Health Care
Health Care
New Study: Medicare’s Price Controls Are Fueling America’s Growing Doctor Shortage
The Pacific Research Institute’s Center for Medical Economics and Innovation today released a new issue brief warning that continued federal underpayment of doctors is fueling a looming healthcare crisis by accelerating the nation’s physician shortage and undermining access to care. Written by PRI senior fellow in business and economics and ...
Wayne H Winegarden
June 11, 2025
Commentary
This Groundbreaking Insurance Reform Is Buried In The One Big, Beautiful Bill
The legislative package would codify and expand Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, which the first Trump administration introduced in 2019. ICHRAs allow employers to give workers untaxed dollars, which they can use to purchase health insurance on the individual market. In many ways, ICHRAs are the health insurance equivalent of retirement accounts to ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 9, 2025
Drug Pricing
D.C.’s Embrace of Price Controls Bad News for Patients
President Trump announced his intention last month to peg U.S. drug prices to those that foreign governments have set within their borders. The very same day, federal officials said they’d reveal in February 2026 a list of 15 drugs subject to price controls through Medicare’s Part B outpatient benefit and ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 6, 2025
Blog
Read the latest on the push for single-payer health care
What’s Wrong With Single-Payer? Ask Vermont.
In 2011, Vermont created Green Mountain Care, “a publicly financed health care program designed to contain costs and to provide comprehensive, affordable, high-quality health care coverage for all Vermont residents.” But the initiative didn’t last long. Estimates suggested the program would cost between $1.6 and $2.5 billion in just its ...
Sally C. Pipes
June 3, 2025
Commentary
America Shouldn’t Buy Into Single-Payer Mirage
Will the seventh time be the charm? Sen. Bernie Sanders sure hopes so. Vermont’s senior senator just introduced his latest bid to install Medicare for All in the United States. In seven of the last eight Congresses, dating back to 2011, he’s offered legislation to launch a government takeover of ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 30, 2025
Commentary
Potential Tariffs Will Harm Patients In The Name Of Protecting Them
Two months ago, the Commerce Department launched an investigation into whether pharmaceutical imports pose a threat to national security (i.e., a Section 232 investigation). Not only are the investigation’s accusations groundless, implementing the proposed remedy – more tariffs – will create the very problems that the investigation hopes to avoid. ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 29, 2025
Commentary
Away With Provider Taxes
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently published a rule targeting “provider taxes,” a financing gimmick states use to harvest extra Medicaid dollars from the federal government. Good on the Trump administration. Over the last decade and a half, states have exploited provider taxes and other financing loopholes to ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 27, 2025
Commentary
Tying U.S. Drug Prices To Foreign Markets Risks Innovation And Lives
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed what he called “one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history.” The order is essentially an updated version of his administration’s 2020 “Most Favored Nation” policy. It directs pharmaceutical companies to tie the U.S. prices of their drugs to the ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 27, 2025
Blog
Don’t Take Cutting-Edge Drugs for Granted
It’s hard to imagine a more destructive plan. Importing foreign price controls on prescription drugs would reduce access to existing treatments for everything from rare diseases to cancer. To understand why, consider two recent pieces by Michael Baker for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems.” ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 27, 2025
Commentary
Trump’s ‘Most Favored Nation’ Drug Plan Doesn’t Favor Americans
Last week, President Donald Trump revived one of the most ill-conceived health policy ideas of his first term. Via a new executive order, he’s directed his administration to deliver “most-favored-nation prescription drug pricing to American patients.” The idea is to bring other developed countries’ lower drug prices to the United ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 22, 2025
New Study: Medicare’s Price Controls Are Fueling America’s Growing Doctor Shortage
The Pacific Research Institute’s Center for Medical Economics and Innovation today released a new issue brief warning that continued federal underpayment of doctors is fueling a looming healthcare crisis by accelerating the nation’s physician shortage and undermining access to care. Written by PRI senior fellow in business and economics and ...
This Groundbreaking Insurance Reform Is Buried In The One Big, Beautiful Bill
The legislative package would codify and expand Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, which the first Trump administration introduced in 2019. ICHRAs allow employers to give workers untaxed dollars, which they can use to purchase health insurance on the individual market. In many ways, ICHRAs are the health insurance equivalent of retirement accounts to ...
D.C.’s Embrace of Price Controls Bad News for Patients
President Trump announced his intention last month to peg U.S. drug prices to those that foreign governments have set within their borders. The very same day, federal officials said they’d reveal in February 2026 a list of 15 drugs subject to price controls through Medicare’s Part B outpatient benefit and ...
Read the latest on the push for single-payer health care
What’s Wrong With Single-Payer? Ask Vermont.
In 2011, Vermont created Green Mountain Care, “a publicly financed health care program designed to contain costs and to provide comprehensive, affordable, high-quality health care coverage for all Vermont residents.” But the initiative didn’t last long. Estimates suggested the program would cost between $1.6 and $2.5 billion in just its ...
America Shouldn’t Buy Into Single-Payer Mirage
Will the seventh time be the charm? Sen. Bernie Sanders sure hopes so. Vermont’s senior senator just introduced his latest bid to install Medicare for All in the United States. In seven of the last eight Congresses, dating back to 2011, he’s offered legislation to launch a government takeover of ...
Potential Tariffs Will Harm Patients In The Name Of Protecting Them
Two months ago, the Commerce Department launched an investigation into whether pharmaceutical imports pose a threat to national security (i.e., a Section 232 investigation). Not only are the investigation’s accusations groundless, implementing the proposed remedy – more tariffs – will create the very problems that the investigation hopes to avoid. ...
Away With Provider Taxes
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently published a rule targeting “provider taxes,” a financing gimmick states use to harvest extra Medicaid dollars from the federal government. Good on the Trump administration. Over the last decade and a half, states have exploited provider taxes and other financing loopholes to ...
Tying U.S. Drug Prices To Foreign Markets Risks Innovation And Lives
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed what he called “one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history.” The order is essentially an updated version of his administration’s 2020 “Most Favored Nation” policy. It directs pharmaceutical companies to tie the U.S. prices of their drugs to the ...
Don’t Take Cutting-Edge Drugs for Granted
It’s hard to imagine a more destructive plan. Importing foreign price controls on prescription drugs would reduce access to existing treatments for everything from rare diseases to cancer. To understand why, consider two recent pieces by Michael Baker for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems.” ...
Trump’s ‘Most Favored Nation’ Drug Plan Doesn’t Favor Americans
Last week, President Donald Trump revived one of the most ill-conceived health policy ideas of his first term. Via a new executive order, he’s directed his administration to deliver “most-favored-nation prescription drug pricing to American patients.” The idea is to bring other developed countries’ lower drug prices to the United ...