Medicare
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
California
California Single-Payer Bill Looks Backward, Instead Of Forward To A New Era Of Patient Choice
Here we go again. The California State Legislature is considering yet another bill to impose a so-called single-payer, government monopoly, health care system. This has long been an obsession of the California’s nurses unions, because a health system under total government control would suit the narrow interests of union leaders. ...
John R. Graham
March 23, 2017
Commentary
Putting The CBO’s Score Of The American Health Care Act In Perspective
The Congressional Budget Office’s new analysis of the American Health Care Act seems to provide plenty of ammunition for Obamacare’s defenders. But if the last few years have proven anything, it’s that we shouldn’t put too much faith in the CBO’s predictions — especially about the future. The report simultaneously ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 20, 2017
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 ...
California Single-Payer Bill Looks Backward, Instead Of Forward To A New Era Of Patient Choice
Here we go again. The California State Legislature is considering yet another bill to impose a so-called single-payer, government monopoly, health care system. This has long been an obsession of the California’s nurses unions, because a health system under total government control would suit the narrow interests of union leaders. ...
Putting The CBO’s Score Of The American Health Care Act In Perspective
The Congressional Budget Office’s new analysis of the American Health Care Act seems to provide plenty of ammunition for Obamacare’s defenders. But if the last few years have proven anything, it’s that we shouldn’t put too much faith in the CBO’s predictions — especially about the future. The report simultaneously ...