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☆ Fetterman 'has no work restrictions,' but auditory processing issues continue, doctor says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Rebecca-Shabad-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Rebecca Shabad | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Fetterman, who is Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, saw his doctor, Clifford Chen, on Friday. The doctor also said Fetterman's "speech was normal and he continues to exhibit symptoms of an auditory processing disorder which can come across as hearing difficulty. Governor Fetterman is well and shows strong commitment to maintaining good fitness and health practices. He has no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office," Chen wrote. The Democratic lieutenant governor recently spoke with NBC News about the race and his recovery.

☆ Thanks to a new rule, you can now save thousands buying over-the-counter hearing aids at stores like Walmart, Best Buy, or CVS
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The FDA estimates that the OTC hearing aids can lower the average cost of a pair of hearing aids by $3,000. Not all private healthcare plans pay for exams for hearing aids, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and Medicare doesn't cover hearing aids or hearing-aid fittings. Creed said it's important that people know OTC hearing aids are not replacing prescription hearing aids, and they don't minimize the importance of working with an audiologist or medical professional to get hearing aids. WalmartBest Buy will have around 20 different kinds of hearing aids online this week, and will sell hearing aids in around 300 stores by the end of October. If the company were to eventually sell AirPods as hearing aids, they would likely be less expensive than a pair of traditional hearing aids and break stigmas around wearing hearing aids, Dr. Nicholas Reed, an audiologist at Johns Hopkins told the WSJ last year.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterShortly after arriving, Biden promoted the Democratic agenda at a gathering of party volunteers making campaign phone calls. While some Democratic candidates around the country have distanced themselves from Biden, seeing him as a political liability, Kotek is hoping for both a political and fundraising boost. Biden arrived in Oregon's largest city of Portland after starting his West Coast trip in California. Len Bergstein, a Portland-based public affairs consultant and political analyst, said that unlike in other states Biden could offer the Democrat a needed jolt in Oregon. "The Democratic governor's candidate has got to pull in the kind of voter that normally votes for Joe Biden in a race like this, and energizes that turnout," Bergstein said.

The trip includes stops in California on Friday and Oregon on Saturday as Biden positions his party as a champion of consumers and lower healthcare costs at a time that inflation ranks among voters' top concerns. Most forecasts show Democrats with a slight advantage in the Senate and Republicans with a larger advantage in the House. Biden alleged that Republicans will repeal the prescription drug price caps and take away Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices if they take control. Biden was introduced by Representative Katie Porter, who has grilled bank and drug company executives on their profits in widely viewed Congressional hearings. Healthcare costs were partly to blame in the most recent month, along with food and rent.

Biden will stump for Kotek just as recent public opinion polls suggest Drazan has pulled into the lead. While some Democratic candidates around the country have distanced themselves from Biden, seeing him as a political liability, Kotek is hoping for both a political and fundraising boost. Biden is due to arrive on Friday in Oregon's largest city of Portland after starting his West Coast trip in California. Len Bergstein, a Portland-based public affairs consultant and political analyst, said that unlike in other states Biden could offer the Democrat a needed jolt in Oregon. "The Democratic governor's candidate has got to pull in the kind of voter that normally votes for Joe Biden in a race like this, and energizes that turnout," Bergstein said.

☆ Biden to sign order seeking new prescription drug cost savings - official
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Trevor Hunnicutt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden will sign an executive order on Friday pushing federal officials to drive prescription drug costs down during a pre-election trip designed to promote Democrats' health policies, an official said. Healthcare costs were partly to blame in the most recent month, along with food and rent. "Health care costs in particular are driving inflation." In August, Biden signed a $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act, authorizing the federal government to negotiate prices on some prescription drugs and cap costs for the government's Medicare health program. read moreSome 65 million Americans are enrolled in Medicare programs, which have repeatedly come under fire for its cost to taxpayers.

☆ Biden heads to Oregon as Democratic hold on governorship threatened
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Oregon race pits Democrat Tina Kotek against Republican Christine Drazan and a strong independent candidate, Betsy Johnson, a former Democrat who is financially backed by Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Biden will stump for Kotek just as recent public opinion polls suggest Drazan has pulled into the lead. While some Democratic candidates around the country have distanced themselves from Biden, seeing him as a political liability, Kotek is hoping for both a political and fundraising boost. Len Bergstein, a Portland-based public affairs consultant and political analyst, said that unlike in other states Biden could offer the Democrat a needed jolt in Oregon. "The Democratic governor's candidate has got to pull in the kind of voter that normally votes for Joe Biden in a race like this, and energizes that turnout," Bergstein said.

☆ Americans have largely avoided health care inflation so far – but that’s about to change
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Tami Luhby | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

About 155 million Americans have work-based health insurance, the largest source of coverage by far, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Delayed impact of inflation on health careWhile the cost of gas, food and other essentials can change quickly based on inflation and market conditions, health care operates differently. In fact, health care costs are bucking their own typical trend. Workers are projected to shell out an average of 2.6% more for health care this year, compared to 2021, Aon calculated. Increases expected to continueNext year will only be the start of an extended period of increased health care costs, experts said.

☆ U.S. retirees see biggest Social Security hike in more than 40 years
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Retirees and other beneficiaries will get an 8.7% cost-of-living (COLA) adjustment starting in January, the U.S. Social Security Administration, which administers the benefit program, said in a statement. The average recipient will see $140 more per month in their 2023 benefit checks, it added, benefiting about 70 million people receiving Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) aid. The programs benefit older Americans who have retired from their jobs as well as the disabled and certain widows, widowers and children. The consumer price data, used to set the Social Security adjustments, showed rising rent, food and health care costs pressuring consumers. Mary Johnson, an analyst at the seniors advocacy group Senior Citizens League, said adequate cost-of-living increases were necessary "as older Americans live longer lives."

☆ Biden made a major dent in the student debt crisis — and it's time he does the same for the growing medical debt load in the US, attorneys and advocates say
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Jason Lalljee | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

America's medical debt problem has parallels to the student debt crisis, experts told Insider. But experts on medical debt say that student loans are just one piece of a household debt crisis, which debilitates millions of Americans. Haynes also noted that younger adults are more likely to hold student debt, medical debt, or both. Lawsuits for medical debt are more common than those for student debt, but both transpire. Haynes pointed out that much of medical debt is paid using credit cards, which means it doesn't register as medical debt — it's anonymized as credit card debt.

Railroads and workers' unions reached a tentative labor agreement early Thursday to avert a national rail strike that threatened to shut a major segment of the U.S. transportation network. "The tentative agreement reached tonight is an important win for our economy and the American people," President Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the deal. The White House had been in talks with railroad workers' unions and companies for several months, but negotiations were hung up over unpaid sick time. He thanked railroad unions and companies for negotiating "in good faith." Negotiators from railroad carriers and unions had met in Labor Secretary Marty Walsh's office Wednesday as the sides tried to negotiate a deal ahead of Friday's strike deadline.

☆ Premarket trading: It's getting late in the game. Will the Fed risk a Hail Mary?
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Markets plummeted as the report stoked fears that the central bank and Chair Jerome Powell would decide to hike rates more aggressively, inflicting serious economic pain. Investors are putting the odds of a three-quarter percentage point hike next week at 75%, according to CME FedWatch data. The odds for a full point hike are hovering around 25% in the wake of the inflation report, up from 0% one week ago. It meant that people understood the seriousness of the Fed’s commitment to getting inflation rates back down to 2%, he said. “I wouldn’t discount a 100 basis point rate hike,” Marvin Loh, senior strategist at State Street, told me.

☆ The man who unlocked the world's secret to living to age 100 says you can skip the gym
▼ + stars: | 2019-12-05 | by ( Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

People residing in these Blue Zones are outliving us because they have figured out what others have not, according to Buettner. In 2009, he piloted his first "Blue Zones Project" in Albert Lea, Minnesota. The goal was to reverse-engineer it into a Midwestern Blue Zone. Playa Santa Teresa, on the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica, is in one of Buettner's Blue Zones. AdvertisementAdvertisementUpdate: A previous version of this story mentioned Belgian professor Michel Poulain as the inventor of the phrase "Blue Zone."

Persons: Dan Buettner, Michel Poulain, Gianni, Buettner, Toru Yamanaka, Loma, Albert Lea, Albert, Al Brooks, MinnPost, Gerhard, Enrico Spanu, dietitians, demographer Gianni Organizations: Service, Gianni Pes, Geographic, Getty, Albert Lea City, Fort Worth, demographer Gianni Pes Locations: Wall, Silicon, Kohama, Okinawa, Sardinia, Italy, Japan, Costa Rica, Ikaria, Greece, Loma Linda, California, Minnesota, Albert Lea , Minnesota, Albert Lea, Santa Teresa, Fort Worth , Texas, Fort, Belgian

The survey found that 49% of millennials have had to delay medical or dental care as a result of their finances. That hasn't kept up with climbing health care costs. National health care costs per person have increased by $9,000 since 1970, according to the SuperMoney report. Being able to afford healthcare is more important than ever for millennials who need to find help for their mental health. Rising healthcare costs could be at play here.

Of those with credit card debt, more than half owe less than $5,000 and nearly a quarter owe $5,000 to $10,000. In fact, nearly as many millennials have a mortgage as ones that have undergrad student loan debt (28.4%). Slightly more than half owe between $5,000 and $30,000 on their undergrad student loans. That's not to mention postgrad student debt, which 11% of millennial respondents have. That more millennials have car loan debt could be because Gen X and baby boomers have paid off their car loans by now.

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