14 million seniors receive free preventive services in 2012 thanks to health reform

• Tweet
• 
• 

• Tweet

More than 14 million seniors received at least one preventive service at no cost to them during the first five months of 2012 under the healthcare reform law’s new preventive benefits for Medicare.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Monday that another 1.1 million seniors in 2012 took advantage of free Annual Wellness Visit now covered by Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage Plans for no cost.

But according to Kaiser Health News, most seniors are missing out. The 1.1 million seniors only accounts for about 3.6 percent of beneficiaries nationally.

“Thanks to the health care law, millions of Americans are getting cancer screenings, mammograms and other preventive services for free,” said CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. “These free preventive services are helping people in Medicare stay healthy and lower their health care costs.”

More than 32 million people in Medicare received one or more preventive benefits free of charge in 2011.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider whether a key provision of the new law, requiring everyone to buy health insurance by 2014 if they can afford it, is constitutional.