Fiscal Tax Blog

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Five ways for Republicans to win on health care affordability

For most of the past 40 years, pollsters have asked voters: Which party do you trust more on health care? The answer has been pretty much the same over this whole period. Voters trust the Democrats more, and sometimes by a 2-1 margin. Republicans shouldn’t be afraid of the issue. Democrats have pretty much unilaterally designed the medical care system we have now. They own it. The outcome isn’t happy. We are getting spiraling costs with less access and, in…

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Republicans Can Win on Healthcare Affordability

For most of the last 40 years, pollsters have asked voters: Which party do you trust more on healthcare? The answer has been pretty much the same over this whole period. Voters trust Democrats more, sometimes by a two-to-one margin. When I’ve asked my Republican politicos why that is, the answer I typically receive is: Our party doesn’t do healthcare. Then they crouch in the fetal position. Well, the GOP certainly better start “doing healthcare,”…

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Insurance Scam

At Unleash Prosperity, our favorite word is “profit.” Profits make the world go round and are the best antidote to poverty. But when the business makes most of its profits off of government and taxpayer dollars, we’re not so excited. That’s the case with the $1.7 trillion health industrial complex, which is financed mostly through government subsidies. This chart shows that hospital earnings have doubled since 2015 (not adjusted for inflation). Profits are down in…

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Make Japan Pay Their Fair Share for Drugs, Mr. President

Donald Trump will soon meet with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Near the top of the agenda should be an effort to secure a pledge from her to ease Japan’s price controls on US-made brand drugs. UP senior fellow Tomas Philipson makes a compelling case in the Washington Examiner: For decades, Japan, the world’s fifth-largest economy, has artificially suppressed its spending on innovative medicines, effectively freeriding on U.S. rewards for innovation… That free-riding is unfair. But…

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Drug pricing should be near top of agenda at Trump-Takaichi meeting

President Donald Trump will soon host Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House, where the two leaders will seek to strengthen the United States-Japan alliance and boost both countries’ economies. The president can advance these goals simultaneously in healthcare by urging Takaichi to reform how her aging nation’s healthcare system pays for prescription drugs. For decades, Japan, the world’s fifth-largest economy, has artificially suppressed its spending on innovative medicines, effectively freeriding on U.S. rewards for innovation. The country’s government-run health system conducts annual pricing reviews and…

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Seniors Paid Billions in Extra Premiums Due to Alleged Medicare Overpayments

The average American senior’s Medicare premiums last year were about 10% higher, or more than $200 annually, because of alleged overpayments to private Medicare Advantage plans, congressional investigators found. Medicare Part B premiums that most seniors pay were partly pushed up by controversial health-insurer practices such as adding diagnoses to trigger higher payments, according to the Joint Economic Committee, a bipartisan group of lawmakers that advises Congress on financial matters.

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Commitment to Seniors Applauds President Trump’s Call to Rein in Big Insurers, Warns Against Efforts to Codify “Most Favored Nation”

Washington, D.C. – February 25, 2026 – Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment, applauds President Trump for addressing abusive insurer practices and urging lawmakers to rein in rising health care costs during last night’s State of the Union. However, we strongly oppose any effort to codify the administration’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing proposal into law. By tying U.S. reimbursement rates to prices set by socialist-style foreign governments, MFN would undermine the…

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2025: Big Insurance’s $1.7 Trillion Year

In 2025, the seven biggest health insurance conglomerates: Collected almost $1.7 trillion in total revenues, $175 billion more than in 2024; Made more than $54 billion in profits; Covered 10 million fewer people than in 2024; Ramped up their self-dealing by steering more of their health plan enrollees to physician practices, clinics, pharmacy operations and other clinical businesses they now own