Medicare, the federal health care program for people 65 and older and those younger than 65 with a disability, can be confusing to navigate. This is true whether you’re an older adult, a son or daughter helping your parents or other loved ones with their Medicare coverage, or you’re an advocate working in the field of Medicare. And this is because Medicare is complex and the options for supplementing coverage are numerous. Yet for older immigrants, many of whom may have limited English proficiency, understanding and navigating Medicare is an even bigger challenge. Recently our partners at Justice in Aging released a new issue brief, Older Adults & Medicare, to help those working with our country’s 7 million older immigrants navigate this road of Medicare coverage.
The issue brief covers four main topics (see below). Each topic contains several hypothetical examples to highlight the issues and challenges older immigrants face when applying for Medicare and how to successful navigate them.
- Eligibility and enrollment, with particular attention to rules affecting non-citizens
- Help paying for coverage
- Post-enrollment issues potentially affecting immigrant beneficiaries
- Language access rights and resources in Medicare
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