Month: March 2017

Conservative House Republicans said Monday night that they have enough votes to block the GOP’s legislation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, as House leaders proposed changes to the bill in a late effort to draw support.

In the past few months, four bills have been introduced in Congress calling for transparency in prescription drug pricing. These bills—HR 1038, HR 1316, S.3308 and, earlier this week, one called C-THRU—largely concern pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), a heretofore largely unrecognized component of the pharmaceutical industry.

Marathon Pharmaceuticals is in plenty of hot water after its brazen $89,000 pricing on the old-turned-new Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug Emflaza—a decades-old product available overseas for $1,000 per year. Now, it’s scored a quick payoff by selling the med to PTC Therapeutics in a deal potentially worth more than $190 million.

The House is racing to find enough votes for its health-care bill this week, but even if it passes, prospects in the Senate have only darkened.

U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei says, if he had to vote Monday, he would likely vote against a Republican plan to reform federal health care laws.

Republican governors complain that a GOP proposal to replace former President Barack Obama's health care law would force millions of lower-income earners off insurance rolls or stick states with the cost of keeping them covered.

The Congressional Budget Office is out with its estimate of what effects the Republican health bill, “The American Health Care Act,” would have on the nation’s health care system and how much it would cost the federal government. The GOP plan is designed to partially repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act passed during the Obama administration.

Health savings accounts are poised for a major expansion by Republicans in Washington, D.C., and that could mean millions more customers — and fees — flowing to a handful of companies.

Republicans are touting their health plan as the right medicine for ailing insurance markets across the country, from Arizona to Tennessee.

One of California’s largest insurers has proposed a change in the benefits of commercial plans next year that would require consumers to pay more for drugs at pharmacies outside an established network.