September 30th is the last opportunity to take advantage of a time-limited opportunity allowing people who were or are currently enrolled in the Marketplaces to enroll in Medicare Part B and have their late enrollment penalties waived.

Earlier this week, Medicare Rights, in partnership with the Center for Medicare Advocacy, sent a letter to Senate leadership strongly opposing the newest legislation, known as the “Graham-Cassidy” bill, to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and cut and cap Medicaid. Despite outcry from health care providers, insurers, consumer groups, patient advocates, and the American people, the Senate appears poised to vote on this harmful bill next week.

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.