The Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medical Alert Coverage

Will the new Affordable Care Act affect your Medicare coverage?

Many boomers may be wondering how the new Affordable Care Act will affect their Medicare coverage. There are many changes coming down the pipeline with the new healthcare law. The Affordable Care Act aims to extend health insurance coverage to everyone, including those who may not have been able to afford it before.

“Will this new law affect what healthcare providers I can see under my Medicare Plan?” “Will I have to have pay more under my current plan?” “Will the Medicare program still be in effect years from now?” “How does this new change affect my medical alert service coverage?”

We know you’re anxious to get all the answers, so we did some researching and will be addressing these questions and more in this post.

The Pros

• Your Medicare coverage will still apply.
• You will be getting more preventive health services for less.
• You’ll save money on prescription drugs.
• You won’t have to change your doctor.

You’ll have all the same benefits as your current Medicare Plan covers. The new law actually prohibits any cuts to Medicare benefits.

Under the new law, you will receive free yearly wellness exams. In addition, it will close the prescription drug “donut hole,” thereby reducing your out-of-pocket costs for prescription medications. You’ll get more free preventative You won’t have to worry about getting a new doctor either, because you can see whichever healthcare providers your current plan allows.

To read more about the added benefits of the Affordable Care Act, check out AARP’s myth list about the new law. It explores common myths about the law and how it actually helps, not hurts, you.

The Cons

• The new healthcare reform will reduce Medicare spending by $716 billion.

Many fear that this change will reduce Medicare’s effectiveness or coverage standards, but it shouldn’t. Actually, this figure represents a total cut in spending for the years of 2013 to 2022, rather than an immediate lump sum.

According to AARP, these cuts should not affect the quality of healthcare provided to the patient, but rather will come in the form of “changes to provider payments, and correcting overpayments to insurance companies that offer private Medicare plans” (Howard, 2012).

While this may not affect your directly, this may affect your doctor. The spending cuts will come in the form of payments to healthcare providers from Medicare. We don’t know what this will mean yet, but it may affect the healthcare system later on.

What these savings will go towards is providing affordable insurance coverage for all Americans, free preventative care, and reducing the cost of prescription medications.

How This Affects Your Medical Alert Service Coverage

• It will not affect your medical alert service coverage.

If your Medicare Plan covers medical alert system usage, that will not change. However, it does mean that under the new law you will be eligible for medical alert system coverage if you weren’t before.

As always, we recommend that you contact your insurance provider to see if they will be willing to reimburse you for your expenses. To read more about that, check out our full-length post on insurance and medical alert systems.

Affordable Care Act Information Resources

• Medicare.gov
• Healthcare.gov
• Newsworks.org
• AARP Website
• AARP even has a neat interactive tool you can use to see exactly how the new healthcare law will affect you and your family based on your personalized responses to a series of health and income related questions.

We encourage you to talk with your Medicare Plan provider about any issues or concerns you may have about these changes within our healthcare system.

Feel free to tell us your thoughts about the healthcare reform on Facebook or Twitter, we’d love to hear your feedback.