Health Care

Trump White House Takes Aim at the ‘Socialist’ Threat

By Michael Rainey

The Trump administration wants to make it perfectly clear that socialism is a very bad thing as far as it’s concerned, releasing a 72-page economic report on the topic Tuesday to hammer the point...
Top Issues for Midterm Voters: Health Care, the Economy, Guns

By The Fiscal Times Staff

No surprise: Health care is the top issue for voters heading into next month’s elections, though Republicans say immigration and the economy are more important to them, according to the latest Kaiser...
McConnell: Entitlement Cuts Probably Won’t Happen Under Trump

By Yuval Rosenberg

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) unleashed a storm of Democratic criticism earlier this week by telling Bloomberg News that rising deficits and debt are driven by Social Security,...
These 5 Companies Would Be Hit Hardest by Trump’s Drug Ad Proposal

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration’s proposal to require drugmakers to disclose their prices in television ads would hit five companies especially hard: Pfizer, AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Amgen and Allergan, STAT...
Medicare For All? CMS Chief Warns Program Has Enough Problems Already

By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

The Trump administration’s top Medicare official Tuesday slammed the federal health program as riddled with problems that hinder care to beneficiaries, increase costs for taxpayers and escalate fraud...

Mitch McConnell on Rising Deficit: ‘It’s Not a Republican Problem'

By Yuval Rosenberg

The quotes: “It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem. It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the...
What Will Work Requirements for Medicaid and Food Stamps Really Accomplish?

By The Fiscal Times Staff

A new paper from the Brookings Institution raises more doubts about the usefulness of work requirements for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). More than a dozen states...
GOP Scrambles to Send a Pre-Election Message on Pre-Existing Conditions

By Yuval Rosenberg

From The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann : “Thirty-two of the 49 GOP incumbents in races deemed competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report have backed congressional measures on pre-existing...
Chart of the Day: The Surge in Medicare Advantage Enrollment

By Yuval Rosenberg

Enrollment in Medicare Advantage, the government-funded private health plans that serve as an alternative to traditional Medicare, has doubled since 2010, writes Phil Galewitz at Kaiser Health News...
Trump’s New Medicaid Chief Is a Medicaid Critic

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration has reportedly named Mary Mayhew , a former Maine health commissioner, as deputy administrator and director of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)...

A $24,000 Generic Drug Bargain?

By The Fiscal Times Staff

Gilead Sciences said it will start offering generic versions of its hepatitis C drugs Harvoni and Epclusa next year at a cost $24,000 for a full course of treatment. Gilead introduced Harvoni in 2014...
The Problem with Medicaid Work Requirements

By The Fiscal Times Staff

The New York Times’ Margot Sanger-Katz writes that there’s a “big problem” with Medicaid work requirements that the Trump administration says are meant to encourage low-income Americans to work,...
7 Numbers That Signal Trouble for the GOP

By Yuval Rosenberg

A new Fox News poll delivers a lengthy list of numbers that signal trouble for Republicans: Democrats hold a 7-point edge over Republicans in the generic congressional ballot for the midterm...
Where the Future of Medicaid Is on the Ballot in November

By The Fiscal Times Staff

“The future of Medicaid has a lot riding on the November elections,” writes Harris Meyer at Modern Healthcare. Seventeen states have declined to expand Medicaid since the Affordable Care Act made...
$Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during an event to introduce the "Medicare for All Act of 2017\$

How to Pay for Medicare for All? Supporters Say That’s the Wrong Question. Here’s Why.

By Yuval Rosenberg

Any Democrat proposing a transition to a Medicare-for-all system can expect to be pressed on a pivotal question: How do you plan to pay for it? The price tag: Various estimates have pegged the cost...