Commentary
Commentary
US Can’t Beat China by Handcuffing Our Stateside Pharma
On Oct. 22, the U.S. Department of the Treasury proposed extending restrictions on American investments in foreign companies under the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security, or COINS, Act to biotechnology, including pharmaceutical research. Treasury’s goal of protecting national security is laudable. But restricting American drugmakers’ access to promising research beyond ...
Commentary
Healthcare Fraud Doesn’t Just Cost Taxpayers. It Hurts Patients.
On October 22, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against 15 people in Southern California accused of submitting more than $1.8 billion in fraudulent claims to government healthcare programs and private insurers. The alleged schemes included exploiting vulnerable people seeking addiction treatment to bill for services they didn’t receive ...
California
California’s construction unions are running ads against their own jobs
Construction unions formed an unholy alliance with their longtime enemy, environmentalists, to defeat a ballot measure and, apparently, winning requires burning down their own village. Their coalition recently launched an ad demonizing “dangerous” gas pipelines, industrial warehouses and data centers. You know, the kinds of things that keep the construction ...
Commentary
Republicans Can Tout a Record of Healthcare Reform This November
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the requirements will reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $325 billion over 10 years. Those are real savings for current and future taxpayers. Another provision in the 2025 law cracks down on the use of “provider taxes” to obtain additional federal funding. Medicaid’s ...
Commentary
Gov’t Price Controls on Prescription Drugs Still a Bad Idea
Price controls undermine the financial incentives that make scientific breakthroughs possible. Yet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants to subject certain improved versions of existing medicines to price controls years earlier than under current policy. The agency can’t even reliably estimate how much money its proposed change would ...
Commentary
Millions of Americans are walking away from Obamacare
Across all Obamacare marketplace plans, the average monthly premium paid by enrollees after subsidies jumped 58% this year, from $113 to $178. Average deductibles climbed 37%, to $3,786. Those increases didn’t come out of nowhere. Insurers raised underlying Obamacare premiums by a median of 20% for 2026 — the steepest ...
Commentary
Catching Breast Cancer Early Is Still Hard. Melania Trump Can Help
The cost of finding breast cancer late can be staggering–both in dollars and in years of life. A new study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society found that, among Medicare beneficiaries, first-year oral prescription drug costs averaged roughly $700 for localized breast cancer—and about $25,000 ...
Commentary
No Sound Reasons to Mislead on Medical Debt
Medical debt can cause serious hardship. But the Urban Institute’s own findings paint a less alarming picture. The first question is what counts as medical debt. The Urban Institute found that 26.6% of adults reported that they or their families owed money for medical or dental care, including bills paid ...
Commentary
Peptide Dangers Result in Hospitalizations
The peptide market has raced far ahead of both the science and the safeguards meant to protect patients. Federal regulators need to take the explosion of unapproved injectable peptides far more seriously — and target the sellers and suppliers fueling it. Peptide use has grown well beyond a handful of ...
Commentary
A $100 Billion Drug Discount Program Is Finally Facing New Scrutiny
Congress established 340B in 1992 to help safety-net hospitals and clinics stretch their resources. The program requires drug manufacturers to sell outpatient medicines at substantial discounts to eligible facilities, which can bill insurers at higher rates and retain the difference. Participating institutions are expected to use these benefits to expand ...
US Can’t Beat China by Handcuffing Our Stateside Pharma
On Oct. 22, the U.S. Department of the Treasury proposed extending restrictions on American investments in foreign companies under the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security, or COINS, Act to biotechnology, including pharmaceutical research. Treasury’s goal of protecting national security is laudable. But restricting American drugmakers’ access to promising research beyond ...
Healthcare Fraud Doesn’t Just Cost Taxpayers. It Hurts Patients.
On October 22, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against 15 people in Southern California accused of submitting more than $1.8 billion in fraudulent claims to government healthcare programs and private insurers. The alleged schemes included exploiting vulnerable people seeking addiction treatment to bill for services they didn’t receive ...
California’s construction unions are running ads against their own jobs
Construction unions formed an unholy alliance with their longtime enemy, environmentalists, to defeat a ballot measure and, apparently, winning requires burning down their own village. Their coalition recently launched an ad demonizing “dangerous” gas pipelines, industrial warehouses and data centers. You know, the kinds of things that keep the construction ...
Republicans Can Tout a Record of Healthcare Reform This November
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the requirements will reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $325 billion over 10 years. Those are real savings for current and future taxpayers. Another provision in the 2025 law cracks down on the use of “provider taxes” to obtain additional federal funding. Medicaid’s ...
Gov’t Price Controls on Prescription Drugs Still a Bad Idea
Price controls undermine the financial incentives that make scientific breakthroughs possible. Yet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants to subject certain improved versions of existing medicines to price controls years earlier than under current policy. The agency can’t even reliably estimate how much money its proposed change would ...
Millions of Americans are walking away from Obamacare
Across all Obamacare marketplace plans, the average monthly premium paid by enrollees after subsidies jumped 58% this year, from $113 to $178. Average deductibles climbed 37%, to $3,786. Those increases didn’t come out of nowhere. Insurers raised underlying Obamacare premiums by a median of 20% for 2026 — the steepest ...
Catching Breast Cancer Early Is Still Hard. Melania Trump Can Help
The cost of finding breast cancer late can be staggering–both in dollars and in years of life. A new study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society found that, among Medicare beneficiaries, first-year oral prescription drug costs averaged roughly $700 for localized breast cancer—and about $25,000 ...
No Sound Reasons to Mislead on Medical Debt
Medical debt can cause serious hardship. But the Urban Institute’s own findings paint a less alarming picture. The first question is what counts as medical debt. The Urban Institute found that 26.6% of adults reported that they or their families owed money for medical or dental care, including bills paid ...
Peptide Dangers Result in Hospitalizations
The peptide market has raced far ahead of both the science and the safeguards meant to protect patients. Federal regulators need to take the explosion of unapproved injectable peptides far more seriously — and target the sellers and suppliers fueling it. Peptide use has grown well beyond a handful of ...
A $100 Billion Drug Discount Program Is Finally Facing New Scrutiny
Congress established 340B in 1992 to help safety-net hospitals and clinics stretch their resources. The program requires drug manufacturers to sell outpatient medicines at substantial discounts to eligible facilities, which can bill insurers at higher rates and retain the difference. Participating institutions are expected to use these benefits to expand ...