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Americans pay a lot for pharmaceuticals, and politicians of all stripes are offering prescription drug price-relief proposals to force prices downward. Top-down approaches, though, carry a high chance of failure. The astronomical price incorporates the massive up-front costs of testing and gaining FDA approval. The often erratic and unpredictable process can take 15 years and…

Pharmacists and some health experts are opposing a legislative proposal to permit the wholesale bulk importation of drugs from Canada to Maine, arguing that it could result in unsafe drugs coming in to Maine and drug shortages in Canada. Kenneth McCall, past president of the Maine Pharmacy Association, said that trying to import Canadian price controls is…

The Trump administration formally declared its opposition to the entire ACA on Wednesday, arguing in a federal appeals court filing that the signature Obama-era legislation was unconstitutional and should be struck down. The filing was made in a case challenging the law brought by Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, and 17 other Republican-led…

The Trump administration is making it a top priority to protect doctors, hospitals or other medical providers who object on a moral or religious basis to providing services like abortion, sterilization or assisted suicide. In a 440-page rule issued Thursday, the HHS Office of Civil Rights said it will use a broader array of tools to enforce more than two dozen “conscience protection” laws, some that have been on the books since the 1970s.

House Democrats on Wednesday unveiled a more moderate proposal for expanding health care coverage than M4All legislation supported by a number of the party’s 2020 presidential candidates. The Medicare for America Act, sponsored by Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), would not move the entire country into a single government-sponsored health plan. It…

The core appeal of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate’s Medicare for All proposals, whether it’s optional buy-ins floated by moderate Democrats or Sen. Bernie Sanders’s comprehensive single-payer reforms, is the notion that enormous savings could be generated by dispensing with private insurance. Advocates claim that that insurer profits, as well as costs associated with managing risk…

Creating a single-payer health–care system in the U.S. would be a “major undertaking that would involve substantial changes” to medical coverage, according to a report issued by the Congressional Budget Office. The nonpartisan agency that evaluates the potential budgetary, economic and other effects of legislative proposals didn’t assess any specific bill or estimate costs. “The transition toward…

More than 100 House Democrats have endorsed Rep. Jayapal’s Medicare for All Act of 2019. Fourteen Democratic senators have co-sponsored a similar bill from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The title is deeply misleading. It implies that the current Medicare system would be extended to all Americans. In fact, Medicare for All differs from Medicare in…

Americans are frustrated with the current health care system. Care costs far too much. Millions are priced out of the insurance market, and even those with insurance say premiums and deductibles are so high they might as well be uninsured.  But when government officials make decisions about what services will be covered, how much providers will be paid, and how much citizens must pay in mandatory federal taxes, consumers will have even fewer choices and less control than they do today. 

“Medicare for All” sounds good until you see its high price tag and consider the implications it would have on the quality and access to health care.  The House Rules Committee held its first ever hearing Tuesday on the Democrats’ Medicare for All bill introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). The bill would implement a government takeover of health care coverage, where…