Affordable Care Act Premium Rates Projected to Increase by 10 Percent

Insurers are projected to submit rate increases in the Affordable Care Act market of about 10 percent, which is higher than the roughly 6 percent increase for 2019, according to Dave Dillon, a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and senior vice president of Lewis & Ellis, Actuaries and Consultants.

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Curbing Drug Rebates Would Cost Billions

A key part of the Trump administration’s plan to lower the list prices of drugs wouldn’t actually do so and would end up increasing federal spending by tens of billions of dollars over a decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.

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CMS’ Seema Verma: Medicare for All is ‘the greatest threat to innovation in healthcare’

Yesterday at the World Medical Innovation Forum in Boston, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma argued that government can often foil innovation. 

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HHS’ Rebate Rule Would Boost Federal Spending by $177B, Lead to Higher Part D Premiums

The Trump administration’s plan to end legal protections for drug rebates in a move to curb costs would actually boost Part D premiums and federal spending, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 

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2020 Medicare Premium Hike Could Wipe Out Social Security COLA for Many Retirees

If The Senior Citizens League is correct in its forecasts — and it has a strong record of that — roughly half of the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2020 for the average retiree will be wiped out by the increase in Medicare Part B premiums that year.

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More Than 500 Drugs Saw Price Hikes in the First Quarter, Study Shows

More than 500 drugs saw price hikes at the beginning of 2019, including price increases of nearly 3% prices for generics, according to a new report. Researchers at GoodRx, an app and website that tracks drug pricing and offers coupons, found a 2.9% price hike across brand-name and generic drugs in the first quarter of 2019. Most of that was reported in the first week of January, when drugmakers often raise their prices, according to the report.

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How Stricter Vaccine Laws Spared California from a Major Measles Outbreak

More than 750 people have been diagnosed with measles in the United States this year, the most cases nationwide in more than 20 years. Health officials say that more than 500 of those people had not been vaccinated.

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Trump Administration Files Formal Request to Strike Down All of Obamacare

The Trump administration formally declared its opposition to the entire Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, arguing in a federal appeals court filing that the signature Obama-era legislation was unconstitutional and should be struck down.

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DOL Appeals AHP Ruling

The Department of Labor on Friday filed notice that it will appeal a ruling by a federal judge that struck down a Trump administration rule letting individuals and small businesses pool together to buy health insurance.

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‘Medicare for All’ Gets Much-Awaited Report. Both Sides Can Claim Victory

The Congressional Budget Office published a much-awaited paper about the possible design of a single-payer or “Medicare for all” system in the United States.

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