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Dispelling Common Myths

If there's one nearly-universal truth about Obamacare -- the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- it's that misinformation about it abounds, and most people don't actually understand what it is doing for them at all. Let's take a bit of time today to specifically dispel some tenacious myths about how the ACA is going to affect elderly Medicare recipients. Myth: Medicare Recipients Must Now Buy Additional Insurance There is a lot of language in the ACA and the talk about the ACA is how many people are going to have to buy new insurance. But if you're receiving Medicare already, you're covered. Medicare (and Medicare Advantage plans) already qualify for all of the ACA's new rules, so there's no need for you to do anything except reap the benefits of the new law. Myth: Medicare Recipients Will Have to Change Doctors This is best described as 'possibly partially true in a way,' actually. The deal is this: Medicare payouts to insurance companies with Medica...
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Dealing With Chronic Diseases

While there are many changes wrought by the Affordable Care Act, they are not all senior-care-specific. For example, one of the most popular requires insurers to cover consumers with pre-existing conditions. A surprising amount of senior citizens are burdened with chronic diseases (about 80%), so these changes benefit quite a few seniors. Doing Away with Pre-Existing Conditions As of January 1st, 2014, the concept of 'pre-existing conditions' has been done away with, as per the ACA's regulations. Any chronic disease, before that date, could (and almost always would) be classified as a 'pre-existing condition,' meaning that the insurance company would either deny you coverage for anything related to that disease or would charge you dramatically more in premiums because of that disease. With that ability gone, having a chronic disease no longer puts you on the insurance blacklist, and it no longer means you have to pay out the nose for your health insurance forever ...
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