Medicare
Commentary
Medicaid’s Cracked Halo
President Trump’s recent 2018 budget proposal, which includes roughly $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade, has led to howls of outrage from Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said last week that the cuts would “carry a staggering human cost.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. has ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 30, 2017
Business & Economics
New Study Finds High Prescription Drug Costs Are Not Driving Up U.S. Healthcare Costs
It’s easy for politicians and consumers to rage about the high price of prescription drugs, but Wayne Winegarden, Pacific Research Institute’s senior fellow in business and economics, said those prices are not to blame for the high cost of healthcare in the United States. Recently, U.S. Bernie Sanders has been ...
Wayne H Winegarden
May 16, 2017
Business & Economics
Pharmacy Benefit Managers Add Cost To Healthcare, Impose Consumer And Market Burdens, Study Says
Due to inefficiencies in the current regulatory framework, pharmacy benefit managers can add cost to the healthcare system and impose burdens on both consumers and market competition, according to a new study released by the Pacific Research Institute. PBMs — essentially middlemen who process prescription transactions, negotiate drug discounts and ...
Jeff Lagasse
May 16, 2017
Commentary
Time To Face Facts On Pre-Existing Conditions
Democrats have assailed the American Health Care Act, which narrowly passed the House by four votes on May 4, for supposedly ripping away Obamacare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the bill’s approach to covering such conditions a “sad, deadly joke.” Rep. Frank ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 15, 2017
Commentary
The Trump Administration Is Making Life Harder For Obamacare’s Freeloaders
While Congressional Republicans continue to hash out their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, the executive branch has already taken action to undo some of the law’s most destructive features. Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cut the enrollment period for 2018 Obamacare exchange plans from ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 11, 2017
Business & Economics
It’s Time To Switch Our Pharmacy Benefit Manager
Click here to read PRI’s new issue brief, The Economic Costs of Pharmacy Benefit Managers Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) in the nation, is discovering just how much customer service matters. It may also be discovering that suing your biggest customer in court is generally not considered ...
Wayne Winegarden
May 9, 2017
Business & Economics
New PRI Study Finds That High Prescription Drug Costs Are Not Driving Up U.S. Health Care Costs
A more realistic evaluation of U.S. prescription drug prices shows that high drug prices are not actually driving up health care costs overall, and reflect the higher U.S. health care costs compared to the rest of the world, according to a new report released today by the Pacific Research Institute. ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 25, 2017
California
Could California Become The Next Canada for Health Care?
State Sen. Ricardo Lara didn’t move to Canada following Donald Trump’s win last November, but he visited last week. While touring a major research hospital in Toronto, he said he realized that American views on providing health care are becoming more Canadian. “One fundamental difference between the United States and ...
Angela Hart
April 21, 2017
Commentary
The Good, The Bad, And The NICE: A Cautionary Tale For Government Negotiation
One of the cornerstones of Great Britain’s National Health Service is an agency that approves and controls access to prescription drugs, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. NICE recently announced a new policy that could delay and restrict access to new medicines for British citizens if the agency ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 5, 2017
California
Single Payer Is Fool’s Gold For California
While the latest Republican attempt to repeal and replace ObamaCare may have failed, Democrats in California and in D.C. are just getting started in their effort to eliminate the health law. Unfortunately, they’re angling to replace ObamaCare with something even worse. In California, State Senators Ricardo Lara and Toni Atkins ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 31, 2017
Medicaid’s Cracked Halo
President Trump’s recent 2018 budget proposal, which includes roughly $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade, has led to howls of outrage from Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said last week that the cuts would “carry a staggering human cost.” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. has ...
New Study Finds High Prescription Drug Costs Are Not Driving Up U.S. Healthcare Costs
It’s easy for politicians and consumers to rage about the high price of prescription drugs, but Wayne Winegarden, Pacific Research Institute’s senior fellow in business and economics, said those prices are not to blame for the high cost of healthcare in the United States. Recently, U.S. Bernie Sanders has been ...
Pharmacy Benefit Managers Add Cost To Healthcare, Impose Consumer And Market Burdens, Study Says
Due to inefficiencies in the current regulatory framework, pharmacy benefit managers can add cost to the healthcare system and impose burdens on both consumers and market competition, according to a new study released by the Pacific Research Institute. PBMs — essentially middlemen who process prescription transactions, negotiate drug discounts and ...
Time To Face Facts On Pre-Existing Conditions
Democrats have assailed the American Health Care Act, which narrowly passed the House by four votes on May 4, for supposedly ripping away Obamacare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the bill’s approach to covering such conditions a “sad, deadly joke.” Rep. Frank ...
The Trump Administration Is Making Life Harder For Obamacare’s Freeloaders
While Congressional Republicans continue to hash out their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, the executive branch has already taken action to undo some of the law’s most destructive features. Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cut the enrollment period for 2018 Obamacare exchange plans from ...
It’s Time To Switch Our Pharmacy Benefit Manager
Click here to read PRI’s new issue brief, The Economic Costs of Pharmacy Benefit Managers Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) in the nation, is discovering just how much customer service matters. It may also be discovering that suing your biggest customer in court is generally not considered ...
New PRI Study Finds That High Prescription Drug Costs Are Not Driving Up U.S. Health Care Costs
A more realistic evaluation of U.S. prescription drug prices shows that high drug prices are not actually driving up health care costs overall, and reflect the higher U.S. health care costs compared to the rest of the world, according to a new report released today by the Pacific Research Institute. ...
Could California Become The Next Canada for Health Care?
State Sen. Ricardo Lara didn’t move to Canada following Donald Trump’s win last November, but he visited last week. While touring a major research hospital in Toronto, he said he realized that American views on providing health care are becoming more Canadian. “One fundamental difference between the United States and ...
The Good, The Bad, And The NICE: A Cautionary Tale For Government Negotiation
One of the cornerstones of Great Britain’s National Health Service is an agency that approves and controls access to prescription drugs, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. NICE recently announced a new policy that could delay and restrict access to new medicines for British citizens if the agency ...
Single Payer Is Fool’s Gold For California
While the latest Republican attempt to repeal and replace ObamaCare may have failed, Democrats in California and in D.C. are just getting started in their effort to eliminate the health law. Unfortunately, they’re angling to replace ObamaCare with something even worse. In California, State Senators Ricardo Lara and Toni Atkins ...