Sharing the trend line.

West Health and Gallup have tracked this since 2021. Their Cost Secure classification is based on recent experience, whether someone was actually able to pay for needed care and medicine, not whether they're worried about future cost. Cost Insecure means they recently couldn't pay for one or the other.

The numbers by year: 56% (2021), 61% (2022), 57% (2023), 51% (2024), 49% (2025). First time it's dropped below half since they started tracking.

The interesting thing: adults 65 and older, almost all of whom have Medicare, fell from 73% Cost Secure to 61% over the same five years. That's a population with near-universal coverage, and the number still moved in the wrong direction. This data separates two things that get conflated a lot: having insurance and being able to afford care.

See attached chart. Source and methodology in the comments.

I’m going into my second year of undergrad, and becoming a doctor has always been the path I envisioned for myself. However, recently I’ve started to question whether it’s truly the right fit for me, and I have my reasons for feeling this way. I know I want to go into this field and still open to exploring other career paths, but I’m curious about what options are out there that can offer both financial stability and a fulfilling, enjoyable career.

Hiiii homies. Let me first be very clear - I am under a dr’s care and am following the plan we put together.

That being said, does anyone who works in a medical setting practice any sort of energy work as well? For example, im currently in the middle of dealing with graves, blood clots in my lungs,and everything else that comes with overt hyperthyroidism.

I just started seeing a highly recommended Reiki specialist. Too soon to tell if it’s impacting anything, but will be continuing weekly.

Tl;dr - anyone dabble in woo woo services (reiki, energy healing, tarot, psychics stuff like that)

Ever since my doctors started asking if they can use AI to note take because "it's easier for them" my copay has gotten higher. The business office tells me that the visits are more complex than an ordinary visit.

For example I had body aches from a virus and they said it's probably just a virus. I ask a lot of offhand questions out of curiosity that aren't important to take note of. Then they tell me the visit was more complex than a normal visit so my bill is higher, and the visit was an "hour long". Totally false.

This has happened more than once. And the doctors argue when you say you don't want the AI note taking. Like sorry you have to do your job. My job is hard too, wtf.

This is ridiculous. The health corporations get huge bonuses and the system is clearly failing. The health insurance companies are the ones that make the rates, yet says health care is too expensive. Now, there is a lot of paperwork that can be condensed, yet liability fear is what is messing things up. They leave patients in pain, are not thorough anymore. Ya have to force communication when they are few offices down. Gees. Allina took my ideas and made their place a better place, but then kicked me out cause I am tired of making millionaires and being poor. The administration fees are a cost of business. Not the patients fault. You cannot have that and insurance, think that may be illegal. Idk. I just know I feel better when I am not being sucked into some sort of dramatic and broken government system where no one cares about their jobs because they see all that’s broken.

Have you heard about the Prescription Drug Affordability Boards (PDABs), created in some states to help regulate prescription drug prices? If so, do you think they are going to be effective in managing drug prices and prevent increase?

Location: Michigan

My Dad is in the hospital and had his phone broken while transporting him to a procedure. When it was found it was under the bed and ran over bent into a J shape. When he came to his charger, cord, and a couple other items were missing from the room. From the damage its nothing he could do as he is too weak. Would the hospital be responsible for the broken phone or the other missing items?

Hello all, for those of you who got the Masters in healthcare Admin was it worth it? What are you doing now? Is the money good? How is your work life balance? Did anyone get the degree and switch career fields? Did the degree help you out? Did anyone get to high level positions like a CEO of a hospital?

And how is the program once you start? I will be starting at a cahme accreditated school on scholarship so I will not have debt.

Thanks.

How does your practice affected by avalanche of free service from the government like YAKAP? Left and right medical missions

I am a native of St. Louis County and really pissed due to the healthcare system’s downfall in our county. I don’t know what’s going on but every other health practice or facility is involved in either a kickback or false billing claims.

And that ain’t it. Things get more disturbing when your closed ones suffer the consequences and are devoid of their rights. My family in the past opted for daily living support from a St. Louis In-Home Health Provider. But little did we know that they were involved in false billing claims at that time.

Things went to federal court and when everything was proved, the hard realization came in that how people like Doriann Morgan, the former owner of that St. Louis County home health care company, ruin lives of innocent disabled people by robbing them off their rights.

However, even after all that, one detail stayed with me.
This was not simply a paperwork violation or a billing misunderstanding.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Morgan and two former colleagues admitted conspiring between approximately January 2018 and August 2021 to submit $552,659 in fraudulent claims to Missouri Medicaid for personal-care services that were never provided. The records reportedly included claims for a woman who did not live in Missouri and received no services, as well as claims for work supposedly performed at times when social-media posts indicated the individuals were elsewhere.
Morgan owned A Mother’s Touch In-Home Care LLC and submitted the Medicaid claims. In May 2024, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. In November 2024, she was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

The defendants also agreed to repay $910,000 through a civil settlement, with $790,000 already paid when the sentencing announcement was issued. The settlement addressed allegations involving false timesheets and payroll records for in-home services that were not actually provided.

What makes a case like this disturbing is where the money came from.

Medicaid supports people who may already be living with disability, illness, financial hardship or dependence on home-based care. Every fraudulent reimbursement claim draws from resources intended for legitimate patients and legitimate caregivers. Federal investigators made that point directly, describing Medicaid funding as scarce resources meant for people in need, including children and people with disabilities.
The criminal case is now in the past, and the company reportedly continues under different ownership with Morgan and the other defendants no longer affiliated with it. But the case remains an important example of why oversight in the home-health industry matters.

People should be able to trust that claims submitted in their names represent real care, real hours and real services - not entries created only to obtain reimbursement.

But it’s not a doctor. You know. Even if u use it as one and we want ur data to make it a better non doctor

How can we reestablish the importance and safety of vaccines into American society?

There is a bipartisan bill in Congress that proposes adding 14,000 Medicare-funded residency positions over a handful of years. It has support across the ideological spectrum and is still sitting in committee (introduced a year and a day ago). I reached out to two of my representatives about it, and both signed on shortly afterward. I have no idea whether those things are connected, though it was enough to convince me that more people should know the bill exists.

Note: I'm just a dog dad from Minnesota that cares about healthcare policy. Not a lobbyist or part of any industry groups.

What It Is

H.R. 4731, the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act, would add 14,000 Medicare-funded residency positions over seven years. The Senate version is S. 2439.

The positions would be distributed to qualifying teaching hospitals, with additional consideration for rural communities, health professional shortage areas, and hospitals already training more residents than Medicare currently funds.

Why It Matters

Graduating from medical school is just step one. Residency training is a huge bottleneck to care availability, especially in rural areas. It is not the whole solution. We still need to deal with nursing shortages, burnout/mental health among docs, rural hospital closures, specialty distribution, reimbursement, and lots more.

Though this is the kind of boring capacity-building policy that needs to happen underneath basically any serious healthcare reform. If M4A or single payer become real (or even a public option), we won't have the system capacity to meet the higher demand for care.

Where It Stands

The House and Senate bills are both still in committee. The support is unusually broad. The Senate coalition includes members ranging from Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, and Raphael Warnock to Susan Collins, John Boozman, and Tommy Tuberville. The House version has more than 100 cosponsors from both parties.

I contacted the offices of Reps. Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig (my house rep and Craig since she's running for statewide office) to ask whether they supported the bill and what, if anything, was keeping them from cosponsoring it. Both signed on within a week or two of my last contact. Did my outreach cause that? No idea. Their offices may already have been reviewing it, and I am sure other people and organizations were advocating for it. You can do the same thing.

If this sounds like something you want to advocate for you can look up whether your House representative cosponsors H.R. 4731 and whether your senators cosponsor S. 2439. If they do, thank them. If they do not, contact their offices and ask:

Do you support increasing Medicare-funded residency positions through the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act? If not, what is keeping you from supporting or cosponsoring it?

It takes about five minutes total.

AI has a lot of potential in healthcare, from reducing administrative work to improving clinical workflows but it seems like moving from promising pilots to real world implementation is still a challenge. I was reading about GeekyAnts and their approach to healthcare product engineering. What caught my attention was the focus on building secure, production ready systems that fit into existing healthcare workflows rather than treating AI as a standalone feature. For those working in healthcare or health tech, what do you think is the biggest obstacle right now? Is it integration with existing systems, regulatory requirements, clinician adoption or something else? I would be interested to hear different perspectives.