Medicare Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Tacoma ‘craftivist’ featured in documentary on ‘health care for all’ movement

By Lauren Gallup May 18, 2023

Grassroots craftivist Laura Fielding, who started Red Berets for Medicare for All, knits a beret at Tacoma's Wright Park. Photo by Lauren Gallup.

A new documentary, Healing US, premieres in Tacoma at the Grand Cinema on May 19. The documentary tells the story of the national movement for Medicare for All, where folks are advocating for an universal healthcare system. One of the key players in that story is Laura Fielding, founder of the Red Berets for Medicare for All coalition in Tacoma. Read More

Kaiser Permanente customers discover new requirement to fill prescriptions via mail-order

By Rachel Sun February 14, 2023

Local customers say they didn’t receive notice of the change before enrollingRead More

Lack Of Affordable Healthcare And Access Leaves Palouse and LC Valley Residents Behind

By NWPB News November 4, 2021

A needs assessment by the Innovia foundation and Lewis Clark Valley Healthcare Foundation found that among the many health care barriers residents face, one of the biggest is affordability.Read More

Another Problem On The Health Horizon: Medicare Is Running Out Of Money

By NPR News July 21, 2020

Everyone involved even tangentially in health care today is consumed by the coronavirus pandemic, as they should be. But the pandemic is accelerating a problem that used to be front and center in health circles: the impending insolvency of Medicare.Read More

Could This Coronavirus Pandemic Reshape America’s Social Safety Net?

By PBS Newshour April 4, 2020

Economists say helping the health care sector, including through emergency financing to states and cities, is one of the steps urgently needed to weather the coronavirus crisis. CREDIT: Michael Conroy/AP

Americans across the political spectrum have been forced to rethink the government’s role in protecting workers and supervising the economy, as more people confront a public health crisis that has exposed major gaps in the social safety net.Read More

Several ‘Best’ U.S. Hospitals Penalized Over Too-High Rates Of Infection, Injury

By NPR News January 31, 2020

$Under the law, Medicare is mandated each year to punish the 25% of general care hospitals that have the highest rates of patient safety issues. The assessment is based on rates of infections, blood clots, sepsis cases, bedsores, hip fractures and other complications that occur in hospitals and might have been prevented. Morsa Images/Getty Images$

Medicare is cutting payments to 786 hospitals with the highest infection and complication rates. The list includes a third of the hospitals proclaimed as the nation's "best" in one prominent ranking.Read More

Here’s How Elizabeth Warren’s Campaign Finds $20.5 Trillion To Pay For ‘Medicare For All’

By NPR News November 2, 2019

Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks to reporters in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, after releasing her plan to pay for single-payer health care. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Sen. Elizabeth Warren released her plan to pay for single-payer health care without imposing new taxes on the middle class. She's looking to employers and billionaires, in addition to other sources.Read More

Bernie Sanders Defends High Cost Of His ‘Medicaid For All’ Plan

By PBS Newshour October 21, 2019

Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign event in West Liberty, Iowa, U.S. September 24, 2019. CREDIT: Joshua Lott/Reuters

In an interview with PBS NewsHour’s anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff, Sanders criticized the current U.S. health care system as “dysfunctional” and said his plan would be less expensive than “if we do nothing.”Read More

Whistleblower Alleges Fraud At A Large Medicare Advantage Plan In Seattle

By NPR News October 18, 2019

As the Trump administration calls for expanding access to Medicare Advantage, a federal whistleblower lawsuit accuses a large Medicare Advantage plan of bilking Medicare out of $8 million.Read More

Journalists File Lawsuit To Force Feds To Release Medicare Advantage Audits

By NPR News September 27, 2019

Medicare Advantage health plans, mostly run by private insurance companies, have enrolled more than 22 million seniors and people with disabilities — more than 1 in 3 people who are on some sort of Medicare plan. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

A lawsuit filed by Kaiser Health News under the Freedom of Information Act could spur the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to release audits that document up to $650 million in overcharges.Read More

Families Scramble, Industry Sounds Alarms As Washington Nursing Home Closures Rise

By Austin Jenkins June 24, 2019

Keith Akada has called more than 30 nursing homes and adult family homes looking for a place to care for his mother Mieko whose nursing home is closing. CREDIT: AUSTIN JENKINS/N3

Since February 2017, 16 Washington nursing homes — from Seattle to Ritzville — have closed, announced they will close, or converted to assisted living. Each time a nursing home closes, it forces vulnerable residents to endure disruptive — and potentially dangerous — moves. Read More

Rural Health: Financial Insecurity Plagues Many Who Live With Disability

By NPR News June 12, 2019

Having good access to transportation — or not — has a huge impact on the health of people living in rural parts of the country. Without that transportation — or ready access to other basics like healthy food or good housing — people can get into a vicious cycle. That cycle of poor health and poverty hits people with disabilities particularly hard. Read More