News & Blogs

Affordability Requires Supply, Not Price Controls

With the 2026 midterms approaching, there is an understandable desire on Capitol Hill to “do something.” But lawmakers should resist the temptation to reach for easy answers such as government-imposed price controls. Price controls are not market reforms. They are administrative attempts to override prices rather than address the conditions that make goods and services unaffordable in the first place. History shows that when government tries to control prices instead of expanding supply, the results…

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Siding with health care insurers emerges as political liability in 2026 midterm elections

As a pollster, I have learned to listen closely when voters speak with clarity. On health care costs, voters in battleground congressional districts are speaking louder than ever. They do not like what Democrats have delivered over the past 15 years on health care, and they are increasingly supportive of the reforms being advanced by President Trump and Republicans in Congress. This is a real political shift. In a January survey of 1,000 likely voters in battleground…

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Big Insurance CEO Hearings: 5 Clips to Watch

Last week, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees summoned five of the most powerful executives in the American health insurance industry to answer for their outsized roles in the U.S.-health ecosystem. And how their roles are leaving Americans increasingly sicker and poorer while they turn a profit. For starters, let’s take a moment to acknowledge that the hearing was unprecedented. Even in the days leading to the passage of the…

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Democrats Swear Allegiance to the Health Insurance Giants

We hate to say we told you so!  In yesterday’s HOTLINE, we predicted that House Democrats would rally behind the health insurance lobby that has gotten rich off of Obamacare. Right on cue, when the CEOs of the big insurers lined up in front of two congressional committees, the Democrats defended the status quo of neverending subsidies, supply restrictions, lack of competition and transparency, and out-of-control health care costs.  These are the same pols who…

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For Big Insurers, Tomorrow’s Congressional Hearings Is the Super Bowl

If I were still in my role as a Cigna executive, one of my responsibilities would be to prepare CEO David Cordani for his first ever appearance before a Congressional committee tomorrow. When I was the VP of corporate communications, I wrote speeches for the CEO and staffed him for any public-facing appearances. I was also the gatekeeper. Reporters had to go through me to interview anyone at Cigna, and I would rarely allow a reporter…

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UnitedHealth Used Aggressive Tactics to Boost Medicare Payments, Senate Report Finds

UnitedHealth Group deployed aggressive tactics to collect payment-boosting diagnoses for its Medicare Advantage members, a Senate committee investigating the company’s practices said. In Medicare Advantage, the federal government pays insurers a lump sum to oversee medical benefits for seniors and disabled people. The government pays extra for patients with certain costly medical conditions, a process called risk adjustment. The new report, based on a review of 50,000 pages of records UnitedHealth turned over to the Senate…

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Drugmakers Are Ditching Middlemen to Sell Directly to Patients

Drugmakers are moving to sell their medicines directly to patients, abandoning the middlemen they have long relied on. The shift is a huge departure from how pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer have sold drugs for decades and threatens the multibillion-dollar business of firms that have traditionally filled prescriptions. It is saving some patients hundreds of dollars off the cost of prescriptions because companies have been lowering the prices for drugs sold directly.

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Trump Strikes a Good Drug Deal

President Trump struck a deal on Monday with the U.K.’s Labour government that will raise drug prices on the other side of the pond in return for a tariff reprieve. At last a good drug deal: Both sides can claim a victory while mitigating self-inflicted damage to their countries. The President has long complained, with some justification, that other developed countries free-ride on U.S. innovation and consumers by requiring manufacturers to sell drugs to government-run…

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