Delaware lawmakers OK bill enabling board of political appointees to oversee hospital budgets

Delaware lawmakers OK bill enabling board of political appointees to oversee hospital budgets

DOVER, Del. — The state House on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill aimed at curtailing the increase in health care costs in Delaware by establishing a state board with authority to impose budgets on the state’s largest hospitals. The legislation passed the House on a 24-16 vote with two Democrats joining Republicans in … Read more

Black Americans are underrepresented in residential care communities, AP/CNHI News analysis finds

Black Americans are underrepresented in residential care communities, AP/CNHI News analysis finds

Norma Upshaw, 82, was living alone south of Nashville, when her doctor said she needed to start in-home dialysis. Her closest family lived 40 miles away, and they’d already scrambled once when the independent senior living facility she had called home — a community of largely Black residents — had closed with 30 days’ notice. … Read more

Adult day services provide stimulation for older Americans, and respite for full-time caregivers

Adult day services provide stimulation for older Americans, and respite for full-time caregivers

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — Sally White helps her husband of 46 years get dressed, fed and on the bus for the short ride from their home to Third Age Adult Day Center four mornings a week. Preparing 74-year-old Rodger White to leave the house for the day can be a chore since he’s been in declining … Read more

Can Medicare money protect doctors from abortion crimes? It worked before, desegregating hospitals

Can Medicare money protect doctors from abortion crimes? It worked before, desegregating hospitals

ATLANTA — The Supreme Court’s pending Idaho abortion ruling may hinge on how federal spending power might protect doctors against a state’s criminal code. For guidance, the justices can look to the very beginning of Medicare in the 1960s, when the promise of federal funding finally persuaded hospitals in the Jim Crow South to desegregate. … Read more

Women’s financial security worries and the 2024 presidential election

Women’s financial security worries and the 2024 presidential election

A voter casts her ballot in the Pennsylvania primary elections at the Rockledge Fire Company in Rockledge, Pennsylvania, May 17, 2022. Hannah Beier | Reuters Older women are the largest bloc of swing voters — and the biggest concern they have heading into the November election is their financial security, according to the AARP. Most … Read more

Social Security expected to run short on funds in 2035, government says

Social Security expected to run short on funds in 2035, government says

People leave a Social Security Administration building in Burbank, California.  Valerie Macon | Afp | Getty Images The trust funds the Social Security Administration relies on to pay benefits are now projected to run out in 2035, one year later than previously projected, according to the annual trustees’ report released on Monday. At the projected … Read more

Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers

Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers

Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment. Under the deal announced Friday, the insurer will make coverage of artificial insemination standard for all customers nationally and work to ensure that patients have equal access to more expensive in-vitro fertilization procedures, … Read more

Biden sees a $35 price cap for insulin as a pivotal campaign issue. It’s not that clear-cut

Biden sees a  price cap for insulin as a pivotal campaign issue. It’s not that clear-cut

WASHINGTON — Rarely a day goes without President Joe Biden mentioning insulin prices. He promotes a $35 price cap for the medication for Americans on Medicare — in White House speeches, campaign stops and even at non-health care events around the country. His reelection team has flooded swing-state airwaves with ads mentioning it, in English … Read more

Idaho group says it is exploring a ballot initiative for abortion rights and reproductive care

Delaware lawmakers OK bill enabling board of political appointees to oversee hospital budgets

BOISE, Idaho — A new Idaho organization says it will ask voters to restore abortion access and other reproductive health care rights in the state after lawmakers let a second legislative session end without modifying strict abortion bans that have been blamed for a recent exodus of health care providers. “We have not been able … Read more

Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders join forces to promote lower health care costs, including for inhalers

Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders join forces to promote lower health care costs, including for inhalers

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden teamed up with Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to promote his administration’s efforts to lower the cost of inhalers and other health care needs, as the White House continues its effort to highlight Biden’s legislative achievements to voters ahead of the November elections. “Bernie, you and I have been fighting … Read more