Health Care

Top Issues for Midterm Voters: Health Care, the Economy, Guns

By The Fiscal Times Staff

No surprise: Health care is the top issue for voters heading into next month’s elections, though Republicans say immigration and the economy are more important to them, according to the latest Kaiser...
McConnell: Entitlement Cuts Probably Won’t Happen Under Trump

By Yuval Rosenberg

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) unleashed a storm of Democratic criticism earlier this week by telling Bloomberg News that rising deficits and debt are driven by Social Security,...
These 5 Companies Would Be Hit Hardest by Trump’s Drug Ad Proposal

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration’s proposal to require drugmakers to disclose their prices in television ads would hit five companies especially hard: Pfizer, AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Amgen and Allergan, STAT...
Medicare For All? CMS Chief Warns Program Has Enough Problems Already

By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

The Trump administration’s top Medicare official Tuesday slammed the federal health program as riddled with problems that hinder care to beneficiaries, increase costs for taxpayers and escalate fraud...
Mitch McConnell on Rising Deficit: ‘It’s Not a Republican Problem'

By Yuval Rosenberg

The quotes: “It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem. It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the...

What Will Work Requirements for Medicaid and Food Stamps Really Accomplish?

By The Fiscal Times Staff

A new paper from the Brookings Institution raises more doubts about the usefulness of work requirements for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). More than a dozen states...
GOP Scrambles to Send a Pre-Election Message on Pre-Existing Conditions

By Yuval Rosenberg

From The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann : “Thirty-two of the 49 GOP incumbents in races deemed competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report have backed congressional measures on pre-existing...
Chart of the Day: The Surge in Medicare Advantage Enrollment

By Yuval Rosenberg

Enrollment in Medicare Advantage, the government-funded private health plans that serve as an alternative to traditional Medicare, has doubled since 2010, writes Phil Galewitz at Kaiser Health News...
Trump’s New Medicaid Chief Is a Medicaid Critic

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration has reportedly named Mary Mayhew , a former Maine health commissioner, as deputy administrator and director of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)...
Trump Administration Seeks to Force Drugmakers to Post Prices in Ads

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with its plan to require drugmakers to disclose their list prices for medications in consumer advertising, much as they warn about possible side effects. The...

Out-of-Network Health Coverage Is Waning

By Yuval Rosenberg

Surprise medical bills have gotten considerable attention in recent months — like this story , in which a high school teacher was charged nearly $109,000 by the hospital where he was treated for a...
In the Battle to Control Drug Costs, Old Patent Laws Get New Life

By Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News

In the drug pricing battle, progressive lawmakers such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and patients’ rights activists rarely find themselves in step with the health industry’s big players. But in a...
Medicare for All? 6 Big Questions Any Realistic Plan Must Answer

By Michael Rainey

“Medicare for All” has become a rallying cry for many progressive Democrats, and it’s a good bet that efforts to expand the popular insurance program will help shape the health care battleground over...
Dietary Number of the Day: 36.6 Percent

By The Fiscal Times Staff

Nearly 37 percent of American adults ate fast food on any given day between 2013 and 2016, according to a new CDC data brief . Perhaps surprisingly, the CDC found that fast food consumption grew with...
Cost of Family Health Insurance Now Nearly $20,000 a Year

By Michael Rainey

Annual premiums for employer-provided health insurance hit an average of $19,616 for a family this year, a rise of 5 percent over 2017, according to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation...