Your Medicare Coverage Will Continue During the Shutdown–But Some Services May Not

The government shutdown, now more than two weeks old, continues on without much optimism on Capitol Hill, in the White House, or elsewhere that it will end soon.

Unfortunately, at the moment, there doesn’t appear to be a deal in sight. House Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this week said that “we’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American History.” And the Senate on Wednesday (Oct. 15) failed for the ninth time to reopen the federal government.

As of this writing, the current shutdown is the sixth-longest in U.S. history. And it’s about to move into fifth place on that notorious list (the current record holder is the 2018-2019 shutdown that lasted 35 days).

The central issue in this particular stalemate has to do with healthcare. Subsidies to make Affordable Care Act insurance plans affordable expire at the end of this year. Democrats are demanding that any new spending bill extend those payments, while Republicans want to deal with the issue later in the year, if at all. The two sides will have to come to some kind of agreement on the issue for the shutdown to end.

That will eventually be resolved one way or another (many insiders on Capitol Hill expect some sort of compromise). The only question is how long it will take.

What about Medicare?

But there’s another, more relevant question for the 68 million Americans enrolled in Medicare: How will the ongoing shutdown affect my Medicare coverage?

There’s some good news on that front: Certain government agencies operate on a permanent funding basis and should continue to operate pretty much as they always do, even during a protracted shutdown. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) fall under that category. Funding for programs they run is built into law.

Here it is directly from the CMS website: “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare Program will continue during a lapse in appropriations.” The bottom line: Your Medicare coverage largely won’t be impacted by the shutdown.

Some lapses

However, several services and benefits provided by Medicare will be impacted. They include:

• Telehealth: A rule enacted during the pandemic allowed Medicare patients to see doctors from their homes. That rule expired with the shutdown and will remain that way unless Congress appropriates funds for the program in the next spending bill. Telehealth will remain available to some people in rural areas.
• Community Health Centers: Some 52 million people use community health centers, and funding for those facilities expired with the shutdown. For the moment, those centers have enough money to continue to operate. However, if the shutdown extends significantly longer, that funding will eventually dry up.
• Other services: A few other minor services the CMS provides will be affected, including beneficiary casework and outreach and education.

When will it end?

Despite continued Medicare coverage, the federal government shutdown will continue to erode services many Americans depend on as funds run out for many programs and agencies, and federal workers are furloughed or fired.

At the moment, however, there is no resolution in sight. Part of that is because the American public spreads blame for the standoff pretty equally. A recent poll by CBS found that 39% of voters blame President Trump and Republicans for it; 30% blame Democrats; and 31% blame both parties equally. In politics, that kind of equal blame only causes political parties to dig in.

One issue that could bring pressure on both sides to end the shutdown would be if it significantly disrupts travel for many Americans. A month-long shutdown in 2018 ended just after a shortage of air traffic controllers tied up travel in New York and other air travel hubs. This time around, air traffic controllers have already received partial paychecks and might begin to miss entire paychecks if the shutdown lasts another two weeks.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, because much economic damage can result from a protracted shutdown. The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that every week of the shutdown will reduce the nation’s gross domestic product by $15 billion.

Right now, it’s difficult to predict how it will play out. Thankfully for Medicare beneficiaries, at least that program is safe.