Sally C. Pipes
Commentary
Read Sally Pipes' latest on health care reform
Repeal laws that stifle health care competition
Patients in several states could soon find it easier to access life-saving medical care, if state legislators and executive officials eliminate so-called certificate-of-need restrictions for new acute-care hospitals in rural areas. Certificate-of-need laws require health care providers to get a state government’s sign-off before building new facilities, expanding existing ones, ...
Commentary
Here’s How Lawmakers Can Slash Medicare Spending Without Cutting Benefits
Politicians don’t agree on much these days, but one thing seems to bring even Democrats and Republicans together. And that’s refusing to cut Medicare. That position may be politically popular. But it’s at odds with the long-term sustainability of the program. Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund is set to go bankrupt ...
Commentary
State Public Plans No Blueprint for Affordable Healthcare
A divided Congress has prevented “Medicare for All” from taking off. So progressive activists have turned their attention to the states. Several have launched “public options,” health plans chartered by the state to compete against private insurers. The results have not been impressive. People are not opting for public option ...
Commentary
Read about recent healthcare professional needs
Scope-of-practice reforms can address doctor shortage
America is facing a chronic doctor shortage. Solving that problem will require not just more doctors but a much bigger role for advanced-practice nurses in our healthcare system. A 2021 report found that the United States will need nearly as many as 48,000 more primary care doctors by 2034 to ...
Commentary
New COVID-19 research is troubling
Gov’t Undermines Search for Heart Disease Treatments
New research into COVID-19 has revealed some troubling findings. Even mild cases can lead to lasting heart complications. Comparing test data collected before and after a group of patients in their mid-30s contracted mild cases of COVID, researchers noticed an increase in arterial stiffness and cardiovascular inflammation. That means they may face “a widespread ...
Commentary
Moderna, Pfizer signal they plan to raise price of their shots
In defense of pandemic profits
The price of a COVID-19 shot will soon go up. The federal public health emergency ended this month, and the government will stop providing COVID vaccines to all Americans free of charge. Moderna and Pfizer have both signaled that they plan to raise the prices of their shots once the ...
Commentary
Read the most recent update on the COVID public health emergency
Why is Medicaid still treating COVID-19 as a public health emergency?
The federal public health emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic came to an end Thursday, more than three years after it was first enacted in 2020. That comes on the heels of the World Health Organization’s declaration on May 5 that COVID-19 was no longer a global health emergency. And on ...
Commentary
Medicaid Work Requirements Address Laziness Head On
The spending cuts included in the bill House Republicans passed in late April to raise the debt ceiling have Democrats up in arms. But federal spending has soared. It’s now 5 percentage points higher as a share of GDP than the average since 1960. As House Speaker Kevin McCarthy quipped this week, “Is it ...
Commentary
Today's commentary on pharmaceutical benefit managers
Will Senate Hearing Expose PBMs’ Unscrupulous Drug Pricing Tactics?
Today , Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will haul executives from three insulin manufacturers and three pharmacy benefit managers before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for a hearing on “the need to make insulin affordable for all Americans.” Sen. Sanders is sure to call the pharmaceutical executives — ...
Commentary
Thank the IRA for Cuts to Critical Drug Research
President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is just eight months old. It hasn’t yet slayed inflation. But it’s already gutting drug research and development. The law gives Medicare the power to impose price controls on certain prescription drugs for the first time. By September, federal officials will select the first 10 ...
Read Sally Pipes' latest on health care reform
Repeal laws that stifle health care competition
Patients in several states could soon find it easier to access life-saving medical care, if state legislators and executive officials eliminate so-called certificate-of-need restrictions for new acute-care hospitals in rural areas. Certificate-of-need laws require health care providers to get a state government’s sign-off before building new facilities, expanding existing ones, ...
Here’s How Lawmakers Can Slash Medicare Spending Without Cutting Benefits
Politicians don’t agree on much these days, but one thing seems to bring even Democrats and Republicans together. And that’s refusing to cut Medicare. That position may be politically popular. But it’s at odds with the long-term sustainability of the program. Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund is set to go bankrupt ...
State Public Plans No Blueprint for Affordable Healthcare
A divided Congress has prevented “Medicare for All” from taking off. So progressive activists have turned their attention to the states. Several have launched “public options,” health plans chartered by the state to compete against private insurers. The results have not been impressive. People are not opting for public option ...
Read about recent healthcare professional needs
Scope-of-practice reforms can address doctor shortage
America is facing a chronic doctor shortage. Solving that problem will require not just more doctors but a much bigger role for advanced-practice nurses in our healthcare system. A 2021 report found that the United States will need nearly as many as 48,000 more primary care doctors by 2034 to ...
New COVID-19 research is troubling
Gov’t Undermines Search for Heart Disease Treatments
New research into COVID-19 has revealed some troubling findings. Even mild cases can lead to lasting heart complications. Comparing test data collected before and after a group of patients in their mid-30s contracted mild cases of COVID, researchers noticed an increase in arterial stiffness and cardiovascular inflammation. That means they may face “a widespread ...
Moderna, Pfizer signal they plan to raise price of their shots
In defense of pandemic profits
The price of a COVID-19 shot will soon go up. The federal public health emergency ended this month, and the government will stop providing COVID vaccines to all Americans free of charge. Moderna and Pfizer have both signaled that they plan to raise the prices of their shots once the ...
Read the most recent update on the COVID public health emergency
Why is Medicaid still treating COVID-19 as a public health emergency?
The federal public health emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic came to an end Thursday, more than three years after it was first enacted in 2020. That comes on the heels of the World Health Organization’s declaration on May 5 that COVID-19 was no longer a global health emergency. And on ...
Medicaid Work Requirements Address Laziness Head On
The spending cuts included in the bill House Republicans passed in late April to raise the debt ceiling have Democrats up in arms. But federal spending has soared. It’s now 5 percentage points higher as a share of GDP than the average since 1960. As House Speaker Kevin McCarthy quipped this week, “Is it ...
Today's commentary on pharmaceutical benefit managers
Will Senate Hearing Expose PBMs’ Unscrupulous Drug Pricing Tactics?
Today , Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will haul executives from three insulin manufacturers and three pharmacy benefit managers before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for a hearing on “the need to make insulin affordable for all Americans.” Sen. Sanders is sure to call the pharmaceutical executives — ...
Thank the IRA for Cuts to Critical Drug Research
President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is just eight months old. It hasn’t yet slayed inflation. But it’s already gutting drug research and development. The law gives Medicare the power to impose price controls on certain prescription drugs for the first time. By September, federal officials will select the first 10 ...
