Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
President Trump signed 4 executive orders on drug pricing on July 24, 2020. How are they likely to affect drugs prices? Passing along rebates to patients The one of the executive orders mandates that rebates go to reduce patient cost sharing: These middlemen — health plan sponsors and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) — negotiate significant…
As of January 30, 2020, President Trump has an overall approval rating of 42.8% according to 538. He has a disapproval rating of 52.8% leading to a net rating of -10% Yet this overall number may hide heterogeneity in what people think. Maybe public opinion of President Trump is more favorable on some issues than…
President Trump wants to allow more people be able to purchase lower cost health plans. Most of the media has focused on plans to make it easier to purchase short-term plans and association health plans. However, a recent final rule is also making it easier to use pre-tax dollars to fund premiums for individual health…
What will Trump’s “favored nation” policy do to drug prices and innovation? How will 340B reforms affect the price hospitals charge for drugs? Myself and my colleague Jim Baumgardner weigh in with our thoughts in an article in FormularyWatch. “US drug prices will certainly fall. However, prices outside the US will rise,” Jason Shafrin, PhD,…
A recent report from Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) found that for about 30 physician administered drugs, prices are 8 times as high as those charged in other developed countries. To address the high prices, President Trump unveiled a three-part plan to reduce drug prices. Under the “international pricing index” proposal, U.S. drug…
A nice summary of the policy changes scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB).
In broad strokes, the American Patients First plan aims to lower list prices, lower patients’ out-of-pocket costs while maintaining incentives for innovation. In short, this is a sensible strategy, although there are some concerns about how more restrictive formulary designs could restrict consumer choice. American Patients First in brief To maintain manufacturers incentives to innovate,…
In his 2018 State of the Union address, President Trump said that “fixing the injustice of high drug prices” will be one of the top priorities of his administration in the coming year. Lower drug prices could directly benefit consumers without insurance or those with high-deductible health plans; commercially insured individuals could hope to see…
The Order to begin the ACA Repeal. Appointing Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Appointing Tom Price to run HHS. Proposing the American Health Care Act (AHCA) to replace Obamacare. Confirming Seema Verma to run CMS. Delayed implementation of bundeled payments. Trump decides to continue Obamacare insurance subsidies. All this and more happened in Donald…
Tonight, President Donald Trump delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress. Although the speech touched on a number of topics, I give my line-by-line commentary on the portions of the speech related to health care. “Tonight, I am also calling on this Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare with reforms that expand choice,…