Should Medicare pay for toothpaste and shoes?


In Massachusetts, nonprofit Commonwealth Care Alliance is piloting a new experiment: using federal dollars from Medicare and Medicaid to provide preventive care and pay for the things that aren't explicitly medical, but are vital for maintaining good health. According to the company, "hospital admissions plunged 27 percent for the organization’s elderly clientele between 2011 and 2017," but there are concerns about whether this model could successfully scale to a national level.

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