Medicare&Aging 061021

Zooming Into the Statehouse: Nursing Home Residents Use New Digital Skills to Push for Changes
By Susan Jaffe Connecticut residents who learned how to communicate with family and friends through digital technology when their nursing homes closed to visitors last year used that skill to testify remotely during legislative hearings on bills affecting them.

Tips for Older Adults to Regain Their Game After Being Cooped Up for More Than a Year
By Judith Graham Experts offer advice on how seniors struggling with physical, emotional and cognitive challenges following a year of being cooped up can address issues such as muscle weakness, poor nutrition, disrupted sleep, anxiety and social isolation.

Expanding Insurance Coverage Is Top Priority for New Medicare-Medicaid Chief
By Julie Rovner Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the new head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said the administration will focus on getting more people insured and is interested in finding a way to alleviate the gap keeping low-income families in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid from enrolling in Affordable Care Act health plans.

Caring for an Aging Nation
By Lydia Zuraw and Carmen Heredia Rodriguez The number of Americans 65 and older is expected to nearly double in the next 40 years. Finding a way to provide and pay for the long-term health services they need won't be easy.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The Return of the Public Option
Lawmakers are working on fleshing out the concept of a “public option,” a government-run or heavily regulated insurance plan that would compete with private insurance. But the details are complicated, both substantively and politically. Meanwhile, bioethicists are debating whether the U.S. should be vaccinating low-risk adolescents against covid-19 while high-risk adults in other countries are still waiting. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Rachana Pradhan of KHN join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.

Is Your Living Room the Future of Hospital Care?
By Julie Appleby In the latest sign that in-home acute care is catching on, two big players — Kaiser Permanente and the Mayo Clinic — announced plans to collectively invest $100 million into the company Medically Home to help scale up their programs.

KHN Journalists Comment on Abortion Case, Wasted Covid Doses
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.

As Pandemic Eases, Many Seniors Have Lost Strength, May Need Rehabilitative Services
By Judith Graham A little-discussed, long-term toll of the pandemic is that large numbers of older adults have become physically and cognitively debilitated and less able to care for themselves after sheltering in place.