Posts filed under ‘Access to Health Care’
Time to Renew, Not Repeal or Retreat!
Last week, an older adult wrote the Center for Medicare Advocacy:
“I will be on the streets at 66 years old without Medicare and Medicaid. It’s as simple as that. My money has all gone raising 3 granddaughters after their mother died. There are millions of stories like mine everywhere. We must help the least of us that had bad luck or are sick etc.” J.D., Medicare Beneficiary, Michigan
This week, on its first day, Congress passed a Resolution that begins the process to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Repealing ACA threatens access to health coverage and Medicaid for 20 million people. It would also reduce Medicare prescription drug coverage, reduce Medicare preventive benefits, and decrease the long-term solvency of the Medicare program.
ACA, Medicare and Medicaid are intertwined. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would also harm Medicare and Medicaid. It would harm the people, like Mrs. D, who raised her own family and is now raising her grandchildren.
Policy-makers need to know how their decisions impact real people. If you know someone who has benefited from the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and/or Medicaid – Tell Your Story!
Medicare: Es El Momento Para Renovar y No Retroceder!
Si, Medicare importa! Abrio sus puertas al cuidado medico al proporcionar cobertura que el mercado privado no querria ofrecer. Hoy dia 55 millones de personas viejas y personas incapacidadas disfrutan de atencion medica gracias a Medicare. El programa alivia familias de preocupacion y mejora la calidad de sus vidas, su tranquilidad, salud y seguridad economica. Sin embargo, en 2017 todo esto esta a riesgo.
Tenemos que mantener Medicare al dia, con salud oral, audiologia y cobertura de vision. Deberiamos pagar solamante el mejor precio por medicamentos de receta, y poner fin al derrame de los dolares de Medicare a las ganacias de las companias de seguros. Medicare tiene que quedar vital y relevante. Pero esto solamente puede ocurrir si Medicare se renueva y no se retrocede de su promesa.
Desafortunadamente, muchas de las personas entrando en ls escena nacional que van a establecer nuevas politicas estan dedicadas a convertir Medicare de un programa de beneficios definidos a un programa de contribuciones definidas que ayudaria a pagar por primas de seguros individuales y privadas. Este resultado seria el fin de Medicare tal como lo conocemos, con sus multiples objectivos de proporcionar cubertura de la mas alta calidad y con los precios mas justos. En cambio, cada persona recibiria un comprobante en la forma de un pago parcial para buscar y comprar un seguro medico en el mercado privado.
Por mas de 50 anos Medicare ha servido las nececidades de familias individuales y al mismo tiempo el programa ha ayudado a unir nuestra familia nacional. Las informaciones aqui incluidas, comentarios y historias veridicas demuestran lo que esta al riesgo si deshacemos este tesoro nacional- y como podemos renovarlo por las generaciones por venir.
“Antes de que eramos eligibles para Medicare nuestras finanzas casi fueron destruidas por primas de seguros altas…Medicare ha hecho una diferencia enorme en nuestra capacidad de disfrutar de una cobertura adequada, especialmente desde que la crisis economica resulto en la disminucion severa de nuestros fondos de jubilacion.”
K.M., Beneficiaria de Medicare, Minnesota
#SalvarMedicareAhora
Medicare Beneficiary Costs Will Rise if Affordable Care Act is Repealed (And Private Medicare plans will be paid more)
With all the talk about repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare), many people miss the impact repeal would have on Medicare, older and disabled adults, and their families. ACA added preventive benefits to Medicare, decreased Part D cost-sharing for prescription drugs, and increased the long-term solvency of Medicare by about 11 years.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation:
” Full repeal would increase spending primarily by restoring higher payments to health care providers and Medicare Advantage plans. The increase in Medicare spending would likely lead to higher Medicare premiums, deductibles, and cost sharing for beneficiaries, and accelerate the insolvency of the Medicare Part A trust fund. Policymakers will confront decisions about the Medicare provisions in the ACA in their efforts to repeal and replace the law.”
Policy-makers and people who rely on Medicare should think twice before supporting legislation that will give windfalls to private insurance companies, while reducing coverage and increasing costs for older and disabled people.
Telling It Like It Is: The Ryan Plan Would Kill Medicare
The title of Paul Krugman’s piece in today’s NY Times says it all. The Medicare Killers tells the truth about the Trump/Ryan plan to turn back the clock on Medicare and give it away to the private insurance industry. A good deal for insurance companies, but a very bad deal for the 60 million older and disabled people who access health care through Medicare. Importantly, as Krugman writes, this is not necessary. It’s just the latest ploy to privatize Medicare. Call it what it is.
Help the Center for Medicare Advocacy speak out against false claims and misinformation that could rob older people and people with disabilities of necessary health care – and diminish Medicare for generations to come. Spread the word. Tell the truth about Medicare.
Truth: Obamacare Helps Medicare – Pass It On
Speaker Paul Ryan is already in the news saying that because of “Obamacare” Medicare is going broke (Fox News, 11/13/2016). As a consequence, he says, he intends to bring back his plan to privatize Medicare and change it into a voucher system. Under his plan, individuals would be given a set amount to help pay premiums for insurance on the open market. This tired idea is not necessary and not best for Medicare beneficiaries or taxpayers – all of whom would pay more and get less under the Ryan plan. It would “save” Medicare in name only.
The truth is Obamacare is good for Medicare and Medicare beneficiaries. It added about 10 years to the solvency of the Medicare trust fund, preventive benefits with no co-pays, and reduced prescription drug prices for beneficiaries. Surely Mr. Ryan knows this.
The truth matters. Pass it on.
For more information see the Washington Post article that gives Ryan’s statement “4 Pinnochios,” their fact-checker’s worst rating for accuracy.
It Isn’t That Complicated: You Don’t Have to Improve
As the New York Times reports today, people don’t have to improve to qualify for Medicare-covered care in most settings. Unfortunately, older and disabled people are constantly told otherwise – and refused care as a result. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services could fix this pretty easily. Just issue a CMS Ruling stating definitively and clearly that skilled nursing and therapy can be covered to maintain a patient’s condition or slow deterioration. It’s the law. Disseminate the Ruling to all Medicare providers and adjudicators. Post it on the CMS website.
If there’s the will, there’s the way.
Proposed Budget Seeks to Reduce Dramatic Rise in Part B Costs: Advocates Remain Concerned About Underlying Causes
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Hold The Applause
We agree it’s important to find a permanent solution to the physician payment formula (“Sustainable Growth Rate” or SGR), but the Bill passed by the House of Representatives today is not the answer. It isn’t balanced. It asks too much from beneficiaries without providing enough in return. It asks nothing from pharmaceutical or insurance companies. It continues the ever-increasing privatization of Medicare by increasing costs for beneficiaries for traditional Medicare and Medigap plans. It adds unnecessary costs for the Medicare program and taxpayers.
Of the portion of the SGR costs that will be off set, roughly half (approximately $35 billion of the total $70 billion over 10 years) would come from Medicare beneficiaries through changes that will increase their out-of-pocket costs for health care, including:
• Adding deductibles to Medigap plans purchased by new Medicare beneficiaries starting in 2020;
• Further means-testing premiums for higher-income beneficiaries; and
• Overall increases in Part B premiums.
While the SGR package would make the low-income, Qualified Individual (QI), program permanent, which we strongly support, and would minimally increase and temporarily extend important funding for beneficiary education and outreach, it does not address other key issues that serve as barriers to care. For example, instead of repealing the annual outpatient therapy caps, the process to seek an exception to the cap is extended for another two years. Instead of addressing hospital Observation Status, the Bill further extends enforcement of the so-called “two-midnight” rule.
In short, Medicare beneficiaries would pay too much, with too little in return. Major drug and insurance industries pay nothing, and stand to gain a great deal. As the SGR debate moves to the Senate, we hope further balance and improvements for beneficiaries will be made.
2015 Marks the 50th Anniversary of Medicare – Help Ensure its Future
Since 1965, Medicare has opened doors to health care and increased economic security for hundreds of millions of older people, people with disabilities, and their families.
2015 will also usher in a new Congress. Many of its leaders and members will likely champion plans to further privatize Medicare. These proposals will likely surface despite increasing reports that Medicare costs and the federal deficit are declining, and that traditional Medicare costs less than private Medicare. Once again we will likely hear about plans to transform Medicare to “Premium Support” (a voucher towards the purchase of private insurance). We will probably read about proposals to increase the age of Medicare eligibility, decrease the value of Supplemental Medicare Insurance (Medigap), redesign Medicare to make it “simpler” (but less useful for most beneficiaries). We urge you to listen carefully for these and other such plans. And respond!
Since 1986, the Center for Medicare Advocacy has been on the front lines, advocating for people who depend on Medicare and for a comprehensive Medicare program for future generations. As we mark Medicare’s 50th anniversary, help us ensure its promise to advance access to healthcare. Help us explain what’s true and what’s not, where real savings exist, and when the true interests of beneficiaries are at stake. Help us ensure a real Medicare program lasts for another 50 years.
Be part of our Medicare Truth Squad. Ask us if you have questions. Spread the word – on Twitter, Facebook – in conversations! The future of a comprehensive Medicare program may depend on it.
Profits Over People
In “Fighting to Honor a Father’s Last Wish: To Die at Home” (the New York Times, September 25, 2014) author Nina Bernstein eloquently lays out the heartbreaking story of Joseph Andrey, whose last year of life was spent shuttling between inadequate care in every possible care setting. Often the services he received were provided in the most expensive available setting, regardless of the wishes of the family. Mr. Andrey finally died back in his home, but that final year of his life, quite likely the lowest quality-of-life year he ever endured, cost over a million dollars in Medicare, Medicaid and private funds.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Unfortunately, too often it is. I have devoted over 30 years as a lawyer to Medicare advocacy, yet I could not help my uncle when his Medicare coverage was prematurely ended in the hospital and the nursing home. This resulted in his ending up at home with inadequate care, and he, too, experienced many of the dreadful occurrences that befell Mr. Andrey. A day after his death, and almost a year after his premature discharge, we won his Medicare appeal. Like too many others, he died after poor care and unfair denials from his private Medicare plan. Another victim of profits over people.
CMA Health Policy Blog 