One of the biggest challenges in our health care system is the rising cost of Medicare and Medicaid due, in part, to waste and fraud. That’s why Sen. Carper pushed long and hard to have recovery audit contracting – a tool that is commonly used in the private sector to recover improperly made payments – expanded in the Affordable Care Act so that it would be used throughout Medicare and Medicaid. Unfortunately, $70 billion in scarce taxpayer dollars are lost to waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid each year. That’s unacceptable – particularly as our nation struggles with a massive federal debt and deficit. Already, we’re seeing the benefits of recovery audit contracting in Medicare as the government recovered $670 million in 2011 – increasing the taxpayer dollars recovered by nearly 800 percent compared to 2010. While this is good news, we can't just sit on our laurels; we have to continue to push to see these programs implemented fully, quickly, and effectively.

We also need to keep refining our approach to weeding out waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid, and throughout the federal government. That's why, last year, Sen. Carper teamed up with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to introduce the Medicare and Medicaid Fighting Fraud and Abuse to Save Taxpayer Dollars (FAST) Act, which now has 35 Republican and Democratic cosponsors. This legislation builds on the reforms implemented in the Affordable Care Act to reduce the billions of dollars lost annually to waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. Making programs like Medicare and Medicaid more efficient and less wasteful will strengthen them for future generations, saving taxpayer dollars and helping millions of Americans live healthier lives.

To read more about Sen. Carper’s efforts to eliminate waste and fraud in government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, please click here.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, for the first time, the Department of Health and Human Services is adopting new guidelines for women’s preventive services to fill the gaps in current preventive services guidelines for women’s health, ensuring a comprehensive set of preventive services for women – from mammograms and cervical cancer screenings to, beginning in August 2012, well-woman visits and gestational diabetes screenings.

The Affordable Care Act will also prevent insurance companies from unfairly charging women higher insurance premiums than they charge men. Before the passage of this landmark health care reform bill, women could be charged more for individual insurance simply based on their gender, and some women were paying up to 50 percent higher premiums than men for an equivalent insurance policy. Gender should not be treated as a pre-existing condition, and in 2014 insurance companies will no longer be able to increase premiums based on gender.

To read more about how the Affordable Care Act has strengthened health care for women, please click here.

On July 1, 2011, lower premium rates went into effect in the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) program. This program gives eligible Delawareans who have been denied coverage by a private insurance company due to a pre-existing condition the opportunity to purchase health insurance coverage at significantly lower rates. As of the end of 2011, 153 previously uninsured residents of Delaware who were locked out of the coverage system because of a pre-existing condition are now insured through the new Pre-Existing Conditional Insurance Plan that was created under the Affordable Care Act. This program provides individuals with pre-existing conditions with affordable health insurance coverage until 2014, when as a result of the health care reform law traditional health insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions. (To find the new monthly premiums for Delaware under the new Pre-Existing Conditional Insurance Plan, please click here. To apply for the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, please click here.)

These improvements are great news for Delawareans who find it hard to obtain affordable health insurance coverage because of pre-existing health conditions, and Sen. Carper continues to encourage eligible Delawareans to explore whether this quality, affordable health insurance coverage might now be within reach for them.

To read more about how the Affordable Care Act is helping people with pre-existing conditions obtain insurance and high-quality health care, please click here.