Medicaid
Commentary
Don’t Blame Trump for Obamacare’s Lackluster Open Enrollment Season
Obamacare’s 2018 open enrollment period came to a close in most states on December 15. Roughly 8.8 million people signed up for health plans through Healthcare.gov, the federal exchange that operates in 39 states. That’s a 4 percent decline compared to last year’s total of 9.2 million sign ups through ...
Drug Pricing
Report: 340B Drug Program Rife with Abuse, Profiteering
A program designed to help poor people afford prescription drugs is being used by hospitals to generate easy profits, according to a Pacific Research Institute report. A well-intended program designed to help poor people obtain prescription drugs is riddled with abuse and creates a perverse incentive for healthcare providers to ...
Business & Economics
Well-Meaning Drug Discount Program Encourages Hospitals to Profit Rather than Effectively Serve Poor
A new study released today by the Pacific Research Institute finds that a program to give discounted prescription drugs to poor Americans is riddled with abuse, has created a perverse incentive for providers to profit instead of effectively serve the poor, and is hurting overall health care quality. Click here ...
Commentary
Congress Must Reform The Broken 340B Program
The Trump administration recently announced a $1.6 billion cut to the badly abused “340B” program, which forces pharmaceutical companies to sell medicines to hospitals that treat significant numbers of poor patients at steep discounts. A bipartisan group of senators — including supposed fiscal hawks like Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and ...
Health Care
Azar Pick Signals Regulatory Action on Obamacare
By Erin Durkin The next potential Health and Human Services secretary appears likely to emphasize administrative actions to dismantle Obamacare after congressional Republicans failed to repeal the law this year. Former Eli Lilly and Company executive Alex Azar—who was HHS deputy secretary in the George W. Bush administration— shares former ...
Business & Economics
Skimming Hurts California’s Most Vulnerable
Skimming is not a union practice that went out when the closing credits for “On The Waterfront” first rolled in 1954. It’s still alive today. And it’s hurting some of California’s most vulnerable residents, while at the same time stuffing the treasury of politically powerful unions and financially exploiting those ...
Business & Economics
Fiscal Conservatives Should Support Tax Reform
This week, the U.S. Senate is slated to vote on comprehensive tax reform. But some fiscal hawks are worried about the bill’s impact on the deficit. In the short term, these lawmakers are right to worry. Contrary to the analyses of some optimistic supporters, the tax cuts probably won’t pay ...
Blog
Maine’s Medicaid Mistake Could Cost Lives
As featured in Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing Maine made history earlier this month by becoming the first state to adopt Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion via ballot initiative. The vote could inspire progressive activists in other states to push for similar referenda. Expanding Medicaid to cover childless, able-bodied adults would blow ...
Commentary
A Public Option Would Lead to Single-Payer
Senate Democrats recently introduced two bills that would create a “public option” — a government-run health plan that would compete against private insurers for the business of shoppers on Obamacare’s exchanges. Proponents claim that this would offer consumers an additional choice — and lead to lower prices. But a public ...
Commentary
Doctors Should Oppose Single-Payer
A growing number of physicians now believe they have the cure for our nation’s health care maladies — a government-run, single-payer system. Fifty-six percent of doctors support single-payer health care, according to a new survey by physician recruitment firm Merritt Hawkins. Ten years ago, the numbers were almost reversed, with ...
Don’t Blame Trump for Obamacare’s Lackluster Open Enrollment Season
Obamacare’s 2018 open enrollment period came to a close in most states on December 15. Roughly 8.8 million people signed up for health plans through Healthcare.gov, the federal exchange that operates in 39 states. That’s a 4 percent decline compared to last year’s total of 9.2 million sign ups through ...
Report: 340B Drug Program Rife with Abuse, Profiteering
A program designed to help poor people afford prescription drugs is being used by hospitals to generate easy profits, according to a Pacific Research Institute report. A well-intended program designed to help poor people obtain prescription drugs is riddled with abuse and creates a perverse incentive for healthcare providers to ...
Well-Meaning Drug Discount Program Encourages Hospitals to Profit Rather than Effectively Serve Poor
A new study released today by the Pacific Research Institute finds that a program to give discounted prescription drugs to poor Americans is riddled with abuse, has created a perverse incentive for providers to profit instead of effectively serve the poor, and is hurting overall health care quality. Click here ...
Congress Must Reform The Broken 340B Program
The Trump administration recently announced a $1.6 billion cut to the badly abused “340B” program, which forces pharmaceutical companies to sell medicines to hospitals that treat significant numbers of poor patients at steep discounts. A bipartisan group of senators — including supposed fiscal hawks like Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and ...
Azar Pick Signals Regulatory Action on Obamacare
By Erin Durkin The next potential Health and Human Services secretary appears likely to emphasize administrative actions to dismantle Obamacare after congressional Republicans failed to repeal the law this year. Former Eli Lilly and Company executive Alex Azar—who was HHS deputy secretary in the George W. Bush administration— shares former ...
Skimming Hurts California’s Most Vulnerable
Skimming is not a union practice that went out when the closing credits for “On The Waterfront” first rolled in 1954. It’s still alive today. And it’s hurting some of California’s most vulnerable residents, while at the same time stuffing the treasury of politically powerful unions and financially exploiting those ...
Fiscal Conservatives Should Support Tax Reform
This week, the U.S. Senate is slated to vote on comprehensive tax reform. But some fiscal hawks are worried about the bill’s impact on the deficit. In the short term, these lawmakers are right to worry. Contrary to the analyses of some optimistic supporters, the tax cuts probably won’t pay ...
Maine’s Medicaid Mistake Could Cost Lives
As featured in Kaiser Health News Morning Briefing Maine made history earlier this month by becoming the first state to adopt Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion via ballot initiative. The vote could inspire progressive activists in other states to push for similar referenda. Expanding Medicaid to cover childless, able-bodied adults would blow ...
A Public Option Would Lead to Single-Payer
Senate Democrats recently introduced two bills that would create a “public option” — a government-run health plan that would compete against private insurers for the business of shoppers on Obamacare’s exchanges. Proponents claim that this would offer consumers an additional choice — and lead to lower prices. But a public ...
Doctors Should Oppose Single-Payer
A growing number of physicians now believe they have the cure for our nation’s health care maladies — a government-run, single-payer system. Fifty-six percent of doctors support single-payer health care, according to a new survey by physician recruitment firm Merritt Hawkins. Ten years ago, the numbers were almost reversed, with ...
