A large national organization that serves older adults recently issued a report critiquing Medicare’s Plan Finder website, which is designed to help people choose among Medicare health plan...
Diane Archer
Medicare encourages doctors to use costliest cancer drugs
The Trump Administration has identified one problem with Medicare payment rates for drugs. StatNews reports that CMS Chief Seema Verma critiqued Medicare regulations that encourage doctors to use the...
How the US should negotiate drug prices
The public overwhelmingly supports federal drug price negotiation. But, how should the US negotiate drug prices and why would it? There is a simple benchmark. If Congress stood up for Americans and...
If we can import food safely, why not medicines?
Have you ever thought about the difference between importing food and importing medicines? They both require oversight to ensure safety. Curiously, the US Food and Drug Administration, FDA, which is...
Tax cuts for drug companies a bust for Americans
A new report by Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of 425 national and state organizations representing tens of millions of people, reveals that the Republican tax cuts will increase...
Social Security delivers good dependable returns
New data out of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) confirms that Social Security delivers good dependable returns. Indeed, as much as Republicans would like to privatize Social Security, the current...
CVS Caremark accused of $1 billion in Medicare drug fraud
Pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs)–middlemen who determine the list of approved drugs for health insurers and pay pharmacy claims– argue that they drive down drug prices. But, they also...
When to avoid preventive care services
Medicare covers a wide array of preventive care services, which can offer tremendous benefits. But, some preventive care services may cause more harm than good for people towards the end of life. Liz...
CMS approves new enrollment hook for Medicare Advantage plans
While at first glance a Medicare Advantage plan may seem like a better deal than traditional Medicare, appearances can be deceiving. If you sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan, you severely limit...
Let’s make medicines a public good again
Fran Quigley writes for The Other 98 percent that it is time to make medicines a public good again. He explains that it is only recently that we began treating medicines as a commodity that could be...