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WASHINGTON — To hear Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance tell it, he wasn’t trying to eliminate the Affordable Care Act as president. “Obamacare was lousy health care. Vance added: “It illustrates Donald Trump’s entire approach to governing, which is to fix problems.”Both Trump and Vance are misrepresenting the facts. As president, Trump fought to repeal and undo the ACA using executive action, legislation and lawsuits. “Which means no actual plan.”“And 45 million Americans are insured through the Affordable Care Act,” she said.

Persons: WASHINGTON, Donald Trump, JD Vance, “, Trump, Sen, Vance, ”, “ Obamacare, It’s, …, ” Trump, Kamala Harris, could’ve, Donald Trump’s, “ Trump, Larry Levitt, Republicans — Sens, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins of, John McCain, Arizona —, McCain, ” Levitt, Barack Obama’s, Joe Biden, doesn't, Karoline Leavitt, Leavitt, ” Harris Organizations: ABC, Democratic, Trump, Protection, Republican, American Health Care, Office, House Republicans, Republicans, ACA, Medicare Locations: R, Ohio, Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Arizona, Greensboro , North Carolina

☆ What to Do if You’re Overpaying for Prescriptions
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Reed Abelson | Rebecca Robbins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

If you’ve ever had trouble getting a prescription drug, chances are you’ve run into a pharmacy benefit manager. These companies, known as P.B.M.s, play a crucial but often hidden role in deciding which drugs you can get and how much you will personally have to pay. They are middlemen in the maddeningly complex American health care system, working on behalf of your employer or government insurance programs like Medicare, which cover most of the costs of prescription drugs. is to save money on your medications. But The New York Times found that the three biggest P.B.M.s are often making you pay more than you should.

Persons: you’ve Organizations: New York Times

☆ Biden’s tariffs on Chinese imports are boosting these beaten-down stocks
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-17 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Beaten-down clean energy stocks have rallied this week. The iShares Global Clean Energy exchange-traded fund, which tracks sectors from renewable electricity to semiconductors to solar energy, has gained roughly 3%. Plug Power shares have climbed 33%, Enphase Energy shares have gained 8% and NextEra Energy shares have added 4%. Some investors warn that though the tariffs could continue boosting clean energy stocks, the recent rally isn’t driven by just improving fundamentals. Damaging hacks expose the weak underbelly of America’s health care systemA pair of recent ransomware attacks crippled computer systems at two major American health care firms, disrupting patient care and exposing fundamental weaknesses in the US health care system’s defenses against hackers, reports my colleague Sean Lyngaas.

Persons: New York CNN — It’s, Joe Biden, CNN’s Kayla Tausche, ”, Steve Sosnick, Roaring Kitty, Keith Gill, Dow, Nicole Goodkind, stoking, Gary Pzegeo, ” Read, Sean Lyngaas, cybersecurity, ” Joshua Corman, Sen, Ron Wyden Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Clean Energy, Enphase Energy, NextEra Energy, Biden, Federal Reserve, Interactive Brokers, CNN, GameStop, AMC Entertainment, Roaring, Dow Jones Industrial, Nasdaq, Markets, Bureau of Labor Statistics, CIBC Private Wealth, “ Industry, Oregon Democrat Locations: New York, China

☆ Damaging hacks expose the weak underbelly of America’s health care system
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Washington CNN —A pair of recent ransomware attacks crippled computer systems at two major American health care firms, disrupting patient care and exposing fundamental weaknesses in the US health care system’s defenses against hackers. Health care lags other industries such as big financial institutions and energy providers when it comes to IT security, according to some experts. The two ransomware attacks hit different nerves of the health care system. Momentum is also growing on Capitol Hill to force health care organizations to meet basic cybersecurity standards. More broadly, the Justice Department last week announced a task force to examine “health care monopolies and collusion” that will guide the department’s approach to “civil and criminal enforcement in health care markets,” where warranted.

Persons: cybersecurity, ” Joshua Corman, Sen, Ron Wyden, ”, cybercriminals, Biden, Anne Neuberger, Mark Warner, ” Carter Groome, Corman, ‘, ” Sen, Marsha Blackburn, Andrew Organizations: Washington CNN, Biden, “ Industry, CNN, Oregon Democrat, ransomware, Change Healthcare, White House, American Hospital Association, Department of Health, Human Services, Virginia Democrat, Healthcare, cybersecurity, Health, Cavalry, UnitedHealth, Optum, Tennessee Republican, Justice Department, UnitedHealth Group, Wall Street, Department Locations: St, Louis, United States, Virginia, Tennessee

☆ Medical Debt Shows Up Less Often on Credit Reports
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Ann Carrns | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rohit Chopra, the bureau’s director, said in a statement that “further reforms” were needed to scour medical debt from credit histories. The bureau is considering a rule to ban medical debt from consumer credit files. The bureau estimated in a 2022 report that well over half the debt that appeared on credit reports as being in collection was medical debt. People can incur medical bills unexpectedly, and many think that their health insurance will cover the costs. And the consumer bureau previously found that medical collection debt reported to the credit bureaus was “plagued by inaccuracies.”

Persons: —, TransUnion —, Rohit Chopra Organizations: Consumer Financial

Walmart opened its first Walmart Health clinic in Georgia in 2019, and then gradually opened more clinics next door to its big-box stores. Walmart struggled with high executive turnover and cycled through numerous leaders of Walmart Health. Going forward, Walmart will return to the health services it offered before the Walmart Health push: It will continue to operate its thousands of pharmacies and vision centers. Walmart Health marks the latest failed push into health care by a high-profile company, following the disbandment of a joint venture between JPMorgan Chase , Berkshire Hathaway and Amazon in 2021. Meanwhile, Amazon 's health clinic operator One Medical now has more than 125 locations nationwide.

Persons: Brett Biggs, Doug McMillon, Berkshire Hathaway, Walgreens Organizations: Walmart Health, Walmart, CNBC, CVS, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Walgreens Locations: Sugar, Arkansas , Florida, Georgia , Illinois, Texas, U.S, Georgia, Florida

☆ Opinion: Right now, I’d rather raise my child in Taiwan than America
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Opinion Clarissa Wei | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

My dad still remembers the anxiety that engulfed the island when the United States cut off diplomatic recognition of Taiwan in favor of the People’s Republic of China in 1979. My parents considered America a safe haven and wanted me to grow up with all its comforts. Of course, comparing the United States and Taiwan this way without acknowledging the nuanced socio-political contexts can be misleading. Clarissa WeiThe biggest shift, then, has been how the people of Taiwan perceive the United States. The United States, on the flip side, is the 131st.

Persons: Clarissa Wei Editor’s, Clarissa Wei, “, ”, Annabelle Chih, there’s, Tyrone Siu, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, “ Wei, Ting Yen, I’m, nodded, Billy H.C, Kwok, It’s, Republican —, Xi Jinping, “ Trump Organizations: Taipei CNN, CNN, America, Metro, Trump, Taiwan, Franklin & Marshall College, 131st, San Francisco Bay Area, China’s Communist Party, Republican Locations: Taiwanese American, Taipei, Taiwan, China, United States, People’s Republic of China, America, Los Angeles, Taiwanese, Kaohsiung, San Francisco Bay

☆ ‘We’re hemorrhaging money’: US health clinics try to stay open after unprecedented cyberattack
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —For more than two weeks, a cyberattack has disrupted business at health care providers across the United States, forcing small clinics to scramble to stay in business and exposing the fragility of the billing system that underpins American health care. It prevented some insurance payments on prescription drugs from processing, leaving many care providers effectively footing the bill without reimbursement. Health care groups have pleaded with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to offer medical practices a financial lifeline. A week ago, Change Healthcare announced plans for a temporary loan program to get money flowing to health care providers affected by the outage. Tyler Mason, a spokesperson for Change Healthcare, declined to comment when asked if the company had paid off the hackers.

Persons: ”, Catherine Reinheimer, Mel Davies, ” Jesse Ehrenfeld, Reinheimer, Richard Pollack, Carter Groome, ” Groome, Tyler Mason, ALPHV, ” Ari Redbord, Joshua Corman, Corman, “ Organizations: CNN, Change Healthcare, Health, Department of Health, Human Services, Oregon Oncology, Healthcare, American Medical Association, US, Medical Group Management Association, Community Oncology Alliance, American Hospital Association, Justice Department, ALPHV, Labs Locations: United States, Philadelphia, UnitedHealth, Oregon

Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicA Times investigation has found that dentists and lactation consultants around the country are pushing “tongue-tie releases” on new mothers struggling to breastfeed, generating huge profits while often harming patients. Katie Thomas, an investigative health care reporter at The Times, discusses the forces driving this emerging trend in American health care and the story of one family in the middle of it.

Persons: Katie Thomas Organizations: Spotify, Times, The Times

☆ Opinion: I’m a Palestinian American. This is what I told Blinken
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Opinion Rajaie Batniji | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —On February 1, I met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a 90-minute private discussion on the situation in Gaza. Many of my fellow Palestinian Americans discouraged me from speaking with you today, concerned that this discussion was solely performative. You know that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, provides food for most Gazans and critical infrastructure for other aid organizations. I have worked extensively in global health and wrote a series of research papers in 2009 on what we thought then was a Palestinian health crisis. What do you wish to be your legacy, Secretary Blinken?

Persons: Read, CNN —, Antony Blinken, Blake Marvin I, Blinken, nodded, Mr, ’, –, Abed Rahim Khatib, Israel, indignity Organizations: CNN, State Department, Palestinian, Oxford, Marshall, Wall Street, United Nations, UN, UNRWA, International Court of Justice Locations: Gaza, San Francisco, Rajaie, Palestinian American, California, Stanford, Shejaiya, Israel, Iraq, Rafah, American, Shifa, al, Palestinian

☆ Boomers Haven't Saved Enough for Retirement; Gen Z Will Have to Pay
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-10 | by ( Ann C. Logue | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

According to Census Bureau data, 44% of boomers are at retirement age and millions more are soon to join them. And since younger boomers are less financially prepared for retirement than their older boomer siblings, the problem is bound to get worse. AdvertisementAs boomers continue to age out of the workforce, it's going to put strain on the healthcare system, government programs, and the economy. Not all boomers are richIt's undeniable that some boomers will enjoy a cushy retirement. The median retirement account for that age group has only $200,000 — meaning that half of 65- to 74-year-olds have even less saved up.

Persons: —, it's, Rita Choula, Stevie Kuenn, Kuenn, Choula, Caregiving, Gen Organizations: Federal, AARP, Institute, Consumer Finances, Social Security, National Council, Medicare, Pew, National Alliance, American Health Care Association, Department of Homeland Security Locations: —, Chicago, Ohio, America

☆ Big Profits in Caring for the Elderly
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( David Leonhardt | More About David Leonhardt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The main reason is that almost every form of care in the U.S. costs more: doctor’s visits, hospital stays, drug prescriptions, surgeries and more. The American health care system maximizes the profits of health care companies at the expense of families’ budgets. Dying brokeYou can find a poignant example in a series that The Times and KFF Health News (a nonprofit) have been publishing in recent weeks. It’s called Dying Broke, and it examines the long-term care industry. “That is far higher than the money made in most other health sectors.”

Persons: — Gerard Anderson, Uwe Reinhardt, Peter Hussey, Varduhi, —, It’s, ” Jordan Rau Organizations: KFF Health Locations: U.S

In 1980, there were 24 private equity firms, according to Prequin, which tracks alternative assets; by 2022, there were around 5,000 private equity firms controlling some 18,000 companies. Among the industries where private equity sank deep roots was health care. Thin margins have forced many nursing homes to shrink their nursing staff, leaving them ill prepared when the pandemic hit. One New Jersey analysis found that facilities owned by private equity had a higher rate of Covid-19 deaths and cases than nursing homes not owned by private equity. Fewer than 20 percent of all nursing homes meet a recently proposed minimum staffing level, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation estimate.

Persons: equity’s, Sabrina T, Howell, Mark Parkinson, Ms, ” Organizations: Healthcare Private Equity Association, New York University, Genesis Healthcare, Formation Capital, Kaiser Family, American Health Care Association Locations: Jersey, New Hampshire

☆ Victor R. Fuchs, ‘Dean’ of American Health Care Economists, Dies at 99
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Clay Risen | More About Clay Risen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Victor R. Fuchs, whose comprehensive grasp of the challenges facing the United States health care system, and eloquence in explaining those challenges to policymakers and the general public, made him what many called the “dean” of American health care economists, died on Saturday at his home on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. Dr. Fuchs was best known for a slim, erudite book published in 1975 with the attention-grabbing title “Who Shall Live? Health, Economics and Social Choice.” He was among the first to articulate in clear, layman’s prose why the United States was in the midst of rapidly rising health care costs, while costs in other countries stayed manageable. The book has become required reading among physicians, health economists and anyone interested in the knotty issue of American health care, and it has never been out of print. Dr. Fuchs showed that the real problem facing the country was not health care coverage but health care costs; America, he wrote, was spending more and more without achieving better health outcomes.

Persons: Victor R, Fuchs, Fred Organizations: Stanford University, Health Locations: United States, Palo Alto, Calif, America

☆ Opinion | Fixing America’s Health Care System
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “How Do We Fix the Scandal That Is American Health Care?,” by Nicholas Kristof, with photographs by September Dawn Bottoms (column, Aug. 20):Nicholas Kristof scratches the surface of the failures of the health care system in this country. I have been in practice for 28 years as a cardiologist and internist and have seen firsthand the miraculous breakthroughs in cardiac care as well as the appalling level of care typical in treatment of chronic diseases, especially among minority populations. Most care in this country is delivered by large for-profit and nonprofit entities (which function largely as for-profit entities but avoid taxes). These systems are incentivized to invest in high-end tertiary care, typically cardiac, orthopedic, neurosurgical and oncologic care, as they have the highest reimbursement. Our health care system needs to incentivize primary care and force nonprofit entities to allocate larger portions of their budgets to primary care or lose their nonprofit status.

Persons: Nicholas Kristof, Dawn Organizations: Health

☆ To Fix Health Care, We Need to Look Beyond Medicine - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Nicholas Kristof | September Dawn Bottoms | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It’s not just that life expectancy in Mississippi (71.9) now appears to be a hair shorter than in Bangladesh (72.4). Nor that an infant is some 70 percent more likely to die in the United States than in other wealthy countries. Nor even that for the first time in probably a century, the likelihood that an American child will live to the age of 20 has dropped. All that is tragic and infuriating, but to me the most heart-rending symbol of America’s failure in health care is the avoidable amputations that result from poorly managed diabetes. That noise of a saw on bone is a rebuke to an American health care system that, as Walter Cronkite reportedly observed, is neither healthy, caring nor a system.

Persons: It’s, Walter Cronkite Locations: Mississippi, Bangladesh, United States, American

☆ Newly Published, From a Bayou Thriller to Drugs in America
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A young Colombian American grapples with injury, a fractured family and his personal identity in this transnational coming-of-age journey. QUICK FIXES: Drugs in America From Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge, by Benjamin Y. Fong. In this account, Fong examines America’s historical relationship to nine different drugs, highlighting the tension between an embrace of pharmaceuticals and the belligerence of the “war” on drugs. FRAGMENTED: A Doctor’s Quest to Piece Together American Health Care, by Ilana Yurkiewicz. Discontinuities caused by insurance companies, reliance on software and contemporary medical culture are the U.S. health care system’s “greatest problem,” writes Yurkiewicz.

Persons: Shumona Sinha, Teresa Lavender Fagan, GREGORIO PASOS, Rodrigo Restrepo Montoya, Benjamin Y, Fong, Ilana Yurkiewicz, ” Organizations: Health Locations: Paris, Colombian American, America, U.S

☆ Opinion | The Lifelong Burden of a Chronic Illness
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “‘My Body Is a Clock’: Portraits of Chronic Care,” by Sara J. Winston (Opinion guest essay, July 2):I want to thank Ms. Winston for her essay about the challenge of living with a chronic health condition in America. She clearly captured the persistent fear that lives in me and every American with a chronic condition who depends on continuous treatment. It was diagnosed in early childhood, and I require daily inhalers, oral immune-suppressant medications and vigilance to keep my condition in check. My life choices were all based on the essential requirement of maintaining affordable, continuous health care: my career, my employers, proximity to hospitals and a pulmonologist. Our American health care system, which relies heavily on employer-provided health insurance and is unaffordable for those with no health insurance, is a nightmare for people like Ms. Winston and me.

Persons: Sara J, Winston Locations: America, American

☆ Opinion | I Studied Five Countries’ Health Care Systems. We Need to Get More Creative With Ours.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Aaron E. Carroll | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Despite just experiencing a pandemic in which over one million Americans died, health care reform doesn’t seem to be a top political issue in the United States right now. The American health care system is broken. We spend an extraordinary amount on health care, far more than anyone else. Others believe that the health care systems in different countries couldn’t work here because of our system’s size. And much of health care is regulated at the state level, so our size isn’t really an outlier.

Persons: That’s Locations: United States, Canada

☆ Three Books That Make Tess Gunty Angry
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

I can’t believe I get to share a time period with all of these people. In this poem, the speaker is thunderstruck by a newfound “plague of gratitude.” The speaker says: “Not long ago I was hard to even/hug ... The poem plunged me into that first miraculous flash of hope you enjoy after a long storm of bad brain chemistry. They are facilitated by an absence of legal restrictions and the primeval excuse that if We don’t do it first, They will. My family is always shocked by how many books on neuroscience and quantum physics I’ve amassed.

Persons: Claudia Rankine, Anne Carson, Maggie Nelson, Yuri Herrera, Zadie Smith, Diane Williams, Valeria Luiselli, Olga Tokarczuk, Rachel Kushner, Elena Ferrante, Ben Lerner, Carmen Maria Machado, Joy Williams, Hanif Abdurraqib, Nuar Alsadir, Robin Coste Lewis, Natalie Diaz, Ocean Vuong, Sharon Olds, Morgan Parker, Tommy Pico, Terrance Hayes, Ada Limón, Tracy K, Smith, Annie Baker, Amy Herzog, Paula Vogel, Svetlana Alexievich, Rachel Aviv, Ed Yong, Matthew Desmond, Alexandra Kleeman, Susan Choi, Chris Ware, Tommy Orange, Javier Zamora, Jenny Offill, Annie Ernaux, Anne Enright, Lydia Davis, Raven Leilani, Mark Z, Jennifer Egan, George Saunders, Wolf, Kaveh Akbar, ” Akbar alchemizes, ”, I’m, Patrick Radden Keefe, Sackler, —, Brian Christian, I’ve, Iain McGilchrist, Alex Locations: Ocean, America, “, postindustrial Indiana

☆ In Nicole Chung’s memoir, "A Living Remedy," she blames U.S. health care for her parents' early death
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

In author Nicole Chung's new memoir, "A Living Remedy," she tells the story of watching both her parents die in the span of two years. Chung blames the country's broken health-care system, at least in part, for the fact that her father died at 67, and her mother at 68. I spoke with Chung about her grief and the state of American health care. He knew he was getting sicker, but my parents just didn't have a way to pay for the extensive care he needed. NC: After my father died, I spent months trying to figure out why I was so enraged.

☆ Small-town nursing homes closing amid staffing crunch
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Tony Leys | Kaiser Health News | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

In Iowa, 13 of the 15 nursing homes that closed in 2022 were in rural areas, according to the Iowa Health Care Association. “We’ve had more nursing homes go bankrupt in the last year than in the last 10 years combined,” she said. Nationally, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported recently that 129 nursing homes had closed in 2022. In Iowa, Medicaid pays nursing homes about $215 per day per resident, according to the Iowa Health Care Association. Willett said a recent survey found that 72% of Iowa’s remaining nursing homes were freezing or limiting admissions below their capacity.

☆ One chart shows how employment has changed throughout the US economy almost 3 years after the start of the pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The US labor market has been above its pre-pandemic February 2020 employment level for a while. Some sectors are still below pre-pandemic employment almost three years since the official start of the pandemic. While leisure and hospitality isn't back at its pre-pandemic employment level, it still has been experiencing large monthly job gains as workers are needed to meet demand. Air transportation was 11.7% above its February 2020 employment level in December. It continued to expand throughout the pandemic and was 30.8% above its pre-pandemic employment as of December.

But the sheer number of nurses working travel jobs, and the difference between what they thought was promised and what they pocketed, has led to a substantial legal pushback by travel nurses around the country on the issue. Courtesy Jordyn BashfordThis summer, Stueve Siegel Hanson, a Kansas City, Missouri, law firm, filed class-action lawsuits against four travel nurse agencies: Aya, Maxim, NuWest and Cross Country. Advertisements touted an hourly rate of $8 to $11, but many nurses wound up making less than $6, according to Pan Travelers, a professional association of travel nurses. But by February, after her first 13-week contract, Covid hospitalizations had waned and the demand for travel nurses had fallen. Mark Humphrey / APTwo travel nurses walk the hallways during their shift at a hospital in Rhode Island.

☆ Outgoing LA Mayor Eric Garcetti on why his stalled ambassador nomination was a ‘gift’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Maeve Reston | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Reston: So, the other half of the equation – as you talked about – is not under your control as the mayor, and that’s the mental health space. Garcetti: This country is experiencing a mental health crisis and addiction crisis. There are not enough professionals who can treat mental health afflictions, and we have no right to mental health care in this country. … Treating trauma and mental health issues is the biggest gap in the American health care system by far. Garcetti: I was working on a musical a long time ago that I thought would be really interesting in LA.

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