The change would also intrude on a corner of the Medicare market reserved for private insurance companies that offer additional benefits through comprehensive Medicare Advantage private plans or supplemental “Medigap” plans.

“On the one hand, the MA plans would lose a powerful distinguisher from original Medicare,” said Mike Adelberg, leader of Faegre Baker Daniels’ health care practice and former director of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Insurance Programs Group. “On the other, MA plans would likely receive additional funds to provide these services and could use existing money for new distinguishers like meals and transportation.”

The Better Medicare Alliance, which advocates for Medicare Advantage plans, suggested that it would be unnecessary to expand benefits and noted that nearly all beneficiaries could join private plans with additional benefits.

“Medicare Advantage beneficiaries — projected to be 40% of eligible beneficiaries — already enjoy additional benefits not available in Traditional Medicare, at no extra cost to the federal government or enrollees,” Allyson Schwartz, president and CEO of the Better Medicare Alliance, said in a statement.

Other groups, such as the National Association of Dental Plans, the National Association of Vision Care Plans, the American Council of Life Insurers, the International Hearing Society and the American Optometric Association, endorse the idea.