With so many avenues for information, finding a clear explanation of President Obama’s Health Care Reform Bill and how it could affect Medicare and your needs for Illinois Medicare Supplements can be a trying task. Because of this, we have compiled a summary account of the bill’s goals, and the reaction from its supporters, adversaries and the health care industry.
The America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 is an unprecedented health care reform bill that aims to “expand health care coverage to the approximately 40 million Americans who are currently uninsured by lowering the cost of health care and making the system more efficient.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that the proposed savings include:
- $110 billion by making across-the-board “productivity adjustments” to Medicare payment increases. The proposal would slow projected increases in Medicare payments to hospitals and other providers, excluding physicians, to promote more cost-effective care.
In regards to Medicare, President Obama has insisted that cuts “will rein in unnecessary spending and increase [resourcefulness] and the quality of care…these saving will come from common sense changes.” Will these changes also alter your need for Illinois Medicare Supplement Insurance?
A recent report, America’s Seniors and Health Insurance Reform: Protecting Coverage and Strengthening Medicare, was complied by the Department of Health and Human Services. The report explains that health care reform legislation now being debated will help lower costs to seniors by:
- Closing the “donut hole” in Medicare Part D, the provision that guarantees insurance companies keep getting their monthly premiums even when they aren’t giving you any benefits.
- Allowing Medicare to negotiate for volume discounts with the drug companies. Savvy seniors know you should pay less when you buy in bulk.
- Ending wasteful taxpayer subsidies to the private insurance companies who run Medicare Advantage plans.
- Keeping seniors healthier by eliminating the co-pay for Medicare preventive services such as checkups and cancer screenings.
- Offer an opportunity for early retirees to buy into Medicare.
While GOP Chairman, Michael Steele, has been quoted as saying he neither likes or dislikes the current Medicare system, he questions, “How many times have we been at the trough of bankruptcy and no money for the Medicare program, where Congress is running around like chickens with their head cut off, trying to figure out how to fix a program that they’ve already mismanaged? So now you want to do that, Congressman, on a larger scale? You want to include all of us. You’re talking about taking our senior population, and expanding it to all of the population? Government cannot run a health care system. They’ve already shown that. Trust the private markets to do it the right way.”
Despite the conflicting opinions of both parties, Medicare Supplements For You counterparts, like the AARP, have asserted that it hopes “any Medicare savings proposals will reduce beneficiaries’ premiums and deductibles so that [seniors] realize real savings in their own out-of-pocket spending, which has been increasing at a rapid rate. At the same time, we also believe that some of these savings should be reinvested in filling the gaps in Medicare coverage.” Again, it remains to be seen whether the new place will actually increase or decrease your need for additional coverage in the form of Illinois Medicare Supplement Insurance.
While the details of the proposed health care reform bill are in question, your current and continued need for sufficient coverage is not. When you require more coverage than Medicare is able to provide, Medicare Supplements For You is the invaluable aide in your search for which Illinois Medicare supplements will suit you best.
