Health Care

$Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during an event to introduce the "Medicare for All Act of 2017\$

For 2020 Dem Hopefuls, ‘Medicare-For-All’ Is A Defining Issue, However They Define It

By Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News

Democrats with 2020 presidential aspirations are courting the party’s increasingly influential progressive wing and staking out ambitious policy platforms. Front and center are three words: Medicare...
Baby Boomers Will Drive Health Care Spending to Nearly $6 Trillion a Year by 2027

By Yuval Rosenberg

As Baby Boomers continue to age and the prices of medical goods and services rise, growth in annual health care spending is projected speed up over the next eight years, the government said Wednesday...
Bernie Sanders Says He’s Running Again. Why 2020 Will Be Different Than 2016.

By Yuval Rosenberg

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced Tuesday that he’s making another run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Among the items on the 77-year-old democratic socialist’s 2020 agenda: enacting a...
Klobuchar Pitches Herself as Pragmatic Alternative to Progressive Dems

By Yuval Rosenberg

In a CNN town hall in New Hampshire Monday night, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) drew some clear distinctions between herself and some of the most progressive Democratic presidential candidates in the...
$Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during an event to introduce the "Medicare for All Act of 2017\$

Voter Support for 'Medicare for All' Plunges: Poll

By Yuval Rosenberg

With Democratic proposals to provide “Medicare for all” increasingly in the headlines — and increasingly the subject of debate over whether the program would or should involve eliminating private...

Medicare, Medicaid Control Costs Better Than Private Insurers: Study

By Yuval Rosenberg

Growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending per enrollee was slower than in private insurance between 2006 and 2017, according to an analysis released this week by the Urban Institute. Medicare spending...
Affordable Care Act Hasn’t Reduced Bankruptcies: Study

By Michael Rainey

Medical problems are still the most common cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S., according to a new study in the American Journal of Public Health. Using a sample of 910 Americans who filed for...
White House: Trump Didn’t Sabotage Obamacare — and We’re Savings Billions on Health Care

By Michael Rainey

President Trump boasted during his State of the Union address this week about eliminating the “very unpopular” individual mandate that was a key part of the Affordable Care Act, and has claimed at...
Why Record Approvals for Generic Drugs May Not Save Consumers Much Money

By Michael Rainey

The Trump administration has pushed to speed up the approval process for generic drugs as part of its strategy to lower drug prices. A recent study by PwC found that the Food and Drug Administration...
Record Approvals for Generic Drugs, but Many Aren’t for Sale

By Sydney Lupkin and Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News

The Trump administration has been trumpeting a huge increase in FDA generic drug approvals the past two years, the result of its actions to streamline a cumbersome process and combat anti-competitive...

Pulling Back Curtain on Hospital Prices Adds New Wrinkle in Cost Control

By Elisabeth Rosenthal, Kaiser Health News

As President Donald Trump was fighting with Congress over the shutdown and funding for a border wall, his administration implemented a new rule that could be a game changer for health care. Starting...
Cancer Drug Prices Are Out of Line: WHO

By Michael Rainey

The World Health Organization says that cancer drug prices have little or no connection to the cost of developing and manufacturing the treatments. "The costs of R&D and production may bear...
7 Million More Uninsured Under Trump

By Michael Rainey

The number of Americans lacking health insurance has increased by 7 million since Donald Trump became president, according to data released by Gallup Wednesday. The uninsured rate – the percentage of...
$Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks during an event to introduce the "Medicare for All Act of 2017\$

Will Democrats Settle for ‘Medicare for More’?

By Michael Rainey

A new wave of progressive Democrats may be pushing hard for universal healthcare under the banner of “Medicare for All,” but the party itself is leaning toward something more like “Medicare for More...
Secretive ‘Rebate Trap’ Keeps Generic Drugs for Diabetes and Other Ills Out of Reach

By Jay Hancock and Sydney Lupkin, Kaiser Health News

Lisa Crook was lucky. She saved $800 last year after her insurance company started covering a new, less expensive insulin called Basaglar that was virtually identical to the brand she had used for...