Today, the government pays Medicare Advantage plans–private health plans that contract with the federal government to offer Medicare benefits–a flat fee per member, creating a huge...
Diane Archer
Medicare Advantage gold mine puts traditional Medicare at grave...
Beware of corporate health insurers with eyes on Medicare. To date, these insurers have been taking our money in exchange for offering people benefits through Medicare Advantage plans and then...
Coronavirus: Lack of timely data jeopardizes public health
In a new report, Sins of Omission: How Government Failures to Track Covid-19 Data Have Led to More Than 1,700 Health Care Worker Deaths and Jeopardize Public Health, National Nurses United (NNU)...
Medicare Open Enrollment in 2020
Medicare’s 2020 Open Enrollment period begins on October 15 and runs through December 7. If you are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, a private health insurance plan that offers Medicare...
House Oversight Committee questions drug industry executives on...
Michael McAuliff reports for Kaiser Health News on how yet another pharmaceutical company, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, acquired a drug that treats a rare disease and sent its price soaring. The US...
Where’s your body fat?
Nicholas Bakalar reports for The New York Times on how extra fat in different parts of your body could affect your life expectancy. With fat in some places, you reduce your life expectancy. With fat...
Blame President Trump if people with pre-existing conditions...
In an op-ed for the New York Times, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Andy Slavitt, and Nicholas Bagley explain how President Trump will be to blame if the new...
The Medicare Advantage scam and beyond
Kay Tillow writes for Daily Kos about the “Medicare Advantage scam” and beyond. She explains that these for-profit health plans that deliver Medicare benefits are using stars like Joe...
Trump vows to lower Medicare drug costs but backs lawsuit that...
President Trump has been unsuccessful at keeping pharmaceutical companies from raising prices, let alone enacting policies that lower them. So, he’s now claiming he is going to give $200 to...
New nonprofit manufactures low-cost generics
Congress has not done the job it should be doing to ensure adequate supplies of essential medicines, much less fair prices. So, Civica Rx, a nonprofit generic drug company, was established two years...