Health Care

Medicaid Work Rules Approved for South Carolina

By Michael Rainey

The Trump administration on Thursday approved South Carolina’s request to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...
Watchdog Questions $6.7 Billion in Medicare Payments

By Michael Rainey

Health insurance companies in the Medicare Advantage program have received billions in extra payments after making adjustments to their patient charts – changes that the Department of Health and...
House Passes Pelosi’s Sweeping Drug Bill

By The Fiscal Times Staff

A bill backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi that would empower the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices passed the House Thursday in a 230-192 vote, largely along party lines. As we told you...
Shocking Health Care Statistic of the Day

By Michael Rainey

Consumer health insurance costs are up more than 20% year over year, according to the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index data released Wednesday. Medical care costs overall have risen 4.2% from...
Ready to Rumble: How Pelosi’s Drug Bill Sets Up Dems for 2020

By Michael Rainey

After making a deal with liberal Democrats Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to have cleared the way for a vote this week on a sweeping bill that would empower Medicare to negotiate drug...

Congress Really Wants to Get Something Done on Drug Prices. It May Fail Anyway

By Yuval Rosenberg

Lawmakers are eager to show they can deliver on the issues the American public cares most about, so even as House Democrats unveiled two articles of impeachment against President Trump on Tuesday,...
Surprise Deal to Protect Patients From Surprise Medical Bills

By Michael Rainey

After struggling for months to reach consensus, a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers announced Sunday evening they had come to an agreement on legislation that would protect patients from...
Obamacare Back at the Supreme Court — With Billions for Insurers on the Line

By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

More than $12 billion is at stake for the nation’s health insurers Tuesday when the Supreme Court hears another Affordable Care Act case. For the federal government, the potential damages could be...
The Rising Tide of Health Care Costs

By The Fiscal Times Staff

We told you yesterday about new data from the Medicare actuaries showing health care spending in the U.S. hitting a record high last year, totaling $3.65 trillion overall, or more than $11,000 per...
The Healthiest — and Unhealthiest — US States

By Yuval Rosenberg

Vermont is the healthiest state in the U.S., according to the latest annual ranking by the United Health Foundation. Vermont climbed three spots, thanks in part to “a low incidence of chlamydia, a...

Column of the Day: Maxed Out on the Medicare Debate

By The Fiscal Times Staff

Democrats have overdone it on the Medicare debate, writes New York Times columnist David Leonhardt: “It’s time for the 2020 campaign — both the media and the candidates — to broaden its focus. Health...
Lower Hopes for Bills to Lower Drug Prices

By Yuval Rosenberg

Legislation to lower prescription drug prices may be derailed this year by intraparty differences and the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump. The Wall Street Journal’s Stephanie...
Pelosi’s Drug Pricing Plan Could Face Constitutional Challenges: Report

By Yuval Rosenberg

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan to lower drug prices might violate three parts of the Constitution, according to an October 21 Congressional Research Service report obtained by STAT . The report...
Reality Check: Trump’s ‘Great’ Health-Care Plan Still Doesn’t Exist

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump on Friday claimed Republicans have a “great” health-care plan. “You'll have health care the likes of which you've never seen,” he told reporters. “Much less expensive. Deductibles...
Poll of the Day: Warren's Health-Care Gap

By Yuval Rosenberg

As Elizabeth Warren prepares to release her plan to pay for Medicare for All, a new Morning Consult poll finds that she trails Bernie Sanders by 13 percentage points among Democratic voters asked to...