Health care in the United States is very expensive, and many experts believe one thing contributing to that expense is the abundance of unnecessary or “low-value” health care services provided to patients. Policymakers typically believe that patients receive this unnecessary care because they expect or demand it. However, this month, the University of Michigan revealed new polling data that turns that assumption upside down.

Last night, lawmakers unveiled draft legislation to fund the federal government for the remaining six months of fiscal year 2018 (FY18). Congress is expected to finalize the package this week in order to prevent a government shutdown when current federal funding expires at midnight Friday.

The report, Medicare Trends and Recommendations: An Analysis of 2016 Call Data from the Medicare Rights Center’s National Helpline, re-examines the top three issues heard on Medicare Rights’ helpline in prior years. Each issue is demonstrated through clients’ stories heard on the helpline, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), state agencies, insurers, elected officials, and other stakeholders can use as a basis to strengthen the Medicare program for the more than 58 million people it serves.

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a report with new data on how much people with Medicare paid for health care in 2016 as a share of their total spending. These data show that Medicare households spend a higher proportion of their incomes on health care coverage, services, and drugs than non-Medicare households. This is important information when discussing what policies should be enacted to protect or improve Medicare’s affordability, especially for those with tight household budgets and fixed incomes.

This week, the Medicare Rights Center submitted comments in response to the Advance Notice of Methodological Changes for Calendar Year 2019 for the Medicare Advantage CMS-HCC Risk Adjustment Model and Call Letter (Call Letter). The Call Letter outlines CMS’s payment and policy strategies for upcoming plan years. As in years past, Medicare Rights provided comprehensive comments and feedback, highlighting the concerns and issues beneficiaries tell us about on the helpline every day.

Congress recently passed and the President signed a sweeping spending bill that funds the government through March 23 and paves the way for a longer-term spending agreement. The legislation—the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-123, BBA of 2018)—also contains a number of health care provisions important to people with Medicare and their families.

The Medicare Rights Center has analyzed the bill, with a focus on changes to Medicare and other programs serving older adults and people with disabilities that we support, those we oppose, and those we will be monitoring closely.

Last week, Medicare Rights explored some of the looming risks to health coverage and affordability created by recent administrative efforts to undercut the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As we noted then, the Trump administration has proposed several new rules that would allow insurers to offer coverage that does not meet the standards set by the ACA. In addition, Congress has taken steps to undermine the ACA’s coverage by repealing the individual mandate in last year’s tax bill, despite evidence that doing so would cause millions to lose coverage. Together, these changes threaten to undermine the design and achievements of the ACA. Now the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, and Avalere, a nonpartisan health consulting firm, have released studies that add concrete numbers to these risks.

Last month, Congress passed sweeping legislation that funds the federal government for six weeks and paves the way for a longer-term spending agreement. While the bill also makes significant changes to Medicare and other health care programs, both good and bad, it excludes several important reforms the Medicare Rights Center supports. Today, we asked Congress to include these policies in essential spending legislation they are expected to consider later this month.

This week, economist Austin Frakt outlined the economic and health impacts associated with Medicaid’s lack of dental coverage for adults in many states. These associations range from an increased risk of cancer and heart disease, to complications for pregnancy, to social stigma and difficulty finding work.
While Medicaid requires dental coverage for children, coverage for adults is optional. Currently, there are 17 states that offer comprehensive adult dental benefits.
Medicaid’s lack of a comprehensive adult dental benefit in most states makes the health and well-being of people with Medicaid less robust. But Medicaid’s sparse dental coverage is still superior to the coverage Medicare offers most beneficiaries.

Together with Medicare and Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) builds health security for people of all ages. Repealing or undercutting the ACA without a meaningful replacement would jeopardize the health and well-being of millions. Accordingly, we are concerned that several recent proposals from the Trump administration could undermine the health law and destabilize the public and private insurance markets.