No; quite the opposite. Before the Affordable Care Act, members of Congress purchased health insurance benefits through the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program, along with about 8 million other federal employees and their families. Under the law, members of Congress and Congressional staff purchase their health insurance coverage through the newly created exchanges with the same rules and regulations that apply to other individuals participating in the exchange. I believe that our elected leaders have a responsibility to lead by our example. That includes joining millions of Americans in obtaining our health insurance coverage through the health insurance marketplace.

The federal government – our employer – will continue to cover a portion of the insurance premium for members of Congress and our staff, as it has for decades before the Affordable Care Act, and just like most large employers do for their employees in Delaware and all across the nation. Members of Congress and their staff will still need to pay their share of the insurance premium based on the cost of the insurance plan that they choose. There are no special loopholes or exemptions for me, my colleagues in Congress, or for members of our staff. In fact, members of Congress and their staff are ineligible for tax credits or cost-sharing subsidies, which are available to other consumers who purchase insurance through the exchanges.

You are probably hearing a lot about exchanges, also called marketplaces; but if you have Medicare, you will not use these exchanges. Through the health care reform law, states or the federal government will set up an exchange, which is an online marketplace where Americans without insurance are able to purchase coverage, possibly with the help of a tax subsidy based on their income level. In short, it is a place for consumers to shop for health insurance, with the assurance that they will get a quality product with a guaranteed level of benefits. Because the exchanges will encourage a large purchasing pool with lower administrative costs, a wide range of health care coverage should be available at a reasonable price.

The Delaware exchange is called the Delaware Health Insurance Marketplace.  For more information, please visit www.choosehealthde.com. 11.7 million Americans are enrolled in Marketplace plans, run by private insurance companies, including more than 25,000 Delawareans. The Delaware Health Insurance Marketplace has helped Delawareans find affordable health insurance they can truly count on in the event of illness or injury. In fact, 81 percent of individuals enrolled in a plan through the Delaware Health Insurance Marketplace have received financial assistance.

The Affordable Care Act gives small businesses better options to provide affordable, higher quality health care coverage to their employees. Through the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Marketplace, small business owners can form large purchasing pools and reduce administrative overhead fees to lower their health insurance costs. The SHOP will also give small businesses the chance to review, compare and select plans as well as make a single payment to the Marketplace for employee premiums. In 2015, the SHOP will be open to businesses with 50 or fewer full-time equivalent employees. Beginning in 2016, SHOP will be available to businesses with 100 or fewer full-time equivalent employees. Some small businesses may also qualify for significant tax credits to help them offer insurance to employees. I strongly recommend that small businesses review the cost and benefits of all of their health insurance options to determine which plan may work best for their situation.

Small businesses can learn more about plan options and rates in Delaware, as well as ways to obtain assistance navigating the health insurance marketplace, please visit www.choosehealthde.com, or call 1-800-318-2596. Below are additional resources that may be helpful to you:

• To learn how the Affordable Care Act affects you, please visit the Small Business Administration, which has information specifically for small businesses, including weekly webinars, at http://www.sba.gov/healthcare/.
   
• To learn more about the Delaware SHOP Marketplace please visit http://www.choosehealthde.com/Health-Insurance/Business-Owners.
   
• To find out if your small business may be eligible for the SHOP Marketplace, please visit https://www.healthcare.gov/fte-calculator/.
   
• For more information on the tax credits that are available to help qualifying small businesses offer health insurance coverage to their employees through the SHOP Marketplace, please visit http://www.irs.gov/uac/Small-Business-Health-Care-Tax-Credit-for-Small-Employers and https://www.healthcare.gov/small-businesses/small-business-tax-credit-calculator/.
   
• To find a health insurance solution that best fits you, your business, and your employees. I encourage you to visit https://www.healthcare.gov/small-businesses/.
   
• To phone the SHOP Call Center for assistance and information, please call 1-800-706-7893 between 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

No. No one will be forced into a government prescription drug plan under the health care reform law. For more information on the new health reform law please visit healthcare.gov.

One of the best ways to improve the quality of Medicare services and ensure that we have the money to maintain it for our children and grandchildren is to reduce waste, fraud and abuse and make Medicare more efficient and effective. As we worked to improve Medicare we identified areas of "fat" to trim that would make Medicare work better and save taxpayers money while maintaining all of the Medicare benefits that seniors depend on. I believe we've been very successful in that effort and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has stated that there is $455 billion of savings from Medicare in the Affordable Care Act.

One of the ways our health care reform law saves taxpayers money is by making changes to the Medicare Advantage program, which allows private insurers to offer seniors private Medicare plans in lieu of traditional Medicare. Medicare Advantage is not widely used in Delaware, but it is prevalent in some states.

Before health care reform became law, the federal government overpaid the insurance companies that offer Medicare Advantage plans by an average of 14 percent, and much more in some areas of the country. In other words, private plans were paid an average of 14 percent more to offer the exact same benefits as the traditional Medicare program. These private plans gamed the current Medicare payment system in ways that drove up the cost of Medicare. These overpayments have made Medicare Advantage a very profitable line of business for some of the nation's largest health insurance companies but it hasn't been a good use of taxpayer dollars. That's why I believe we did the right thing by reducing these over payments to private insurance companies who offer Medicare Advantage plans.

In addition to curbing these overpayments to private insurance companies, we also realized some of the $455 billion of savings from the Medicare program by making the health system more efficient. In general terms, the more efficient you are, the less money you spend. The Affordable Care Act includes several policies that will save the Medicare program money, not by cutting programs or reducing the quality of care, but by promoting care coordination and more efficient ways to deliver health care services. Here are a few examples:

• Established pilot programs that will bundle health care provider payments as a lump sum fee, instead of paying a fee for each service. This encourages care coordination, efficiency and general costs savings for the Medicare program.
   
• Established a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center to develop and expand new patient-centered payment models to encourage evidence-based, coordinated care for Medicare and Medicaid.
   
• Encouraged hospitals and doctors to get it right the first time by reducing unnecessary hospital readmissions through payment reductions for hospitals with high preventable readmission rates for select conditions. Nearly 20 percent of Medicare patients who are discharged from the hospital are readmitted within 30 days. Estimates have shown that the Medicare program spent $12 billion on potentially preventable hospital readmissions in 2005.
   
• Hospital acquired conditions, such as preventable infections, are among the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. and drive up costs of health care by $28 billion to $33 billion per year. The Affordable Care Act will adjust payments for hospitals with high rates of hospital acquired conditions.
   
• Establishes a voluntary Medicare shared-savings program (also called accountable care organizations), which allows health care providers to coordinate care across health care settings and share savings.

The Medicare Trustees 2014 report  announced that the Affordable Care Act has extended the solvency of the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund to 2030, four years beyond what was estimated in last year's report.