There’s a huge gap between people who can access healthcare and people who cannot, be they uninsured or insured, though functionally uninsured, because of exorbitant out-of-pocket costs. People with Medicare are no exception; Congress needs to improve and expand Medicare.
Improving and expanding Medicare is both “popular and right,” explain Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Senator Bernie Sanders in a Data for Progress op-ed. Congress should put a cap on out-of-pocket costs for everyone with Medicare. Only then will they have a meaningful choice between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage, which already has an out-of-pocket cap.
Congress also needs to lower the price of prescription drugs and add vision, hearing and dental benefits to Medicare. The public strongly supports these improvements to Medicare. And, support runs across party lines. More than three in four Republicans (76 percent) support adding vision, hearing and dental benefits, according to a new Data for Progress poll.
The data show that adding these Medicare benefits will improve health outcomes. Lack of dental coverage promotes an array of chronic conditions. Lack of hearing and vision benefits also jeopardizes people’s health.
The novel coronavirus pandemic underscores the need for lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60. Again, across party limes, a majority of the public favors lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 60.
These improvements to Medicare are easily affordable. The simplest way to pay for them is by lowering prescription drug costs, which continue to skyrocket. If we benchmark drug prices in the US to prices in other wealthy countries, they will come down significantly and save hundreds of billions a year.
Here’s more from Just Care:
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