May is Better Sleep Month, an observance that was started by the Better Sleep Council (seems logical) in 1985. It seemed to be a perfect opportunity to write about something that impacts everyone, especially older Americans. As I try to do in all my blogs, I look into the motivation for those who make statements, recommendations or establish celebratory/recognition days, weeks, or months. As I researched the Better Sleep Council, I found that they were the consumer‑education arm of the International Sleep Products Association, which is a trade group that represents the mattress industry. There is nothing wrong with a trade group working to sell more mattresses, I speak from experience about how important the right mattress is, but it alerted me to the fact that their recommendations may be biased toward championing a new mattress as being the best cure for one’s sleepless nights. Whatever the motivation for declaring May as the Better Sleep Month, I think that a good night’s sleep is the holy grail that all seniors search for, and it deserves the focus of at least one blog.

May is National Women’s Health Month, and it kicks off with National Women’s Health Week starting on Mother’s Day May 10th. The theme is “Prevention, Innovation, and Impact: A New Era in Women’s Health.” The emphasis is on:

Last week I attended the American Society on Aging’s (ASA) yearly conference and once again found people who are dedicated to serving older Americans. I attended my first ASA conference at the end of the last century and while I’ve missed some conferences over the years, I’ve seen changes and growth. Not only in size, it seems the numbers of attendees has grown, but also in ways that they support and advocate for those they serve. It is common in these types of conferences to have a theme . . . this year it was “The Power of Belonging.” From my point of view, it is always important to ascertain why they chose that theme and how it was presented but it’s also important, maybe even more important, to discover the underlying reasons.

It wouldn’t be a great revelation for me to say that, in the last few years, vaccines have become (excuse my phraseology) a breeding ground for controversy. The number of Americans that choose to opt out of being vaccinated, for them and/or their children, has risen significantly. In the last five years the vaccination rates in most states have dropped below the 95% required for herd immunity. While each state controls the requirements for opting out of vaccines for children, the national rate for receiving the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine for children sits at 92.5%, which some experts say explains the outbreak of measles in various states. The MMR vaccine hasn’t lost its ability to protect us . . . it seems we’re questioning our faith in the institutions that control the safety and recommendations of vaccines.

April 20, 2026—Seniors Speak Out, a national healthcare policy advocacy group, issued the following statement on the recent hearings on Capitol Hill.

April is National Minority Health Month, first established in 2001 and recognized by Congress one year later by a Concurrent Resolution, which reinforced the federal government's commitment to reducing health disparities. I recently wrote about ageism and the impacts it can have on both access and the treatment of older Americans. Those of us who are 65 or older make up about 17% of the population, which certainly makes us a minority. There are many other identified minorities and the very reason that there is a Minority Health Month is the fact that there are biases and real basic health differences that have an impact on care. I think it’s important to talk about how these biases affect care and how we can combat them, while also recognizing that there are some basic health differences that are also important to understand. No matter what your political or personal attitude is, recognizing that these biases and differences really do affect how our healthcare is administered magnifies the importance of Minority Health Month.

I’ve written ad nauseum about how the use of the most favored nation (MFN) concept is the wrong approach to ensure every country pays for the research and development (R&D) of new medicines. I would like to back up a little and talk about how this term came to be used in this context.

I’m thinking you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about vertigo. It’s just not something that’s often discussed. I don’t think I ever talked about it or heard it discussed with any of our friends, and you know, at our age, we talk a lot about our aliments. This all changed about a year and a half ago when my wife had a sudden and severe attack of vertigo. Now, before I go any further, I need you to know that I’m not a doctor (I didn’t even spend the night at a Holiday Inn) so what I say here are my own observations and opinions—so reader beware!

As I’ve traveled around to various conferences that are focused on older Americans there seems to always be a keynote speaker or panels or various classes on ageism. Each of these platforms comes at the topic from a different angle and they all try to show different ways it is manifested. There is certainly a basis for their concern. Speakers often blame different generations or institutions for perpetuating ageism, with good reason, it can hurt older people. Ageism is often defined as stereotyping, prejudice, or discrimination based on age. It is most often discussed as it relates to older adults, but it can apply to any age.

I have written often and with much enthusiasm about the “evils” of the prescription drug price fixing scheme in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). I’ve discussed it in statements to CMS, I’ve talked about it in Facebook Live events, and I’ve written about it in multiple blogs (here’s just one of them). I’ve tried, since it was signed into law, to monitor what impact it had on the older patients who are Medicare beneficiaries. So far, it’s been difficult to track whether it’s made a difference in the out-of-pocket costs (OOPC) for patients since the prices of the first 10 drugs negotiated just became effective on January 1st of this year. A separate provision in the IRA that caps Medicare beneficiaries’ OOPC at $2,000 per year also recently took effect. This cap greatly reduced what certain seniors pay each year. However, many people, myself included, are very skeptical of any savings seniors will experience from the price fixing part of the bill. I’m waiting for that data.

March is National Nutrition Month, an annual campaign that encourages people to build healthier eating habits, understand how food choices affect long‑term health, and reconnect with the basics of good nutrition. For more than 50 years the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has used this month to give us advice on how to create a proper diet, but over that time we’ve only gotten worse at choosing healthy foods. I’ve used the word “choose” here a little loosely because healthy choices haven’t always been readily available but, on the other hand, the choices we had back when I was a kid we’re, by any measure, healthier than we have today.

The President’s State of the Union address to the country was long, 1 hour and 48 minutes long, but he only spent about 5 minutes on healthcare. However, in those 5 minutes, he did focus on three main topics - criticizing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), praising his administration’s drug-pricing initiatives and calling on the Congress to codify his Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing policy.

February 25, 2026—Seniors Speak Out, a national healthcare policy advocacy group, issued the following statement on the 2026 State of the Union address.

I’ve talked about why importing foreign drug prices is the wrong answer to lowering prices here at home, and now I’m asking CMS to rethink its latest attempt to get around congressional authority and impose foreign price controls. While I’ve asked you to contact your lawmakers to tell them where you stand on important healthcare issues, I also try to do my part by telling the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) how I and, more importantly, you feel about their proposed solutions. The most recent is another attempt at implementing the Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing approach.

Many of us remember the quiz show “Who Do You Trust?”, it was popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s, (trivia – it was first hosted by Johnny Carson and became the show that brought him into national prominence). The key gimmick of the show was that for each trivia question, one contestant had to decide whether to answer the question themselves or “trust” their partner to answer it instead. This show came to my mind as I considered the best way to approach my blog on vaccines because, at the end of the day, when it comes to vaccines the real question is – who has the best chance of answering your question, who do you trust?

There’s a lot of days, weeks and months dedicated to bringing our attention to different aspects of our health and how we can get healthier, or at least ways we can detect possible health problems early. American Heart Month must be really important because it lasts for a whole month. Another thing that makes me think I should be paying attention is the fact that it’s AMERICAN Heart Month. Our country is always singled out as being unhealthy and overweight, with good reason, and we probably need to focus on our heart, maybe not just for a month but all year.

The administration just released their proposed increase for payments to Medicare Advantage (MA), and it was much less than what was expected. This should be of great interest to many seniors since over half of us are enrolled in this type of Medicare plan. They proposed a rate increase of 0.09% for 2027, significantly lower than the 4 to 5% that the administration finalized for 2026. It’s important to put some context around this proposed rate. When you include the complicated risk-adjustment and coding change trends, the expected net increase that the MA plans will see is closer to 2.5% which, based on inflation and medical utilization trends, is still exceptionally low. It’s complicated but the administration has decided to alter their relationship with this popular approach to Medicare, and it might have a significant impact on those of us who have chosen MA to administer our healthcare. It could result in fewer benefits, higher premiums, or both.