#healthcare-policy

#healthcare-policy

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are opaque intermediaries-and they are unpopular with figures including Mark Cuban, who told Fortune that the way they bargain over drug prices is absurd, something that would never happen at the very same pharmacies buying a package of Pringles potato-chip products.

Medicare has launched a six-year pilot program that could eventually transform access to healthcare for some of the millions of people across the U.S. who rely on it for their health insurance coverage. Traditional Medicare is a government-administered insurance plan for people over 65 or with disabilities. About half of the 67 million Americans insured through Medicare have this coverage. The rest have Medicare Advantage plans administered by private companies.

The idea echoes a policy implemented during his first term, when Trump suggested that requiring hospitals to post their charges online could ease one of the most common gripes about the health care system the lack of upfront prices. To anyone who's gotten a bill three months after treatment only to find mysterious charges, the idea seemed intuitive. "You're able to go online and compare all of the hospitals and the doctors and the prices,"

Federal cuts could strip about 1.2 million Californians of Medi-Cal coverage, with health experts warning the consequences could be dire. New work requirements and eligibility checks every six months will block even qualified people from coverage, while private insurance costs are skyrocketing. Lawmakers are being urged to close corporate tax loopholes, automate verification systems, and expand telehealth to cushion the blow to vulnerable Californians.

"We're trying to, as a government, understand what's driving this increase. "Is it simply awareness and a positive awareness that means that people who would have just gone unsupported and undiagnosed are just now realising that they may well have ADHD? "And then secondly, meeting the demand because we're really falling short on this in the NHS, so we are looking at this nationally."

I opened it up and it said, 'Your medical bill has been paid,'

For many years, dating all the way back to 2015, Donald Trump has promised he'd someday offer a health-care plan to replace Obamacare. For months Republicans have fretted over allegations that they are clueless or heartless about rising health-care costs, exacerbated by their refusal to extend expiring Obamacare-premium subsidies received by around 22 million Americans. They've tossed out a bunch of random conservative health-care panaceas, as has Trump, mostly revolving around health savings accounts and other individualistic measures for undermining Obamacare-style regulated insurance markets.

"Every year, the declinists, the pundits and critics suffering from California derangement syndrome look at this state and try to tear down our progress," Newsom said. "California's success is not by chance it's by design. We've created the conditions where dreamers and doers and misfits and marvelers with grit and ingenuity get to build and do the impossible."

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Marjorie was given this vote this week to buy her vote on the National Defense Authorization Act. Everybody knows it. It happened right there on the floor of the House. The majority leader said, Marjorie, would you like to have your bill brought up to the floor? And guess what? Got a yes vote on a rule for the National Defense Authorization Act.

There were more equipment problems plaguing BART early Monday, with service on the Green Line between Berryessa and Daly City disrupted for an unspecified reason. Red Line service was also impacted due to an equipment problem near West Oakland Station. [KRON4] The SF Public Defender's Office has filed a formal complaint with Sheriff Paul Miyamoto over reports of illegal and intimidating strip searches of female inmates. 19 women say they were subjected to humiliating strip searches while deputies laughed and aimed weapons at them.

The Republican Party is increasingly at war with itself, which doesn't bode well for its effort to prevent another election-day wipeout like it experienced earlier this month in off-year elections in New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and California. Republicans ostensibly won the government shutdown fight, but they did so by blocking an extension of broadly popular tax credits under the Affordable Care Act. Millions of Americans now face spiking health care premiums, and the president's party is splintered over how to respond.

It's refreshing to see top health officials in government recognize some (but not all of) the multi-factorial drivers and determinants of children's health and recognize the value of issues that ANH has been working on for years: the importance of real, whole foods, better Dietary Guidelines, regenerative agriculture, reducing chemical and environmental exposures (pesticides, electromagnetic field radiation, etc.), and healthcare that focuses on prevention, to name a few. Getting these issues on the agenda, and in the minds of the public, is itself a victory.

The illegal immigrant is just a red herring that's designed to try and prevent people from talking about the real issue, which is how do we provide health insurance for people in this country, Shaheen said. You know, I say a little detail, you say red herring, but the fact is, Senator, that it exists, Jones responded. No, listen, I'm agreeing with you, she said. You're trying to make an issue where there isn't one. We agree! Illegal immigrants should not be getting access to the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

These are not budgetary measures, they are ideological attacks [that] would erase protections, endanger lives and weaponise federal funding to coerce institutions into abandoning care. For many, access to HRT and affirming care is not optional, it's life-saving.