Medicare guarantees access to health care for 57 million older adults and people with disabilities, including hospital and physician care and prescription drugs. Understanding how Medicare is funded and how that funding is spent can improve policy decisions going forward.

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC), along with co-sponsors Dean Heller (R-NV) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), released a revised version of legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) this week, often referred to as the Graham-Cassidy bill. The Senators claimed that the bill includes no “draconian cuts.” In substance, however, the Graham-Cassidy bill retains many of the components of recent failed attempts to undo the ACA.

This week, future funding for State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs) is once again at stake. SHIPs provide unique one-on-one, in-person counseling to help people with Medicare understand their rights and navigate their coverage options. Despite their high value and low cost, SHIPs have been under threat for the past several years, but have survived through a combination of strong advocacy and diverse Congressional support.

Members of Congress are returning to Washington, DC as the summer recess winds down, putting health care policy issues back in the spotlight. Policy experts expect the fall to be busy with significant activity expected in Congress and in the administration.

This week, Medicare Rights Center submitted comments on ways to eliminate red tape and bureaucracy in the Medicare program that affect how people with Medicare can access their care and benefits. These comments were generated in response to the “Medicare Red Tape Relief Project,” a request from Representative Pat Tiberi, the Chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, for ideas to improve legislation or regulations to help “deliver relief from the regulations and mandates that impede innovation, drive up costs, and ultimately stand in the way of delivering better care for Medicare beneficiaries.”

Today, the Medicare Rights Center released a report detailing the role consumer advocates and advocacy organizations can play in the implementation of health care reform efforts—known as health system transformation—designed to change how care is paid for and delivered to achieve improved quality and increased value of health care services in New York.

This week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an analysis that found that ending payments to insurance companies to assist low-income Marketplace enrollees with health insurance costs would increase the deficit by $194 billion over 10 years. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the federal government reimburses insurance companies for discounts on copays and deductibles the law requires insurers to give to low-income individuals.

In the aftermath of the Senate’s failure to pass major health care legislation and repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Kaiser Family Foundation released findings from a poll to understand what Americans think of the ACA, the attempts to repeal it so far, and next steps.

This week, a report for the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) examines the enrollment of likely eligible Medicare beneficiaries in Medicaid programs that assist with Medicare Part B premiums and cost-sharing, known as the Medicaid Savings Programs (MSPs). Using the most recently available data (2009 and 2010), the analysis shows that participation in the MSPs remains low.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that the average basic premium for a Part D prescription drug plan is estimated to be $33.50 per month in 2018. This projected average premium is a slight decrease from the average monthly premium in 2017 ($34.70) and represents the continued relative stability of Part D premiums. It is important to note that while the average, basic premium is lower in 2018, beneficiary premiums will vary—some increasing and some decreasing next year.