News & Blogs

Jon Decker: Biden’s EO to Boost ‘Competitiveness’ Puts America at Disadvantage

President Biden recently unveiled a new executive order on “Promoting Competition” in the U.S. economy. Though the executive order is purported to ‘up our game’ – its health care recommendations plainly drop the ball. If Biden’s agenda is enacted as articulated, it would put American medical innovation at enormous competitive disadvantage – and carry especially devastating consequences for our most vulnerable populations, including seniors. Biden’s EO states, “It is also the policy of my Administration…

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Commitment to Seniors Releases New Digital Ad Condemning H.R. 3 in 18 Targeted Congressional Districts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Commitment to Seniors, a project of American Commitment dedicated to protecting seniors’ healthcare interests, releases a new advertisement slamming H.R. 3. The digital video ad condemns H.R. 3, a bill that would impose restrictions on seniors’ access to cutting-edge medicines while also supplying health insurers with a substantial financial windfall. Currently airing in eighteen key Democratic districts, the ad excoriates Democrat politicians for supporting H.R. 3, potentially diverting billions from Medicare despite…

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Jon Decker: Why doesn’t the AARP seem to care about volatile insulin prices?

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) recently made waves claiming that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are to blame for the volatility of insulin prices.  It’s a bold statement, to be sure.  But here’s the thing: the senator is absolutely right — and PolitiFact has confirmed as much. On January 31, 2021, PolitiFact partnered with The Daily Iowan to release a fact-check on Grassley’s statement, ultimately providing the senator with its highest rating of “True” on the organization’s Truth-O-Meter™.  “With their complicated discount negotiations,” PolitiFact concludes, PBMs play a role in driving upward the cost…

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Jon Decker: Take From Retirees, Give To Big Insurance: Has AARP Sold Out Its Members Like Robinhood Did?

Robinhood was once a symbol of the Everyman’s triumph over brokerage fees, capital requirements, and other barriers that had locked potential retail investors out of the stock market. The company’s innovative investing platform represented a victory for democratizing finance. But through the firm’s ongoing GameStop scandal, that perception has changed. The controversy has shaken many individuals’ faith in their company. Now, people are understandably asking: Are organizations that purport to represent everyday people actually beholden…

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Jon Decker: AARP’s Unholy Alliance With Big Insurance

A lawsuit currently being pursued by Ohio Attorney General David Yost against OptumRx, a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), alleges that the company bilked Ohio state coffers of more than $1.3 million on generic medications. If true, taxpayers and patients should be outraged. But this is far from the only reason to distrust PBMs. PBMs are the corporate middlemen that drive the costs of drugs up for patients in pursuit of their own profits. Seniors, in particular, who…

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Jon Decker: For Real Healthcare Reform, Biden Should Break Up with Big Insurance

The enthusiastically socialist Jacobin magazine recently took President Biden to task for a healthcare plan that superficially appeared “lifted” from insurance industry lobbyists. Of course, cribbing material is nothing new for Joe Biden—and neither is going to bat for Big Insurance at the expense of Americans. Jacobin reports, “Biden’s plan would shovel billions of dollars to private health insurers by providing subsidies for Americans to buy coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces… Those initiatives — which could further boost insurers’ skyrocketing profits — were…

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Jon Decker: AARP’s Stance on Prescription Price Controls Hurts Older Americans

After the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently unveiled its finalized proposal to lower prescription drug costs by passing on rebate discounts directly to Medicare patients, seniors would rightly expect the AARP to be supportive. After all, the organization is supposed to represent seniors and their interests. According to the HHS, under the current rebate system: “Drug companies pay rebates and other payments to PBMs [pharmacy benefits managers], but these payments are…

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Is AARP the Organization It Claims to Be?

During the 2020 election, AARP staff repeatedly claimed that their organization “maintains a nonpartisan stance” and “is a powerful voice for the issues and concerns of the 50 plus.” It’s true that the AARP doesn’t make political contributions or endorse candidates, as doing so would jeopardize its “non-profit” status. However, the claim that the organization is focused on issues that benefit its members is laughably wrong. Instead, the driving factor behind the political fights that…

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