Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare) Fiction versus Fact

1. Fiction: A mass email circulating since 2010 claims under the ACA, Medicare Part B premiums
will reach $247 per month by 2014.

Fact: News from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services disproves that email. Standard premiums for Medicare Part B, covering doctors’ services and outpatient care, remain at $104.90 per month for 2014, the same as 2013. People who pay surcharges because of higher incomes will see their rates stay flat. The annual Part B deductible stays unchanged at $147. Officials say the premium, calculated as 25 percent of the program’s costs in the previous year, has been held flat because Medicare costs have slowed, in part due to provisions of the ACA.

2. I’m 66 and enrolled in Medicare. Do I have to get a new insurance plan in the marketplace because of Obamacare? Will it cut my Medicare benefits?

Fact: No. If you have Medicare coverage, you met the ACA’s requirement to have health coverage. And no, Medicare benefits will not be cut. The law guarantees all current Medicare benefits. Additionally, the ACA improves Medicare coverage by making many preventive services free of charge, reducing the cost of prescription drugs by gradually closing the Part D “doughnut hole.”

Source: http://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-05-2011/medicare-part-b-premiums.html

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