Source: Los Angeles Times In a battle between two Capitol lobbying heavyweights — health insurers and pharmaceutical companies — the latter scored a major win Tuesday, beating back a measure designed to provide more transparency on prescription drug pricing. Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) declined to put his transparency measure up for a vote in […]
Read moreSource: The Sacramento Bee Sign up for health care coverage or pay the price. That’s the message from Covered California officials, who urged consumers Wednesday to sign up for Obamacare coverage by the Jan. 31 deadline or face stiff tax penalties. This year, the penalties are hitting harder, ranging from a minimum of $700 for […]
Read moreSource: Kaiser Health News Even with subsidies to make coverage more affordable, many people who buy health insurance on the marketplaces spend more than 10 percent of their income on premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket payments, a recent study found. Among those hit hardest, the researchers said, are people who spend nearly a quarter of […]
Read moreSource: The New York Times Clint Murphy let the deadline for getting health insurance by the new year pass without a second thought. Mr. Murphy, an engineer in Sulphur Springs, Tex., estimates that under the Affordable Care Act, he will face a penalty of $1,800 for going uninsured in 2016. But in his view, paying […]
Read moreSource: Los Angeles Times California officials never anticipated how many people would sign up for state-run health insurance under Obamacare. The state’s health plan for the poor, known as Medi-Cal, now covers 12.7 million people, 1 of every 3 Californians. If Medi-Cal were a state of its own, it would be the nation’s seventh-biggest by […]
Read moreSource: Fierce Health Payer The year 2015 was undoubtedly one of seismic change for the health insurance industry, with no shortage of game-changing headlines and issues. The Affordable Care Act, once again, played a major role in shaping the direction of the industry, and the year saw everything from mega-mergers to controversy over wellness programs […]
Read moreSource: Bloomberg Martin Shkreli, a boastful pharmaceutical executive who came under withering criticism for price gouging vital drugs, denied securities fraud charges on Thursday following an early morning arrest, and was freed on a $5 million bond. While the 32-year-old has earned a rare level of infamy for his brazenness in business and his personal […]
Read moreSource: Reuters NEW YORK/WASHINGTON Americans want to know what the next U.S. president will do to lower their rising healthcare costs, a priority shared by Republican and Democratic voters and second only to keeping the country safe, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. In all, 62 percent of people surveyed said they would want to […]
Read moreSource: Modern Healthcare Kaiser Permanente is preparing to instill its integrated model for high-quality care at sustainable costs in the minds of future physicians. The Oakland, Calif.-based system plans to open an independent medical school in Southern California, with its first class expected to enroll in fall 2019. “We’re not just launching another medical school,” […]
Read moreSource: Modern Healthcare The Affordable Care Act expanded health coverage to millions of Americans in 2014. Because more people had insurance to pay for healthcare services, demand and spending predictably went up more quickly. But the important question for the future remains the same: Will healthcare be able to avoid large spending spikes and move […]
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