Blog

• KFF Health News: America’s Health System Isn’t Ready for the Surge of Seniors With Disabilities

  January 17, 2024: The number of older adults with disabilities — difficulty with walking, seeing, hearing, memory, cognition, or performing daily tasks such as bathing or using the bathroom — will soar in the decades ahead, as baby boomers enter their 70s, 80s, an...Read more >

• Hearing Aids May Boost Longevity But Must Be Used Regularly

  January 05, 2024: A new study has found that restoring hearing loss with hearing aids may lengthen people's lives. Dr. Janet Choi, an otolaryngologist with Keck Medicine of USC, wanted to evaluate whether restoring hearing with hearing aids could increase the chanc...Read more >

• Pharmaceutical Corporations Expected to Raise Prices on Over 500 Drugs This Month

  January 05, 2024: Some of the largest American pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Sanofi, and Takeda Pharmaceutical, plan to raise prices on over 500 drugs starting this month according to data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. The price h...Read more >

• 220 People Finished Paying Social Security Taxes on New Year’s Day

  January 05, 2024: Just a few hours into 2024, more than 220 Americans, including SpaceX/Tesla/X’s Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook, paid all their Social Security taxes for the year. This comes in sharp contrast to the over 160 million American workers who will c...Read more >

• Lower Insulin Prices, Out-of-Pocket Cost Caps for Medicare Beneficiaries Kick Off 2024

  January 05, 2024: Medicare beneficiaries will see a wide array of cost-saving benefits in the new year. Thanks to the Biden Administration, seniors will continue to pay no more than the monthly cap of $35 for insulin, and vaccines under Part D will be free. Going f...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Deep Flaws in FDA Oversight of Medical Devices, and Patient Harm, Exposed in Lawsuits and Records

  December 21, 2023: Living with diabetes, Carlton “PeeWee” Gautney Jr. relied on a digital device about the size of a deck of playing cards to pump insulin into his bloodstream. The pump, manufactured by device maker Medtronic, connected plastic tubing to an insu...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Dodging the Medicare Enrollment Deadline Can Be Costly

  December 14, 2023: Angela M. Du Bois, a retired software tester in Durham, North Carolina, wasn’t looking to replace her UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan. She wasn’t concerned as the Dec. 7 deadline approached for choosing another of the privately run healt...Read more >

• Uncle Sam Wants You … to Help Stop Insurers’ Bogus Medicare Advantage Sales Tactics

  November 30, 2023: After an unprecedented crackdown on misleading advertising claims by insurers selling private Medicare Advantage and drug plans, the Biden administration hopes to unleash a special weapon to make sure companies follow the new rules: you. Officials...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Extra Fees Drive Assisted Living Profits

  November 21, 2023: Assisted living centers have become an appealing retirement option for hundreds of thousands of boomers who can no longer live independently, promising a cheerful alternative to the institutional feel of a nursing home. But their cost is so crushi...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Facing Financial Ruin as Costs Soar for Elder Care

  November 16, 2023: Margaret Newcomb, 69, a retired French teacher, is desperately trying to protect her retirement savings by caring for her 82-year-old husband, who has severe dementia, at home in Seattle. She used to fear his disease-induced paranoia, but now he’s ...Read more >