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Tomorrow celebrates the 45th anniversary of the enactment of Medicare*, a program that continues to bring peace of mind to seniors and people with disabilities by providing them with both health and economic security. The Affordable Care Act contains many provisions that strengthen the Medicare program. However, polling data released earlier this week by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) reveal that many seniors are still confused by the new law, including the provisions that directly relate to Medicare and senior health.
Please use Medicare’s anniversary as an opportunity to educate your community about the many ways people with Medicare benefit from the Affordable Care Act. To support your efforts, Families USA recently created two pieces that showcase how the law helps people with Medicare:
Helping People with Medicare discusses how people with Medicare stand to gain from the new health reform law. The new law will make Medicare more affordable by eliminating the “doughnut hole” over time, eliminating cost-sharing for preventive care, and providing more help for people with limited incomes. The new law will also make Medicare more financially secure—both now and in the future—by promoting quality and coordination of care, fixing the Medicare Advantage payment system, and strengthening Medicare’s finances while protecting benefits.
Medicare, Health Reform, and You is a PowerPoint presentation that helps dispel myths by outlining the ways in which the new law will improve Medicare. This is a useful public education tool when speaking with Medicare beneficiaries and can be used in conjunction with the piece above. The notes section includes a more in-depth discussion of each of the topics, which can be used to develop talking points for presentations.
The National Council on Aging also launched a new educational campaign to help seniors understand what is in the new law and how it will affect them. The campaign is called Straight Talk for Seniors on Health Reform, and the website provides fact sheets, tool kits, and other valuable resources. We encourage you to use these materials to support your public education efforts.
Millions of Americans rely on the Medicare system and millions more will come to rely on it in the future. It is imperative that seniors and people with disabilities are aware of what they stand to gain from the Affordable Care Act. Thanks for your continued hard work and dedication to optimize the new law for at-risk consumers.