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Are vision and hearing benefits needed in Medicare
Are vision and hearing benefits needed in Medicare
As part of the budget reconciliation discussions, Congress has considered expanding traditional Medicare to cover preventive dental, vision, and hearing services. The initial legislation, modeled after expansions in the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3), proposed to add all three services as benefits under Medicare Part B. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost of the H.R. 3 benefits expansion at $358 billion over 10 years. During negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders, the package was pared down, and the Build Back Better legislation passed by the House in November 2021 focuses only on hearing services. A recent Urban Institute brief assessed the need for dental benefits in Medicare (Shartzer et al. 2021); here we conduct similar analyses that describe current use of and spending on routine vision and hearing services among all Medicare beneficiaries and select subgroups.
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