Americans who want to quit smoking and maintain a good health but do not want to shake their budget have a new hope with the Affordable Care Act, a health insurance reform policy passed by Congress and signed into legislation by President Obama on March 23.

Various health services like diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol tests, flu shots, cancer screenings, as well as counseling for things like quitting smoking, shedding pounds, treating depression, reducing alcohol and eating right will be covered by the Act.

For similar things, co-pays was required in the past by the Medicare. Other things that were needed were payments of annual deductibles, and sometimes even co-insurance, another insurance policy to cover the gaps in Medicare. If counseling was needed then it used to be outside the budget.

It should be noted that co-pays and deductibles are eliminated by the Affordable Care Act for health plans and cover preventive services fully.

According to new regulations released by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury, plan will be required to cover recommended preventive services without charging a deductible, co-payment or co-insurance if an individual or family enrolls in a new health plan on or after September 23, 2010.