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Last year, fewer than half of the districts had health care as a top search. Now, more than three-quarters have it as a top search. This is surprising but not shocking. We reported last week that health care was the most popular subject for political ads in August, with more than half of the ads…

To get health care costs under control, we must restore market forces and equip patients to be involved in their care. That means empowering the doctor-patient relationship, which benefits not just the patient’s health, but also the patient’s pocketbook. Currently, practice, laws and regulations work to keep the power and money surrounding health care decisions in the hands of bureaucrats, lawyers and lobbyists. That is wrong.

Former President Barack Obama promised the Affordable Care Act would bend “the cost curve and [start] to reduce costs for families, businesses, and government.” But his pledge has gone unfulfilled – patients and taxpayers are spending record amounts on healthcare. This year, total healthcare spending will increase 5.3 percent, according to a recent estimate from the Centers for…

Premiums for individual coverage averaged $440 per month while premiums for family plans averaged $1,168 per month. The graphs below demonstrate the rise in both individual and family premiums since the ACA’s inception. The average annual deductible for individual plans was $4,578 and the average deductible for family plans was $8,803. The graphs below demonstrate the rise in both family and individual deductibles since the ACA’s inception.

Republicans are sending mixed messages on federalism. On “gag clauses,” all Republicans save two voted on Monday to intrude on states’ handling of pharmaceutical negotiations — even though a majority of states have passed legislation on this topic, including 15 just this year. And on “surprise billing,” Sen. Bill Cassidy — sponsor of the Graham-Cassidy legislation — apparently thinks…

Imagine government bureaucrats in Washington deciding whether your life is worth saving or not. Such a nightmare that could very well become a reality should the Democrats get their way. When the government gets involved in healthcare, it always leads to disaster and death — and “Medicare for All” is the crown jewel of social…

HHS wants insight from private companies like venture capital firms and startup incubators on strategies to accelerate investment, innovation and research in healthcare. The agency on Wednesday announced the formation of the Deputy Secretary’s Innovation and Investment Summit, a yearlong collaboration with HHS officials and various private healthcare companies and investors. The creation of the…

With Americans increasingly concerned about drug prices and the Trump administration’s drug-pricing blueprintsupporting free-market pathways, the overriding question is: How do we inject more competition into the system by which drugs are purchased and dispensed?  Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has already moved to accelerate generic drug approvals, and now he wants to…

States serve as “laboratories of democracy,” as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said. And states are also labs for health policy, launching all kinds of experiments lately to temper spending on pharmaceuticals. No wonder. Drugs are among the fastest-rising health care costs for many consumers and are a key reason health care spending…

No one wants to sit in an exam room while the doctor spends precious minutes entering billing information into an electronic health record. But frustrations like this don’t mean we should give up on technology’s potential to improve health outcomes. The data collected by a new generation of digital health products—including smart watches, smartphones and…