HHS touts free medical services under O-Care

Federal health officials are touting an uptick in the number of Medicare beneficiaries who received free preventive care this year because of the healthcare law.

At least 25.4 million seniors received a no-cost disease screening or other preventive service so far in 2013 compared with 24.7 million by late December 2012.

{mosads}The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regularly calls attention to the number of people receiving popular benefits under ObamaCare, a law that remains unpopular as its enactment continues.

HHS noted in November that the healthcare law has saved seniors about $8.9 billion on their prescription drug costs.

Together, these components of the law are helping to reduce patients’ out-of-pocket costs, the department suggested.

The Obama administration is struggling to improve ObamaCare’s reputation with the public amid further implementation delays and roughly 15,000 missing records for consumers who signed up for coverage at HealthCare.gov.