The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently convened a hearing on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
Although the center “was created over a decade ago and provided billions in funding and broad authority to find ways to save taxpayer dollars and improve health outcomes for patients,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) noted, “it has little to show in demonstrated successful outcomes.” Why is this so?
Medicare tra...
healthcare
Trumpcare could be the gamechanger America is looking for
In last week’s debate, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both whiffed on a critical issue sliding under the radar in the race for the White House: the rising costs of healthcare.
It’s not the first such missed opportunity.
Early in his first term, Trump in good faith expressed confidence that a GOP Congress would deliver a “terrific,” “phenomenal,” and “fantastic” alternative to Obamacare. But former House Speaker Paul Ryan a...
Affordable health care is on the ballot in November
“Low Insulin pricing was gotten for millions of Americans by me,” Donald Trump recently declared on Truth Social, his social media platform. And “Crooked” Joe Biden “had NOTHING to do with it.”
Trump’s claim is apparently based on his announcement in 2020 that some, but not all, pharmaceutical companies had agreed to cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin — which more than seven million Americans need to manage their diabetes — at $35 per month for individuals enrolled in Medicar...
America is full of the living dead — and Mississippi is ground zero.
Millions of our fellow Americans are essentially living as if they were walking dead. No, it’s not the premise of the latest AMC apocalypse drama or a summer blockbuster — it's the harsh reality for too many individuals and communities. They lack health insurance and, as a result, go undiagnosed. Untreated conditions manifest as silent killers.
The stark reality is that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, access to primary health care remains a privilege for the well-moneyed fe...
Republicans must offer a bold ObamaCare alternative to put patients in control
This spring, former President Barack Obama publicly celebrated the 14th anniversary of his signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act (i.e. “ObamaCare”). But what is there to celebrate? The country’s health care system is a complete disaster, and ObamaCare made it even worse.
The average family health insurance premium is nearly $24,000 and is guaranteed to increase every year. Deductibles and hospital visits have more than doubled in the last 15 years. These costs ha...
We’re paying off medical debt wrong
Medical debt imposes a crushing burden on millions of Americans. More than 40 percent of Americans owe medical debt, with 18 percent owing $2,500 or more.
Concerned by this issue, states and local governments have passed or are considering programs to fund debt relief. On Monday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced a plan to eliminate $1 billion in medical debt per year. This adds to more than $12 billion in passed or proposed medical debt relief by 20 other states or local ...
Remove the barriers keeping women from addressing colorectal cancer
This may be a month of fun and festivities with St. Patrick’s Day rolling right into March Madness, but it also commemorates two serious topics: women’s history and colorectal awareness. While the overlap may be purely coincidental, the timing appropriately underscores the need for improved awareness, screening and treatment for colorectal cancer, especially among women.
Though overall rates of new colorectal cancer cases have declined in the past decade or two, cases among pe...
Matthews: Autocrats gonna mandate: health insurance, vaccines, EVs and more
The White House and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are denying that recent EPA regulations are meant to mandate that everyone switch from gas-powered to an electric vehicle (EV). Don’t you believe ’em. Progressive elites rely on the power of government to force you to do what they think you should be doing. In other words, autocrats gonna mandate.
We’ve seen this movie before. Recall that the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) went into effect 10 years ago. O...
Biden touts health care wins, but Bidenomics is driving health care costs higher
In his recent state of the union address, President Biden hailed his health care accomplishments, boasting that this year a record 20 million Americans signed up for health insurance through Affordable Care Act health plans.
What the president failed to mention is that average premiums for these plans have more than doubled since 2014. And average deductibles — the amount you must pay before your insurance kicks in — are up nearly 60 percent.
Does that sound affordab...
With solar, we can solve non-profit hospitals’ carbon and community benefit problem simultaneously
Hospitals account for a significant amount of health care’s enormous 550 million metric ton greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. That is largely because hospitals are remarkably energy inefficient.
In 2023, just 37 — substantially less than 1 percent — were Energy Star certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Scope 1 and 2 energy efficiency. The innumerable and unrelenting health harms associated with GHG emissions disproportionately harm Medicare and Medicaid b...