Health Care

$Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during an event to introduce the "Medicare for All Act of 2017\$

How to Pay for Medicare for All? Supporters Say That’s the Wrong Question. Here’s Why.

By Yuval Rosenberg

Any Democrat proposing a transition to a Medicare-for-all system can expect to be pressed on a pivotal question: How do you plan to pay for it? The price tag: Various estimates have pegged the cost...
How Health Care Spending Soared by $1 Trillion in 10 Years

By Yuval Rosenberg

Health care spending per person for Americans with employer-provided health insurance rose by 44 percent, or 4.1 percent a year, from 2007 through 2016, according to a new study in Health Affairs ...
Who Will Protect Medicare? GOP, Dems Duke It Out

By Yuval Rosenberg

The 2018 election may be a referendum on President Donald Trump, but it’s also turning into a battle over Medicare, at least in some key races. The Washington Post’s David Weigel reports that...
Kudlow: ‘I Don’t Buy’ That Tax Cuts Boosted Deficit

By Yuval Rosenberg

Larry Kudlow is at it again. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, the top economic adviser to President Trump said that, while the administration is looking to cut federal spending — including...
House to Considers Billions in Cuts to Obamacare Taxes

By Michael Rainey

In addition to a package of bills that would make the individual tax cuts permanent , the House is expected to consider legislation this week that would delay or roll back multiple tax provisions in...

Arkansas Drops Thousands from Medicaid

By Michael Rainey

More than 4,000 people will lose their Medicaid coverage in Arkansas for failing to meet the state’s new work requirements. Earlier this year, the Trump administration approved the new work rules,...
‘Things Are So Much Worse’ – but Does Anyone Care About the Deficit?

By Yuval Rosenberg

As we told you yesterday , the Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the deficit for the first 11 months of fiscal 2018 totaled $895 billion, or $222 billion more than it was over the...
Pharma CEO: It's a 'Moral Requirement' to Raise Prices

By Michael Rainey

Nostrum Laboratories, a small pharmaceutical firm based in Missouri, raised the price of the antibiotic nitrofurantoin from $474.75 to $2,392 a bottle last month. Here is how the CEO, Nirmal Mulye,...
Charging Almost $200 for a Bottle of Pills Worth $6

By Yuval Rosenberg

Bloomberg’s Robert Langreth, David Ingold and Jackie Gu take a fascinatingly detailed look at the “secret drug pricing system” that generates millions of dollars for pharmacy benefit managers,...
The Remedy For Surprise Medical Bills May Lie In Stitching Up Federal Law

By Michelle Andrews and Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News

When Drew Calver had a heart attack last year, his health plan paid nearly $56,000 for the 44-year-old’s four-day emergency hospital stay at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, a hospital...

Senate Spending Bill Would Provide $425 Million Boost for Alzheimer's Research

By Yuval Rosenberg

The spending bill passed by the Senate on Thursday would increase funding for Alzheimer’s research by $425 million, to $2.3 billion total — “essentially quadrupling spending levels from four years...
Medicaid Covers Foster Kids, but Daunting Health Needs Still Slip Through the Cracks

By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

Sherri and Thomas Croom have been foster parents to 27 children — from newborns to teenagers — during the past decade. That has meant visits to dozens of doctors and dentists for issues ranging from...
$Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during an event to introduce the "Medicare for All Act of 2017\$

Poll of the Day: 70% of Americans Support Medicare for All

By Yuval Rosenberg

A large majority of Americans, 70 percent, supports the idea of “Medicare for all,” according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll . The poll found that 85 percent of Democrats now back the Medicare expansion —...
What Does a Knee Replacement Cost? The Stunning Story from One Hospital

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Wall Street Journal’s Melanie Evans tells the mind-blowing tale of one hospital that decided to figure out how much a knee-replacement operation — the most common type of surgery in U.S...
100 Days In, Trump Administration Says Plan to Lower Drug Prices Is Working

By Yuval Rosenberg

The White House released its blueprint to lower drug prices on May 11, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Monday touted the results it said it has achieved in the 100 days since...