The Commonwealth Fund recently issued its 2018 report ranking states on their health systems performance. Hawaii remains in first place. Mississippi ranked in last place. Overall, the picture is not...
Diane Archer
Medicare changing nursing home incentives to deter poor care
Kaiser Health News reports on a ghastly phenomenon that appears all too common for people with Medicare in some nursing homes. To increase their revenues, nursing homes create conditions that lead...
Four things to know if your income is low and you have Medicare
Today, more than 11.4 million older adults and people with disabilities are enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. Almost three out of four of them (72 percent) are eligible for full Medicaid...
How to avoid being assigned a legal guardian
In 2017, Rachel Aviv wrote a story for the New Yorker on how an older couple in Nevada ended up with a legal guardian against their will. The story is chilling and worth reading. It helps to...
Drug ads should be banned, not required to include drug prices
President Trump recently proposed requiring pharmaceutical companies to include a drug’s price in all drug ads. This proposal would do nothing to lower drug prices or benefit Americans in any...
Few doctors opt out of Medicare
If you have traditional Medicare, you have coverage from virtually any doctor or hospital in the US. While not every doctor takes Medicare, the vast majority of doctors do. That said, there are a...
Rescuing retirement with Social Security plus
In an article for Politico, Jacob Hacker lays out his vision for rescuing retirement–universal private retirement savings that become a defined benefit upon retirement, an annuity paid by...
2018 Trustees’ reports show GOP tax cuts hurt Medicare and...
The Medicare and Social Security Trustees just released their reports on these two vital social insurance programs. More than anything, they show that the GOP tax cuts are hurting Medicare and...
Out-of-pocket costs for Part D brand drugs way up
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) just released a report revealing a steep increase in out-of-pocket costs for people with Medicare Part...
State efforts to rein in prescription drug costs
The overwhelming majority of the public supports government intervention to bring down drug prices. While the federal government is doing precious little about prescription drug prices other than...