Federal Policy

The 12 Million People Lost in a Maze of Medicare and Medicaid

Many of America’s poorest and sickest patients are stuck navigating two separate insurance programs — Medicare and Medicaid — to get the care they need.

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How Patents Help Keep Obesity Drug Prices Sky-High

A recent JAMA study sheds light on how the manufacturers of a class of popular weight-loss drugs have avoided competition from more affordable generics.

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What to Expect When Medicare and Pharma Finally Negotiate Drug Prices

We explain how Medicare’s historic price negotiations with drugmakers will work, and the impact they could have.

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What White House COVID Coordinator Ashish Jha Learned on the Job

During his 14 months as White House COVID Coordinator, Ashish Jha learned about building consensus, crafting practical policy and how to deal with imperfect data.

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How Charitable are Nonprofit Hospitals?

A new Health Affairs study finds that as nonprofit hospitals’ earnings grow, their charity care spending fails to keep pace.

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Rooting Out Racial Bias in Health Care AI, Part 2

The Biden administration is proposing new regulations to keep racial bias in AI from getting to the bedside.

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Rooting Out Racial Bias in Health Care AI, Part 1

Artificial intelligence could revolutionize health care. It could also perpetuate and exacerbate generations of racial inequities.

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Should Remote Opioid Addiction Treatment Stay in the Mix?

Two recent studies show the impact of an ongoing, COVID-era rule that let doctors treat opioid addiction entirely remotely.

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The Wonky Policy That’s Got Hospitals on High Alert

Medicare could soon pay hospitals much less for common outpatient services like x-rays and checkups.

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What we’ve learned from federal efforts to fight HIV/AIDS

A recent NBER working paper compares the impact of public health funding for HIV/AIDS to other federal programs.

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