Stoll says savvy Medicare-eligible consumers who want to have these discussions already have discovered a cost-free workaround provided by a previous president.
“In 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act, which allows Medicare to cover advance care planning as part of the Welcome to Medicare physical exam,” she explains. “Also, if you visit your doctor, for example, to check your diabetes and you also discuss your end-of-life care
preferences during that visit, Medicare will cover the
appointment.”
7) Medicare scare
Fiction: Health
care reform will reduce Medicare benefits to all seniors.
Fact:
Traditional Medicare benefits will be unaffected by the law, and some
seniors will even enjoy better coverage.
“It improves prescription drug coverage for people with Medicare Part D by gradually closing the coverage gap, or ‘doughnut hole,'” Stoll says. “Seniors with high drug costs who fall into the doughnut hole are now receiving 50 percent discounts on their brand-name drugs at the pharmacy and other discounts on generics. These discounts will increase each year until the gap is completely closed in 2020.”
Health care reform does reduce payments to privately-administered Medicare Advantage plans and requires them to spend at least 85 percent of premiums directly on patient care in order to bring their
costs more in line with the average cost of traditional Medicare. These plans may then charge higher premiums and reduce added benefits such as eye and dental care, but all plans will still be required to provide all benefits currently covered under traditional Medicare.
8) States on the
sidelines?
Fiction: States that don’t set up health exchanges will be exempt from the Affordable Care Act.
Fact: If states fail to establish a health exchange, the federal government will set up and run one for them.
“On Jan. 1, 2014, consumers in every single state will have access to private health insurance options on an Affordable Insurance Exchange, regardless of whether that exchange is run by the state, the federal government or a partnership between the two,” says Chiglinsky.
But the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act said states may, in fact, opt out of another part of the health care reform law: its expansion of Medicaid, which is designed to make health insurance affordable for an additional 16 million Americans.
States that do decide to opt out would be turning down
millions of dollars in Medicaid funding, because the federal government plans to foot the entire bill for expanding Medicaid in the first few years. After that, states will be expected to pick up 10 percent of the costs.
Article appeared @http://finance.yahoo.com/news/8-biggest-mix-ups-about-health-care-reform.html