Aging

A House of Representatives panel has scheduled a hearing for next week on how the Social Security Administration has been clawing back payments it mistakenly made to beneficiaries. The announcement signals that members of Congress are focusing on the trauma many poor, retired, and disabled people have experienced from the government trying to reclaim safety-net […]

Ron Irby expected the artificial knee implanted in his right leg in September 2018 would last two decades — perhaps longer. Yet in just three years, the Optetrak implant manufactured by Exactech in Gainesville, Florida, had worn out and had to be replaced — a painful and debilitating operation. “The surgery was a huge debt […]

Judith Sullivan was recovering from major surgery at a Connecticut nursing home in March when she got surprising news from her Medicare Advantage plan: It would no longer pay for her care because she was well enough to go home. At the time, she could not walk more than a few feet, even with assistance […]

The federal agency that oversees Social Security announced Wednesday that it will review the way it handles “overpayments” — money it sends beneficiaries that it later determines they weren’t entitled to receive. The Social Security Administration made the announcement weeks after KFF Health News and Cox Media Group reported that the agency has been trying […]

Several members of Congress are calling on the Social Security Administration to answer for issuing billions of dollars of payments it says beneficiaries weren’t entitled to receive — and then demanding the money back. Many of the recipients are elderly, poor, or disabled and have already spent the money. They have little or no way […]

Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. A registered nurse who works in New Jersey’s Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District reacted on X, formerly known as Twitter, to KFF Health News’ investigative collaboration with Cox Media Group on the […]

Recuerdo vívidamente ese viernes por la tarde cuando mi presión ocular se disparó y tuve que ir tambaleando hasta el consultorio de mi oftalmólogo. Mi visión se volvía cada vez más borrosa y veía nublados los autos y los semáforos. El consultorio ya había cerrado, pero todo el equipo estaba allí esperándome. Uno de ellos […]

I vividly remember that late Friday afternoon when my eye pressure spiked and I staggered on foot to my ophthalmologist’s office as the rapidly thickening fog in my field of vision shrouded passing cars and traffic lights. The office was already closed, but the whole eye care team was there waiting for me. One of […]

Justina Worrell, 47, works part time as a kitchen helper in an Ohio nursing home. She has cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability, and a cardiac condition that required she get an artificial heart valve at age 20. A year ago, she was earning $862 a month and receiving about $1,065 in monthly Social Security disability […]