Many Medicare beneficiaries face high out-of-pocket costs because of the way the program's benefits are designed. In addition to high deductibles for hospital care and 20 percent cost-sharing for physician visits and other ambulatory care services, there is no limit on out-of-pocket expenses for covered benefits. A new Commonwealth Fund report describes the cost burdens that low-income beneficiaries face, assesses current policies in place to ease them, and presents a new option for reducing cost-sharing and premiums for individuals with incomes below 150 percent of the poverty level.
The report can be obtained at https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/Schoen_Medicare_low-income_policy_ib_0.pdf.