In today’s Washington Post, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick explains how under the Affordable Care Act, “Medicare is stronger than it has been in years, and seniors will get new benefits.”

The Medicare Board of Trustees estimated last month that the Affordable Care Act produces savings that extend the life of the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund for 12 years, to 2029. The actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an independent office, reached the same conclusion. And the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the law will reduce the federal deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years and more than $1 trillion in the following decade. Those are real savings that help today's and tomorrow's Medicare beneficiaries.

Berwick also notes that the Affordable Care Act will improve delivery systems that previously focused rewards on quantity of services, and instead “will help us pay for quality and outcomes, not volume.”

The act encourages some of the most comprehensive payment and delivery system reforms in Medicare's 45-year history. It establishes a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation within CMS to help find ways to modernize our health-care system to make it safe, patient-centered, reliable, sustainable and efficient. These approaches, endorsed by health-care organizations, employers and economists, will help make the health-care system of higher quality and more affordable for America's families and businesses.

Click here for more information on the Affordable Care Act and how it is providing better care and lower costs for America’s seniors.

- by Cameron Brenchley