Health Care
Commentary
Medicare Turns 60 This Month: It’s Time for an Intervention
On July 30, Medicare will mark its 60th birthday. Like many 60-year-olds, it’s in the throes of a midlife crisis. But unlike a harmless convertible purchase or spontaneous trip to Paris, this one midlife crisis threatens the nation’s fiscal health — and the well-being of future retirees. Read the entire ...
Commentary
Thank Obamacare for America’s insurance fraud boom
The number of Americans enrolled in marketplace plans either fraudulently or improperly reached 6.4 million in 2025 — an increase of more than one-quarter, according to an analysis published last month by the Paragon Health Institute. All of this wrongdoing will cost American taxpayers an estimated $27 billion this year. ...
Commentary
Feds right to curtail California’s Medicaid scam
On Independence Day, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is projected to reduce enrollment in Medicaid programs throughout the country, including Medi-Cal in California. But Californians should cheer, not jeer, these coverage “losses.” The law will primarily disenroll people who should have never been covered by ...
Commentary
Let’s talk about medical debt
A federal judge this month tossed out a Biden-era rule that would have wiped medical debt from consumers’ credit reports. The decision is a victory for borrowers and lenders alike. The now-defunct rule could have ended up hurting the very low-income individuals it was meant to help. Read the entire ...
Drug Innovation
New PRI Brief Warns Trump Drug Price Control Policies Would Lead U.S. Down the Path to European-Style Socialism
SACRAMENTO – The Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute – a nonpartisan, California-based, free market think tank – today released a new issue brief warning that efforts by the Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress to embrace and expand the government price controls on ...
Blog
The U.S. Drug System Strikes a Reasonable Balance Between Incentivizing Innovation and Promoting Competition
The government explicitly grants innovators temporary market exclusivity to provide an opportunity for groundbreaking pharmaceutical companies to recover the costs of capital associated with developing novel treatments. This was one of the express purposes of past federal reform legislation, such as the Hatch-Waxman Act signed in 1984 and the Biologics ...
Commentary
Trump Must Shut Down Counterfeit Weight-Loss Drugs
Americans looking to lose weight are increasingly turning to the internet. And they’re being duped. Telehealth startups and fly-by-night pharmacies are peddling what look like cheap, convenient versions of blockbuster drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. But many of these offerings are neither authentic nor safe. They’re “compounded” copies — knockoffs ...
Commentary
Greater Price Transparency Will Improve Affordability
Inefficiencies plague our current healthcare system. Politicians are quick to blame these problems on the market and subsequently advocate for ever greater government control. But government programs, which are already major players in the healthcare market, provide lousy insurance for patients and undermine the viability of doctors and hospitals. Expanding ...
Commentary
Private Efforts Not Public Committees Will Generate Healthcare Savings
Passed as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) was allocated $10 billion in 2011 for the first decade of its existence. It has been allocated hundreds of millions more since. The purpose of the program is to create payment models that ...
Commentary
The Big Beautiful Bill Fixes One Drug Problem—But Highlights An Even Bigger One
Buried within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law July 4, is a provision that could improve or even save the lives of the 30 million Americans suffering from rare diseases. That provision is the Orphan Cures Act, which exempts certain drugs that treat ...
Medicare Turns 60 This Month: It’s Time for an Intervention
On July 30, Medicare will mark its 60th birthday. Like many 60-year-olds, it’s in the throes of a midlife crisis. But unlike a harmless convertible purchase or spontaneous trip to Paris, this one midlife crisis threatens the nation’s fiscal health — and the well-being of future retirees. Read the entire ...
Thank Obamacare for America’s insurance fraud boom
The number of Americans enrolled in marketplace plans either fraudulently or improperly reached 6.4 million in 2025 — an increase of more than one-quarter, according to an analysis published last month by the Paragon Health Institute. All of this wrongdoing will cost American taxpayers an estimated $27 billion this year. ...
Feds right to curtail California’s Medicaid scam
On Independence Day, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is projected to reduce enrollment in Medicaid programs throughout the country, including Medi-Cal in California. But Californians should cheer, not jeer, these coverage “losses.” The law will primarily disenroll people who should have never been covered by ...
Let’s talk about medical debt
A federal judge this month tossed out a Biden-era rule that would have wiped medical debt from consumers’ credit reports. The decision is a victory for borrowers and lenders alike. The now-defunct rule could have ended up hurting the very low-income individuals it was meant to help. Read the entire ...
New PRI Brief Warns Trump Drug Price Control Policies Would Lead U.S. Down the Path to European-Style Socialism
SACRAMENTO – The Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute – a nonpartisan, California-based, free market think tank – today released a new issue brief warning that efforts by the Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress to embrace and expand the government price controls on ...
The U.S. Drug System Strikes a Reasonable Balance Between Incentivizing Innovation and Promoting Competition
The government explicitly grants innovators temporary market exclusivity to provide an opportunity for groundbreaking pharmaceutical companies to recover the costs of capital associated with developing novel treatments. This was one of the express purposes of past federal reform legislation, such as the Hatch-Waxman Act signed in 1984 and the Biologics ...
Trump Must Shut Down Counterfeit Weight-Loss Drugs
Americans looking to lose weight are increasingly turning to the internet. And they’re being duped. Telehealth startups and fly-by-night pharmacies are peddling what look like cheap, convenient versions of blockbuster drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. But many of these offerings are neither authentic nor safe. They’re “compounded” copies — knockoffs ...
Greater Price Transparency Will Improve Affordability
Inefficiencies plague our current healthcare system. Politicians are quick to blame these problems on the market and subsequently advocate for ever greater government control. But government programs, which are already major players in the healthcare market, provide lousy insurance for patients and undermine the viability of doctors and hospitals. Expanding ...
Private Efforts Not Public Committees Will Generate Healthcare Savings
Passed as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) was allocated $10 billion in 2011 for the first decade of its existence. It has been allocated hundreds of millions more since. The purpose of the program is to create payment models that ...
The Big Beautiful Bill Fixes One Drug Problem—But Highlights An Even Bigger One
Buried within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law July 4, is a provision that could improve or even save the lives of the 30 million Americans suffering from rare diseases. That provision is the Orphan Cures Act, which exempts certain drugs that treat ...
