By Barbara Matteson, Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund Board Member
With rising health care costs, retirees need all the help they can get on the financial front. Fortunately, the Affordable Care Act, the health care law passed three years ago this week, is working and has helped seniors on Medicare pay their medical bills.
Next year, the law will be in full effect, but many provisions are already helping Arizonans, especially seniors, by making prescription drugs more affordable, covering preventive services with no deductible or co-pays, and extending the solvency of Medicare.
Medicare is a core part of the American middle class. It is one of our nation’s greatest success stories, rooted in American values of hard work and fiscal responsibility. Workers devote a small portion of each paycheck to Medicare for peace of mind and access to health care in retirement. Fortunately, the Affordable Care Act strengthens Medicare by expanding its benefits and extending its longevity.
In Arizona, Medicare beneficiaries saved over $102.2 million on prescription drugs since the law’s enactment three years ago. In 2012, over 65,000 Arizonans saved over $44.9 million, or an average of $689 per beneficiary. In 2012, seniors on Medicare who were in the “doughnut hole” received a 50% discount on brand name drugs and 14% discount on generic drugs. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, coverage for both brand name and generic drugs will continue to increase over time until the nasty “doughnut hole” coverage gap is closed.
In addition to prescription drugs, the Affordable Care Act is removing barriers for people on Medicare to see a doctor and get basic, preventive care tests. In 2012, an estimated 34.1 million Medicare beneficiaries took advantage of Medicare’s coverage of preventive services with no cost-sharing or co-pays. In Arizona, more than 434,000 seniors on traditional Medicare used at least one free preventive service in 2012. With no deductibles or co-pays for preventive screenings and tests, cost is no longer a barrier for seniors who want to stay healthy by detecting and treating health problems early.
Seniors have more than just their personal benefits to be grateful for. We are comforted that the new health law allows our grandchildren to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26, giving them time to land a job with benefits. Middle class families of all ages need the security of knowing they won’t go bankrupt when someone gets sick. It’s a good thing our children’s health is no longer hostage to insurance companies’ discrimination against pre-existing conditions – or their practice of finding loopholes to cancel coverage when patients need it the most.
Times are tough in this economy, but we can take heed that politics has not been all gridlock these past couple years, and there are ways that seniors and working people have gotten a leg up and made improvements. The high, and growing, costs of health care are a frightening prospect for everyone – especially seniors – but the Affordable Care Act is addressing some important issues, and we should take a moment to appreciate the positive changes three years has brought us.
Barbara Matteson is a retired teacher and lives in Tucson, Arizona.