AMA adopts new policies to expand health care coverage

CHICAGO — Physician and medical student leaders at the Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates approved policies aimed at expanding health care coverage for Medicare and Medicaid patients. These steps build on the AMA’s longtime advocacy for health insurance coverage for all Americans and are central to the AMA’s mission of improving public health.

The new policies adopted today include:

Expanding Medicaid coverage to include hearing and vision
With Medicaid’s patchwork coverage leaving patients with untreated health concerns, the AMA will work with interested state medical associations to support efforts to cover hearing and vision services for all Medicaid patients.

Although Medicaid provides basic hearing, vision, and dental services to children enrolled in Medicaid, those services are optional benefits for adults in Medicaid and CHIP, and states vary drastically in covering them.

Twenty-eight states provide some Medicaid hearing coverage, leaving patients unable to afford hearing aids or help with their use. New AMA policy advocates working with state medical associations to support coverage of hearing exams, hearing aids, cochlear implants, and aural rehabilitative services.

Source: AMA adopts new policies to expand health care coverage / AMA

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