Fiscal Tax Blog

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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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House Energy & Commerce Committee: Rep. Harshbarger Questions AARP–UnitedHealth Financial Ties

“Mr. Hemsley, you know I’m used to following the money, especially when patients are told something is about affordability, and AARP presents itself as an independent non-profit speaking for seniors. But its own financial filings show that UnitedHealth paid AARP over nine billion dollars in a single deal—far more than the AARP brings in from membership dues, and more than four times its annual operating revenue. They also earn royalties tied directly to insurance premiums,…

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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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Commitment to Seniors Opposes New “Most Favored Nation” Drug Pricing Models

Washington, D.C. — December 23, 2025 — Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment, opposes the Trump administration’s new drug pricing models—Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing (GLOBE) and Guarding U.S. Medicine Against Rising Drug Costs (GUARD)—which import Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug price controls directly into Medicare Part B and Part D. These price controls will negatively impact America’s prescription drug market, which seniors heavily rely on. By tying U.S. reimbursement rates to those set in other…

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Fox News Live: Phil Kerpen on Price Controls

This is a really tough problem for the simple reason that if another country is getting a free ride, it’s very hard to convince them to end it. For a long time, people in the US, especially people left of center, just said let’s pay European prices. Instead of the rest of the world getting a free ride, there’s nothing to ride on. There’s no incentive for investment for developing new cures and new treatments…