The Affordable Care Act prohibits cuts to guaranteed Medicare benefits. Provisions to help curb the soaring costs of Medicare include taxing high-premium plans
(beginning in 2018), cracking down on fraud and waste, and preventive care to avert
chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes, which cost
billions.
By 2020 the law closes the Medicare Part D
prescription drug "doughnut hole," in which Medicare beneficiaries
pay full price for prescription drugs after
exceeding a dollar limit each year. There will be ever-increasing discounts till 2020.
MYTH 2: Medicare Advantage
plans will be cut or taken away.
The Affordable Care Act, referred to as Obamacare by critics, does not eliminate Medicare Advantage plans,
which are privately administered but cost taxpayers 14 percent more per enrollee
than the traditional Medicare program.
MYTH 3: I'll have to wait
longer to see my doctor — or I won't be able to see my doctor at all.
"If your current plan allows you to see any physician
in the plan, nothing will change," says Shana Alex Lavarreda, director of health
insurance studies at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
MYTH 4: If I have Medicare, I
will need to get more or different insurance.
Stuart Guterman, vice president of the
Commonwealth Fund, said "Medicare
beneficiaries will continue to have Medicare, and there's no requirement that
they get additional coverage beyond what they already have."
To read the full article by Beth Howard in the September 2012 AARP The Magazine, click on http://www.aarp.org/health/health-insurance/info-09-2012/medicare-and-health-care-reform-myths.html
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