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.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed—by a very narrow margin—the American Health Care Act (AHCA) (H.R.1628) a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act as well as a major rewrite of the Medicaid program. Now the focus turns to the U.S. Senate. Though many Senators initially expressed deep concerns with the AHCA’s provisions, there are strong indications that the chamber is moving forward through a similarly rushed, secretive process and making only minor changes to the bill.

Many recent pieces of proposed legislation, including the American Health Care Act (H.R.1628), would extend the use of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), a tax-free account that can be used to pay for specific medical expenses. But are HSAs equally valuable to people across all economic levels? The Commonwealth Fund tackles this question by looking at what HSAs are, how they work, who uses them, and who benefits if their use increases.

Congressmen Raul Ruiz, M.D. (D-CA.) and Patrick Meehan (R-PA) recently reintroduced the bipartisan Beneficiary Enrollment Notice and Eligibility Simplification (BENES) Act (H.R. 2575)—an act applauded by Medicare Rights. The BENES Act simplifies Part B enrollment periods and requires the federal government to provide advance notification to people approaching Medicare eligibility about enrollment rules and how Medicare works with other coverage.

This week, President Trump released his proposed budget for the 2018 fiscal year, which includes drastic cuts to essential services for people with Medicare, their families, and caregivers.

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released new estimates for the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which was passed earlier

A recent article on Next Avenue, a PBS website, highlights an often-overlooked aspect of the American Health Care Act’s proposed cuts to the Medicaid program—how these cuts would affect the millions of people with Medicare and their families who depend on Medicaid covered services.

This week, a bipartisan bill was reintroduced in Congress that aims to curb rising pharmaceutical costs through transparency. Senators John McCain of Arizona and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, along with Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, introduced the FAIR Drug Pricing Act in response to reports that prescription drug spending continues to skyrocket as pharmaceutical companies hike their prices, often multiple times a year and without warning.

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.