HUMBLEDOLLAR FOUNDER and longtime Wall Street Journal columnist Jonathan Clements passed away earlier this week. He was 62.
I reached out to several of Jonathan’s close friends and colleagues to ask for their remembrances. Taken together, they paint a picture of someone who was as beloved by his peers as he was by his readers.
As Jason Zweig put it, “I have just lost a friend, and so have you.”
Christine Benz,

About 5% of the population accounts for nearly half of total health spending, and many of these are older adults with multiple conditions.
Do seniors (65+) pay as much as perceived for health care?
Seniors pay a lot for health care, but it is not that simple. Many, perhaps most, seniors pay no more, even less, out of pocket, than many younger families. 
The bulk of spending by seniors is premiums, not the actual cost of care.

When my cardiologist called, she used words I rarely hear. I asked her to hold on as I put my cell phone on speaker so my wife could hear. She repeated, “You were right!”
Many weeks before, after my Apple watch suggested I had Afib, I called my cardiologist, who happened to be on vacation. The doctor on call suggested that I go to a trauma-equipped ER hospital.
I arrived unannounced and explained the reason for my visit.

How long will we live? Based on an article I just read, I’m guessing that it is probably longer than we think. Here’s why.
The authors pointed out that statistics (and I suspect my intuition) are based on death rates, which only take into account the people who have…wait for it…already died. Those still alive are living longer than they used to, based on the trend of longer, healthier life that has persisted up until now.

I was reading an article focusing on the caregiving burden on adult children. 
 Shocking statistics: 63 million Americans — nearly 1 in 4 adults — now provide care to an adult with health or functional needs, or to a child with a serious medical condition or disability — a record high. 
 Nearly half of caregivers are struggling with finances.  More than 20% have taken on more debt, about a third have used up short-term savings, 30% have stopped saving,

Chris tripped and fell a few Sundays back. Her radius and ulna bones broke and the elbow was beyond repair. We were on a little day trip, to visit the Cleveland Aquarium. 
Come the next day, the anticipated 2-3 hour surgery stretched to 7 hours. Afterwards, the surgeon, allegedly among the finest in the country for this particular procedure, reported good results. However, coming out of the long anesthesia, Chris had difficulty communicating, so was quickly rushed down the hall for an MRI.

After just being hit with an almost 30% premium increase from Mutual of Omaha (MOO), I’m shopping around for a new Medicare Supplement carrier.
I actually like MOO for their generally good customer service, user friendly website, and fast claims processing. Twice in past years, I’ve been able to stay with MOO but avoid a price hike by switching to one of their sister companies, which I wrote about here.
It seems that option is no longer available,

Before I say what it is, let’s consider all the things Americans don’t like about health care – cost, availability, insurance companies, third-party involvement, high deductibles, premiums, etc.
🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 
NOW, the challenge.
Tell us why you will or will not support a form of Medicare for All replacing all the payment systems currently in place, public, employer and private plans to be funded by a combination of employer and individual taxes, income based premiums and cost sharing at the point of service. 

Key Medicare benefits are being stripped away, and patient care is being handed over to profit-driven corporations.

On June 25, 2025, in an unprecedented move, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), announced that Original Medicare will now require prior authorization for a list of 17 services.
This marks a major shift—and a serious rollback of a key protection retirees have relied on for decades.
What’s Changing?

With my wife Suzie away visiting her dad in Spain, I’ve been keeping myself busy, and I must say I’ve had a pretty active few days! On Wednesday, I played two hours of pickleball in the morning and then did a 5k fun run with my grandson in the evening. Thursday saw me walking the shoreline of Belfast Lough from Bangor to Holywood – about 12k. Then on Friday, after driving to my holiday home on the North Coast,

For those of us HD readers who have warned against the problems in using Medicare Advanatge (MA), you may want to read an op-ed published in the The Hill on Sunday. Former Republican Rep. Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, who helped write the Medicare Modernization Act that created Medicare Advantage, stated directly: “The program no longer lives up to [its] promise.”
Greenwood once believed private competition would drive innovation and efficiency. But today, he says,

This is a decision I had to make several years ago when I turned 65. I started out with a no premium five star local Advantage plan to take “advantage” of the free perks for the first year, then switched to traditional Medicare with a plan G supplement, the most expensive plan. To most this would seem quite contradictory, but let me explain my reasoning. Medicare allows first time enrollees to trial an Advantage plan for up to a year,

Some people’s recent experience with the Social Security and Medicare sign-up process has been smooth. Mine for Medicare? Not so much.
I turned 65 in November 2024 and wanted Medicare Part B to start January 1, 2025. Medicare.gov says that if you apply in the month after your birthday, Part B will start the following month. Perfect! I filed for Medicare on the Social Security site on December 2nd and even included a note that I wanted Part B coverage to start January 1.

This past weekend I did the 200k Ride To Conquer Cancer.
On Saturday we rode from Toronto to Hamilton and on Sunday from Hamilton to Niagara Falls.
I knew it was going to be hard because I had only done one 100k training ride so far this year because of the bad weather we were having.
Also I suffer from bad allergies as well as exercise induced asthma and the day before it looked like it was snowing here due to all the white fluff in the air never mind the smoke from the forest fires out west.

Are doctors overpaid?
That’s a tricky question for several reasons. Getting good data is hard and mostly based on surveys, there are variations across the country and among specialists plus few doctors work a 40 hour week. 
If you are a patient and your doctor provides life saving care, I suspect what they earn doesn’t matter, it wouldn’t to me. In any case, chances are you aren’t paying the bill yourself. 
After looking at the data from several sources,