Health Care

How Health Care Spending Soared by $1 Trillion in 10 Years

By Yuval Rosenberg

Health care spending per person for Americans with employer-provided health insurance rose by 44 percent, or 4.1 percent a year, from 2007 through 2016, according to a new study in Health Affairs ...
Who Will Protect Medicare? GOP, Dems Duke It Out

By Yuval Rosenberg

The 2018 election may be a referendum on President Donald Trump, but it’s also turning into a battle over Medicare, at least in some key races. The Washington Post’s David Weigel reports that...
Kudlow: ‘I Don’t Buy’ That Tax Cuts Boosted Deficit

By Yuval Rosenberg

Larry Kudlow is at it again. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, the top economic adviser to President Trump said that, while the administration is looking to cut federal spending — including...
House to Considers Billions in Cuts to Obamacare Taxes

By Michael Rainey

In addition to a package of bills that would make the individual tax cuts permanent , the House is expected to consider legislation this week that would delay or roll back multiple tax provisions in...
Arkansas Drops Thousands from Medicaid

By Michael Rainey

More than 4,000 people will lose their Medicaid coverage in Arkansas for failing to meet the state’s new work requirements. Earlier this year, the Trump administration approved the new work rules,...

‘Things Are So Much Worse’ – but Does Anyone Care About the Deficit?

By Yuval Rosenberg

As we told you yesterday , the Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the deficit for the first 11 months of fiscal 2018 totaled $895 billion, or $222 billion more than it was over the...
Pharma CEO: It's a 'Moral Requirement' to Raise Prices

By Michael Rainey

Nostrum Laboratories, a small pharmaceutical firm based in Missouri, raised the price of the antibiotic nitrofurantoin from $474.75 to $2,392 a bottle last month. Here is how the CEO, Nirmal Mulye,...
Charging Almost $200 for a Bottle of Pills Worth $6

By Yuval Rosenberg

Bloomberg’s Robert Langreth, David Ingold and Jackie Gu take a fascinatingly detailed look at the “secret drug pricing system” that generates millions of dollars for pharmacy benefit managers,...
The Remedy For Surprise Medical Bills May Lie In Stitching Up Federal Law

By Michelle Andrews and Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News

When Drew Calver had a heart attack last year, his health plan paid nearly $56,000 for the 44-year-old’s four-day emergency hospital stay at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, a hospital...
Trump Says He Made Social Security, Medicare Stronger. Fact-Checker Says False.

By The Fiscal Times Staff

President Trump said this week that "Democrats want to destroy Medicare. If you look at what they’re doing, they’re going to destroy Medicare. And we will save it. We will keep it going. We’re making...

Can ‘Medicare for All’ Carry Democrats at the Polls?

By Yuval Rosenberg

The idea of “Medicare for all” has support from top Democrats considered likely 2020 presidential contenders, including Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory...
HHS Secretary Azar Says His Agency Has Power to End Drug Rebates

By Yuval Rosenberg

The battle over high prescription drug prices, unsurprisingly, involves ample amounts of finger-pointing. Drug manufacturers point to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the powerful middlemen who...
Republicans Running Against Obamacare, but What Happens if They Win?

By Michael Rainey

Many GOP candidates are campaigning against the Affordable Care Act, telling voters that they plan to do away with it entirely if Republicans are able to maintain control of Congress in November. The...
Health Insurance Premiums Stabilizing

By The Fiscal Times Staff

Stateline reports that insurance plans sold through the federal marketplaces are seeing much smaller price increases compared to last year. “Despite Republican efforts to undermine the Affordable...
Surprise Medical Bills Even for Patients with Insurance

By Michael Rainey

Patients with comprehensive health insurance are still getting hit with unforeseen and often substantial out-of-network bills, according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. KKF analyzed...