IN AMERICA nearly one in every five dollars spent is on health care, a larger share than in any other country. Many of the culprits are well-known. Americans have more procedures, pay more for them, and face exorbitant administrative costs. One driver of rising costs has often been overlooked, ho...
Economist
Lobbyists go underground
Nothing to see here
ON A rainy afternoon, two sharply dressed men talk business and clink $40 glasses of wine at the Trump International Hotel, a few blocks from the White House. The recently opened hotel, which offers $65 steaks and a $100 cocktail made with raw oysters and caviar, has become popular a...
The fix for American health care can be found in Europe
MITCH MCCONNELL was visibly distraught after the Republicans’ “skinny repeal” of Obamacare was defeated in the Senate, but he was not too out of sorts to get in a dig at Europe. The majority leader wondered acidly what ideas Democrats might have for fixing American health insurance, and noted that most...
The Trump administration still has the power to wreak havoc on Obamacare
REPUBLICANS’ latest efforts to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama’s health care law, failed in the Senate on the night of July 27th. Three of their Senators—Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowksi of Alaska and John McCain of Arizona—joined all 48 Democrats to vote down “skinny” repeal (see article). ...
Not repealing Obamacare
GRAPPLING to comprehend Donald Trump’s populist seizure of their party, some Republicans predicted it would re-emerge as a champion of working-class whites. Others expected Mr Trump to drop his proletarian shtick and help deliver the tax cuts they had always dreamed of. Republican senators’ failure to ...
The ideology behind Republicans’ health-care bill
Oath keepers in the Senate
REPUBLICANS presented their efforts to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, which flopped this week, as a necessary response to a failing law. They frequently say the individual market, in which those who do not get health insurance through their employers can buy it for themselv...
How the nursing home lobby blocked reforms in Louisiana
FOR A textbook demonstration of how campaign contributions can buy policy, one need look no further than Louisiana’s nursing homes. No interest group showers more money on the Bayou State’s politicians than nursing homes and their owners. Indeed, the last two governors together collected over $1m in donations from nursing ho...
Trumpcare, version three
IS THE Senate’s revised health-care proposal a good bill? And will it pass? Ideally these two questions would be related. But this is sausage-making, so they are not. Let’s take the first one first.
If you want something approaching universal health-care coverage, there are three ways to do it. One is for the governmen...
