By Dr. Nick van Terheyden – Sit at a busy café in Paris long enough and something unsettling happens: nothing. The waiter doesn’t sprint. No one is shouting about table turnover. There’s no laminated sign behind the counter promising a “Server of the Month” bonus for fastest espresso delivery.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed regulations to lower health care costs, promote competition, and strengthen program integrity in the Federal and State-Based Health Insurance (Exchanges).
By Renuka Rayasam – Despite a contentious back-and-forth and the longest government shutdown in history last fall, the GOP-led Congress allowed enhanced ACA subsidies, which had helped millions of Americans cover all or part of their marketplace premiums since 2021, to expire on Dec. 31.
By Arthur Allen – While the FDA is streamlining regulation of copycat versions of the expensive drugs that millions take for arthritis, cancer, and other diseases, the U.S. patent office is making it harder for the cheaper medicines to get on the market, industry officials say.
By Stephanie Armour – In the run-up to the 2020 election, all 20 Democratic presidential candidates promised voters they’d pursue bold changes to health care, such as a government-run insurance plan or expanding Medicare to cover every American. Fast-forward to the congressional stalemate that has closed the federal government for more than a month.
By Phil Galewitz – With the federal shutdown continuing, spurred by a stalemate over the cost of health insurance for 22 million Americans on Affordable Care Act plans, a new report shows that over 154 million people with coverage through an employer also face steep price hikes — and that the situation is likely to get worse.
By Elisabeth Rosenthal – The No Surprises Act, which took effect in 2022, was rightly heralded as a landmark piece of legislation, which “protects people covered under group and individual health plans from receiving surprise medical bills,” according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. And yet bills that take patients like Chen by surprise just keep coming.
By Phil Galewitz & Stephanie Armour – Doctors, hospitals, and health insurers for weeks issued dire warnings to Republican lawmakers that millions of people would lose health coverage and hospitals would close if they cut Medicaid funding to help pay for President Donald Trump’s big tax and spending bill.
By Stephanie Armour – But even as he extols MAHA, Trump has unleashed a slew of policies likely to make Americans less healthy. He’s slashing 20,000 full time positions from HHS and cutting more than $4 billion in indirect costs related to health research grants, including studies into treatment for Alzheimer’s and cancer.