by Shawn Nowlin
A defining moment in Sam Huerter’s life came when he had to make a tough decision about his grandmother’s health – find a way to help pay her exorbitant medical bills or allow her to stay at a nursing home for 100 days and hope that the federal government would do the right thing.
“I think a lot of people are unaware of what Medicare truly is. They just know the name because they hear it so much,” Huerter said. “I tell people it’s basically a federal program that helps states provide health insurance coverage to low-income people or people with disabilities. Because my grandma didn’t meet the requirements, I had to take on two extra jobs to ensure she was ok. Today, she has a clean bill of health and I couldn’t be happier.”
The most common questions about Medicare are: Is it better to keep my employer’s health insurance or to get Medicare? What do I do about Medicare between now and my retirement?
Because Medicare Open Enrollment can be a confusing process for seniors and their families, the Local Office on Aging (LOA) in Roanoke is offering trained Virginia Insurance Counseling & Assistance Program (VICAP) counselors to assist with any questions. For adults 60 and older, the counseling is free and confidential.
Under the Obama Administration, the Affordable Care Acts’ (ACA)Medicare expansion expanded coverage to practically all adults with incomes up to 137 percent of the federal poverty level. Today, that’s roughly $21,597 for an individual.
Including Washington D.C., 41 states have adopted theMedicare expansion. Trump has made his thoughts on the government program abundantly clear.
“The Medicare program was designed to be a program to compassionately provide taxpayer dollars to healthcare providers who offer care to the most vulnerable Americans,” he said. “The State and Federal Governments jointly shared this cost burden to ensure those of lesser means did not go untreated. The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall therefore take appropriate action to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare. We have to cut Medicare if we are going to have a future country.”
Even though Republicans currently control all branches of the federal government, a shutdown went into effect on Wednesday (10/1/2025).
If millions of people are kicked off their health insurance, notable nonpartisan experts say it will inevitably raise the costs for everybody else. Next November, if Democrats win either the House or Senate next November, there will be a check on Trump’s powers.
