Health Care Reform & Seniors -

Important Additional Information on the new Heath Care Reform Law

• Medicare made a promise to America’s seniors: that you can live out your golden years with some basic peace of mind and health coverage you can count on. The Affordable Care Act renews and strengthens that promise.
  
  
• That’s why this new law gives seniors and their families greater savings, better benefits, and higher-quality health care. That’s why it ensures accountability throughout the system so that seniors have greater control over the care they receive.  And that’s why it keeps Medicare strong and solvent – today and tomorrow.
  
  
• The guaranteed Medicare benefits seniors have earned won’t change, regardless of whether they receive them through Medicare or Medicare Advantage.  Eligibility won’t change.  Medicare will continue to cover costs the way it always has and we’re increasing the number of primary care physicians so that seniors get the care they need. 
  
  
• Starting in June, the positive impact of this legislation will be felt by tens of thousands of seniors who fall into the donut hole, because they will receive a $250 rebate to help them cover the cost of their prescriptions.
  
  
• Beginning in 2011, preventive care – including annual wellness visits for Medicare beneficiaries and certain screening services like mammograms – will be free.  Because the best way to prevent serious illness is to diagnose it early.
  
  
• Congress has the authority to review and reject unreasonable rate increases for Medicare Advantage plans to prevent insurance companies from raising your rates just to pad their profits.
  
  
• Seniors are too often targeted by scam artists, and this legislation is expanding efforts across the country to vigorously crack down on criminals who seek to take advantage of seniors and waste taxpayer dollars. 
  
  
•  Every United States Attorney has been called on to converge regular health care fraud task force meetings.  The Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) will double the size of the Senior Medicare Patrol and put more boots on the ground in the fight against Medicare fraud.  
  
  
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in conjunction with the Administration on Aging, launched an educational media campaign this summer to educate Medicare beneficiaries.
  
  
• Once this reform is in full effect, middle-class families will pay less for their health care. The worst practices of the insurance companies will end.  Americans with pre-existing conditions will no longer be denied coverage.  And this law will keep our promise to future generations by doing more to bring down our long-term deficits than anything we’ve done in more than a decade.