Medicare Modernization Act And The Changes It Has Brought

Medicare is the medical plan funded by the government that is available for people at least 65 years old, the disabled, and those sick with end stage renal disease. It was basically to help these people pay for their medical and hospital bills, but in the recent years, many changes have been made to its system to provide its beneficiaries with more options.

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, or simply the Medicare Modernization Act, is a law that America passed in the year 2003, leading to the biggest change in the Medicare system in its history.

It was signed on December 8, 2003 by President Bush. The month after, it was found that it boosted the yearly Medicare costs to 534 billion US dollars. This was a hundred billion more than the estimated figure that the Bush administration promised, causing a controversy.

The Medicare Modernization Act's biggest change is in how an entitlement benefit for prescription drugs was introduced. Prescription drugs have become increasingly important to human beings today because of advances in the field of Medicine. More and more drugs come out, but as these things go, many of them become too expensive for senior citizens to afford.

This benefit has a complex system of funding. It gives a subsidy to big employers so that they are discouraged from taking away their private prescription coverage for their retired workers, and it does not allow the government from negotiating for discounts from pharmaceutical companies.

Eventually, in 2006, the prescription drug benefit called the Medicare Part D became available for the beneficiaries. However, this still entailed a significant amount of out-of-pocket costs. The coverage can only be available through various insurance companies and health maintenance organizations. It is also still voluntary.

If you are enrolling for Medicare, you can opt to apply for that Part or not. If you do not need prescription drugs, then you can just get the usual Part A or B.

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