Tell Congress to Prioritize People with Medicare in 2024
Today, the Medicare Rights Center joined 75 national organizations in urging Congress to include funding for Medicare low-income outreach and enrollment in the next 2024 spending package.
Established in the 2008 Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA), these federal dollars help community-based organizations—Medicare State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs), Area Agencies on Aging, Aging and Disability Resource Centers, and local Benefits Enrollment Centers—connect Medicare beneficiaries with programs that can make their health care and prescription drugs more affordable, like the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) and Part D Low Income Subsidy (LIS/Extra Help).
Medicare cost assistance can be a lifeline, allowing beneficiaries with limited resources to maintain their coverage; get needed care; and afford other necessities, like food and rent. But the programs are also notoriously hard to access, underadvertised, and underenrolled. Medicare Rights often hears from older adults and people with disabilities who are unaware of these supports or mired down in red tape, and who are struggling financially as a result.
By facilitating low-income program enrollments at the community level, MIPPA can help prevent such experiences, but funding for this work is not automatic. It expires every few years—most recently on September 30—and requires congressional renewal to continue. Those extensions, 11 in total, have historically enjoyed broad, bipartisan support.
https://www.medicarerights.org/medicare-watch/2023/12/14/tell-congress-to-prioritize-people-with-medicare-in-2024
