Health Care

Lawmakers Battle Over Veterans Health Funding

By Yuval Rosenberg

A complicated fight over spending on a veterans health program is throwing a wrench into the congressional appropriations process for 2019. The showdown could force lawmakers to fall back on another...
New Indexes Track Rising Drug Prices

By Yuval Rosenberg

Bloomberg News today introduced price indexes for some of the most common and best-known drugs. The indexes cover 40 of the most widely used treatments across six categories: “diabetes, cancer, HIV,...
Former HHS Secretary Tom Price Wasted More Than $300,000 on Travel

By Michael Rainey

President Trump’s former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price improperly spent at least $341,000 on travel, according to an Inspector General report issued Friday. The IG reviewed 21 trips...
Medicaid Insurers Could Be Doing More to Catch Fraud and Abuse: Report

By Yuval Rosenberg

Medicaid insurers could be doing more to prevent fraud, waste and abuse that cost states billions of dollars a year, according to a new report released by the Office of Inspector General of the...
Some Drugmakers Are Canceling Price Hikes – but Not Because of Trump

By Yuval Rosenberg

Pfizer may have decided to roll back drug price hikes after being criticized by President Trump, but Bloomberg reports that several other large drugmakers are canceling or reducing planned price...

What Pfizer’s Drug Price Hike Reversal Really Means

By Yuval Rosenberg

After being publicly blasted by President Trump and then having an “extensive discussion” with him, drug giant Pfizer announced Tuesday that it will roll back the price hikes that took effect July 1...
Democrats Rally Against Threats To The ACA To Block Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee

By Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News

Senate Democrats, who are divided on abortion policy, are instead turning to health care as a rallying cry for opposition to President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Specifically, they are...
Kavanaugh Supreme Court Fight Will Be All About Health Care

By Yuval Rosenberg

The fight over President Trump’s pick of Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is on, with Democrats launching what The Washington Post called “an all-out blitz” to defeat the...
Here’s Who’s Winning the War Over Obamacare

By Yuval Rosenberg

The years-long battles over Obamacare aren’t over yet, but one clear winner has emerged, writes Joanne Kenen at Politico. Health-care consultants are reaping a bonanza. The ingredients are ripe for...
Trump Administration Freezes Obamacare Payments

By Michael Rainey

The Trump administration announced Saturday that it will freeze billions of dollars in payments to insurance companies participating in the federal health program established by the Affordable Care...

Health Care Prices Are Now the GOP’s Problem

By Yuval Rosenberg

Republicans have a health care problem on their hands. Rising health care costs and Affordable Care Act premiums that are set to jump by double digits for 2019 could fuel voter anger, Politico’s Paul...
Last Chance to Repeal the Affordable Care Act?

By Michael Rainey

A conservative group released a proposal Tuesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act in August and give control over health care to the states, The Wall Street Journal reports . The proposal from the...
New Rules for Health Care Plans for Small Businesses

By Michael Rainey

Fulfilling an executive order signed by President Trump last fall, the Labor Department on Tuesday released new rules expanding the use of association health plans, which allow self-employed...
As Medicaid Costs Soar, States Try a New Approach

By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

MINNEAPOLIS — Sandy Dowland has been to the emergency room 10 times in the past year and was hospitalized during four of those visits. She has had a toe amputated and suffers from uncontrolled...
Court Rules That US Doesn’t Owe Insurers Disputed Obamacare Payments

By Yuval Rosenberg

The federal government does not have to pay health insurers money they claimed they are owed under an Obamacare program, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. In a 2-1 ruling, the panel of judges...