Since its inception in 2002, Medicare Advantage, a program that allows private health insurers to contract with the government to provide Medicare benefits, has always cost the federal government...
Diane Archer
Get paid to be a health care buddy
Call them health care buddies or a new breed of concierges, the New York Times reports on a fast growing group of baby boomers working as paid assistants and companions to older adults in their...
Can we get to improved Medicare for all?
Regardless of political persuasion, most Americans want Congress to expand Medicare to every American. Some people talk about the benefits of “single payer” health care, which generally...
Help for caregivers who leave their jobs
Millions of caregivers leave their jobs to care for a loved one at some time in their careers. Not only do they lose their income in the process, they stop paying into Social Security and may see...
Programs for vulnerable Americans on chopping block
President Trump has released his budget, and it puts programs for vulnerable Americans on the chopping block. Along with food stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and CHIP (the...
People with Medicare typically spend over $4,000 for care
Most people look forward to enrolling in Medicare. After all, traditional Medicare gives you a wide choice of doctors and hospitals anywhere in the country. And if you have supplemental coverage to...
For-profit kidney dialysis: Profits before people
In a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver takes on the kidney dialysis industry, particularly DaVita, the for-profit company that controls a large piece of the kidney dialysis business in...
AHCA and the Medicare Trust Fund
The solvency of the Medicare (Part A Hospital Insurance) Trust Fund turns in large part on Congress. Democratic leaders extended its life when they passed the Affordable Care Act and imposed...
One in three FDA-approved drugs have safety risks
A new JAMA study finds that one in three novel therapeutics approved by the FDA between 2001 and 2010 have safety risks detected only after they were approved. The study authors make a compelling...
New FDA chief has ties to the pharmaceutical industry
The nation’s new head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Scott Gottlieb, is a 44-year-old physician, cancer survivor, and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute...