the president was committed to making sure that people didn’t lose coverage that was good for them and their family. so…we kept in place the coverage that a lot of folks have with their work sites that actually is wonderful coverage and [with] doctors that they like and programs that they like. so the grandfathering is meant to keep in place positive coverage. one of the things that happens on september 23 for all plans is no one will be rescinded again so companies will no longer be able to go back into a plan find a technical error and actually boot somebody out of a plan who is paying their premiums. unless it’s fraud you cannot lose your coverage. that’s very good news. all plans will include young adult children on a family plan so that even in a grandfathered plan that will come into effect. and that’s really helpful to keep kids up to age 26 on a family plan particularly in this economy when lots of young people may be going into the job market but those jobs don’t have health insurance connected with it. and there will also be change so that plans will no longer be able to have lifetime limits. what we know is that there are a small number of people who hit those limits but if you hit the limit you’re really out of luck. you lose your health coverage when you need it the most when you’re very ill and need a treatment or need care. so those three benefits will apply to all plans. if an employer chooses to change your grandfathered plan to shift more cost onto the employee [or] to lower the benefits available to employees he or she will lose the grandfather status. so we want to protect the plans that are in place. you can’t just keep the grandfather status and yet dump a lot of extra cost or reduce benefits for employees and not come into the new world. so it’s kind of a balance.
would you describe the impact of the grandfathering rules for health plans?