A top Democrat wants to expand Medicare’s benefits to provide hearing, vision and dental care to the nation’s seniors.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., introduced the bill on Tuesday that would cover items such as hearing aids, dental exams and eye exams. However, the bill doesn’t touch on how much the additional benefits would cost or how they would be paid for.
McDermott said that expanding the benefits would help prevent other healthcare problems faced by seniors.
“Untreated vision disorders substantially increase risk for falls among senior citizens,” he said. “These falls can result in injuries and hospitalizations.”
McDermott spoke during a subcommittee hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee that shared Medicare legislative topics.
The bill would amend Medicare Part B to include coverage for routine and major dental care, refractive eye exams, hearing exams and coverage for items such as hearing aids.
He added that it would place “reasonable limitations on coverage and provides the new benefits will be phased in gradually.”
However, McDermott doesn’t go into how the new benefits would be funded. He hinted that more funding is needed for Medicare benefits instead of taking any money away.
“All too often at this committee our policy discussions focus on how much we can cut from Medicare and how to further shift the cost onto beneficiaries,” he said. “In the process we fail to recognize the possibilities before us and the enormous power we wield.”
