Medicare, Social Security face shaky fiscal futures
The financial condition of the government’s bedrock retirement programs for middle- and working-class Americans remains shaky, with Medicare pointed toward insolvency by 2026, according to a report Monday by the government’s overseers of Medicare and Social Security.
Feds charge 2 dozen in billion dollar Medicare brace scam
Federal agents on Tuesday broke up a billion dollar Medicare scam that peddled unneeded orthopedic braces to hundreds of thousands of seniors. Two dozen people were charged, including doctors accused of writing bogus prescriptions.
Sanders’ ‘Medicare for All’ expands long-term care benefits
Sen. Bernie Sanders is raising the stakes of the “Medicare for All” debate by expanding his proposal to include long-term care, a move that is forcing other Democratic presidential candidates to take a stand on addressing one of the biggest gaps in the U.S. health care system.
Congress mulls cap on what Medicare enrollees pay for drugs
With health care a top issue for American voters, Congress may actually be moving toward doing something this year to address the high cost of prescription drugs.
Pelosi ‘playing chess on 3 boards’ with health care
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is laying out her strategy on health care and first up is improvements to “Obamacare” and legislation to lower prescription drug costs. “Medicare for all” will get hearings.
Social Security, Medicare oversight posts vacant for 3 years
Key posts overseeing the financial health of Social Security and Medicare have been vacant for more than three years, leaving the programs without independent accountability in the face of dire predictions about approaching insolvency.
Study: ‘Medicare for all’ projected to cost $32.6 trillion
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for all” plan would boost government health spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, requiring historic tax hikes, says a study released Monday by a university-based libertarian policy center.
Trustees report warns Medicare finances worsening
Medicare will run out of money sooner than expected, and Social Security’s financial problems can’t be ignored either, the government said Tuesday in a sobering checkup on programs vital to the middle class.
APNewsBreak: Skimping can’t save seniors from upped med cost
Medicare recipients filled fewer prescriptions for pricey brand-name drugs — but spent more on such meds anyway, says a government report due out Monday.
Winners and losers under Medicare drug plan in Trump budget
Some Medicare beneficiaries would face higher prescription drug costs under President Donald Trump’s budget even as the sickest patients save thousands of dollars, a complex trade-off that may make it harder to sell Congress on the plan in an election year.
Trump aims to reduce drug costs under Medicare
President Donald Trump will propose lowering prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries by allowing them to share in rebates that drug companies pay to insurers and middlemen, an administration official said Thursday.
Medicare card remake to fight identity theft
Medicare cards are getting a makeover to fight identity theft.
Medicare launches revamp for heart attacks, hip fractures
Heart attacks and broken hips cause much suffering and worry as people grow older.
Medicare outpatients risk higher bills for some procedures
You pay less for outpatient treatment than for a hospital admission, right? Not necessarily in the topsy-turvy world of Medicare billing, according to a government report.
Candidates avoid Medicare, Social Security finance woes
The nation’s framework for economic security and health care in retirement is financially unsustainable, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to the presidential candidates.
Nearly 1 in 3 on Medicare got commonly abused opioids
Nearly 12 million Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for an opioid painkiller last year at a cost of $4.1 billion, according to a federal report that shows how common the addictive drugs are in many older Americans’ medicine cabinets.
Elderly book end-of-life talks once labeled ‘death panels’
The doctor got right down to business after Herbert Diamond bounded in. A single green form before her, she had some questions for the agile 88-year-old: about comas and ventilators, about feeding tubes and CPR, about intense and irreversible suffering.
Fired up by Sanders, Democrats shift left on health care
With the Obama administration counting down its final year, many Democrats are finding less to like about the president’s health care law, unsure about its place among their party’s achievements.
AP-GfK Poll: Support shaky for Sanders ‘Medicare for all’
At first blush, many Americans like the idea of “Medicare for all,” the government-run health system that’s a rallying cry for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
Medicare’s end-of-life counseling policy may find acceptance
Six years ago, a proposal for Medicare to cover end-of-life counseling touched off a political uproar that threatened to stall President Barack Obama’s health care law in Congress.