The Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans and Know Your Care Wisconsin held a forum at the Clinton Rose Senior Center to promote the many free preventive care benefits for seniors available under the Affordable Care Act.
This week’s event was part of a larger public education campaign launched earlier this summer by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure that seniors know about the preventive care services they are entitled to under the Affordable Care Act. The campaign includes education, free materials and on-site health care providers to perform routine tests.
“Preventative care isn’t just for the young guns,” said Billy Feitlinger, executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Americans. “Free preventative care means staying healthy and crossing the century mark with a smile. It’s great to see the Affordable Care Act providing such important services to so many seniors across the country.”
In Wisconsin, over 900,000 people currently receive Medicare benefits. Under the Affordable Care Act, all Medicare recipients already qualify for a yearly wellness exam and many preventive care services for free. The preventive services for seniors under Medicare and ACA include:
- Annual wellness exam
- Bone mass measurement
- Cervical cancer screening, including Pap smear tests and pelvic exams
- Cholesterol and other cardio vascular screenings
- Colorectal cancer screening
- Diabetes screening
- Flu shot, pneumonia shot, and the hepatitis B shot
- Mammograms
“Under the Affordable Care Act, seniors have access to a wide array of free preventive care services – and we want to make sure that they know about these services and take full advantage of them,” said Doug Hill, director of Know Your Care Wisconsin. “Preventative care can’t work or reduce health care costs if folks don’t know they have access to it.”
For more, visit: www.healthcare.gov/law/provisions/medicare/preventiveservices.html.
