The left publishes statements like the following all over the place during so-called Medicare open enrollment:
“All your annual Medicare preventive benefits are now free because of Obamacare”
There is a variation in U.S. News on November 14 (in an article that is otherwise fairly accurate).
That claim and most of its variations is just totally untrue. In terms of annual tests, the co-pays for Part B preventive tests basically changed from 20% to zero only for annual PSA tests for men and mammograms for woman (and I suppose men). Both tests have actually been found by other parts of the U.S. government to be possibly harmful (e.g., PSA tests give many false positives and a digital rectal exam -- covered as always but with a 20% co-pay -- are considered much better indicators of possible prostate problems). Some other tests -- bone density measurement, colonoscopy (if no polyp present), aortic aneurisym screening for former smokers, and so forth -- are one-time only or otherwise not annual.
The lefty lie about Medicare preventive tests being covered "free" because of Obamacare is particularly not true for flu shots and lipid tests. Flu shots have been covered since 1992 with no co-pay and lipid tests have been covered with no co-pay by Medicare since George Bush's Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Whenever you see a press release from the Obama administration claiming umpteen million people on Medicare received "free" preventive tests because of Obamacare, 90% of that number covers flu shots and lipid test that were already "free."
In addition of course, "free" (no co-pay) does not mean anything to almost everyone on Medicare because almost everyone has supplemental Medicare coverage.
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