Thanks to the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), premiums for Medicare Part D outpatient drug plans will start to rise over the next few years. The increase will be 6 percent a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and private forecasts.
To make matters worse, in a few more years, the vast majority of Part D enrollees will start paying more for drugs they get from their local pharmacies than they would have paid under a s...
Opinion
How to win Latino voters: protect health care and lower health costs
With midterm elections in full swing, political pundits are highlighting the pivotal role Hispanic voters are likely to play — and for good reason.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) projects that Hispanics will make up 1 in 10 voters nationally, with higher proportions in some key battleground states — roughly 1 in 5 voters in Arizona and Florida and 1 in 6 Nevada voters. Those levels would replicate Latino voters’ histo...
Sacrificing health care on the altar of ideology
Medical doctors are among the most highly educated professionals on the planet. Why, then, would the federal government seek to curtail their ability to perform their jobs to the best of their ability? Knee-capping the scientific process in the name of highly contested “gender-affirming” care not only puts patients in a needlessly risky position; it forces physicians to choose between abiding by government edicts and following their own medical judgment.
The Centers for Medica...
Sacrificing health care on the altar of ideology
Medical doctors are among the most highly educated professionals on the planet. Why, then, would the federal government seek to curtail their ability to perform their jobs to the best of their ability? Knee-capping the scientific process in the name of highly contested “gender-affirming” care not only puts patients in a needlessly risky position; it forces physicians to choose between abiding by government edicts and following their own medical judgment.
The Centers for Medica...
Social Security, Medicare are on the line this November — and women older than 50 know it
Women older than 50 are the most likely group to vote in the midterm elections and make up a large and growing share of the electorate; in fact, nearly 1 in 3 votes cast in 2020 were from women in this age group. Despite women’s electoral heft, Republican Senate candidates like Blake Masters of Arizona, Adam Laxalt of Nevada and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have called for cuts to two key programs on which 50+ women disproportionately rely on and strongly support: Social Security and Med...
If you think the deficit is bad now, it will soon get worse
America’s finances are in trouble. Despite relatively optimistic predictions by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the current deficit of $1.4 trillion is only going to get worse.
In July, CBO projected that the federal government budget deficit would be 3.7 percent of GDP in 2023, down from recent record highs of 12.4 percent of GDP in 2021. While still above the pre-pandemic average (since 2000) of 3.5 percent, this would be the lowest percentage sinc...
The real threat to democracy: Declining trust in the courts
A key ingredient for a healthy democracy is an independent and (to the extent possible) an apolitical judiciary. Yet recent polls show public trust in the judicial branch of the federal government reaching its lowest point in decades, primarily among Democrats. That is entirely because the judicial branch, and especially the U.S. Supreme Court, isn’t ruling the way Democrats want. And their proposed efforts to “fix” the Court would destroy its credibility.
According to a recen...
Press: Donald Trump, ‘Confidence Man,’ then and now
Billed by Axios as “the book Donald Trump fears most,” Maggie Haberman’s “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” debuted last week as No. 1 best-seller on Amazon and the New York Times. At 508 pages, it’s a challenge. But it’s worth the slog: the best book yet on the mystery man who still remains, two years after being rejected for a second term, the most dominant force in American politics.
The most striking...
Press: Donald Trump, ‘Confidence Man,’ then and now
Billed by Axios as “the book Donald Trump fears most,” Maggie Haberman’s “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” debuted last week as No. 1 best-seller on Amazon and the New York Times. At 508 pages, it’s a challenge. But it’s worth the slog: the best book yet on the mystery man who still remains, two years after being rejected for a second term, the most dominant force in American politics.
The most striking...
Americans are drowning in medical debt. Here’s how our leaders can help
Today, more than 100 million Americans are living with medical debt totaling nearly $200 billion. A recent study found this debt leads to increased rates of eviction, food insecurity and bad health outcomes, regardless of health insurance status or income. While the debt is widespread, it is also unevenly distributed; patients of color disproportionately bear its burden. This is a story we’ve heard too many times before, and it’s time for our nation’s leaders to take action.
T...