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Contributed commentary from Patrick Metzgar with Disabled Veterans for America on proposed changes to Medicare Advantage program:
Nearly 4 million Americans live with service-connected disabilities, and many more live with long-term health challenges tied to their military service. For disabled veterans, health coverage isn’t optional, it’s essential. Programs like Medicare Advantage play such a critical and necessary role in veteran healthcare. Sadly, despite all its benefits, the program is frequently the target of harmful budget cuts in Washington. Now, it’s under attack again.
Disabled veterans frequently face complex medical needs, including mobility limitations, chronic pain, mental health conditions, traumatic brain injuries, and more. Medicare Advantage gives them access to support beyond basic care, such as coordinated services, preventive programs, in-home assessments, transportation, vision and dental care – all benefits that traditional Medicare often doesn’t fully provide.
What is the No UPCODE Act?
Right now, Congress is considering the No UPCODE Act. If signed into law, it would pose a serious risk to Medicare Advantage enrollees, including disabled veterans who rely on the program. There’s concern that this bill could increase premiums and scale back supplemental benefits. That means more veterans would be forced to skip or limit care. That outcome is unacceptable.
Perhaps most alarmingly, the No UPCODE Act would reduce access to in-home health assessments. These visits allow clinicians to detect fall hazards, medication errors, early signs of chronic illness, or memory changes. Those assessments help keep our nation’s veterans, particularly those living with a disability, healthier and safer. Take them away, and we’ll see more emergency admissions, more veterans succumbing to preventable diseases and deaths, and higher healthcare costs overall.
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Protecting Medicare Advantage is the best way to keep seniors and veterans with disabilities safe. It’s been proven that when Washington takes aim at Medicare Advantage, seniors pay for it through higher costs and reduced services. For veterans managing multiple conditions, losing access to services like vision, dental, hearing, and prescription drug coverage can worsen health outcomes, cause added pain, or force them into crisis care they could otherwise avoid.
Who is helped by Medicare Advantage?
While a weaker Medicare Advantage program is a threat to veterans with disabilities, this isn’t just a veterans health issue. Medicare Advantage protects tens millions of older Americans and patients with disabilities across the United States. Many seniors depend on it for benefits and services that keep them healthy and independent, including home meal delivery and free transportation to and from medical appointments. If the cuts in the No UPCODE Act go through, it will mean fewer options, higher costs, and poorer care for more than half the entire Medicare population.
We should honor veterans by ensuring they have reliable health coverage, not by cutting it. The disabled men and women who served this nation deserve respect, dignity, and the ability to live full, healthy lives. Undermining Medicare Advantage would break faith with that promise.
That is why the Disabled Veterans of America calls on Congress to reject the No UPCODE Act, and the Kentucky delegation to help lead the way. Help protect Medicare Advantage. Defend veterans’ rights to health, security, and independence. They’ve already given us so much; it’s time we give back.
Patrick Metzgar of Bowling Green, Kentucky, is with Disabled Veterans for America.
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