disabilities

Medicaid is the country’s largest public health insurance program, providing access to needed health care and long-term services and supports  (LTSS) to millions of low-income Americans, including more than 17 million children with disabilities, adults with disabilities, and poor seniors.

My almost 96-year-old mother is one of about half of older adults with disabilities serious enough to need long-term services and supports. She is nearly blind, has dementia and osteoporosis, and suffers from arthritis. Recently she’s begun to experience back pain too. She lived in her home of over 50 years until it was damaged during Hurricane Sandy. For the past four years she has been living in an assisted living facility in New Jersey, in the community she prefers. Here’s a little of what the experience of my mother — and my family — reveals about the cost of care for older adults with health and self-care needs.

Veterans Day began when an unknown World War I American soldier was laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery, at the 11 th hour of the 11 th day of the 11 th month in 1921. Similar ceremonies, at the identical hour, took place at Westminster Abbey in London and at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. All three nations were honoring veterans’ service, and celebrating the arrival of peace — a peace that was hoped to be permanent, with the end of the War to End All Wars.

The financial health of Social Security has improved slightly in the past year, with the system expected to exhaust its reserves to pay benefits in 2034, a year later than previously projected, according to the 2015 Social Security Trustees Report, released July 22. At that time, if Congress has taken no action, Social Security will have enough payroll taxes coming in to cover 79 percent of promised benefits for another 56 years, the report said.

On July 9, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), in his opening statement in the House Ways and Means Committee, said, “Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson has been working on solutions all year.”

Members of Congress announced Tuesday the formation of the Assisting Caregivers Today caucus, a bipartisan coalition that aims to bring more attention to the plight of family caregivers.

Tax-friendly 529 savings plans no longer will be just for college.

In this season of thanks and giving, Bill Deimling of Cincinnati considers himself one of the lucky ones. That's because he gets to give more than he receives.

It seems so easy. We pass a veteran in uniform in an airport or on the street and we nod and say, “Thank you for your service.”

In June 1969, Dennis Joyner was a 20-year-old soldier on patrol in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta when he encountered a land mine that ripped off his legs and an arm. He had only been in the war-torn country 32 days.