Health experts often focus on the needs of a relatively small number of people who are the heaviest users of medical treatment. You know: that five percent of Medicare beneficiaries who account for half the program’s costs. But a new study published in the October volume of the journal Health Affairs (paywall) looks at another cost-driver in our health care [...]
Two of the many major changes House Republicans would make to the federal tax code could make it harder for fail older adults, younger people with disabilities, and their families to receive badly-needed services. Repeal of the medical expense deduction would severely hurt those who face major uninsured expenses for medical treatment or long-term supports and services, including care at [...]
Want to know if an older adult is likely to use lots of medical care? Just ask if she needs help with living activities such as bathing, dressing, or getting out of bed. In a new study with important implications for both caregivers and policymakers, researchers at the Long-Term Quality Alliance (LTQA) found that Medicare spends an average of three [...]
Enrolling in Medicare Part B should be simple. But for years the government has been making enrollment nearly impossible for millions of seniors, especially those who are still working or who have delayed taking their Social Security benefits. They are never told that are eligible for Medicare, they don’t know that they face still penalties if they don’t enroll by [...]
President Trump’s multi-pronged administrative attack on the Affordable Care Act would sharply increase premiums for middle-aged people who purchase insurance in the individual market, likely driving many to drop coverage. Most would not feel the effects until 2019, though some will face sharply higher premiums in 2018—rate hikes they’ll see when the open enrollment season begins next month. The President [...]
Adult day centers seem to have made it into the political debate in Washington, though not in a good way. In his nasty weekend back-and-forth with President Trump, Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) suggested the White House has become an “adult care center” and wondered if the staff had “missed a shift” when Trump launched his Sunday Twitter storm. Yesterday, Rep [...]
Last week, the Senate quietly and unanimously passed a bill that would improve some Medicare benefits for people with chronic disease. The measure would do many good things but the most important is this: It would take important steps toward breaking down the wall between medical treatment and non-medical supports and services in Medicare, beginning a process that would make [...]
The still-evolving Senate Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act could make health insurance unaffordable for more than 50 million middle-aged Americans by allowing insurers to raise premiums for those with pre-existing conditions. Other provisions would allow carriers to boost insurance costs for even health people aged 50-64. The bill would give states federal dollars to help subsidize those rate [...]
You probably saw the headline: Six die in a Florida nursing home in the wake of Hurricane Irma. They won’t be the last frail elders to die needlessly. Many frail seniors who were living on the edge are going to die in southeast Texas and Florida in the coming weeks. We will probably never know how many because most will [...]
Only about 89,000 people bought private long-term care insurance in 2016, a nearly 14 percent decline from 2015, according to an industry survey. Nearly all were bought in the individual market, though about 15,000 people purchased coverage through their jobs. The sales decline continues a stunning trend. At the market’s peak in 2002, consumers bought 750,000 traditional policies, eight times [...]