Health Care

Republicans Push Ahead on Medicaid Restrictions

By Michael Rainey

The Trump administration on Friday approved Ohio’s request to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. Starting in 2021, the state will require most able-bodied adults aged 19 to 49 to either...
Warren Buffett’s Prescription for Fixing US Health Care

By Yuval Rosenberg

Warren Buffett says the U.S. health care industry must overcome its resistance to change and figure out ways to fix itself — or run the risk that the public will start clamoring for a government-run...
$Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during an event to introduce the "Medicare for All Act of 2017\$

A New Tool for Comparing ‘Medicare for All’ Plans

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Commonwealth Fund, a non-partisan health care foundation, introduced an interactive tool this week that allows users to compare congressional health care reform bills, including various Medicare...
A Surprise Move for Prescription Drug Prices

By Michael Rainey

Prescription drug prices did something last month they haven’t done in 47 years: they went down. The monthly Consumer Price Index report released Tuesday showed a 1.0 percent decline in the price of...
Spending More for Less Health Care

By The Fiscal Times Staff

An analysis of more than 1.8 billion medical claims by the Health Care Cost Institute found that prices for health care services rose about 13 percent between 2012 and 2016, while usage dropped by...

Lots of Young Americans Are Fine With ‘Socialism’

By Michael Rainey

A new Harris poll published by Axios shows that members of the Millennial (in their 20s to mid-30s) and Gen Z (still mostly in their teens) age cohorts are more likely than previous generations to...
Following the Money Trail for Prescription Drugs

By Michael Rainey

The United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars on prescription drugs each year, but the money flows through a complex network of drug manufacturers, wholesalers, pharmacies, pharmacy...
Chart of the Week: How Americans Feel About the Health Care System

By Yuval Rosenberg

As Democrats debate “Medicare for All,” a new roundup of public opinion on health reform published this week by the American Enterprise Institute provides some useful background. For decades now, an...
Like Netflix, but for Prescription Drugs

By The Fiscal Times Staff

The New York Times’ Tina Rosenberg lays out an idea for getting Big Pharma to make important new medicines affordable: Treat the drugs like Netflix treats its shows. You pay a flat fee and then can...
‘Skin in the Game’ Doesn’t Make Patients Better Health-Care Shoppers: Study

By Yuval Rosenberg

Proponents of high-deductible insurance plans argue they make consumers better health-care shoppers. The idea is that asking patients to cover more of their health care costs — to have “skin in the...

The Affordable Care Act Has an Affordability Problem

By Yuval Rosenberg

Affordable Care Act premiums are becoming unaffordable for many middle-income Americans who don’t qualify for federal subsidies, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The...
Eli Lilly to Offer Half-Price Generic Insulin

By Michael Rainey

With the pharmaceutical industry facing congressional investigation for its high prices, Eli Lilly announced Monday that it will sell a generic version of Humalog, its most popular insulin, for $137...
Most Americans Say Drug Prices Are ‘Unreasonable’

By Michael Rainey

A majority of Americans say that new prescription drugs have made life at least a little better over the last 20 years, but they also think that drug prices are unreasonably high – and drug company...
3 Reasons Democrats' New 'Medicare for All' Bill Really Matters

By Yuval Rosenberg

The broad new Medicare for All bill unveiled Wednesday by a group of House Democrats led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) likely has no chance of being enacted by Congress this term, but that doesn’t...
Your Total Health Care Costs May Be Higher Than You Think

By Michael Rainey

People aren’t necessarily aware of how much money they and their employers spend on health care overall, but when you add it up the total can be a bit of a shock. At Axios, Drew Altman of the Kaiser...