(By –\u00a0Gail Wilensky,\u00a0Project HOPE)<\/p>\n
As we celebrate Medicare and Medicaid\u2019s 50th birthday, it is natural to look back at the changes that have occurred over the last 50 years as well as think about the changes yet to come. Medicare\u2019s covered population has increased from 19 million to 55 million, including almost 10 million under-65 disabled. Benefits have also expanded considerably, including many preventive services as well as outpatient prescription drug coverage. Most beneficiaries continue in \u201ctraditional Medicare\u201d although almost a third now choose Medicare Advantage, a private sector alternative, that covers at least some of the payments Medicare doesn\u2019t cover, provides additional benefits and in principle, more coordination in the delivery of services. Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n (By –\u00a0Gail Wilensky,\u00a0Project HOPE) As we celebrate Medicare and Medicaid\u2019s 50th birthday, it is natural to look back at the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medicare-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Notice<\/strong>: The \u201cRead more<\/strong>\u2026\u201d link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; socialsecurityreport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"