Health Care

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

Voter Support for 'Medicare for All' Plunges: Poll

By Yuval Rosenberg

With Democratic proposals to provide “Medicare for all” increasingly in the headlines — and increasingly the subject of debate over whether the program would or should involve eliminating private...
Medicare, Medicaid Control Costs Better Than Private Insurers: Study

By Yuval Rosenberg

Growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending per enrollee was slower than in private insurance between 2006 and 2017, according to an analysis released this week by the Urban Institute. Medicare spending...
Affordable Care Act Hasn’t Reduced Bankruptcies: Study

By Michael Rainey

Medical problems are still the most common cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S., according to a new study in the American Journal of Public Health. Using a sample of 910 Americans who filed for...
White House: Trump Didn’t Sabotage Obamacare — and We’re Savings Billions on Health Care

By Michael Rainey

President Trump boasted during his State of the Union address this week about eliminating the “very unpopular” individual mandate that was a key part of the Affordable Care Act, and has claimed at...
Why Record Approvals for Generic Drugs May Not Save Consumers Much Money

By Michael Rainey

The Trump administration has pushed to speed up the approval process for generic drugs as part of its strategy to lower drug prices. A recent study by PwC found that the Food and Drug Administration...

Record Approvals for Generic Drugs, but Many Aren’t for Sale

By Sydney Lupkin and Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News

The Trump administration has been trumpeting a huge increase in FDA generic drug approvals the past two years, the result of its actions to streamline a cumbersome process and combat anti-competitive...
Are Democrats Really Going ‘Socialist’?

By Michael Rainey

President Trump earned a rousing cheer from Republican lawmakers during his State of the Union address when he proclaimed, “America will never be a socialist country.” His proud declaration echoed...
SOTU 2019: 3 Important Things Trump Said, and 1 Big Thing He Didn’t

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump’s 82-minute-long State of the Union address Tuesday night put a uniquely Trumpian spin on the usual recipe for the address: a healthy helping of rah-rah patriotism and legislative...
Ideas To Curb Surprise Medical Bills Percolate With Rare Bipartisan Push

By Shefali Luthra and Emmarie Huetteman, Kaiser Health News

Surrounded by patients who told horror stories of being stuck with hefty bills, President Donald Trump recently waded into a widespread health care problem for which almost everyone — even those with...
Why Hospital Prices Are Rising Fast

By Michael Rainey

Prescription drugs get much of the attention when it comes to soaring medical costs, but a new study published in Health Affairs finds that hospital prices have been rising quickly as well — more...

Secretive ‘Rebate Trap’ Keeps Generic Drugs for Diabetes and Other Ills Out of Reach

By Jay Hancock and Sydney Lupkin, Kaiser Health News

Lisa Crook was lucky. She saved $800 last year after her insurance company started covering a new, less expensive insulin called Basaglar that was virtually identical to the brand she had used for...
Patient Groups Criticize Trump Drug Pricing Proposals in New Ad Campaign

By Yuval Rosenberg

A coalition of more than 50 patient advocacy and medical groups is warning that a Trump administration proposal to reduce certain Medicare drug prices “will put patients’ lives at risk.” The groups,...
7 Ideas to Lower Drug Prices

By Michael Rainey

Lawmakers are pushing multiple policy proposals to address the problem of rising drug prices. Vox’s Dylan Scott provided a roundup Monday of the leading idea for reducing drug prices in the U.S.,...
House Democrats to Investigate Drug Prices

By Michael Rainey

A key House investigative committee announced Monday that it was launching a wide-ranging investigation into the pricing practices of 12 major pharmaceutical companies, including Amgen, Eli Lilly,...
Lawmakers Push Bills to Cut Prescription Drug Costs

By Yuval Rosenberg

With the new Congress now in session, lawmakers have been rushing to unveil legislation to rein in rising drug prices, and the Trump administration’s top health official has been talking tough about...