Medicare

• KFF Health News: Biden Administration Bars Medical Debt From Credit Scores

  January 08, 2025: The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday issued new regulations barring medical debts from American credit reports, enacting a major new consumer protection just days before President Joe Biden is set to leave office. The rules ...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Lack of Affordability Tops Older Americans’ List of Health Care Worries

  July 11, 2024: What weighs most heavily on older adults’ minds when it comes to health care? The cost of services and therapies, and their ability to pay. “It’s on our minds a whole lot because of our age and because everything keeps getting more expens...Read more >

• KFF Health News: The Burden of Getting Medical Care Can Exhaust Older Patients

  March 27, 2024: Susanne Gilliam, 67, was walking down her driveway to get the mail in January when she slipped and fell on a patch of black ice. Pain shot through her left knee and ankle. After summoning her husband on her phone, with difficulty she made it back ...Read more >

• New Retiree Voting Record Released

  March 11, 2024: Washington, DC – The Alliance for Retired Americans released its 2023 Congressional Voting Record, which scored each U.S. Senator and Representative on critical retirement security issues, today. “Almost every member of Congress claims to care...Read more >

• House Budget Committee Advances “Fiscal Commission” Legislation

  January 19, 2024: On Thursday, the House Budget Committee approved three pieces of legislation that pave the way for cuts to Social Security and Medicare: the Fiscal Commission Act (H.R. 5779), the Fiscal State of the Nation Act (H.R. 6952), and the Debt-to-GDP Transp...Read more >

• Apple, Bose and Others Pump Up the Volume on Hearing Aid Options, Filling Void Left by FDA

  August 31, 2021: Spurred by decades of complaints about the high cost of hearing aids, Congress passed a law in 2017 to allow over-the-counter sales, with hopes it would boost competition and lower prices. Four years later, federal regulators have yet to issue...Read more >

• Medicare’s 56th Birthday

  July 20, 2021: Friday, July 30th. The national government’s broad involvement in individual health insurance goes back to this date 56 years ago. That’s when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments, which established Medicare and Medicai...Read more >

• 2021 FLARA Annual Executive Board Meeting and Awards Ceremony

  May 17, 2021: The registration links for the event are below. Zoom login information will be provided upon registration. We kindly ask that you encourage your friends and family to register for the event, instead of forwarding your confirmation information. Reg...Read more >

• KHN: Under New Cost-Cutting Medicare Rule, Same Surgery, Same Place, Different Bill

  March 29, 2021: A cost-saving change in Medicare launched in the final days of the Trump administration will cut payments to hospitals for some surgical procedures while potentially raising costs and confusion for patients. For years, the Centers for Medicare...Read more >

• KHN: Seniors Face Crushing Drug Costs as Congress Stalls on Capping Medicare Out-Of-Pockets

  January 07, 2021: Sharon Clark is able to get her life-sustaining cancer drug, Pomalyst — priced at more than $18,000 for a 28-day supply — only because of the generosity of patient assistance foundations. Clark, 57, a former insurance agent who lives in Bixby,...Read more >