Health Care

Medicare Improper Payments Fall to Lowest Level Since 2010

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Monday that the improper payment rate for traditional Medicare fell in fiscal year 2019 to 7.25%, down from 8.12% in fiscal year 2018 and...
The Startlingly High Cost Of The ‘Free’ Flu Shot

By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

In the Byzantine world of health care pricing, most people wouldn’t expect that the ubiquitous flu shot could be a prime example of how the system’s lack of transparency can lead to disparate costs...
Trump Issues Rule to Force Hospitals to Reveal Negotiated Prices

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration on Friday released the final version of a rule forcing hospitals to publicly disclose the prices they negotiate privately with insurers or face fines. The rule, which would...
Warren Explains How She’d Transition to Medicare for All

By Michael Rainey

Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled on Friday a multi-year plan to transition to Medicare for All, outlining a series of immediate reforms on a path toward a universal, single-payer health care system. In...
Trump Wants to Get More Aggressive With His Drug-Pricing Proposal

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump wants to get more aggressive on lowering some Medicare drug prices. The Trump administration last year proposed using an index of international drug prices to set prices for certain...

‘Medicare for All’ Is a Loser at the Polls, Analysis Finds

By Yuval Rosenberg

Democratic House candidates who supported Medicare for All in the 2018 midterm elections fared considerably worse than those who did not back the plan, according to a new analysis by Alan I...
Verma Attacks Critics of Medicaid Work Requirement, Pushes for Tighter Eligibility

By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

Seema Verma, the Trump administration’s top Medicaid official, Tuesday sharply attacked critics of her plan to force some Medicaid enrollees to work, a policy that led to thousands of people losing...
Elizabeth Warren Says Americans Will Spend $11 Trillion on Health Care. Is That True?

By Michael Rainey

Elizabeth Warren says that Americans will spend “about $11 trillion on insurance premiums, copays, deductibles and uncovered medical expenses” over the next 10 years if the current health care system...
The Horrifying Number of Americans Who Can’t Afford Their Prescription Drugs

By Michael Rainey

An estimated 58 million Americans – nearly 23% of the population – couldn’t afford a drug they needed at some point in the last 12 months, according to a new Gallup-West Health poll published Tuesday...
Americans Want Lower Drug Prices, but Lawmakers Can’t Agree on a Fix

By Emmarie Huetteman, Kaiser Health News

House Democrats are poised to pass sweeping legislation to lower drug prices using strategies President Donald Trump has endorsed. A Trump aide urged the Republican-controlled Senate to vote on a...

Wealthy Could See a Huge Tax Windfall if Obamacare Is Overturned

By Michael Rainey

The lawsuit by 18 state attorneys general seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act would provide an enormous tax cut for wealthy households if it succeeds, according to an analysis by the Center...
Trump White House Rejects Pelosi Drug Plan as ‘Unworkable’: Report

By Yuval Rosenberg

The White House on Tuesday rejected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan to lower prescription drug prices, with an unnamed senior White House official telling the Associated Press that the plan is “...
4 Big Questions About Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare-for-All Plan

By Yuval Rosenberg

Elizabeth Warren’s new Medicare-for-All plan has won the candidate some praise for providing more detail than Bernie Sanders or other Democratic presidential rivals have. But it has also raised...
Hospitals Push Back on Price Transparency

By Michael Rainey

The Trump administration is delaying a rule that would make hospital prices more transparent. In July, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed requiring hospitals to reveal the...
Court Blocks Trump’s Health-Care Rule for Immigrants

By Michael Rainey

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new rule from the Trump administration that requires immigrants to prove that they have health insurance or can afford to pay for medical care. The rule,...