The Connection
A roundup of recent Fund publications, charts, multimedia, and other timely content.
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July 28, 2025
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New Tax Law Will Also Affect Medicare Beneficiaries
The sweeping new domestic policy law signed by President Trump is likely to reduce enrollment in Medicaid and in marketplace health plans, according to many experts. But what about its implications for people with Medicare? On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s Faith Leonard and Gretchen Jacobson examine the law’s potentially wide-ranging impact on older adults and people with disabilities who are covered by the program, including: administrative burdens that may result in fewer beneficiary enrollments; funding cuts to SNAP food benefits, which one in four Medicare beneficiaries receive; and a temporary tax deduction for people over age 65 that will exclude those who don’t make enough to qualify for it.
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New Strategy to Boost Behavioral Health Care Services
The Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency charged with developing better ways of paying for and delivering health care, recently released a new “strategic direction.” On To the Point, Nathaniel Counts, chief policy officer at the Kennedy Forum, explains how the plan’s emphasis on prevention, patient empowerment, and consumer choice could provide an opportunity to advance innovations in behavioral health care. “[It] can address some of the fundamental issues facing behavioral health care in the U.S.,” Counts writes, “while aligning incentives for better outcomes at lower long-term costs.”
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FEATURED CHART
States Addressing Gaps in Federal Medical Debt Protections
Almost a third of working-age adults in the United States have medical debt. Even in small amounts, it can disrupt lives by forcing people to deplete savings or cut back on basic needs like food and clothing. In their newly updated report, Georgetown University’s Maanasa Kona and Vrudhi Raimugia evaluate the current landscape of medical debt protections at the federal and state levels. They find federal protections to be vague and rarely enforced, leaving patients exposed to sometimes huge, unexpected expenses. Over the past two years, however, states have been moving to fill the gaps in federal legislation with additional safeguards, they write.
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QUIZ
How many dental-related visits to hospital emergency departments are there each year in the U.S.?
- 50,000
- 100,000
- 1 million
- 2 million
Scroll down to see if you got it right.
Aligning Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage
During a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Joint Health and Oversight Subcommittee ([link removed] ) on July 22, representatives of provider organizations and health plans suggested ways of improving oversight of Medicare Advantage plans and ensuring beneficiaries in the traditional fee-for-service program have access to the same range of benefits. Read what a range of experts have to say about what’s working well in Medicare Advantage and ways the program might be strengthened ([link removed] ) through changes to payment, risk adjustment, quality measurement, and benefit design.
The Case for Climate Action in Health Care
Hospitals and other health care facilities face increasing vulnerability to extreme weather events like flooding, wildfires, and heat waves that can disrupt patient care. At the same time, the U.S. health sector itself is responsible for 8.5 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions. A key challenge for health systems’ chief sustainability officers is how to engage busy colleagues across departments to work toward environmental sustainability and resilience. The new Guide to Communicating Sustainability, compiled by Lori Alcalá, senior writer and strategist at Right On, offers practical tools for health system leaders working to reduce emissions and build climate resilience.
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QUIZ: Answer
The answer is D. There are 2 million visits to hospitals annually for dental problems, at a cost of $1.7 billion.
In the United States, dental care is often siloed from primary care and left out of standard health insurance — pushing people to pay out of pocket or forgo treatment entirely. The consequences go far beyond cavities: tooth decay is linked to serious health conditions like heart disease and Alzheimer’s. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In our latest International Insight, the Commonwealth Fund’s Munira Gunja looks at how Japan manages to fully integrate dental care into its health system ([link removed] ) — and what the U.S. can learn from that approach.
Affordable, quality health care. For everyone.
The Commonwealth Fund, 1 East 75th Street, New York, NY 10021
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