The “Seniors Have Eyes, Ears and Teeth Act” would help millions of Medicare beneficiaries who need vision, hearing and dental care, which is not covered by Medicare.
via Letter Endorsing Seniors Have Eyes, Ears and Teeth Act.
(More here: http://bit.ly/2ScbKma)
See more posts like this on Tumblr
#politics #health care #seniors #dental #retirement #retirees #retirement crisis #medicare #healthcare #p2 #elderly #older americans #entitlements #entitlement reform #congressHere is what he meant: traditional Medicare does not cover most dental care. This comes as a surprise to many people at the point of retirement. Studies have shown that more than half of workers aged 50-64 are unaware that Medicare does not cover preventive dental care or more expensive and complex procedures.
But dental care is a critical part of overall good preventive healthcare. Research shows clear links between poor oral health and chronic disease such as diabetes, as well as pain, chronic infection and reduced quality of life.
Many seniors simply pay for dental care out of pocket - the average out-of-pocket expense among Medicare enrollees who needed dental care in 2016 was $607, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a research arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
via Reuters.
Related Reading:
The “Seniors Have Eyes, Ears and Teeth Act” would help millions of Medicare beneficiaries who need vision, hearing and dental care, which is not covered by Medicare. Paying for these services is a hardship for many Medicare beneficiaries, half of whom live on incomes below $24,150 per year. Medicare households spend on average 15 percent of their income, over two times more than younger households, on Medicare cost sharing and for services not covered by Medicare.
via twitter.
Related Reading:
The “Seniors Have Eyes, Ears and Teeth Act” would help millions of Medicare beneficiaries who need vision, hearing and dental care, which is not covered by Medicare. Paying for these services is a hardship for many Medicare beneficiaries, half of whom lived on incomes below $26,200 per year in 2016. In that same year, Medicare households spent on average 14 percent of their income, over two times more than younger households, on Medicare cost sharing and for services not covered by Medicare.
Thank you Rep. Roybal-Allard! It is our hope that action will be taken on your legislation during the current 116th Congress. The “Seniors Have Eyes, Ears and Teeth Act” would help millions of Medicare beneficiaries who need vision, hearing and dental care, which is not covered by Medicare. Read more from our letter here: https://www.ncpssm.org/documents/letters-116th/letter-endorsing-seniors-have-eyes-ears-and-teeth-act/
via Kaiser Health News.
Related Reading:
The “Seniors Have Eyes, Ears and Teeth Act” would help millions of Medicare beneficiaries who need vision, hearing and dental care, which is not covered by Medicare.
You can read more from our endorsement letter by clicking here.
When a candidate promises to “save these programs for future generations” by raising the retirement age, raising the Medicare eligibility age, privatizing Social Security, changing the COLA formula and means-testing Social Security while exempting near retirees what they’re actually saying is: “We know seniors vote so we’ll protect them now and slash future benefits for their children and grandchildren instead.
Deficit hawks likely will pressure the White House to accept cuts in Social Security and Medicare for future retirees, protecting those already retired or close to it. Their political goal will be to defang public opposition, since younger workers tend not to focus much on retirement when it is several decades away.
But that approach is not going to work. Retirees and their advocacy groups will fiercely resist cutting benefits down the road, because they understand the critical importance of Social Security and Medicare benefits. They also care about the future retirement of their own children. And numerous polls show that the public opposes benefit cuts - a view that is common across all demographic groups and political affiliations.
via Reuters.
Whether America is facing a “retirement crisis” in which seniors are making do with shrinking financial resources has been widely debated. But here’s a telling metric: Seniors are making a larger share of bankruptcy filings.
That’s the finding of a new paper by academic researchers affiliated with the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which periodically samples personal bankruptcy filings from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. “Older Americans are increasingly likely to file consumer bankruptcy,” they write, “and their representation among those in bankruptcy has never been higher.”
via Los Angeles Times.
Related Reading:
…Here we are, eleven years later, facing another existential threat to our health and retirement income security. But this time the threat is worse, the peril more palpable. The millions of workers, retirees, the disabled and their families who depend on Social Security and Medicare have cause for grave concern.
To maximize profits, private insurers in Medicare will continue to try
to enroll younger, healthier, low-cost enrollees leaving sicker, older
and higher-cost seniors in traditional Medicare, creating what is known
in the healthcare industry as a “death spiral” making traditional
Medicare too costly to sustain.
via Reflector.
Senator Romney’s legislation has no provisions to ensure that future #seniors’ earned benefits are adequate for the expenses they will face. #TRUSTact @RepJohnLarson https://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/romneys-trust-act-is-back-again/
