Commentary
Agriculture
‘Bridge payments’ to nowhere: time for ag to find its own path
The Trump administration recently announced $12 billion in “bridge payments” for American farmers and ranchers to provide relief from tariffs and “other economic challenges.” American farmers and ranchers are suffering. The national Farm Aid suicide prevention hotline has reported an increase in calls year-over-year and farm bankruptcies for 2025 have ...
Pam Lewison
January 9, 2026
California
If California is an economic powerhouse, then where are the jobs?
It’s a new year, a time for resolutions and fresh starts. Of course, only 9 percent of people who declare New year’s resolutions ultimately fulfill them. Most will give up before January ends. Such a dour outlook is a bit of a wet blanket, but it is apropos for California’s ...
Wayne H Winegarden
January 5, 2026
Commentary
California should embrace competition to promote better health insurance
Following a depressingly familiar pattern, California is once again undermining health care competition in the vain hope that less competition will lead to lower prices. It won’t. In its latest anti-competitive actions, starting Jan. 1, California’s Department of Health Care Services will be limiting competition for plans (called Medi-Medi plans) ...
Wayne H Winegarden
December 31, 2025
Commentary
Medicare for All remains a disaster proposition
Medicare for All is poised for a comeback. Earlier this month, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the former head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, released polling data showing strong support for the idea among Democrats. Jayapal’s renewed push for socialized medicine comes as many Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate are putting ...
Sally C. Pipes
December 29, 2025
Commentary
Terrible Effects of Medicare Price Controls Are Here
Medicare will impose price controls on prescription drugs for the first time when the calendar flips to January. Even before those controls formally take effect, the damage is already being done. The scheme has begun to hollow out America’s biomedical research ecosystem. Patients will pay the price — in the ...
Sally C. Pipes
December 26, 2025
Commentary
What America Needs from a GOP Healthcare Package
The U.S. House just passed legislation that will help make health insurance more affordable — without extending the enhanced premium subsidies for exchange coverage that Democrats enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The House action comes on the heels of votes on two measures in the Senate: one from Democrats that ...
Sally C. Pipes
December 24, 2025
Commentary
Chaos At The FDA Benefits America’s Rivals—At The Expense Of America’s Patients
Chaos has become the norm at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And it’s putting American patients, not to mention our country’s world-leading life sciences sector, at risk. Earlier this year, roughly 3,500 FDA employees were laid off. The agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which oversees prescription and ...
Sally C. Pipes
December 15, 2025
Commentary
Democrats Can’t End Private-Sector Drug Innovation Fast Enough
In November, a group of Democrats in the U.S. House made clear that they’ll sacrifice medical innovation for lower drug prices if they ever reclaim Congress. Patients today and tomorrow will be the losers in that trade. Read the op-ed here.
Sally C. Pipes
December 15, 2025
Commentary
The real story behind Trump’s GLP-1 price cut: Markets still rule
President Donald Trump just announced deals with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that will yield lower prices for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs dispensed through Medicare and Medicaid. Both firms have also agreed to sell the drugs at lower prices on Trump’s yet-to-be-developed online marketplace for prescription drugs, TrumpRx. Lilly and ...
Sally C. Pipes
December 15, 2025
Commentary
Why reforming PBMs is the key to lowering drug costs
If lawmakers want to make pharmaceuticals more affordable, they should look past populist policies like price controls that will only make matters worse and set their sights on reforming the Pharmacy Benefit Manager market. PBMs manage the drug benefits for insurers and negotiate discounts with drug manufacturers. You probably use ...
Wayne H Winegarden
December 12, 2025
‘Bridge payments’ to nowhere: time for ag to find its own path
The Trump administration recently announced $12 billion in “bridge payments” for American farmers and ranchers to provide relief from tariffs and “other economic challenges.” American farmers and ranchers are suffering. The national Farm Aid suicide prevention hotline has reported an increase in calls year-over-year and farm bankruptcies for 2025 have ...
If California is an economic powerhouse, then where are the jobs?
It’s a new year, a time for resolutions and fresh starts. Of course, only 9 percent of people who declare New year’s resolutions ultimately fulfill them. Most will give up before January ends. Such a dour outlook is a bit of a wet blanket, but it is apropos for California’s ...
California should embrace competition to promote better health insurance
Following a depressingly familiar pattern, California is once again undermining health care competition in the vain hope that less competition will lead to lower prices. It won’t. In its latest anti-competitive actions, starting Jan. 1, California’s Department of Health Care Services will be limiting competition for plans (called Medi-Medi plans) ...
Medicare for All remains a disaster proposition
Medicare for All is poised for a comeback. Earlier this month, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the former head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, released polling data showing strong support for the idea among Democrats. Jayapal’s renewed push for socialized medicine comes as many Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate are putting ...
Terrible Effects of Medicare Price Controls Are Here
Medicare will impose price controls on prescription drugs for the first time when the calendar flips to January. Even before those controls formally take effect, the damage is already being done. The scheme has begun to hollow out America’s biomedical research ecosystem. Patients will pay the price — in the ...
What America Needs from a GOP Healthcare Package
The U.S. House just passed legislation that will help make health insurance more affordable — without extending the enhanced premium subsidies for exchange coverage that Democrats enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The House action comes on the heels of votes on two measures in the Senate: one from Democrats that ...
Chaos At The FDA Benefits America’s Rivals—At The Expense Of America’s Patients
Chaos has become the norm at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And it’s putting American patients, not to mention our country’s world-leading life sciences sector, at risk. Earlier this year, roughly 3,500 FDA employees were laid off. The agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which oversees prescription and ...
Democrats Can’t End Private-Sector Drug Innovation Fast Enough
In November, a group of Democrats in the U.S. House made clear that they’ll sacrifice medical innovation for lower drug prices if they ever reclaim Congress. Patients today and tomorrow will be the losers in that trade. Read the op-ed here.
The real story behind Trump’s GLP-1 price cut: Markets still rule
President Donald Trump just announced deals with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that will yield lower prices for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs dispensed through Medicare and Medicaid. Both firms have also agreed to sell the drugs at lower prices on Trump’s yet-to-be-developed online marketplace for prescription drugs, TrumpRx. Lilly and ...
Why reforming PBMs is the key to lowering drug costs
If lawmakers want to make pharmaceuticals more affordable, they should look past populist policies like price controls that will only make matters worse and set their sights on reforming the Pharmacy Benefit Manager market. PBMs manage the drug benefits for insurers and negotiate discounts with drug manufacturers. You probably use ...
