Health Care

Would a Democratic Win in the Midterms Lead to Lower Prescription Drug Prices?

By Yuval Rosenberg

We’re 200 days away from November’s midterms, and while we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves — 200 days, after all, could also be counted as about 20 Scaramuccis in Trumpworld — Goldman...
Medicaid’s $37 Billion 'Improper Payments' Problem

By Michael Rainey

Total outlays for Medicaid reached $596 billion in the 2017 fiscal year, up from $565 billion in 2016, and the program’s vast size and complexity makes it particularly vulnerable to issuing large...
Paul Ryan's Fiscal Legacy: Lots of Red Ink

By Yuval Rosenberg

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Wednesday that he won’t seek re-election this year and will retire at the end of his term in January, becoming the most prominent in a wave of Republican lawmakers...
Yellen, Democratic Economists Say Fixing Debt Crisis Isn’t All About Entitlements

By Yuval Rosenberg

Late last month, a quintet of big-name Hoover Institution economists warned in a Washington Post op-ed that a coming “string of perpetually rising trillion-dollar-plus deficits” could soon lead to a...
How Walmart Could Fix the US Health Care System

By Christina Farr and Lauren Hirsch, CNBC

Walmart, the nation's biggest employer, is trying to redesign how U.S. health care works. It's one of the few companies that has the power to succeed. The retailer has been having early-stage talks...

California Takes On Health Giant Over High Costs

By Chad Terhune and Ana B. Ibarra, Kaiser Health News

California’s attorney general sued Sutter Health, accusing the hospital giant of illegally quashing competition and for years overcharging consumers and employers. The lawsuit marked a bold move by...
Obamacare Plans Could See Double-Digit Rate Hikes

By Michael Rainey

Congress failed to include an Obamacare stabilization package in the omnibus spending bill, and you can expect to see big price hikes for health care plans sold on the Obamacare exchanges in 2019,...
Elizabeth Warren Has New Plan to Improve Health Care – and It Isn’t Medicare for All

By Yuval Rosenberg

A recent poll found that likely voters want the Democratic Party to prioritize health care if it controls Congress and the White House in 2021. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is on it. Warren on...
White House Says Obamacare Insurers Are Raking In Healthy Profits

By Yuval Rosenberg

Health insurers are now making healthy profits in the Affordable Care Act markets, the White House Council of Economic Advisers says in a new report . “Despite significant initial financial losses in...
Drug Prices Still Rising

By Michael Rainey

Shortly before taking office, President-elect Trump famously said that drug makers were “getting away with murder” and vowed to “bring down drug prices.” But a new analysis by Pharmacy Benefits...

Are Democrats Now Working to Repeal and Replace Obamacare?

By Michael Rainey

The Center for American Progress – “a think tank that is the closest thing to a Democratic government-in-exile,” according to Paul Waldman of The Washington Post – released a universal health care...
Trump’s Historic Shift on Medicaid

By Michael Ollove, Stateline

Requiring able-bodied adults to work for their Medicaid is just part of the Trump administration’s drive to remake the decades-old health insurance program for the poor. The administration signaled...
Why Health Care Spending Is Headed Higher

By Michael Rainey

Health care spending in the U.S. is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.5 percent from 2017 through 2026, faster than the rate of GDP growth. As a result, health care spending will...
How Trump’s Budget Would Cut the Social Safety Net

By Yuval Rosenberg

As a candidate, President Trump said he would not cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. But his 2019 budget proposal seeks to reduce spending on all three programs and other parts of the social...
The 5 Key Parts of Trump's Plan to Lower Prescription Drug Prices

By Yuval Rosenberg

The White House budget released Monday includes a number of ideas for lowering the cost of prescription drugs: Passing on discounts and rebates negotiated by pharmacy benefit managers to seniors...