Will Obamacare Affect Medicare? Myths and Facts

When pollsters ask Americans what they know about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the typical response is a quizzical shrug. The ACA, also known as Obamacare, remains a great mystery to many people, even though it was signed into law in 2010.

 When AARP holds town hall meetings, officials have found that the public is equally unclear about Medicare, the government health insurance program for Americans with certain disabilities or who are more than 65 years old, and whether it will change under the ACA.

Until now, the country's 49.5 million Medicare beneficiaries have mostly felt the impact of health care reform in their doctors' offices, where preventative services such as annual wellness checkups, immunizations and tests for cancer, cholesterol and diabetes are now covered without co-payments. But with full implementation of the law on the horizon, questions about how one will affect the other abound.

 "There always has been confusion about Medicare," says Dr. Gail Wilensky, a policy analyst who directed Medicare and Medicaid from 1990 to 1992 and served as a senior health and welfare adviser to President George H.W. Bush. "Now there's more confusion than usual because of the focus on the Affordable Care Act and how it does or does not relate."
Here are five myths and facts surrounding Medicare and the ACA.

Medicare is ending. False. Obamacare is not replacing Medicare. In fact, AARP representatives say that Medicare will become stronger once the ACA is fully in effect. "Medicare's guaranteed benefits are protected in ways they hadn't been protected in the past," says Nicole Duritz, AARP's vice president for Health Education and Outreach. Read More.