Medicare and Medicaid Expansion: Full Dental, Vision, and Hearing Coverage.
This Act expands Medicare and Medicaid to include comprehensive dental, vision, and hearing services. For Medicare beneficiaries, this eliminates the current exclusion of these services, introducing phased coverage that will reach 80% after eight years. These changes will significantly reduce out-of-pocket healthcare costs for seniors and low-income individuals, ensuring access to essential items like hearing aids, eyeglasses, and necessary dental treatments.
Key points
Medicare will cover routine and major dental services (e.g., cleanings, fillings, root canals, dentures) and routine vision and hearing exams.
Specific limits apply: for example, two routine dental cleanings per year, one pair of eyeglass lenses per year, and one hearing aid per ear every four years.
Medicare coverage will phase in over eight years, reaching 80% coverage (20% co-pay) in the eighth year after enactment.
Medicaid receives increased federal funding (90%) to incentivize states to extend these benefits to adults.
Expired
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