Sungchul Park, David Meyers et al. report in Health Affairs that people living in rural communities have far higher rates of disenrollment from Medicare Advantage into traditional Medicare than...
Diane Archer
Get older, cope better
Benedict Carey reports some good news for older adults in the New York Times. Our emotional well-being improves as we grow older. And, the novel coronavirus pandemic confirms this scientific...
Billing fraud pervasive in Medicare Advantage
In an effort to maximize government payments and minimize expenditures, attorneys David Engel, Gary Azorsky et al. write in MedPage Today that Medicare Advantage plans are engaging in billing fraud...
MedPAC: Traditional Medicare consistently costs less than...
In a concise online memo, the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee, MedPAC, responded to health insurance industry misinformation about Medicare Advantage–the private insurance program offering...
The deadly consequences of out-of-pocket drug costs
A new paper in NBER looks at the deadly consequences of out-of-pocket costs in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. As you might expect, deductibles and copays keep people from filling...
Medicare spent $1.7 billion on brand-name drugs though generics...
In yet another example of private health insurers driving up Medicare spending, a new report in JAMA shows that in 2017 Medicare Part D prescription drug insurers spent nearly $1.7 billion on...
Coronavirus: Why isn’t every older adult vaccinated?
Eighty percent of people in the US who have died of COVID-19 have been over 65, so the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) rightly prioritized vaccinations for people over 65. In turn, states have done...
What’s the value of private health insurers?
Many Americans believe that private health insurance has value. And, many wealthy countries with universal health care rely on private health insurers. What is their value? With private health...
Raising the minimum wage helps workers and Social Security
The minimum wage has not been adjusted appropriately for inflation over the last several decades, while core expenses such as housing and health care have increased significantly. As a result...
Coronavirus: Senator Casey proposes legislation to protect...
As of now, more than 170,000 older Americans living in long-term care facilities and their caregivers have died from COVID-19. That works out to more than one in three people in the US who have died...