A top federal health official says the nation’s new health care law will mean free preventive care for the nearly 2 million Medicare enrollees in Illinois.
CHICAGO (AP) — A top federal health official says the nation’s new health care law will mean free preventive care for the nearly 2 million Medicare enrollees in Illinois. U.S. Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Howard Koh (KOH) spoke Tuesday at a Chicago senior center. His visit is part of a push by President Barack Obama’s administration to address older people’s mistrust of the new law. Some polls show a higher percentage of seniors opposing the law compared to the population as a whole. Koh says the law provides people on Medicare with a free annual physical starting next year, along with free mammograms and certain colon cancer tests. And, nationally, more than 1 million Medicare enrollees have received tax-free $250 rebate checks to help them with prescription drug costs. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.