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.

In the Health Affairs blog today, Stacy Sanders, Medicare Rights’ federal policy director, writes with Maura Caslyn of the Center for American Progress about risks that the American Health Care Act (AHCA) poses to people who rely on the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs). MSPs are Medicaid programs that help low-income older adults and people with disabilities afford their Medicare premiums and cost sharing.

This week, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky led an amendment “Sense of Congress” resolution identifying the cost of prescription drugs as a national problem and calling on the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to engage with the House of Representatives and the Senate to take administrative actions and enact legislative changes to lower the cost of prescription drugs for consumers and reduce the burden of that cost on taxpayers in a way that will balance the need to encourage innovation with the need to increase affordability. The sense-of-Congress amendment was successfully adopted during a hearing of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce marking up pending, bipartisan legislation earlier this week.

The Commonwealth Fund released a report this week examining out-of-pocket expenses for people with Medicare. Fifty-six million people—17% of the U.S. population— rely on Medicare and receive many benefits from the program, yet, Original Medicare excludes coverage for dental, vision, hearing, and long-term services, and contains no ceiling on out-of-pocket costs for covered services. As a result, beneficiaries can be exposed to high costs.

Last week, the Commonwealth Fund released a study comparing the experiences of working-age adults with various insurance statuses over the course of a year. Specifically, the study compared those with Medicaid, those with private or employer-sponsored insurance, and those without insurance. With more than 70 million Americans covered by Medicaid, and an estimated 12 million gaining coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, it is important to know how people’s experience of that coverage stacks up to private coverage and to being uninsured.

This week, Medicare Rights Center (Medicare Rights) responded to a request from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on how to strengthen the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D prescription drug programs.

A new Kaiser Health Tracking Poll released this week shows that about two-thirds (64 percent) of the public say that it is a “good thing” that the American Health Care Act did not pass. More than half (52 percent) of the public said that they are “relieved” that the bill did not pass, reflecting concern about the impact that the American Health Care Act would have had on people’s access to quality health insurance. In the same vein, more people said the bill did not pass because it went “too far” in cutting benefits than said it failed because it did not go far enough.

This week, the President sent a more detailed supplement to his 2017 budget to Congressional appropriators that proposes dramatic cuts to the State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs). SHIPs provide one-on-one in-person counseling to help people with Medicare understand their rights and navigate their coverage options. The President’s proposal would almost completely eliminate federal funding for this essential program.

Last week, the Center on Aging at the American Institute for Research (AIR) released a set of issue briefs detailing the complexities of enrolling in Medicare. One of the briefs, Medicare Complexity Taxes Counseling Resources Available to Beneficiaries, highlights Medicare choices and the personalized counseling available to beneficiaries and their families.

This week, the Medicare Rights Center signed onto a letter from the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations calling for a Congressional task force to improve Medicare and other health programs for residents of Puerto Rico. These suggested reforms would increase fairness and provide essential access to benefits. The suggestions include improving low income support programs, enhancing Medicaid funding, and providing for automatic enrollment for certain people eligible for Medicare as takes place for residents of the states.