HR3590 Health Care Bill & Government Health Insurance

Health care reform strives to address the health-related needs of a wide cross-section of Americans, but one group that can certainly benefit from the provisions of the Affordable Care Act are seniors.

One of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act involves the strengthening of Medicare. A feature on HealthCare.gov shared the various ways through which health care reform seeks to strengthen Medicare.

A reduction of waste, fraud and abuse, as well as the slowing growth of Medicare, will result in a 12-year extension of the life of the Medicare Trust fund. The extension of the Medicare Trust fund will give consumers with future cost savings on premiums and coinsurance.

The administration of President Barack Obama has committed to reduce Medicare fraud by 50 percent by 2012. Through the Affordable Care Act, an investment of $350 million was made towards the prevention and detection, as well as fighting of fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Overall quality of health care, as well as coordination of care between doctors, will improve, not just for seniors but for all Americans. This means that there will be less instances when patients will experience preventable, as well as harmful, hospitalizations for the same condition.

There will also be new and strong incentives available for seniors, which will ensure improvement in the quality of care in hospitals.

In addition, the Affordable Care Act will ensure that the amount spent by health care insurance providers on administrative costs, insurance company profits, and other things unrelated to health care, are limited, for the protection of Medicare Advantage Plan members.