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Medicare weighs paying for end-of-life counseling
Medicare said Friday it will consider paying doctors to counsel patients about their options for end-of-life care, the same idea that spurred accusations of “death panels” and fanned a political furor around President Barack Obama’s healthcare law five years ago.The announcement came in…
Justices may still hear Obamacare subsidy case
Healthcare stakeholders and the public likely will have to wait at least another week—if not longer—to find out whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear King v. Burwell, a case with the potential to severely disrupt implementation of the Patient Protection and…
SOCIAL SECURITY: Serving Veterans on Veterans Day And Always
Every day — but particularly on Veterans Day — Social Security salutes those who have put their lives on the line for our freedom. Members of the United States armed forces receive expedited processing of their Social Security disability applications. The…
Republican lawmakers, be careful what you wish for
Some Republican governors and U.S. senators are going to have a major Obamacare dilemma on their hands if they wake up Wednesday morning and find that their party controls Congress. Congressional Republicans repeatedly have vowed to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care…
We Have Become Bad Voters. How We Can Change.
By regularly promising the impossible, political candidates give the dangerous impression that salvation is only one bill, one policy solution away. It breeds impatience, impetuosity and ecstatic hopes in citizens. And it can make us bad voters. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton…
Forum explores the many facets of disability studies, research
Scholars from around the Northwest and the nation gathered at the UO recently to explore the growing field of disability studies, part of an effort that could ultimately help establish a formal program at the university. “I am proud to…
Special education in Stark: Parents, district officials find themselves at odds
Teresa Kaminski was convinced her son was autistic. Her school district was not. After more than six years of watching Jared struggle socially and academically and begging administrators to hold him back a grade, Kaminski took him to a local…
Filmmaker makes his life, and disability, his subject
Jason DaSilva has discovered something about making documentaries: They don’t really end. “The film doesn’t stop,” DaSilva said this week over the phone from his home in New York. “Every time I think it’s going to quiet down, it picks up…
IRS raises retirement plan contribution limits
A little inflation means a little adjustment. As the Consumer Price Index is up 1.7 percent over the last 12 months, the federal government is giving Social Security benefits a 1.7 percent boost for 2015 and lifting annual contribution limits…
60,000 Veterans Get Triple Benefits Totaling $3.5 Billion Says GAO
Until the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, military veterans were not allowed to receive both military retirement pay and Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) disability benefits. Under a Civil War-era statute, the Pentagon docked retirement pay dollar-for-dollar up to the amount of…