Consumer rights and responsibilities

Health care consumer rights; Rights of the health care consumer

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect on September 23, 2010. It includes certain rights and protections for consumers. These rights and protections help make health care coverage more fair and easy to understand.

These rights must be provided by insurance plans in the Health Insurance Marketplace as well as most other types of health insurance.

Certain rights may not be provided by some health plans, such as grandfathered health plans. A grandfathered plan is an individual health insurance policy purchased on or before March 23, 2010.

Always check your health plan benefits to be sure what type of coverage you have.

Types of health care providers

Health care providers range from generalists to providers who specialize in certain areas of the body or disease. Any category of medicine or care such as cancer or anesthesia can have a specialist. Nurses also can specialize in certain areas of medical care.

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