Health Care Reform
Commentary
Republicans already have a plan for making health care affordable in 2026
Affordability is on the lips of lawmakers these days — and with good reason. Nearly half of Americans say they’re struggling to pay for basic necessities like rent, groceries and health care. The good news is that Congress is weighing several reforms that could help make health care in particular ...
commentar
Hospitals Turn a Safety-Net Program Into an ATM
Washington, D.C. is finally taking a hard look at one of the most abuse-ridden federal health programs — the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Last week, the Trump administration released a request for information exploring ways to bring more transparency and accountability to the program. It’s about time.
Commentary
How Trump’s ‘Prior Authorization’ Deal Puts Patients Ahead of Paperwork
Americans increasingly need a permission slip from their insurance company before they can get medical care. And it’s driving them crazy. According to one recent survey, nearly three-quarters of patients find delays and denials of treatment by insurers to be a major problem with our health-care system. Fortunately, a new ...
Commentary
Stop Catastrophizing Catastrophic Plans
Earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed a rule to expand access to catastrophic health insurance plans on the exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act. The move may appear modest. In reality, it addresses one of the central design features that has made exchange coverage ...
Health Care
ISSUE BRIEF: Government Policy Is Consolidating the Practice of Medicine
A new issue brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute—the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank—finds that certain states’ efforts to tighten corporate practice of medicine laws hurt independent physicians, empower hospitals to consolidate local provider markets, and raise healthcare costs. “Competition is a prerequisite for affordable, high-quality care,” ...
Commentary
House GOP must promote commonsense health care reform
Nearly half of Americans struggle to pay for health care, according to recent polling from independent health policy research organization KFF. If congressional Republicans hope to maintain their majority in the midterm elections this fall, then they need to address those concerns with credible, patient-centered reforms. They have already begun ...
Commentary
No Accountability as Insurers Profit From Public Programs
Executives from the nation’s largest health insurers are set to testify before Congress soon in a hearing on healthcare affordability. It’s about time. From Medicare Advantage to Obamacare exchanges to prescription drug benefits, insurers have been extracting ever-greater amounts of public funds while passing costs and risk on to patients ...
Commentary
Red tape is strangling rural health care. It’s time to cut it
Rural America is running out of doctors. According to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund, 43 million Americans now live in rural communities facing a shortage of primary care providers. This shortage isn’t new. It’s been reality for rural America for decades. And it helps explain why patients there ...
Commentary
California should embrace competition to promote better health insurance
Following a depressingly familiar pattern, California is once again undermining health care competition in the vain hope that less competition will lead to lower prices. It won’t. In its latest anti-competitive actions, starting Jan. 1, California’s Department of Health Care Services will be limiting competition for plans (called Medi-Medi plans) ...
Commentary
What America Needs from a GOP Healthcare Package
The U.S. House just passed legislation that will help make health insurance more affordable — without extending the enhanced premium subsidies for exchange coverage that Democrats enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The House action comes on the heels of votes on two measures in the Senate: one from Democrats that ...
Republicans already have a plan for making health care affordable in 2026
Affordability is on the lips of lawmakers these days — and with good reason. Nearly half of Americans say they’re struggling to pay for basic necessities like rent, groceries and health care. The good news is that Congress is weighing several reforms that could help make health care in particular ...
Hospitals Turn a Safety-Net Program Into an ATM
Washington, D.C. is finally taking a hard look at one of the most abuse-ridden federal health programs — the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Last week, the Trump administration released a request for information exploring ways to bring more transparency and accountability to the program. It’s about time.
How Trump’s ‘Prior Authorization’ Deal Puts Patients Ahead of Paperwork
Americans increasingly need a permission slip from their insurance company before they can get medical care. And it’s driving them crazy. According to one recent survey, nearly three-quarters of patients find delays and denials of treatment by insurers to be a major problem with our health-care system. Fortunately, a new ...
Stop Catastrophizing Catastrophic Plans
Earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed a rule to expand access to catastrophic health insurance plans on the exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act. The move may appear modest. In reality, it addresses one of the central design features that has made exchange coverage ...
ISSUE BRIEF: Government Policy Is Consolidating the Practice of Medicine
A new issue brief released today by the Pacific Research Institute—the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank—finds that certain states’ efforts to tighten corporate practice of medicine laws hurt independent physicians, empower hospitals to consolidate local provider markets, and raise healthcare costs. “Competition is a prerequisite for affordable, high-quality care,” ...
House GOP must promote commonsense health care reform
Nearly half of Americans struggle to pay for health care, according to recent polling from independent health policy research organization KFF. If congressional Republicans hope to maintain their majority in the midterm elections this fall, then they need to address those concerns with credible, patient-centered reforms. They have already begun ...
No Accountability as Insurers Profit From Public Programs
Executives from the nation’s largest health insurers are set to testify before Congress soon in a hearing on healthcare affordability. It’s about time. From Medicare Advantage to Obamacare exchanges to prescription drug benefits, insurers have been extracting ever-greater amounts of public funds while passing costs and risk on to patients ...
Red tape is strangling rural health care. It’s time to cut it
Rural America is running out of doctors. According to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund, 43 million Americans now live in rural communities facing a shortage of primary care providers. This shortage isn’t new. It’s been reality for rural America for decades. And it helps explain why patients there ...
California should embrace competition to promote better health insurance
Following a depressingly familiar pattern, California is once again undermining health care competition in the vain hope that less competition will lead to lower prices. It won’t. In its latest anti-competitive actions, starting Jan. 1, California’s Department of Health Care Services will be limiting competition for plans (called Medi-Medi plans) ...
What America Needs from a GOP Healthcare Package
The U.S. House just passed legislation that will help make health insurance more affordable — without extending the enhanced premium subsidies for exchange coverage that Democrats enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The House action comes on the heels of votes on two measures in the Senate: one from Democrats that ...
