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Capitol Hill health policy news: Fact-checking Pelosi on Medicare; Senior GOP health adviser to leave House; Redefining rural doctor access

We are reluctant to re-litigate the rhetoric of the 2012 presidential campaign, but this comment by Rep. Nancy Pelosi about the House GOP budget jumped out at us. We had frequently written during the campaign about the misleading claim by Mitt Romney that President Obama had gutted more than $700 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare.

11 Jan 2013

Viewpoints: 'Accepted wisdom' about cutting entitlements disputed; Profit motive doesn't lead to good health care

It has become accepted economic wisdom that the only way to get control over America's looming budget deficits is to "reform entitlements." The accepted wisdom is wrong. ... Medicare and Medicaid costs are projected to soar. But here again, look closely and you'll see neither is really the problem. The underlying problem is the soaring cost of health care overall, combined with the aging of the boomer generation.

9 Jan 2013

Bilingual older people reap neural rewards

Older bilingual people are faster than their monolingual peers in switching from one task to another, show researchers.

9 Jan 2013

Brown University receives Irene Diamond Fund gift to launch major initiative on healthy aging

Brown University's Program in Public Health has received a gift from the Irene Diamond Fund to launch a major initiative on healthy aging.

9 Jan 2013

Viewpoints: Fla. Gov. fears Medicaid expansion as Idaho, Missouri and Colorado wrestle with issue ; Few acceptable options for improving Medicare

Twenty-three states, most led by Republican officials, have declared that they will not set up their own health insurance exchanges to help individuals and small businesses find affordable coverage. ... Residents of states where political leaders seem bent on frustrating or sabotaging the health care reforms might well be better off with a federally run exchange.

8 Jan 2013

State roundup: Mo. lawmakers look to cap malpractice awards

A selection of health policy stories from California, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Texas, Illinois and North Carolina.

8 Jan 2013

New study finds that adults with diabetes in Ontario get fewer government-funded eye exams

A new study has found that adults with diabetes in Ontario are getting significantly fewer government-funded eye exams than they were a decade ago, a key component of high-quality diabetes care essential to preventing diabetes-related eye complications.

8 Jan 2013

Roundup: Texas begins new Women's Health Program; Federal spending uncertainty bedevils states; 'Medi-scare' mailings

Texas is funding the Women's Health Program on its own because the federal government pulled funding after the state blocked Planned Parenthood from participating. The Texas version still serves low-income women who would qualify for Medicaid if they became pregnant. It will cover about 110,000 women between 18 and 44 years old with free well-woman exams, basic health care and certain family planning services.

7 Jan 2013

Hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies face changing marketplace

A report by federal health care inspectors in November said the U.S. nursing home industry overbills Medicare $1.5 billion a year for treatments patients don't need or never receive.

3 Jan 2013

Third of high school seniors take marijuana

High levels of use of marijuana among US teens continue unabated, show the 2012 results of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s ‘Monitoring the Future’ survey.

22 Dec 2012

Viewpoints: Playing chicken on entitlements; 'Getting serious' about mental illness; Hospital labs devastated by Sandy

This is no time for a Grand Bargain, because the Republican Party, as now constituted, is just not an entity with which the president can make a serious deal. If we're going to get a grip on our nation's problems - of which the budget deficit is a minor part - the power of the G.O.P.'s extremists, and their willingness to hold the economy hostage if they don't get their way, needs to be broken. And somehow I don't think that's going to happen in the next few days (Paul Krugman, 12/20).

21 Dec 2012

As clock runs down, 'fiscal cliff' negotiations stall

Speaker John Boehner pledged to bring his alternative option to a House vote as early as today. Meanwhile, the issue of savings in the Medicare program continue to be examined.

21 Dec 2012

Teen smoking falls to record low, study finds

Cigarette smoking among U.S. teenagers dropped to a record low in 2012, a decline that may have been partly driven by an increase in the federal tobacco tax, researchers said.

21 Dec 2012

Mayo Clinic announces UnitedHealthcare as new member of HAIL consortium

Mayo Clinic announced UnitedHealthcare as the newest member of the Healthy Aging and Independent Living (HAIL) consortium.

21 Dec 2012

NIDA's 2012 Monitoring the Future survey shows rates stable or down for most drugs

Continued high use of marijuana by the nation's eighth, 10th and 12th graders combined with a drop in perceptions of its potential harms was revealed in this year's Monitoring the Future survey, an annual survey of eighth, 10th, and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan.

20 Dec 2012

Workers, employers, elderly and hospitals all worried about effects of fiscal cuts

As negotiations drag on to cut federal debt, many groups are concerned about how potential changes in spending will affect them.

19 Dec 2012

Medicare issues in play: IPAB, the doc-fix and the eligibility age

News outlets report on how specific Medicare-related proposals and provisions are holding up in the continuing negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff.

19 Dec 2012

Viewpoints: Krugman says cuts in social security better than Medicare option; Governors refusing to set up exchanges are not 'federalist hypocrites'

All at once, a "fiscal cliff" deal seems to be coming together. ... On the spending side, the Democrats' headline concession will be accepting chained-CPI, which is to say, accepting a cut to Social Security benefits. Beyond that, the negotiators will agree to targets for spending cuts.

19 Dec 2012

Viewpoints: Raising Medicare's entitlement age doesn't save money; New anti-fraud efforts

Looking for ways to slow the growth of entitlement programs, budget negotiators in Washington are considering making seniors wait two years longer to qualify for Medicare - from age 65 to 67. Many Republicans have endorsed the idea, noting that Medicare beneficiaries now live far longer on average than they did when Congress created the program in 1965.

18 Dec 2012

Boehner offers tax increases in exchange for $1 trillion in cuts to social benefit programs

The latest offer by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is seen as progress in the negotiations between Congress and the White House, but in return Boehner is asking for significant cuts in Medicare and other programs.

18 Dec 2012

Seniors News and Research

Capitol Hill health policy news: Fact-checking Pelosi on Medicare; Senior GOP health adviser to leave House; Redefining rural doctor access

Viewpoints: 'Accepted wisdom' about cutting entitlements disputed; Profit motive doesn't lead to good health care

Bilingual older people reap neural rewards

Brown University receives Irene Diamond Fund gift to launch major initiative on healthy aging

Viewpoints: Fla. Gov. fears Medicaid expansion as Idaho, Missouri and Colorado wrestle with issue ; Few acceptable options for improving Medicare

State roundup: Mo. lawmakers look to cap malpractice awards

New study finds that adults with diabetes in Ontario get fewer government-funded eye exams

Roundup: Texas begins new Women's Health Program; Federal spending uncertainty bedevils states; 'Medi-scare' mailings

Hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies face changing marketplace

Third of high school seniors take marijuana

Viewpoints: Playing chicken on entitlements; 'Getting serious' about mental illness; Hospital labs devastated by Sandy

As clock runs down, 'fiscal cliff' negotiations stall

Teen smoking falls to record low, study finds

Mayo Clinic announces UnitedHealthcare as new member of HAIL consortium

NIDA's 2012 Monitoring the Future survey shows rates stable or down for most drugs

Workers, employers, elderly and hospitals all worried about effects of fiscal cuts

Medicare issues in play: IPAB, the doc-fix and the eligibility age

Viewpoints: Krugman says cuts in social security better than Medicare option; Governors refusing to set up exchanges are not 'federalist hypocrites'

Viewpoints: Raising Medicare's entitlement age doesn't save money; New anti-fraud efforts

Boehner offers tax increases in exchange for $1 trillion in cuts to social benefit programs

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