The new year brings health-care changes

The new year will bring important changes to U.S. health insurance rules, as new provisions related to last year's health-care overhaul take effect.

The new rules are designed to help those caught in Medicare's prescription drug "doughnut hole," offer seniors more preventive care, and limit how much of customers' money health-insurance companies can keep for overhead and profit.

They all go into effect Saturday.

These provisions were not affected by a Dec. 13 federal court ruling in Virginia that declared another piece of the new health-care law - the requirement that all Americans buy health insurance - unconstitutional.

The judge allowed implementation of the overhaul to continue until a higher court rules on the issue.