As 2017 winds down, there are several smaller pieces of Medicare legislation, often called “Medicare extenders,” that must pass Congress to keep the program stable in 2018. Extenders establish programs for a short time, and have to be passed or funded by Congress every one to two years. Two extenders are particularly important to people with Medicare: the low-income outreach and assistance extender and the therapy cap exception extender. Both extenders will expire in December of 2017 if Congress does not act.

This week, members of both chambers of Congress introduced a bill that aims to bring down rising drug costs. Representatives Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Tx.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) joined with Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to introduce The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2017, which would use several mechanisms to lower drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries while maintaining patient access to needed medications.

Today, the Medicare Rights Center sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce voicing opposition to legislation that would shifts costs to people with Medicare. Importantly, the “Helping Ensure Access for Little Ones, Toddlers, and Hopeful Youth by Keeping Insurance Delivery Stable Act of 2017” (HEALTHY KIDS Act), would provide needed funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Unfortunately, however, the bill pays for this funding, in part, by requiring some higher-income people with Medicare to pay more than they already do for Medicare coverage.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate once again chose to reject a bill that would have caused tens of millions of people to lose health coverage and irreparably damaged the Medicaid program. Senate Leadership announced that the Graham-Cassidy bill will not come to the floor for a vote. Yet again, Americans across the nation lifted up their voices to protect health coverage and care for millions, including older adults and people with disabilities.

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.

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.

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.”

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, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) released a new issue brief examining a recent hot topic—areas with few or no insurers participating in Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces. KFF compared these areas to places where there are very few or no Medicare Advantage (MA) plans offered this year to people with Medicare.

Nationwide, there are currently 19 counties—in Nevada, Indiana, and Ohio—that will have no ACA marketplace plans for sale in 2018. This number has been shrinking as insurers fill some of the gaps, so it is possible each of these counties will have coverage in 2018.