Health Care
Commentary
Trump got shots because he knows vaccines work
The cold and flu and COVID season is here. Millions of Americans are weighing when and whether to get their shots. It’s an appropriate time to reflect on the power of vaccination and how many lives new shots have saved in recent years. As Senators Bill Cassidy and John Barrasso ...
Commentary
Trump Has a Subsidy Alternative, We Should Take it Seriously
In a social media post earlier this month, President Trump laid out his own alternative to the enhanced Obamacare subsidies that fueled the record-breaking 43-day government shutdown. “I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order ...
Commentary
Congress Should Embrace Competition To Promote Affordability
Joining the Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives is now taking up the problem of skyrocketing healthcare costs. Democrats have proposed extending the expanded subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare or ACA), but this will not address the problem of rising costs. Promoting greater healthcare affordability requires reforms ...
Commentary
PBMs’ Evolving Business Model Continues To Raise Costs On Patients
The conclusion of the longest government shutdown in history and rising political acrimony rightly receives a great deal of attention but this focus makes it easy to overlook areas where beneficial legislation is politically possible. The broad political agreement that it is necessary to reform how pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) ...
Commentary
GOP must hold its ground on enhanced subsidies — now more than ever
There are many things to like about the deal that ended the government shutdown last week. Most importantly, it reopens the government without committing taxpayers to tens of billions of dollars in new spending on COVID-era enhanced premium subsidies for coverage sold through Obamacare’s exchanges. But the battle over these ...
Commentary
States Break Law with Medicaid Coverage for Illegal Immigrants
A new federal audit reveals that five states have spent a total of more than $1 billion providing Medicaid benefits to illegal immigrants. According to Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), “If you live in Texas or Florida, and you’re paying U.S. federal ...
340B
340B Drug Pricing Program Overdue for Reform, GOP Can Help
Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing in October to discuss a federal healthcare policy long overdue for reform — the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Created to expand access to affordable medicines for low-income people, 340B has since fallen victim to rampant abuse by ...
Commentary
Medicare’s Paltry Doctor Payments Are Price Controls In Disguise
Specialist physicians will receive a significant pay cut from Medicare next year. That’s the main takeaway from the 2026 physician fee schedule released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in October. For years, physician reimbursement from Medicare has stagnated, even declined. Doctors are responding by leaving the profession ...
Drug Prices
ISSUE BRIEF: Stronger Reforms Needed to Fix Medicare Competitive Bidding Problems
SACRAMENTO – Proposed reforms to fix the problems with the current Medicare bidding process for acquiring prosthetics, CPAP machines, wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment don’t go far enough to fix the fundamental flaws in the process, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and ...
Commentary
No, the expiring subsidies aren’t to blame for next year’s premium hikes
Open enrollment on Obamacare‘s exchanges is upon us. People shopping for coverage will be greeted by higher premiums. According to one recent analysis from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, premiums for 2026 coverage will rise by 18 %. Out-of-pocket costs could go up hundreds or thousands of dollars, according to ...
Trump got shots because he knows vaccines work
The cold and flu and COVID season is here. Millions of Americans are weighing when and whether to get their shots. It’s an appropriate time to reflect on the power of vaccination and how many lives new shots have saved in recent years. As Senators Bill Cassidy and John Barrasso ...
Trump Has a Subsidy Alternative, We Should Take it Seriously
In a social media post earlier this month, President Trump laid out his own alternative to the enhanced Obamacare subsidies that fueled the record-breaking 43-day government shutdown. “I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order ...
Congress Should Embrace Competition To Promote Affordability
Joining the Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives is now taking up the problem of skyrocketing healthcare costs. Democrats have proposed extending the expanded subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare or ACA), but this will not address the problem of rising costs. Promoting greater healthcare affordability requires reforms ...
PBMs’ Evolving Business Model Continues To Raise Costs On Patients
The conclusion of the longest government shutdown in history and rising political acrimony rightly receives a great deal of attention but this focus makes it easy to overlook areas where beneficial legislation is politically possible. The broad political agreement that it is necessary to reform how pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) ...
GOP must hold its ground on enhanced subsidies — now more than ever
There are many things to like about the deal that ended the government shutdown last week. Most importantly, it reopens the government without committing taxpayers to tens of billions of dollars in new spending on COVID-era enhanced premium subsidies for coverage sold through Obamacare’s exchanges. But the battle over these ...
States Break Law with Medicaid Coverage for Illegal Immigrants
A new federal audit reveals that five states have spent a total of more than $1 billion providing Medicaid benefits to illegal immigrants. According to Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), “If you live in Texas or Florida, and you’re paying U.S. federal ...
340B Drug Pricing Program Overdue for Reform, GOP Can Help
Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing in October to discuss a federal healthcare policy long overdue for reform — the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Created to expand access to affordable medicines for low-income people, 340B has since fallen victim to rampant abuse by ...
Medicare’s Paltry Doctor Payments Are Price Controls In Disguise
Specialist physicians will receive a significant pay cut from Medicare next year. That’s the main takeaway from the 2026 physician fee schedule released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in October. For years, physician reimbursement from Medicare has stagnated, even declined. Doctors are responding by leaving the profession ...
ISSUE BRIEF: Stronger Reforms Needed to Fix Medicare Competitive Bidding Problems
SACRAMENTO – Proposed reforms to fix the problems with the current Medicare bidding process for acquiring prosthetics, CPAP machines, wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment don’t go far enough to fix the fundamental flaws in the process, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and ...
No, the expiring subsidies aren’t to blame for next year’s premium hikes
Open enrollment on Obamacare‘s exchanges is upon us. People shopping for coverage will be greeted by higher premiums. According to one recent analysis from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, premiums for 2026 coverage will rise by 18 %. Out-of-pocket costs could go up hundreds or thousands of dollars, according to ...