A laptop and a cardboard box. These two items could be major tools in improving regular folks’ health throughout this year — and beyond — if they get launched on important tasks, pronto. What needs to happen is for patients to be hyperconscious, persistent, and skeptical enough to start gathering vital records about themselves and….
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For seniors, big changes coming with federal health coverage plans
Editor’s note: The blog will shift in ’23 to more episodic publication. Just a reminder: 2023 will begin what could be consequential changes in aspects of older Americans, notably those age 65-plus and covered by Medicare. As part of law of the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Democrats in the Congress and pushed by the….
Continue ReadingCongress races to snowy holiday exit, spending $1.7 trillion on the way out
Editor’s note: The blog will shift in the days ahead to more episodic publishing. Members of Congress raced at the year’s end to avoid the consequences of a brutal snowstorm battering huge swaths of the country. Before hitting the holiday exits, lawmakers approved a whopping $1.7 trillion bill to fund the federal government through the….
Continue ReadingVoters got their say on major health concerns in 2022 midterms
Voters from coast to coast made decisions last week not just about which candidates to favor but also about an array of health-related concerns from abortion to health insurance expansion to legalized ways to get high. Women’s reproductive rights: a big deal A major motivator in the 2022 midterm elections was the U.S. Supreme Court’s….
Continue ReadingFor beleaguered consumers, key health information is deceptive or scant
Already sick, injured, and debilitated by age and other circumstance, U.S. patient-consumers get battered with misleading information from shady firms about insurance coverage under the Medicare program and with too little word from hospitals about too spare charitable care that could help the beleaguered with bankrupting medical bills. Democratic investigators for the U.S. Senate Finance….
Continue ReadingCheaper hearing aids finally go on sale, without prescriptions
Well, hear, hear! A much delayed, but important health care reform has gotten off to a rocking start. Consumers with moderate hearing loss now can buy hearing aids with greater convenience and less cost — over the counter and without prescriptions. New devices, new makers, and new retailers have raced in to tap a big….
Continue ReadingCostly colonoscopies get skeptical scrutiny in big European study
Colorectal cancer remains the third most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in this country. It kills tens of thousands of Americans annually. Although detection of the illness is declining overall, and especially among older adults, specialists have expressed growing concern about its rising rates in younger patients. This has prompted experts to push for more….
Continue ReadingU.S. fixes ACA ‘family glitch’ as insurers start key open enrollment season
The Biden Administration has tackled the “family glitch” in Obamacare, issuing new eligibility rules that will open up more affordable health insurance for many more poor, working poor, and middle-class Americans who otherwise might struggle to pay for coverage, even as provided by their employers. This change in health care regulation is taking effect, even….
Continue ReadingA newly diagnosed apnea patient finds healthy sleep costly and treatment aids questionable
With millions of patients struggling with long delays in getting replacements for night-breathing devices recalled by their manufacturer over the machines’ potential health risks, a seasoned health journalist has reported an intriguing, personal counterpoint on the growing prevalence of the problem of sleep apnea and its routine, costly, inconvenient care. Jay Hancock, who has been….
Continue ReadingInsurers buck-raking big time off Medicare Advantage
The nation’s biggest health insurers are gaming a giant program to provide health coverage to seniors, exploiting the privatization of Medicare Advantage plans to rake in profits with schemes that have drawn fire from federal prosecutors. The sustained, costly campaign by insurers to maximize their profits not only leaves older, vulnerable patients at risk of….
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