Medicaid and other publicly supported programs currently do offer additional cost-sharing and other benefits to low-income Medicare beneficiaries, but participation by eligible seniors is low. Medicare savings programs, for example, enroll only about 60 percent of eligible beneficiaries. The Fund has supported work to identify and enroll the millions of seniors who fail to receive these much-needed benefits. In one project, the National Council on the Aging used Fund support to launch Benefits CheckUp, an Internet service that allows seniors to screen their eligibility for nearly 1,000 federal and state benefits programs and get information on how to apply. Demonstration projects in eight communities have alerted hundreds of thousands of seniors of their likely eligibility for Food Stamps, Medicaid, and other benefits. A report by Laura Summer and Robert Friedland of Georgetown University's Center on an Aging Society reviewed various modifications to the asset test that could extend help to more low-income beneficiaries.⁽⁹⁾

The Fund is currently supporting work by the National Academy of Social Insurance to investigate alternative strategies to assure that low-income beneficiaries receive the additional Medicaid benefits to which they are entitled. The Fund is also supporting work to develop a Medicare high option, which would include lower cost sharing and prescription drug coverage.