Happy Birthday Medicare!
This week marks the 48th anniversary of LBJ signing the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, creating Medicare and Medicaid. By current counts, there are 48 million Amer…
Why We Shouldn’t Raise the Medicare Eligibility Age
A reoccurring idea among some politicians of late in the fiscal cliff negotiations is to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. The argument, at first glance, seems simple…
Attacks on ACA pits Medicare vs. Medicaid, Seniors against the Poor
In the spirit of political theater and at the expense of the truth, opponents of the Affordable Care Act are speaking to senior citizens about Medicare. They are claiming that the AC…
Happy Birthday Medicare!
Monday, July 30th, marked the 47th anniversary of Medicare. This indispensible program has allowed for medical care for seniors and currently serves 48 million Americans (3.4 M…
Oh, Danny Boy
For the next two weeks, maybe all non-Olympic related news should be on hiatus. After what has already been a summer saturated with a contentious election season of which healt…
Less Access at Greater Cost
I always try to be sympathetic when my physician colleagues ask for fair financial reimbursement for their services. After all, our days are long, stressful, and the job entail…
Medicare, Our Deficit and Honesty
The above graph comes from a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, and nicely encapsulates an economic nightmare for the United States. If politicians fr…
The Promise of Medicare
In my last post for DFA, I talked about Dignity, and the humanitarian goals of Medicare that Lyndon B. Johnson spoke about explicitly at the signing of Medicare into law. Since…
Why Dr. Berwick Must Be Confirmed
It is critical that Dr. Donald Berwick be confirmed as the permanent head of CMS. The country cannot afford to lose the singular financial expertise and health care proce…
Dignity
We make many arguments for health care reform in general, and for universal access to health care reform in particular. We make arguments for social justice, for economic benefits, a…
