Retirement Healthcare and Medicare
Retirement expert Bob Carlson’s research and knowledge on how to get the most out of healthcare options
Found 324 Articles.
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Better Dental Care Avoids Dementia?
The search for the cause of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia might have taken a big step forward. A new study found that people with Alzheimer’s have a bacteria related to gum disease in their brains, while those without Alzheimer’s don’t have the bacteria in their brains. Most people don’t realize it, but bad dental […]
Shrinking Supply of Medicare Doctors
More and more doctors are declining to accept Medicare patients. This has beena problem for a long time, as I’ve alerted Retirement Watch readers. But it’s becoming worse as Congress reduces the payments to doctors and imposes new rules and restrictions. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday (subscription might be required) that a fairly small […]
More Mysteries in Medicare Spending
Over the years a number of studies have shown puzzling disparities in Medicare spending and reimbursements. Some regions of the country spend much more per beneficiaries than others. Yet, within those regions there are vast differences among providers. That makes it difficult for policymakers to decide how to control spending or make the system most […]
How Medicare Distorts Doctors’ Pay
Medical billing is a mystery to most of us. The Washington Post does a good job of pulling away a small part of the curtain. This story shows that a small group of doctors put together by the American Medical Association essentially determine how much doctors will be paid for different procedures. And, according to […]
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The Crisis in Long-Term Care Insurance
We’ve been covering it in detail in Retirement Watch for a while. The issue finally hit the big time with a major piece in The Wall Street Journal. (Subscription might be required.) The article reviews all the issues known to my readers: premiums on older policies are rising; insurers are dropping out of the market […]
Taking Early Retirement with Obamacare
The medical coverage gap is the bane of most early retirees. They leave their jobs and lose their employer-provided medical coverage. They aren’t eligible for Medicare, because they haven’t reached age 65. Unlike Social Security, Medicare doesn’t give you the option of beginning early. You could pay for a continuation of the employer coverage under […]
Behind the Medicare Numbers
Each year the trustees of Social Security and Medicare issue a report. The main focus of the report is the financial condition of the “trust funds.” In recent years one of the public trustees, Charles Blahous, wrote his own summaries of the annual reports with an emphasis on the points he believes are important. Not […]
Exploding Myths About Long-Term Care
Americans are remarkably uninformed and misinformed about long-term health care and insurance to cover the expense. Only one question was answered correctly by a majority of respondents in a recent survey: 53% said they were not too familiar with long-term care insurance (LTCI) and another 26% said they were not at all familiar with it. […]
