Health Care
Commentary
Medicare’s Drug-Pricing Proposal Carries A Hidden Cost
The Trump administration says it wants to accelerate medical innovation. Yet one new proposal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could do just the opposite. The agency has proposed a seemingly technical expansion of Medicare’s prescription drug price control scheme, which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act ...
Commentary
Before embracing Medicare for All, the U.S should look at Britain
American doctors already know how government payment works. Private insurers pay roughly twice what Medicare does. After inflation, Medicare physician payments have fallen 33% since 2001. Medicare for All would spread that underpayment across the entire healthcare system. Every physician would have to accept whatever Washington chose to pay. Patients ...
Biosimilars
Biosimilars offer NC rare opportunity to save millions without cutting care
As healthcare costs continue to rise, North Carolina lawmakers face a difficult and increasingly ongoing challenge: how to preserve quality health coverage for more than 750,000 teachers, state employees, retirees and their families without asking taxpayers to spend more or patients to pay higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs . . ...
Drug Innovation
California Supreme Court Decision Protects Future Medical Innovation
The Pacific Research Institute – the non-partisan, California-based, free-market think tank – today hailed a landmark California Supreme Court decision protecting future medical innovation. The ruling in the Gilead Tenofir Cases overturns a lower court decision that threatened to expose pharmaceutical innovators to sweeping new liability for decisions about the ...
Commentary
Medicare’s Physician Pay Cut Will Cost Patients
The Trump administration has released Medicare’s proposed physician payment rule for 2027. Buried in the hundreds of pages of technical regulations is a familiar outcome — another cut in what physicians will be paid to care for seniors. Under the proposal, Medicare’s basic payment rate would fall by as much ...
Commentary
Hospital price transparency is good politics — and good policy
Few issues will shape this November’s midterm elections more than the rising cost of healthcare. Republicans returning home for the August recess can point to meaningful progress on one of the biggest drivers of those costs: hospital prices. In recent weeks, Congress has moved closer to making hospital price transparency ...
Commentary
Medicare Pays Billions For Obesity’s Consequences. Its GLP-1 Bridge Offers A Better Way
Medicare spends billions of dollars each year treating heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer and other illnesses caused or worsened by obesity. Yet for decades, federal law has barred the program from covering medicines prescribed to treat obesity itself. In other words, Medicare has been willing to pay for the ...
Commentary
Why Are States Taxing Companies for Hiring Poor People?
The Garden State has become the first state to penalize companies for employing Medicaid beneficiaries. Under legislation signed June 30 by Gov. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., companies with at least 50 employees will pay an annual fee between $325 and $725 for every worker or dependent of a worker enrolled in ...
Commentary
Approach online weight-loss drug offers with skepticism
If you’ve spent any time on social media lately, you’ve probably seen the ads. Lose weight fast. Get access to GLP-1s. Skip the doctor’s office. Delivered right to your door. For millions of Americans looking to lose weight, the promise is understandably appealing. These remarkable drugs, which include Ozempic, Wegovy, ...
Health Care
New PRI Study: California’s Medi-Cal Crisis Leaves Taxpayers Paying for Fraud, Waste, and Runaway Costs
SACRAMENTO – Just weeks after California approved a record state budget of $351.7 billion for fiscal year 2026-27 that scaled back portions of its Medi-Cal expansion because of soaring costs, and as the federal government announced it was pausing $867.5 million in Medicaid payments to California, the Pacific Research Institute ...
Medicare’s Drug-Pricing Proposal Carries A Hidden Cost
The Trump administration says it wants to accelerate medical innovation. Yet one new proposal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could do just the opposite. The agency has proposed a seemingly technical expansion of Medicare’s prescription drug price control scheme, which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act ...
Before embracing Medicare for All, the U.S should look at Britain
American doctors already know how government payment works. Private insurers pay roughly twice what Medicare does. After inflation, Medicare physician payments have fallen 33% since 2001. Medicare for All would spread that underpayment across the entire healthcare system. Every physician would have to accept whatever Washington chose to pay. Patients ...
Biosimilars offer NC rare opportunity to save millions without cutting care
As healthcare costs continue to rise, North Carolina lawmakers face a difficult and increasingly ongoing challenge: how to preserve quality health coverage for more than 750,000 teachers, state employees, retirees and their families without asking taxpayers to spend more or patients to pay higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs . . ...
California Supreme Court Decision Protects Future Medical Innovation
The Pacific Research Institute – the non-partisan, California-based, free-market think tank – today hailed a landmark California Supreme Court decision protecting future medical innovation. The ruling in the Gilead Tenofir Cases overturns a lower court decision that threatened to expose pharmaceutical innovators to sweeping new liability for decisions about the ...
Medicare’s Physician Pay Cut Will Cost Patients
The Trump administration has released Medicare’s proposed physician payment rule for 2027. Buried in the hundreds of pages of technical regulations is a familiar outcome — another cut in what physicians will be paid to care for seniors. Under the proposal, Medicare’s basic payment rate would fall by as much ...
Hospital price transparency is good politics — and good policy
Few issues will shape this November’s midterm elections more than the rising cost of healthcare. Republicans returning home for the August recess can point to meaningful progress on one of the biggest drivers of those costs: hospital prices. In recent weeks, Congress has moved closer to making hospital price transparency ...
Medicare Pays Billions For Obesity’s Consequences. Its GLP-1 Bridge Offers A Better Way
Medicare spends billions of dollars each year treating heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer and other illnesses caused or worsened by obesity. Yet for decades, federal law has barred the program from covering medicines prescribed to treat obesity itself. In other words, Medicare has been willing to pay for the ...
Why Are States Taxing Companies for Hiring Poor People?
The Garden State has become the first state to penalize companies for employing Medicaid beneficiaries. Under legislation signed June 30 by Gov. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., companies with at least 50 employees will pay an annual fee between $325 and $725 for every worker or dependent of a worker enrolled in ...
Approach online weight-loss drug offers with skepticism
If you’ve spent any time on social media lately, you’ve probably seen the ads. Lose weight fast. Get access to GLP-1s. Skip the doctor’s office. Delivered right to your door. For millions of Americans looking to lose weight, the promise is understandably appealing. These remarkable drugs, which include Ozempic, Wegovy, ...
New PRI Study: California’s Medi-Cal Crisis Leaves Taxpayers Paying for Fraud, Waste, and Runaway Costs
SACRAMENTO – Just weeks after California approved a record state budget of $351.7 billion for fiscal year 2026-27 that scaled back portions of its Medi-Cal expansion because of soaring costs, and as the federal government announced it was pausing $867.5 million in Medicaid payments to California, the Pacific Research Institute ...