The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is helping every member of the family – from kids to their grandparents – in a number of different ways, including allowing kids and seniors to get free check-ups. We know that in Wisconsin and across the country, grandparents play a key role in children’s lives.

The protections and benefits to seniors under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) help them to stay healthy and strong for their important job as caregivers, teachers and playmates.  A five-minute video on HealthCare.Gov provides a thorough explanation of the many ways that the health care reform law benefits seniors.Here are some highlights of the numerous ways the elderly are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act:

• Providing free Medicare coverage of key preventive services, such as mammograms and colonoscopies (beginning on Jan. 1, 2011), which has helped 32.5 million seniors stay healthy.
• Providing a free annual wellness visit under Medicare, for the first time, which also began on January 1, 2011.
• Reducing prescription drug costs for seniors – More than 3.5 million seniors who entered the Medicare Part D “donut hole” coverage gap received $250 rebate checks in 2010. In 2011 the relief for those seniors increased to a 50% discount on brand-name drugs, which gave the elderly a total of more $2.1 billion last year – to help pay their bills (or spoil the grandkids). The ACA completely closes the donut hole by 2020. These seniors, on average, saved more than $500 last year, and the annual per person savings on drug costs is expected to climb to more than $3,000 in 2020.
• Helping seniors remain at home and stay out of nursing homes – The health care reform law provides a new Community First Choice Option, which allows states to offer home-based services to disabled individuals through Medicaid rather than institutional care, beginning on October 1, 2011. Wisconsin has already been a leader in this regard.
• Strengthening Medicare and extending the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by 12 years – The ACA includes reforms that strengthen solvency by squeezing waste out of the system and making it more efficient, without reducing benefits.

According to 2010 census data, almost 5 million children under 18 were living in a grandparent’s household.  In Wisconsin, that number is over 51,000. To support the health of seniors is to support the health of caregivers, and our kids.

Sara Eskrich and Jon Peacock