Medicare Advantage Is Costing Traditional Medicare Patients Even More Money
t’s more than a little ironic that the for-profit Medicare Advantage program – which was supposed to save everyone money – is actually going to increase costs for people in traditional medicare. Congressional investigators blame this year’s spike in Medicare Part premiums on Medicare Advantage overbilling the government by billions of dollars. Fresh reporting from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) details how those overpayments translated into an estimated $13.4 billion in extra Part B premiums in 2025 alone. In other words, every person with Part B — including those who do not enroll in Medicare Advantage — is effectively subsidizing excess payments to private insurers. This revelation is only the latest in a series of Medicare Advantage scandals.
‘Re-Arranging Deck Chairs at Social Security’: Bisignano’s Fake Fix for Staffing Crisis
There’s been an uncanny amount of re-shuffling of workers and resources at the Social Security Administration lately – in a feeble attempt to paper over Trump’s reckless cuts in staffing. The latest example of this game of whack-a-mole unfolded last week. Commissioner Frank Bisignano announced a shiny, new plan to "centralize" medical reviews for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits — which could impact nearly 9 million Americans. (Disabled workers can lose their benefits if they do not pass these periodic reviews.)
Trump Admin. to Blame for Social Security Data Abuse (Not Just Rogue DOGE Bro’s)
New reporting in the Washington Post indicates that a former DOGE software engineer allegedly copied Americans’ personal information from two Social Security databases onto a thumb drive, with the intention of uploading the data onto the servers of a company where he had recently obtained employment. These two databases include the records of approximately 500 million living and dead beneficiaries, risking exposure of Social Security numbers, birthplaces, dates, citizenship, race, ethnicity, and parents' names.
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New Senior Poverty Data Disproves ‘Greedy Geezer’ Myth
Conservative think tanks have been pushing a false narrative that older Americans who collect Social Security are somehow ‘ripping off’ younger adults. This propaganda ignores the facts — pitting hardworking Americans (of all ages) against one another. While right-leaning analysts push the argument that younger workers shouldn’t have to pay into Social Security while wealthy ‘greedy geezers’ collect benefits, the data tells a different story. New statistics show that poverty among seniors is on the rise, reaching 15% in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM).
News from the Frontlines of the Fight Against Alzheimer’s
In this week’s episode of our You Earned This podcast, Dr. Heather Snyder of the Alzheimer’s Association tells us about some common misconceptions about Alzheimer’s disease while also sharing exciting developments in research, treatment, and prevention. These advances should be welcome news to America’s Seniors, demonstrating important steps forward in the ongoing fight against Alzheimer’s.
Open Enrollment Season Begins at a Fraught Time for Medicare
This year's Medicare open enrollment season, which began on October 15, comes at a concerning time for the program.
Trump’s ‘Reaper’ is Coming for Your Disability Benefits
Trump & OMB Director Russell Vought (aka "The Reaper") The Trump administration is escalating its attacks on Social
Let the Drug Pricing Games Begin!
nder pressure from the White House, Big Pharma has been touting “discounts” via Direct to Consumer (DTC) websites. Meanwhile, the Trump administration promises to unveil its own prescription website, immodestly named TrumpRx, in 2026. Prescription drug prices obviously are still too high, though President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 was beginning to make headway in bringing them down. Unlike Biden’s IRA, these latest gestures by Big Pharma and the Trump Administration should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Trump Shutdown Could Snag Social Security, Medicare
In normal times, a government shutdown --- while unfortunate --- would not be cause for immediate alarm for people on Social Security and Medicare. But these are not normal times. The Trump administration has made the shutdown more perilous for the most vulnerable Americans because of its campaign to undermine the delivery of both programs --- not to mention the President’s recent threat to cut benefits.