Healthcare system and insurance news and discussion

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

More on that by the AP:

https://apnews.com/article/affordable-c ... eadba75303

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Trump announces outlines of health care plan he wants Congress to consider

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the outlines of a health care plan he wants Congress to take up as Republicans have faced increasing pressure to address rising health costs after lawmakers let subsidies expire.

The cornerstone is his proposal to send money directly to Americans for health savings accounts so they can handle insurance and health costs as they see fit. Democrats have rejected the idea as a paltry substitute for the tax credits that had helped lower monthly premiums for many people.

“The government is going to pay the money directly to you,” Trump said in a taped video the White House released to announce the plan. “It goes to you and then you take the money and buy your own health care.”

Trump's plan also focuses on lowering drug prices and requiring insurers to be more upfront with the public about costs, revenues, rejected claims and wait times for care.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/tru ... 49227.html

[firestar464]

[firestar464]

NYT- Trump’s Online Drugstore Opens for Business

https://archive.ph/1DoGY

But researchers who study drug pricing warned that many people would pay too much if they use TrumpRx.

The TrumpRx site features 43 medicines, including well-known and widely used products like insulin; inhalers; the popular weight-loss drugs, Wegovy and Zepbound; and a copycat version of Humira, used for conditions like arthritis. The prices on the site vary widely: A month’s supply of Cytomel, a pill for thyroid problems, costs $6, while a high dose of Ngenla, a hormone treatment for children with a condition that stunts their growth, costs more than $5,500.

It is unlikely that many consumers will save money by using TrumpRx. Nearly all of the drugs on the site are already widely covered through insurance, and some are available as inexpensive generics from competing manufacturers. A person who has low out-of-pocket costs for a drug through insurance could waste hundreds of dollars a year paying out-of-pocket through TrumpRx. Each product page on the site advises consumers: “If you have insurance, check your co-pay first — it may be even lower.”

[firestar464]

[firestar464]

Tbf, what did you expect from corporate insurers? Their AI is obviously not going to be fair, just as they weren't fair before AI. I find that is the root problem. Oh well, one step at a time I suppose.

[caltrek]

A 2022 Law May Be Quietly Helping People Stay on Their Meds
By Joshua Cohen
April 29, 2026

Introduction:

(Undark) WHEN IT COMES TO prescription drugs, the Inflation Reduction Act may be best known for giving the federal government the authority to directly negotiate prices on behalf of people with Medicare. But a less-publicized measure written into the 2022 law could turn out to be more impactful. It’s the annual cap on out-of-pocket spending for medication, which went into effect in 2024. This change offers a much greater degree of protection to high-cost patients because it caps their annual spending at $2,100. At the same time, it has led to a substantial increase in spending by Medicare on prescription drugs.

Prior to 2024, some Medicare recipients, including those on high-cost cancer drugs, paid more than $10,000 for their medicine. Patients taking expensive medicines can now save thousands of dollars. According to a paper published in JAMA Internal Medicine in April, the cap could be having an overall positive effect on people’s ability to take their medications as prescribed. The study showed that following the prescription drug provisions, Medicare beneficiaries experienced a nearly 5 percentage point reduction in cost-related medication disruption compared to privately insured adults. The gains were even larger among patients managing multiple chronic conditions.

In an email to Undark, one of the authors, Benjamin Rome, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, noted that he and his colleagues will soon publish a paper “demonstrating a massive increase in the use of brand-name drugs in Medicare” following imposition of the out-of-pocket maximum in 2024, on “the order of 20-30% higher” when compared to privately insured adults.

Taking prescribed medicines as directed — commonly referred to as patient adherence — can be a critical determinant of health. Millions of Americans skip medications because they can’t afford them, which contributes to preventable hospitalizations, worsening chronic disease, and poor health outcomes. The nearly 200,000 avoidable deaths and hospitalizations attributed to nonadherence annually pose a major public health challenge. As Jerry Avorn, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, wrote to Undark: “We’ve known for many years that when patients have trouble affording their medications, they have problems adhering to what we doctors prescribe, and that has adverse health outcomes.”

Read more here: https://undark.org/2026/04/29/drug-costs-2022-law/

[firestar464]

https://www.reuters.com/legal/governmen ... 026-05-14/

[caltrek]

Turns Out, Nobody Wants a Data Center in Their Backyard
By Sophie Hurwitz
May 14, 2026

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) A new Gallup poll has found that most Americans would really prefer not to live next door to a data center.

For the first time, the polling organization asked people what they think of data centers, the massive computer-warehouses required to operate (among other things) large AI models.

Data centers need significant space, energy and water to operate, and they don’t provide many jobs relative to the investment they require. And they’re often unpleasant neighbors: their cooling systems can be noisy, and many include onsite gas turbines that belch black smoke into the air.

Gallup found seven out of ten Americans would be opposed to a data center in their backyard, with nearly half of those surveyed (48 percent) “strongly opposed” to data centers in their area.

That opposition seems to translate into real-life political organizing: according to Data Center Watch, an industry analytics project, coordinated local pushback led to the cancellation of at least $156 billion in data center infrastructure construction. And Data Center Opposition Report, a newly-launched website tracking opposition to data center development across the country, says there are at least 268 local opposition groups across 37 states, organizing over 300,000 people.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... american/

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