Medicare Does Not Cover Long-Term Care
More than three dozen House members on Aug. 2 sent a letter to the Social Security Administration asking the agency to clarify that Medicare does not cover long-term care, CQ HealthBeat reports. The bipartisan letter urges SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue to include in Social Security statements sent annually to 143 million U.S. residents the sentence: %26quot;Medicare generally does not pay for long-term care.%26quot;
The statement currently says that Medicare provides some coverage for %26quot;nursing care,%26quot; which the lawmakers wrote %26quot;creates an unnecessary risk that individuals will assume Medicare covers an extended stay in a nursing home, when in fact it does not.%26quot; While Medicare covers care delivered in skilled nursing facilities for beneficiaries who require longer-term medical treatment, it does not pay for custodial care, such as assistance with eating, bathing and other daily living activities. A December 2006 AARP survey found that 59% of adults ages 45 and older overestimated Medicare coverage for long-term care (CQ HealthBeat, 8/9).
Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork.org/email . The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 2007 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
By: Kaisernetwork.org – Sat, 08/11/2007 – 08:51
