistance to hold on to health insurance will lose coverage in coming months as the special assistance program expires. Those with jobs face their own challenges as employers continue to look for ways to pare health benefits and shift more costs to employees, if not drop health coverage altogether. the rest

Massachusetts may find US health care changes costly
As rules stand now, poorer to pay more