Live longer, avoid sugary and diet sodas! CNN reports that a 19-year study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that people who drank as few as two glasses (16 ounces) of soda a day, including...
Diane Archer
Fall is in the air: Get your flu shot early!
It’s important to get the flu shot every year, no matter how old you are. It’s particularly important, and should be a priority for older adults. With summer coming to a close, it’s...
If you need nutrition counseling, Medicare may cover it in full
As we all know, what we eat can affect our health in all kinds of ways. And, for the 15 million people with Medicare who have diabetes or kidney conditions, this is all the more true. To help people...
Five arguments for Medicare for All
As we continue to debate how to move forward on health reform, it’s helpful to understand the key arguments for Medicare for All, a single-payer public health insurance system that would...
2020 Social Security benefits should rise, but checks may not
Social Security transformed the nation, providing working families a basic measure of economic security when wages are lost in the event of old age, disability that prevents substantial gainful...
Assisted living facilities present serious risks for some people
In a New York Times op-ed, Geeta Ananad warns against expecting assisted living facilities to meet the needs of aging parents once they lose their independence. Rather, she explains that assisted...
New Medicare rule requires insurers to tell people their...
Even though health care costs can be sky high, people often have little clue what their copay will be in advance of getting a service or filling a prescription, which leads many to skip care...
Private health insurers don’t let you budget for your care
Kaiser Health News reports that people with the wherewithal to shop around for affordable health care can easily end up with bigger bills than they expected. Unlike traditional Medicare, private...
Health care information confuses people
The Center for Retirement Research blog focuses on how health care information tends to confuse people more than help them. As a result, many people make poor health care choices. In truth...
Eat better, spend less on health care
So long as the US population is aging, health care costs will continue to increase no matter what happens with health care reform. An op-ed in the New York Times, by Dariush Mozzafarian and Dan...