Personal Economics
  • Obesity Costs: Twice as High as Earlier Estimates

    By SUSAN LANG

    The annual estimated cost of treating obesity is $168 billion, or 16.5 percent of the country’s total medical care costs. The medical costs per person are twice as high as previously reported...

  • Long-Term Care: Another Time Bomb for the Economy

    By John Greenwald, The Fiscal Times

    Surging long-term care costs threaten Americans’ retirement security, and amount to a fiscal time bomb for states and the federal government. Needed: a three-pronged solution that includes private...

  • New Way To Pay For Chemotherapy

    By Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News

    One of the nation’s largest health insurers said today it is testing a new way to pay for some cancer treatments, aiming to identify the best medicines – and limit profits doctors make by dispensing...

  • The Graying of America: An Economic Time Bomb?

    By Maureen Mackey, The Fiscal Times

    We’re living longer and healthier lives, but an increasingly older population means more drawdown of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pensions, long-term care and other financial support. To...

  • What Middle Class? Candidates Pander to an Illusion

    By Sarah Stodola, The Fiscal Times

    If we reduce the middle class to an economic formula, which experts agree misses the mark, a workable definition of middle class is impossible to pin down. The problem can be boiled down to three...