A recent article from AARP explains that potential changes to the Affordable Care Act could have serious consequences for Medicare recipients. From the article:
Although it has received little attention, a full repeal of Obamacare would eliminate Medicare benefits created by the law. Among other things, it improved Medicare’s financial outlook by slowing the growth of spending and clamped down on fraud, waste and excessive payments. It also enabled tens of millions of Medicare beneficiaries to get free preventive services such as flu shots and screenings for cancer and diabetes. And between 2010 and 2015, nearly 11 million Medicare beneficiaries saved $20.8 billion on prescription drugs—an average of $1,945 per person—because of the gradual closing of the coverage gap known as the doughnut hole.
We [AARP] will also fight to protect the key provisions of health care reform that you have told us are important to you and your families: (in other words what we could lose if Obamacare is repealed )
- Eliminating discrimination by insurance companies due to preexisting conditions.
- Restricting discrimination by insurance companies based on age and gender.
- Closing the “doughnut hole” to make prescription drugs more affordable under Medicare.
- Keeping children on their parents’ policies to the age of 26.
- Expanding preventive services.
- Protecting Medicaid’s critical long-term services and supports that help our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, including older adults and disabled children, continue to live in their homes and communities.”