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Spending on government medical programs, especially Medicare, has been slowing for several years. It still is growing, but at a slower rate than in the past. But in the last year spending per beneficiary actually decreased. This provokes a lot of discussion about the causes. This piece argues that most of the growth reductions are […]
While Medicare still has long-term funding problems because of the coming baby boom eligibility, there is some good news. The cost the program spends per beneficiary actually has been declining. This article has the details. The article is short on explanations, and it is difficult to generate them with confidence. But mostly people are using […]
The Medicare Advantage alternative to traditional Medicare is increasing in popularity among beneficiaries but it isn’t popular among many Washington politicians. They’ve been trying to strangle the system for several years. They claim it costs too much. But that might not be the case. Take a look at this piece by someone who used to […]
The annual report of the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare is out. The report really is from the actuaries. It presents the financial condition of the “trust funds” based on current assumptions. The headline from the report almost always is the changes in the dates when the funds are estimated to be exhausted. In […]
Traditional Medicare still rules the roost, and the current administration wants to keep it that way. But more and more beneficiaries prefer the Medicare Advantage alternative. When they have a choice older Americans prefer these more structured plans, often with greater benefits, than the more chaotic traditional Medicare. Read more here. Today, 30 percent of […]
A few months back I reported on a survey that found many Medicare beneficiaries are paying about double the premiums they should be for their coverage under Part D Prescription Drug plans. Here’s a report on a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation seeking to find reasons why people don’t switch Part D plans […]
The recent release of Medicare data continues to reveal valuable new information. The latest is that Medicare pays $5 billion annually for ambulance services, more than is paid to cancer doctors. More importantly, a portion of these ambulance payments go to what are essentially taxi services that are transporting patients who can drive themselves or […]
Recently the Center for Medicare and Medicaid released a bunch of data that various people have been pouring through. Here’s an interesting post pointing out how much Medicare paid for chiropractic treatments and asserting all this is wasted money. I’ve never had a chiropractic treatment, but I know people who have. They say it works, […]
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