Health Care

Top Issues for Midterm Voters: Health Care, the Economy, Guns

By The Fiscal Times Staff

No surprise: Health care is the top issue for voters heading into next month’s elections, though Republicans say immigration and the economy are more important to them, according to the latest Kaiser...
McConnell: Entitlement Cuts Probably Won’t Happen Under Trump

By Yuval Rosenberg

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) unleashed a storm of Democratic criticism earlier this week by telling Bloomberg News that rising deficits and debt are driven by Social Security,...
These 5 Companies Would Be Hit Hardest by Trump’s Drug Ad Proposal

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration’s proposal to require drugmakers to disclose their prices in television ads would hit five companies especially hard: Pfizer, AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Amgen and Allergan, STAT...
Medicare For All? CMS Chief Warns Program Has Enough Problems Already

By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News

The Trump administration’s top Medicare official Tuesday slammed the federal health program as riddled with problems that hinder care to beneficiaries, increase costs for taxpayers and escalate fraud...
Mitch McConnell on Rising Deficit: ‘It’s Not a Republican Problem'

By Yuval Rosenberg

The quotes: “It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem. It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the...

What Will Work Requirements for Medicaid and Food Stamps Really Accomplish?

By The Fiscal Times Staff

A new paper from the Brookings Institution raises more doubts about the usefulness of work requirements for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). More than a dozen states...
GOP Scrambles to Send a Pre-Election Message on Pre-Existing Conditions

By Yuval Rosenberg

From The Hill’s Jessie Hellmann : “Thirty-two of the 49 GOP incumbents in races deemed competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report have backed congressional measures on pre-existing...
Chart of the Day: The Surge in Medicare Advantage Enrollment

By Yuval Rosenberg

Enrollment in Medicare Advantage, the government-funded private health plans that serve as an alternative to traditional Medicare, has doubled since 2010, writes Phil Galewitz at Kaiser Health News...
Trump’s New Medicaid Chief Is a Medicaid Critic

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration has reportedly named Mary Mayhew , a former Maine health commissioner, as deputy administrator and director of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)...
Trump Administration Seeks to Force Drugmakers to Post Prices in Ads

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with its plan to require drugmakers to disclose their list prices for medications in consumer advertising, much as they warn about possible side effects. The...

Who Will Protect Medicare? GOP, Dems Duke It Out

By Yuval Rosenberg

The 2018 election may be a referendum on President Donald Trump, but it’s also turning into a battle over Medicare, at least in some key races. The Washington Post’s David Weigel reports that...
Kudlow: ‘I Don’t Buy’ That Tax Cuts Boosted Deficit

By Yuval Rosenberg

Larry Kudlow is at it again. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, the top economic adviser to President Trump said that, while the administration is looking to cut federal spending — including...
House to Considers Billions in Cuts to Obamacare Taxes

By Michael Rainey

In addition to a package of bills that would make the individual tax cuts permanent , the House is expected to consider legislation this week that would delay or roll back multiple tax provisions in...
Arkansas Drops Thousands from Medicaid

By Michael Rainey

More than 4,000 people will lose their Medicaid coverage in Arkansas for failing to meet the state’s new work requirements. Earlier this year, the Trump administration approved the new work rules,...
‘Things Are So Much Worse’ – but Does Anyone Care About the Deficit?

By Yuval Rosenberg

As we told you yesterday , the Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the deficit for the first 11 months of fiscal 2018 totaled $895 billion, or $222 billion more than it was over the...