The federal government insures traditional defined-benefit pensions through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, but it covers benefits only within certain limits.
The procedure, he said, was experimental and therefore was "not a covered benefit".
concluded that a particular item or service was not a covered benefit.
By 2015, payroll tax revenue will no longer cover benefit payments.
Under the rule, states must measure and document access to "each covered benefit" at least once every five years.
"We anticipate that it will be seen as a covered benefit for the improvement of visual acuity," he said.
"The study allows physicians and patients to make an argument to insurance carriers that, although there's not a family history of breast cancer, it's still reasonable to test and it should be a covered benefit," Dr. Kauff said.
By around 2025, the system would have begun redeeming the bonds out of general tax revenues to cover benefit payments, and by 2037 the trust fund would be exhausted.
The estimated savings assume Medicare would add weight loss drugs as a covered benefit; they currently are not.
Prior to Obamacare, abortion was a standard covered benefit in most private health insurance.
