The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is expected to drive nearly $8 billion in savings for Medicare by the end of 2012 according to recently released analysis done by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The ACA is projected to more than double the life of the Medicare Trust Fund, extending its life from 2017 to 2029. In addition, beneficiaries should expect to see savings of about $200 a year on what their Medicare Part B premiums would have been without the new law – and about the same in reduced cost sharing.
“For years, skyrocketing health care costs have been driving up our federal deficit, draining the Medicare trust fund, burdening American businesses, eating up more and more of our paychecks, and putting needed treatments and medicines out of reach for families,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “The passage of the Affordable Care Act came at a critical time; in addition to bringing some much-needed fairness to our health insurance markets, the new law also makes a wide range of improvements to Medicare that will cut waste and fraud and shift resources towards high-quality care. Today’s report shows how big – and how fast – an impact these reforms will have.”
