COVID-19: The impact on Medicare beneficiaries

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of all Americans, but the virus has hit older adults especially hard. Now is the time to recognize that COVID-19 will impose added out-of-pocket cost burdens on economically vulnerable seniors who were already struggling with healthcare costs. This report explores how the virus will ultimately impact Medicare beneficiaries.

The PAN Foundation believes that Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket prescription drug costs should be capped and distributed more evenly over the course of the benefit year, and that these costs should not prevent beneficiaries from accessing needed treatments. It is critically important that policies that are developed and implemented in response to the COVID-19 crisis should not impose additional out-of-pocket cost burdens on economically vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries.