What’s Next for You
and Your Doctors
Worried that health care reform will cause you to wait for treatment?
Don’t be. Here’s why you’ll still get all the care you need By MARY A. FISCHER
In late March, Ruth Kevess-Cohen, M.D., noticed a change
in her patients. Usually they
came to her Silver Spring,
Maryland, office asking about
their blood sugar levels or
blood pressure. Now they had a
new concern: Should they be
worried about the new health
care reform law? Would they
still be able to get in to see her?
Would they still get the same
treatment for their diabetes or
high blood pressure? “It’s on
everyone’s mind,” says Cohen,
an internist who specializes in
geriatric medicine.
Much has been written about how
health care reform will affect patients.
But very little has been written about
its impact on providers—and how that
will affect you. Fortunately, for people
over 50, the news is mostly good. “I’m
telling my patients not to worry,” says
Cohen. “The changes at this point do
not affect the personal relationships
between patients and their doctors.
Patients can see their same doctors as
before, doctors will continue to refer
them for tests and to specialists as
before, and patients can still get their
prescriptions at their local pharmacy
or through mail order.”
Here are the provisions of the bill
most likely to affect you and your phy-
sicians—and advice on how to ensure
you get the best care possible.
1. Seeing your doctor—
when you want to
One of health care reform’s greatest
achievements is its guarantee of health
coverage for 32 million uninsured
Americans. The benefit for those 50
and older who don’t have health cover-
age now because of preexisting condi-
tions or economic hardship is that you
will be able to see a doctor when you
need to, without fear of paying exorbi-
tant costs for routine medical care. The
new law bans private insurers from
dropping people who get sick, from
turning away those who have preexist-
ing conditions, and from setting life-
time caps on benefits. It also provides
subsidies for low-income Americans
so they can purchase private health
insurance, it expands Medicaid (state-
