Health Care

A White House Report Slams Pelosi’s Drug Plan. Experts Call Its Claims ‘Nonsense’

By Yuval Rosenberg

The White House Council of Economic Advisers issued a report Tuesday warning that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bill to lower prescription drug prices would have devastating health and economic costs...
How a Public Option Would Affect the Insurance Market

By Michael Rainey

Several Democratic presidential candidates say a public option for health insurance would provide a more moderate, less disruptive alternative to the Medicare for All plan backed by Senators Bernie...
Joe Biden Says Pete Buttigieg ‘Stole’ His Health Care Plan

By Yuval Rosenberg

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that Pete Buttigieg, a surging rival for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, “stole” his health care proposal to expand the Affordable Care Act...
63% Say U.S. Health Care Has Huge Problems — and That’s an Improvement

By Yuval Rosenberg

Here’s a nugget of good news: Nearly two-thirds of Americans surveyed by Gallup say that the U.S. health care system is in a state of crisis or has major problems. Yes, that’s good news because...
Chart of the Day: Record Low Poverty Rate

By Michael Rainey

The extensive array of government assistance programs — including Social Security, unemployment insurance, veterans’ benefits, nutritional aid, rental assistance and the Earned Income Tax Credit —...

Feud Between Top Officials Hinders Trump Health Care Agenda: Report

By Yuval Rosenberg

A deep, personal feud between President Trump’s health secretary and his Medicare administrator has undermined the administration’s health care agenda and disrupted the development of an Obamacare...
Fact Check: Do 160 Million Americans Really Like Their Health Plans?

By Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News

Articulating his proposal for health care reform, former Vice President Joe Biden emphasized the number of Americans who, he said, were more than perfectly satisfied with the coverage they have. “One...
How Hospital Price Transparency Can Lead to Lower Costs

By Neeraj Sood, The Conversation

New federal regulations finalized Nov. 15 require hospitals to make public all the prices they negotiate with insurers and health plans, starting in 2021. The aim is to untangle the hospital...
A Big Potential Problem for Medicare for All: Jobs

By Michael Rainey

Massive cost reduction is a crucial feature of the Medicare-for-All proposals from Democratic candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, with a big chunk of the trillions in savings coming from...
Would Medicare for All Save the U.S. Money?

By Yuval Rosenberg

Politico’s policy magazine, The Agenda, on Monday rolled out a special issue focused on Medicare for All, with much of the package centered on a key question: Would switching to a single-payer system...

When Private Equity and Health Care Mix

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Washington Post’s Peter Whorisky and Dan Keating provide a heart-wrenching investigation into what happened at the HCR ManorCare nursing home chain under the ownership of the Carlyle Group, a...
In Health Insurance Wastelands, Rosier Options Crop Up For 2019

By Jordan Rau, Kaiser Health News

In recent years, places such as Memphis and Phoenix had withered into health insurance wastelands as insurers fled and premiums skyrocketed in the insurance marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care...
Poll of the Day: Which Party Will Do Better at Lowering Drug Prices?

By Yuval Rosenberg

Americans don’t trust President Trump and Republicans to bring down prescription drug prices, a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll finds. “But what stands out,” Axios’ Sam Baker writes, “isn't just that [...
Number of the Day: $456 million

By Michael Rainey

PhRMA, the lobbying group that represents the pharmaceutical industry, had a banner year in 2017, bringing in $456 million, Axios reported Tuesday. Much of the total, which represents a 69 percent...
Bernie Sanders’ New Drug Plan Sounds a Bit Like Trump’s

By Michael Rainey

A new proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) would require pharmaceutical companies to reduce prices on some drugs down to levels found in other wealthy countries — or...