Don’t panic – Medicare will survive and so will you

This is a midweek update for my subscribers about the people being recommended for posts in the Trump Administration.  I am hearing concern about the potential for RFK Jr to be appointed as head of Health and Human Services.  How would that affect your Medicare and health insurance in general, and that of your kids and grandkids?

Frankly, insiders at HHS were more worried that Trump would appoint someone knowledgeable — someone who would know more precisely where to slash and burn these programs. RFK is not that person. But even with someone like that at the top, there are limits to what can be done to change Medicare or the Affordable Care Act without Congressional action.  The benefits in Medicare and the ACA are embedded in legislation. Dropping a benefit or eliminating pre existing condition protection would elicit a huge backlash from patients and providers alike. There is a reason the Republicans have not been able to kill the ACA.  It’s popular now. But that doesn’t mean that costs might not increase.  The guard rail for anything too radical is the fact that all House members face re-election in 2026, and those members even in pretty red districts, would face significant anger and revolt if they try to do anything too aggressive to these programs.

I assume most of you are on Medicare – either in an HMO like Medicare Advantage or with a supplement from a private insurance company like United/AARP or Cigna/Aetna, etc.  It’s open enrollment time so I would strongly suggest you check out your coverage now and be sure it’s what you want and need. Talk to one of the many insurance brokers in your area. They are required to give you the facts. They get paid by what they enroll you in, and they get paid more if they convince you to join Medicare Advantage. So be wary of that. If you are not in MA, you are probably also in a separate Part D drug plan. Absolutely either talk to the broker or go online to the Medicare.gov website and put your drugs into the program to see how much you will pay next year. Drug companies routinely drop some drugs or put them in a higher tier. You need to know what’s planned for 2025.

Other than that? Get all the vaccines you are eligible for now before the end of the year just to be sure you won’t have any copays in the future. Be ready to contact your Congressional representatives and your Senators about your concerns. A simple phone call to their offices does work and it takes very little time to do it.

Hold on. Don’t panic. It will be a little bumpy. But we can thank prior administrations for guaranteeing us old folks a program like Medicare. If any politician tried to do substantial damage, there would really be a March on Washington!!

And share this post with anyone who is concerned.