Health Insurance and Medicare News

Meanwhile, about 27.5 million people (8.5% of the population) lacked health insurance for all of 2018, up from 7.9% in 2017, which was the first increase since the Affordable Care Act took full effect in 2014.

An exemption that allows immigrants to remain in the United States and avoid deportation while they or family members receive life-saving care has been scrapped by the Trump administration.

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, claimed the No. 1 spot in the annual honor roll of best hospitals published today by U.S. News & World Report.

There's a severe organ shortage, which could impede the push for more transplants. In order to tackle that problem, the administration wants to ease financial challenges for living donors.

The median charge of an air ambulance trip was $39,000 in 2016, about 60% more than the $24,000 charged just four years earlier, researchers found.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order he said would make it easier for consumers to get prices for hospital services.

A Senate panel is scheduled to vote next week on legislation to close the loophole that allows such charges.

Compared with those 65 and older, adults aged 18 to 64 were more likely to say they had difficulty paying medical bills, worried about paying bills and delayed or went without care.

The scheme sold unneeded back, shoulder, wrist and knee braces to hundreds of thousands of seniors, using overseas calls centers to get Medicare numbers from beneficiaries, the Associated Press reported.

If the 2% reduction in the suicide rate had been steady in all the years of the study, about 8,000 fewer suicides would have occurred, the researchers estimated.

In 2017, the United States spent more than $10,700 per person on health care, according to federal data, CNN reported.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act could leave 20 million people uninsured, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank.

Uninsured patients were also more than twice as likely to be transferred to another hospital and 66% more likely to be discharged outright, compared with people with private insurance, the findings showed.

The Justice Department asks a federal appeals court to strike down the Affordable Care Act, then, hours later, House Democrats unveil proposals to bolster the law.

Nearly 1 in 5 of those prescribed drugs asked their doctors for less expensive options. The rate was highest -- 40 percent -- among people without insurance, CNN reported.

The Food and Drug Administration has let medical device companies file reports of injuries and malfunctions outside a widely scrutinized public database, leaving doctors and medical sleuths in the dark.

Physicians remain at increased risk for burnout relative to workers in other fields, but for the first time, researchers saw improvement burnout symptoms in physicians nationally.

The Michigan Democrat chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee and his impact on health care was immense.

Adults with a primary care doctor were more likely to receive colonoscopy or mammography. They also received more diagnostic and preventive tests, such as flu vaccination and blood pressure checks.

The suggested policy is unlikely to do harm, said one study author, but it is also unlikely to help much to control pharmaceutical prices.

Patients and doctors got a chance to share their nightmarish experiences with medical bills with President Donald Trump and other top White House officials.

The cost of a two-pack EpiPen injector has increased from around $100 in 2007 to between $300 and $600 today. The list price for Lantus brand insulin increased by 49 percent in 2014, even though the product has been on the market for more than a decade.

The problem, said one expert, is that by nature, ads tell consumers that the product is "good." Prescription drug ads mention side effects -- in a quick voiceover in a TV commercial, for instance -- but they do not quantify the benefits versus risks.

Medicare and Medicaid are fine, but the food safety component of the Food and Drug Administration and bio-threat surveillance done by the Department of Homeland Security are among the public health functions feeling the pinch.

One out of 5 people aged 50 to 64 decided to stay in their current job rather than change jobs or retire, just to keep their employer-provided health insurance.