Sally C. Pipes
Commentary
Read the latest on the Affordable Care Act
Why Next President Needs to Scrap Enhanced Subsidies
The Affordable Care Act’s defenders are sounding the alarm over the health law’s future under a possible second Trump presidency. The conventional wisdom suggests that, should Donald Trump win in November, the enhanced premium subsidies signed into law by President Joe Biden would be allowed to expire on December 31, 2025. That ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 10, 2024
Commentary
Medicaid’s Mission Creep Is Hurting the Poor and Disabled
What do air conditioners, mini fridges, and air purifiers have in common? According to Medicaid authorities in Oregon, they’re all forms of health care. Across the country, state Medicaid programs are suffering from a serious case of mission creep. Officials are trying to use Medicaid dollars to pay for everything ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 1, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on drug pricing
Insulin Prices Fall, Democrats Respond With Denial
For years, the left’s campaign to dictate the price of prescription drugs has focused on one medicine above all others — insulin. The hormone was discovered more than a century ago by Canadian doctor Frederick Banting and his medical student Charles Best. They famously sold their patent to the University of ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 31, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on CA health care policy
California rues healthcare minimum wage increase
A minimum wage hike for healthcare workers in California was supposed to take effect this Saturday. But over the past week, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and his Democratic allies have worked feverishly on legislation to postpone it. California Democrats haven’t suddenly become free-market acolytes. They’re worried that the wage increase, which may cost the state $4 billion this ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 31, 2024
Commentary
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act Unravels Medicare Part D
In May, Medicare bureaucrats released new guidance that details how they’ll conduct the drug pricing “negotiations” authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. They’re mostly maintaining the policies in last year’s inaugural round of price setting—which means the quality of seniors’ Medicare Part D coverage will continue to deteriorate. When President Biden ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 31, 2024
Commentary
Don’t Import British Methods For Rationing Access To Drugs
Earlier this year, European authorities recommended approval of tofersen, a new drug that treats a rare genetic form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. That decision came nearly a year after American regulators granted the drug accelerated approval. Patients with that rare form of ALS in England aren’t so lucky. The National Institute for ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 28, 2024
Commentary
End Rampant Fraud in Federal Health Programs
The facts are astonishing: an estimated $1 billion a year in fraudulent payments, untold thousands of ineligible beneficiaries, and a public agency that refuses to conduct an audit. Welcome to the $60 billion-a-year Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which provides insurance coverage for more than 8 million federal workers and their ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 24, 2024
Commentary
Mandating dental coverage will drive up the cost of insurance
The Biden administration finalized a rule last month allowing states to mandate that most individual and small-group health plans, including those for sale on Obamacare‘s exchanges, cover adult dental services. Mandating coverage of dental benefits may be politically appealing. But it will end up leaving a bitter taste in people’s mouths. Mandates cost money. Implementing ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 21, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on drug pricing
Inflation Reduction Act Will Destroy Drug Access
Last month at a White House event, President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took a victory lap for supposedly having “beat Big Pharma” through drug-pricing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. Beaming with pride, they hailed new powers for Medicare to “negotiate” drug prices as a historic achievement. But their self-congratulation rests ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 20, 2024
Commentary
Congress should take action to make telemedicine permanent
Congress faces a year-end deadline to extend its relaxed pandemic-era rules permitting greater use of telehealth by Medicare beneficiaries. If our lawmakers fail to step up, millions of seniors as well as privately insured patients could lose access to what has become an essential form of medical care. The expansion of ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 20, 2024
Read the latest on the Affordable Care Act
Why Next President Needs to Scrap Enhanced Subsidies
The Affordable Care Act’s defenders are sounding the alarm over the health law’s future under a possible second Trump presidency. The conventional wisdom suggests that, should Donald Trump win in November, the enhanced premium subsidies signed into law by President Joe Biden would be allowed to expire on December 31, 2025. That ...
Medicaid’s Mission Creep Is Hurting the Poor and Disabled
What do air conditioners, mini fridges, and air purifiers have in common? According to Medicaid authorities in Oregon, they’re all forms of health care. Across the country, state Medicaid programs are suffering from a serious case of mission creep. Officials are trying to use Medicaid dollars to pay for everything ...
Read the latest on drug pricing
Insulin Prices Fall, Democrats Respond With Denial
For years, the left’s campaign to dictate the price of prescription drugs has focused on one medicine above all others — insulin. The hormone was discovered more than a century ago by Canadian doctor Frederick Banting and his medical student Charles Best. They famously sold their patent to the University of ...
Read the latest on CA health care policy
California rues healthcare minimum wage increase
A minimum wage hike for healthcare workers in California was supposed to take effect this Saturday. But over the past week, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and his Democratic allies have worked feverishly on legislation to postpone it. California Democrats haven’t suddenly become free-market acolytes. They’re worried that the wage increase, which may cost the state $4 billion this ...
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act Unravels Medicare Part D
In May, Medicare bureaucrats released new guidance that details how they’ll conduct the drug pricing “negotiations” authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. They’re mostly maintaining the policies in last year’s inaugural round of price setting—which means the quality of seniors’ Medicare Part D coverage will continue to deteriorate. When President Biden ...
Don’t Import British Methods For Rationing Access To Drugs
Earlier this year, European authorities recommended approval of tofersen, a new drug that treats a rare genetic form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. That decision came nearly a year after American regulators granted the drug accelerated approval. Patients with that rare form of ALS in England aren’t so lucky. The National Institute for ...
End Rampant Fraud in Federal Health Programs
The facts are astonishing: an estimated $1 billion a year in fraudulent payments, untold thousands of ineligible beneficiaries, and a public agency that refuses to conduct an audit. Welcome to the $60 billion-a-year Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which provides insurance coverage for more than 8 million federal workers and their ...
Mandating dental coverage will drive up the cost of insurance
The Biden administration finalized a rule last month allowing states to mandate that most individual and small-group health plans, including those for sale on Obamacare‘s exchanges, cover adult dental services. Mandating coverage of dental benefits may be politically appealing. But it will end up leaving a bitter taste in people’s mouths. Mandates cost money. Implementing ...
Read the latest on drug pricing
Inflation Reduction Act Will Destroy Drug Access
Last month at a White House event, President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took a victory lap for supposedly having “beat Big Pharma” through drug-pricing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. Beaming with pride, they hailed new powers for Medicare to “negotiate” drug prices as a historic achievement. But their self-congratulation rests ...
Congress should take action to make telemedicine permanent
Congress faces a year-end deadline to extend its relaxed pandemic-era rules permitting greater use of telehealth by Medicare beneficiaries. If our lawmakers fail to step up, millions of seniors as well as privately insured patients could lose access to what has become an essential form of medical care. The expansion of ...