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Nearly all adults who die in La Crosse, Wisconsin, have filled out "advance directives" - explicit instructions on what treatments they do and don't want at the end of life. The medical ethicist who started the program says "We believe it's part of good patient care."
Dr. Gene Cohen, a geriatric psychiatrist who believed that old age can be a time of creativity, died this week.
We'll never keep everyone at home. But if we work at it, we can postpone the transition for months or even years.
The Senate Finance Committee calls for cuts in private Medicare plans to help pay for health reform. Some senators on the panel, worried about the 10.5 million seniors in the plans
Donna Taylor's father planned ahead - he had insurance and savings to pay for health coverage when he retired. But when he got sick and couldn't walk, he found he did not have enough coverage to pay for care for himself and his disabled wife.
We are not ready for healthy retirement, and we are desperately unprepared for the costly medical and long-term care we are likely to need in old age.
In not too many years, long-term care nursing home beds may be as rare as Republicans in Massachusetts.
The differing interests and preferences of seniors and near-seniors reflect the perils of incremental reform in reaching universal coverage.
The real challenge for long-term care reform remains indifference, rather than outright opposition.
A look at Republican efforts to drastically change Medicare in the 1990's shows that the Democratic health reforms plans aren't the real threat to the program.
In truth, seniors are likely to big winners if responsible health reform passes and prime victims if it fails.
We live in a time when seemingly no subject is taboo. Yet, there remains one subject Americans seem unable to talk about in an honest and rational way: the inevitable decline of old age.
Section 1233 of the health overhaul bill approved by three House committees has been the subject of great debate. We present the language as written in the bill itself.
Physicians, while disputing the charges of plans for euthanasia, say the debate on what is in the House health bill on end-of-life care could help focus attention on an underfunded service.
While states and the federal government struggle to update Medicaid though a maze of waiver programs and patches to an increasingly outdated law, their efforts are a little like trying to add disc breaks and electronic ignition to a 1965 Plymouth. It is, in the end, still a 1965 Plymouth.
There are two separate problems that led to the shortage of health care workers to treat the elderly and disabled.
The federal Nursing Home Compare Web site has drawn millions of visitors since it posted movie-review-style ratings of nursing homes last year. Both the industry and consumer advocates are seeking changes, including the way homes' staffing levels are assessed.
To encourage people to buy long-term care insurance, more states are starting programs that allow people to keep some assets if they exhaust insurance benefits and need to go on Medicaid. Without such an arrangement, they would have to "spend down" assets to qualify for Medicaid. But, experts warn, the policies need strong inflation protections.
Alzheimer's is thought of as a disease of the elderly, but hundreds of thousands of cases are in men and women under 65. Because the disease makes it difficult to work, these people often lose their jobs - and their health insurance.
Medicaid is front and center in the debate on overhauling the U.S health system and expanding coverage to the uninsured. With 60 million enrollees, Medicaid dwarfs other insurance programs, including its cousin, Medicare, which covers 44 million elderly and disabled people. Here's a chance to test your knowledge of Medicaid.
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