Hospital food rarely draws rave reviews. But efforts by the Trump administration to get hospitals to ditch unhealthy fare are facing criticism for going too far. The Department of Health and Human Services sent notices to hospitals asking them to align their food purchases with the administration’s 2025-30 dietary guidelines to ensure continued eligibility for…
Privacy between doctors and patients is protected by law. But the Trump administration is, in effect, trying to peek into the exam room. The Office of Personnel Management is seeking unredacted federal worker health data from insurers. The unusual request, which would give the government detailed personal and health information, alarmed health policy and legal…
When Gavin Newsom ran for California governor in 2018, his support for a state-run single-payer healthcare system was considered a risky move and earned him hefty labor endorsements. Today, leading Democrats in the wide-open race to succeed Newsom have embraced single-payer as a political necessity, an answer to voters fed up with rising premiums and…
As people become richer, they generally spend more money on health. However, as countries become richer, do they spend more or less (relative to their GDP per capita) on health care innovation? A paper by Yu et al. (2026) looks at trends in willingness to pay thresholds between the US and countries in the most-favored…
Since his second term started, President Donald Trump has announced, negotiated, or floated a flurry of initiatives aimed at taming the excesses of the pharmaceutical industry. No surprise. About 60% of American adults are “worried about being able to afford prescription drug costs for themselves or their families,” a recent KFF nationwide poll showed. More…
Next time you go to the pharmacy, you might be offered a coupon on your prescription drugs. While it may sound like a great deal — with the prospect of saving hundreds of dollars — the decision to accept it is complicated, especially for people with insurance. Even as prescription drug costs rise, patients with…
By MIKE MAGEE In its final summary of the landmark paper in Nature this past month, the authors led with this statement: “This study underscores the highly personalized nature of thymic health and emphasizes the previously unrecognized possible critical role of maintaining thymic health to preserve an agile, adaptive immune response that will accommodate long-term…
Stuart Figueroa provides some insights in his Incidental Economist article: To start, price shopping is inconvenient. It requires the consumer to invest time and energy in finding a provider, oftentimes having to navigate provider directories that are inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated. Price shopping is also hampered by the mere fact that health insurance is complicated and…
Ben Salter is the Chief Product Officer of SafeRide Health. They are one of the biggest players in non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) working predominantly for health plans that have Medicaid or Medicare Advantage members. Getting people to their appointments is a big deal–think disabled or sick people who will miss clinical appointments if they can’t…
The White House’s newly released strategy for tackling the nation’s drug and addiction crisis calls for a number of ambitious public health approaches that some experts say are laudable but will be hampered by the administration’s own actions. The sweeping 195-page National Drug Control Strategy, published May 4, advocates for making access to treatment easier…