Whatever Happened to Biden鈥檚 Public Option?
In the 2020 elections, then-candidate Joe Biden and many of his congressional colleagues loudly advocated for a federal 鈥減ublic option鈥 health insurance plan. It was framed, at the time, as part of his incoming administration鈥檚 response to the pandemic. 鈥淟ow-income Americans will be automatically enrolled in the public option at zero cost to them, though […]
This State Isn鈥檛 Waiting for Biden To Negotiate Drug Prices
As the federal government negotiates with drugmakers to lower the price of 10 expensive drugs for Medicare patients, impatient legislators in some states are trying to go even further. Leading the pack is Colorado, where a new Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board is set to recommend an 鈥渦pper payment limit鈥 for drugs it deems unaffordable. In late […]
Cuando tu cobertura de salud dentro de la red鈥 simplemente se esfuma
los contratos de las aseguradoras con m茅dicos, hospitales y farmac茅uticas (o sus intermediarios, los llamados administradores de beneficios farmac茅uticos) pueden cambiar abruptamente de la noche a la ma帽ana.
How Your In-Network Health Coverage Can Vanish Before You Know It
One of the most unfair aspects of medical insurance is this: Patients can change insurance only during end-of-year enrollment periods or at the time of 鈥渜ualifying life events.鈥 But insurers鈥 contracts with doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies can change abruptly at any time.
The No Surprises Act Comes With Some Surprises
The No Surprises Act, the landmark law intended to protect patients from surprise out-of-network medical bills, has come with, well, some surprises. A little more than two years after it took effect, there鈥檚 good and bad news about how it鈥檚 working. First, it鈥檚 important to note that the law has successfully protected millions of patients […]
GoFundMe, 驴realmente ayuda a pagar facturas m茅dicas?
Incluso defensores de pacientes y personal del 谩rea de ayuda financiera en hospitales recomiendan iniciar una sesi贸n en GoFundMe como una alternativa a terminar con una cuenta en una agencia de cobros.聽
GoFundMe Has Become a Health Care Utility
Resorting to crowdfunding to pay medical bills has become so routine, in some cases health professionals recommend it.
The FTC Is Attacking Drugmakers鈥 鈥楶atent Thickets鈥
It鈥檚 a big job clearing out so-called 鈥減atent thickets鈥 drugmakers create to keep their products鈥 prices high. But the Federal Trade Commission is giving it a shot.
Ouch. That 鈥楩ree鈥 Annual Checkup Might Cost You. Here鈥檚 Why.
The designers of the Affordable Care Act might have assumed that they spelled out with sufficient clarity that millions of Americans would no longer have to pay for certain types of preventive care. But they didn鈥檛 reckon with America鈥檚 ever-creative medical billing juggernaut.
The FTC Escalates Biden鈥檚 Fight Against Drug Prices
It鈥檚 daggers out at the Federal Trade Commission in its fight against anticompetitive practices in health care. This past year, it has issued more stringent guidelines to block and discourage hospital mergers, and it investigated practices by middlemen in the drug supply chain. Now drug manufacturers themselves are in the agency鈥檚 crosshairs. In November, the FTC challenged the validity of more […]
From Hospital to Hospitality: Spin Doctors Brand Getting Sick as an Adventure. It’s Not.
At $1,000 a night for a private room, medical centers are offering fancy food and casting health care as a 鈥渏ourney.鈥 Instead of creature comforts, how about helping us feel better?
What One Expectant Mom鈥檚 Effort To Get an RSV Shot Says About Health Policy
Today we bring you the story of a patient seeking the RSV vaccine 鈥 and how her frustrating journey illustrates why it can be so hard in the United States to get an important medicine recommended by federal regulators. Hannah Fegley of Silver Spring, Md., says she spent seven hours on the phone last month […]
A New Era of Vaccines Leaves Old Questions About Prices Unanswered
The CDC鈥檚 RSV vaccination recommendations beg the question: How much should an immunization that will possibly be given to millions of Americans cost to be truly valuable?
The Shrinking Number of Primary Care Physicians Is Reaching a Tipping Point
The declining share of U.S. doctors in adult primary care is about 25% 鈥 a point beyond which many Americans won鈥檛 be able to find a family doctor at all.
Sin barreras, los precios de algunos medicamentos existentes se han disparado, incluso cuando han ca铆do dr谩sticamente en otros pa铆ses. Los nuevos medicamentos tienen precios enormes, respaldados por el lobby y el marketing.
A Peek at Big Pharma鈥檚 Playbook That Leaves Many Americans Unable to Afford Their Drugs
Brand-name drug prices in the U.S. 鈥 more than three times the price in other developed countries 鈥 are related neither to the amount of research and development required to bring them to market nor their therapeutic value, recent research shows. Have drugmakers overplayed their hand?
Your Exorbitant Medical Bill, Brought to You by the Latest Hospital Merger
After decades of unchecked mergers, health care is the land of giants, with huge medical systems monopolizing care in many cities, states, and even whole regions of the country. This decreases patient choice, impedes innovation, erodes quality of care, and raises prices. And federal regulators have been slow to act.
Denials of Health Insurance Claims Are Rising 鈥 And Getting Weirder
The Department of Health and Human Services is tasked with monitoring denials both by Obamacare health plans and those offered through employers and insurers. As insurers鈥 denials become more common, they sometimes defy not just medical standards of care but sheer logic. Why hasn鈥檛 the agency fulfilled its assignment?
An AI Chatbot May Be Your Next Therapist. Will It Actually Help Your Mental Health?
Given a dire shortage of human behavioral health providers in the U.S., it may prove tempting for insurers to offer up apps and chatbots to meet the federal mental health parity requirement. But artificial intelligence, by definition fake, can鈥檛 master the empathic flow between patient and doctor that鈥檚 central to therapy.
Guns Are the Biggest Public Health Threat Kids Face. Why Aren鈥檛 They Getting the Message?
Today鈥檚 public service announcements on gun safety feel somewhat sanitized. It鈥檚 time to act with the same kind of visceral public campaign that helped de-glorify smoking. Would filmmakers commit to making action movies without guns, just as filmmakers stopped making smoking glamorous in films?
