The Affordable Care Act will provide seniors and their families with greater savings and increased quality health care. It will also ensure accountability throughout the health care system so that you, your family, and your doctor—not insurance companies—have greater control over your care. These are needed improvements that will keep Medicare strong and solvent. Your guaranteed Medicare benefits won’t change—whether you get them through Original Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan. Instead, you will see new benefits and cost savings, and an increased focus on quality to ensure that you get the care you need. The existing guaranteed Medicare-covered benefits won’t be reduced or taken away. Neither will your ability to choose your own doctor.

Besides strengthening Medicare, the new law reduces fraud, and closes the gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage (Medicare Part D), known as the “donut hole.” In 2007, more than 8 million seniors hit the donut hole. Beneficiaries who hit the donut hole will receive a $250 rebate. Starting in 2011, if you have high prescription drug costs that put you in the donut hole, you’ll get a 50 percent discount on covered brand-name drugs while you’re in the hole. Between 2010 and 2020, you’ll get continuous Medicare coverage for your prescription drugs.

In 2018, seniors can expect to save on average almost $200 per year in premiums and over $200 per year in coinsurance compared to what they would have paid without the new law. The Affordable Care Act also takes a number of steps that improve health care for people with Medicare. Starting 2011, Medicare will cover certain preventive services without charging you the Part B coinsurance or deductible. You will also be offered a free annual wellness exam. The life of the Medicare Trust fund will be extended to at least 2029, a 12-year extension as a result of reducing waste, fraud and abuse, and slowing cost growth in Medicare, which will provide you with future cost savings on your premiums and coinsurance.