Medicare and the Health Insurance Marketplace

Medicare Rights Center President Joe Baker recently contributed to a blog post for the New York Times, Q & A: Medicare and the Insurance Exchanges. The post featured questions about the online health insurance exchanges (also known as marketplaces) created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and how it works with Medicare. According to the blog post, here are some shopping tips for people with Medicare and caregivers: • The health insurance exchanges are for people without health insurance, and are not for Medicare beneficiaries. • Medicare supplemental insurance plans, or Medigaps, will not be sold in the health insurance exchanges. • Beneficiaries who have Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B meet the ACA’s requirement that most adults have health insurance in 2014. • It is illegal for anyone to sell health insurance exchange policies to Medicare beneficiaries. However, people who are eligible for Medicare, and may have to pay for Medicare Part A, may be able to purchase a policy in the health insurance exchange. However, these people may be subject to a penalty should they decide to enroll in Medicare later. • People with Medicare do not need to re-enroll or get new Medicare cards as a result of the ACA. • Seniors shouldn’t ignore the exchanges; instead, they should talk about the health insurance exchanges with their family members who don’t have health insurance.