Today, Stacy Sanders, federal policy director of the Medicare Rights Center, testified in support of a proposed law that would increase the civil monetary penalties and criminal fines for certain types of Medicare fraud at a hearing held by the Subcommittee on Health of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The hearing focused on a number of bipartisan bills to improve Medicare, including the Medicare Civil and Criminal Penalties Update Act of 2017 (H.R. 3245).

In a shocking twist, Senate leadership decided this week that they will no longer advance the Better Care Reconciliation Act, a bill that would have slashed Medicaid, spiked costs for older adults, and yanked coverage away from 22 million Americans. This news would be welcome, if not for reports that the Senate is now rumored to turn to an already discredited scheme to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without a meaningful and simultaneous replacement.

The Trustees find that the Medicare Hospital Insurance (Part A) Trust Fund is solvent through 2029—a year longer than previously predicted—and that in 2016 the Trust Fund had a $5.4 billion surplus, with surpluses anticipated through 2022. Further, the Supplemental Medical Insurance (Part B and Part D) Trust Fund remains on firm financial footing, and last year’s warning that 2017 growth would trigger the creation of an Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) did not come to fruition.

The Medicare Rights Center recently submitted comments responding to a federal request for information titled “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Reducing Regulatory Burdens and Improving Health Care Choices to Empower Patients.” The comments provide detailed suggestions about how the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can improve the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulatory landscape to empower patients and promote choice; stabilize the individual, small group, and other health insurance markets; enhance affordability; and affirm the traditional regulatory authority of the states.

After failing to bring their health care overhaul bill to a vote last month, leadership in theUS Senate released an updated version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) today. As in previous versions of this bill, the updated BCRA ends Medicaid as we know it. It maintains the previous cuts to the program, including an estimated $772 billion cuts over 10 years, with cuts reaching 35% within 20 years.

As the President and Republicans in Congress attempt to follow through on legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and dismantle Medicaid, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a new tool that lets concerned citizens compare various replacement plans. The tool allows users to compare the impact of the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives (American Health Care Act, or AHCA); the bill currently under consideration by the Senate (Better Care Reconciliation Act or BCRA); and current law. Users can also elect to compare other proposals.

Last week, Senate leadership released the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA). Drafted in secret by a panel of 13 Republican Senators, this bill only slightly amends the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which passed the House in May In fact, it still shares the same harmful policies–drastically cutting the Medicaid program and providing substantial tax breaks to the wealthy and to corporations. Plans to hold votes and floor debate this week were upended on Tuesday when Republican leaders discovered they lacked the 51 votes to meet the “Motion to Proceed” threshold—a key vote to allow the bill to come to the floor. This shortfall forced the Majority Leader to delay the initial votes until after the July 4th recess, which means that the Senate will not take up the bill until the week of July 10th at the earliest. In the meantime, negotiations continue in the Senate to try to woo members to support the bill.

As we suspected, the BCRA is scarily similar to the House’s American Health Care Act (AHCA). Both the BCRA and the AHCA would end Medicaid as we know it, undermine the Medicare guarantee, and impose an unaffordable “age tax” on seniors—all to pay for tax breaks for wealthy Americans and corporations.

An analysis of the bill by the Congressional Budget Office confirmed what we feared, the BCRA would yank coverage out from under 22 million people, restrict access to needed care, and hike health care costs most significantly for the oldest and sickest among us.

To save health care for 22 million Americans, we need you to keep up the pressure! Here are 3 things you can do to stop this bill once and for all.

Today’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report makes it clear: a handful of Senators working in secret back rooms cannot write a bill that works for American families. The Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA)—the Senate leadership’s amended version of the House-passed health care package—would yank coverage out from under 22 million people, restrict access to needed care, and hike health care costs most significantly for the oldest and sickest among us.

The National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC) recently released an issue brief exploring how recent proposals to change Medicaid financing would affect Medicare. Eleven million people with Medicare—nearly 20%—also rely on Medicaid. Changes to one program can cause a ripple effect to the other. NCHC explains the significant pressure proposed Medicaid per-capita caps would place on Medicare, including the implications for future reform efforts.