A new Colorado law will ensure that those living with diabetes will spend no more than $100 per month on insulin, making it the first state to limit the cost of an increasingly expensive medication millions of Americans rely on.

Full Article

The price set by the Swiss drugmaker Novartis may be the world’s highest for a single treatment — prompting renewed debate about how society will pay for gene-therapy breakthroughs.

Full Article

The rush of Republican-controlled states to mount a challenge to the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide has sparked confusion about what these new laws actually do. Here’s what you need to know.

Full Article

Across the nation, hospitals treating patients with private health insurance were paid overall 2.4 times the Medicare rates in 2017, according to the RAND analysis.

Full Article

The Trump administration formally declared its opposition to the entire Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, arguing in a federal appeals court filing that the signature Obama-era legislation was unconstitutional and should be struck down.

Full Article

See the latest NYTimes piece about the way that artificial intelligence is changing the health insurance industry

Full Article

Last October, Esteban Serrano wrenched his knee badly during his weekly soccer game with friends.

Serrano, a software engineer, grew up playing soccer in Quito, Ecuador, and he has kept up the sport since moving to the United States two decades ago.

He hobbled off the field and iced his knee. But the pain was so severe that he made an appointment with Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, a network of orthopedists practicing in Greater Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.

The doctor diagnosed a strain of the medial collateral ligament and prescribed over-the-counter pain medication as well as a hinged knee brace, which Serrano used for several weeks until he’d healed.

He expected his insurance to cover his treatment. A plan from a previous job had covered him when he needed surgery to fix a broken nose sustained in another soccer game in 2017.

Then the bill came.

Full Article

Unlike commercial plans that cap members’ out-of-pocket drug spending annually, Medicare has no limit for prescription medications in Part D, its drug benefit. With the cost of specialty drugs increasing, some Medicare beneficiaries could owe thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket drug costs every year for a single drug.

Full Article

Centene, a major insurer that has significantly expanded under the Affordable Care Act, is making a bold bet as the Trump administration renews its attacks on the federal health law.

The company announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to buy WellCare, a smaller publicly held insurer based in Florida, for about $15.3 billion.

The deal would create a health care giant that specialized in offering private health plans under the enormous government programs Medicare and Medicaid. The combined company, with revenues expected to approach $100 billion in 2019, would cover 22 million people in all 50 states.

Full Article

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Wednesday threw out Medicaid work requirements in two states, a blow to Republican efforts to profoundly reshape a program that has provided free health insurance to the poorest Americans for more than 50 years.

Full Article