Breaking News in Healthcare Reform

 

Snippets of news & commentary with a special focus on

health policy, Medicare for All & California

 

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“The money is there to improve traditional Medicare and expand it to cover all residents of the United States….  But many elected officials on both sides of the aisle will say otherwise and are compensated by private health insurers with handsome campaign contributions.”

Architects of Medicare Privatization: Congress, Biden and the CMS

CounterPunch | Sandra M. Fox | December 30, 2022

“Patients fought hard for the reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act — and we won’t let Big Pharma and its allies’ fearmongering scare us.”

Big Pharma and GOP Allies Aim to Sabotage Medicare Drug Price Reforms

Common Dreams | Jake Johnson | December 30, 2022

“…incentives … attracted price-gougers, fraudsters and people with no experience in the laboratory business. … ‘It was an unprecedented wave of fraud….’”

Medicare Keeps Spending More on COVID-19 Testing. Fraud and Overspending Are Partly Why.

Anjeanette Damon | Propublica | December 30, 2022

“[Democrats’] … successful fight to rein in drug costs will give them leverage in future health care battles, even if gains can only be made around the margins over the next two years.”

‘The Slippery Slope Is Powerful’: Dems Believe Drug Pricing Law Will Pay Dividends

Politico | Alice Miranda Ollstein | December 29, 2022

“Despite improvements in employer-sponsored insurance by the Affordable Care Act … health care costs and out-of-pocket expenditures have continued to rise.”

Health Care Is Growing Less Affordable for U.S. Adults With Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance, Analysis Finds

News Medical | Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc. | December 27, 2022

“Patients have paid a high price while being shuffled aimlessly through a fragmented and siloed system that has failed to provide quality care across the continuum.”

CMS Has the Clout to Significantly Improve Health Care Delivery, But Fearing Political and Legal Backlash Has Settled Instead for Band-Aids

Forbes | Rita Numerof | December 27, 2022

““The unfortunate reality is that there’s really big forces … that want to see the status quo continue to exist….”

These States Tried an Obamacare Public Option. It Hasn’t Worked as Planned.

Politico | Megan Messerly | December 27, 2022

“Eight of the 10 largest 10 biggest Medicare Advantage insurers — representing more than two-thirds of the market — have submitted inflated bills, according to the federal audits. And four of the five largest players — UnitedHealth, Humana, Elevance and Kaiser — have faced federal lawsuits alleging that efforts to overdiagnose their customers crossed the line into fraud.”

It’s Time to End the Medicare Advantage Scam

The Nation | Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Mark Pocan and Wendell Potter | December 9, 2022

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