The recently passed health care reform has older adults looking at how the newly passed legislation may affect their Medicare or other health care coverage.  However, it is also providing a perfect opportunity for new scams to appear telling Medicare beneficiaries they have to make changes in their health care policy.  Scammers are calling older adults or even going door-to-door trying to sell “Obama Care” policies.  “Obama Care” is a fictitious policy that scammers claim is required by health care reform, even for those on Medicare.

To encourage individuals to enroll into Obama Care or similar universal care policies, scammers may claim there is a limited time to enroll and if one does not take advantage of this enrollment period they will no longer have health care coverage after a certain date. After collecting an older adult’s personal information, including their Medicare number and bank account information, the victim will soon find that while they did not lose their health care coverage, they lost much of what was in their bank account.

To report a potential scam or if you have been the victim of a scam, call the Senior LinkAge Line.  The Senior LinkAge Line is a free service of the Minnesota Board on Aging.  The Senior LinkAge Line is the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) and Senior Medicare Patrol for Minnesota.  Specialists provide one-to-one assistance with all Medicare and health insurance issues and also provide in-depth long-term care options counseling.  Call 1-800-333-2433 for assistance or go to www.MinnesotaHelp.info to chat live with a Senior LinkAge Line specialist.