By “U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging”; KSPR ~ Aug 15, 2016
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following efforts from U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Claire McCaskill, the chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Aging Committee, seniors will once again be able to access their Social Security accounts online without needing to have a cell phone.
From KHN Morning Briefing; Kaiser Health News ~ Aug 15, 2016
The continuing rise of premiums is causing some experts to worry that more people will refuse to buy insurance and that could lead to a collapse of the market. Meanwhile, insurers are using a mechanism created by the federal health law to help keep prices down to instead justify their premium increases.
By David Sirota; Newsweek ~ Aug 14, 2016
This article originally appeared on the International Business Times.
When Donald Trump on Monday questioned the accuracy of the federal government’s glowing employment reports, it may have seemed like another unsubstantiated outburst from a famously loose-with-the-facts candidate.
From Jo Ann Jenkins, Next Avenue; Forbes ~ Aug 14, 2016
(This article is the 13th in a weekly Next Avenue series, The Future of Aging: Realizing the Potential of Longevity, published by the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging. Links to the rest of the series appear at the end of this article.)
On Jan. 6, 1941, the eve of the United States’ entry into World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood before a joint session of Congress to deliver his annual State of the Union address. In that speech, Roosevelt argued for an end to the isolationist policies that grew out of World War I and offered a new ideology based on Four Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom From Want, and Freedom From Fear.
By Emily Gurnon; Next Avenue ~ Aug 12, 2016
Part of the Election 2016 Special Report
(This is the second in a series of Next Avenue blog posts on where presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton stand on key issues of interest to Americans over 50. The first article was about where Trump and Clinton stand on Social Security.)
By Susan Jaffe, Washington Post – July 26, 2016
Only days after Judy Hanttula came home from the hospital after surgery last November, her doctor’s office called with bad news: Records showed that instead of traditional Medicare, she had a private Medicare Advantage plan, and her doctor and hospital were not in its network.
Neither the plan nor Medicare now would cover her medical costs. She owed $16,622.
By Louise Radnofsky and Melanie Evans, Wall Street Journal – July 25, 2016
WASHINGTON—Medicare wants to pay hospitals fixed amounts for treating heart attacks, following a move to offer set reimbursements for hip and knee replacements rather than letting providers bill for every service provided to older Americans, the Obama administration said Monday.
The proposal represents the most significant extension of the Obama administration’s efforts to curb costs and improve quality of care funded by Medicare.
By John C. Goodman, Forbes – July 25, 2016
Here is something I bet you don’t know. On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law a bill that wiped out more than $50 trillion in Medicare’s unfunded liability. That’s not a misprint. That’s trillion with a “t.” The savings are almost three times the size of our entire economy. Furthermore, in doing this he also solved the long-term budgetary problem of Medicare. Unless some future Congress and some future president change the law, Medicare’s growth going forward will stay in line with the growth of our economy – ensuring that the program will remain affordable, indefinitely into the future.
By Associated Press – July 24, 2016
WASHINGTON — A safeguard for Medicare beneficiaries has become a way for drugmakers to get paid billions of dollars for pricey medications at taxpayer expense, government numbers show.
The cost of Medicare’s “catastrophic” prescription coverage jumped by 85 percent in three years, from $27.7 billion in 2013 to $51.3 billion in 2015, according to the program’s number-crunching Office of the Actuary.
Out of some 2,750 drugs covered by Medicare’s Part D benefit, two pills for hepatitis C infection — Harvoni and Sovaldi — accounted for nearly $7.5 billion in catastrophic drug costs in 2015.
By Diane Archer, Huffington Post – July 22, 2016
For the second year in a row, older adults and people with disabilities should expect to see little or no increase in their Social Security checks in 2017. Any change to the amount of Social Security benefits people receive is based on the consumer price index.
An increase ensures people’s checks keep pace with inflation, preventing their benefits from eroding.
But, even though expenses are rising for older adults and people with disabilities, the latest Social Security Trustees’ report forecasts a cost of living adjustment of 0.2 percent for next year or $2.60 on the average monthly benefit of slightly more than $1,300.
