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.

By Michael Molinski, USA TODAY – July 20, 2016

People in the United States are working longer hours and waiting longer to retire, often not by choice — and that could be bad news for the future of our economy.

In a follow-up to a study about the age and productivity of workers, research at the University of Paris-Sorbonne concluded that as both younger workers (ages 15-24) and older ones (55-65) have been pushed into the workforce over the past 40 years, the age distribution of the U.S. labor force has taken on a distinctive barbell shape. The larger percentage of younger and older workers on either end of the barbell represents a bad sign for our productivity going forward. That’s because the most productive group is the core workers (ages 25-54) right in the middle.

By David Blanchett, Wall Street Journal – July 18, 2016

Retirement is the most expensive purchase most people are going to make, so it makes sense to figure out what it’s actually going to cost. One common assumption among financial planners and retirement researchers is that people spend the same amount in retirement as they do while working, adjusted for inflation. Evidence suggests, though, that most people spend less when they retire, not more. This is especially true as they move through retirement.

From Tim Worstall; Forbes ~ Jul 17, 2016

We’re getting the usual scare stories about Social Security and Medicare running out of cash in a couple of decades’ time. This isn’t going to happen, it really just isn’t going to happen. The story is not at all whether those trust funds get spent or not. It’s whether anyone will raise taxes to pay for the benefits already promised or not. The two government programs simply are not in a position akin to a private or lower level government program which has overpromised benefits and under reserved to pay for them.

By Julie Appleby, KHN; The Washington Post ~ Jul 17, 2016

Medicare Part D spending for compounded drugs has skyrocketed in recent years. (HHS Office of Inspector General)
Government spending has skyrocketed on “compounded” drugs that retail pharmacists custom make, drawing federal investigators’ attention for potential fraud and overbilling.

By Mark Miller, New York Times – July 15, 2016

JANA PANARITES was about to make a midlife career shift in 2010 when her father died. At age 50, she had completed a master’s degree in cultural diplomacy at the University of Southern California and was looking for a position in the nonprofit sector. That plan ground to a halt when she moved back to Maryland, where she grew up, to take care of her mother.

By Dan Gorenstein; Marketplace ~ Jul 14, 2016

It looks like health spending will continue to gobble up more and more of the economy.

That’s according to a new report this week from federal health officials in Washington who project by 2025, one-fifth of our economy will be devoted to this sector.

The more we spend on health, the less we have for everything else, like education, safety, roads and bridges. This is all happening at a time when prescription drugs are becoming a bigger and bigger share of where our health care dollars go.

By Sy Mukherjee; Fortune ~ Jul 14, 2016

Companies continued to raise prices significantly in Q1.

Big pharma’s widespread habit of regularly raising the price of their medicines has galvanized public outrage and given 2016 political candidates a convenient piñata.

But new data suggest that, so far, the outrage is still more bark than bite.

By Ben Steverman

Social Security was meant to protect elderly Americans from the financial vicissitudes of growing old. Eighty years later, the safety net championed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt is protecting some younger people, too.

About 6.4 million kids, or almost 1 in 10 Americans under the age of 18, rely on checks from Social Security. The fastest growth is among indirect beneficiaries, especially kids who live with grandparents collecting the federal benefit.