Author: Mark Wrede

  “In the battle to control health care costs, hospitals are deploying their political power to protect their bottom lines.”     In Fight Over Medicare Payments, the Hospital Lobby Shows Its Strength   The point of contention: For decades, Medicare has paid hospitals — […]

  “…Republican state Rep. Melanie Stinnett … said she regularly was frustrated by prior authorization hurdles in her work as a speech pathologist before joining the legislature in 2023…. “‘The stories all kind of look similar: It’s a big fight to get something done on […]

  “If you don’t change society’s attitudes about aging, you will be condemned to lead the last third of your life in social, economic, and cultural irrelevance.”     Do We Simply Not Care About Old People?   The covid-19 pandemic would be a wake-up […]

  “States are plowing billions of dollars into a high-stakes health care experiment that’s exploding around the country: using scarce public health insurance money to provide housing for the poorest and sickest Americans.”     Is Housing Health Care? State Medicaid Programs Increasingly Say ‘Yes’ […]

  “Chloe Bell is a case manager at the National Abortion Federation. She spends her days helping people cover the cost of an abortion and, increasingly, the interstate travel many of them need to get the procedure.”     More ‘Navigators’ Are Helping Women Travel […]

  “While a single patent once would cover a single active medicine, many drugs today are protected by half a dozen patents or more, creating additional obstacles for cheaper generics seeking to enter the market.”     The FTC Is Attacking Drugmakers’ ‘Patent Thickets’   The Federal […]