Category: Health Care Costs

How To Get A Cheaper Prescription Before Leaving The Doctor’s Office

A pricing tool embedded in their electronic health record and prescribing system lets doctors see how much patients will pay out-of-pocket based on their insurance and the pharmacy. But doctors have been slow to adopt the technology, which has limitations.

Watch: High Cost Of Insulin Sends Americans To Canada To Stock Up

KHN, in collaboration with PBS NewsHour, reports on the skyrocketing cost of insulin — and the trend’s deadly consequences. The price in the U.S. nearly doubled from 2012 to 2016, prompting some patients and activists to travel to Canada, where insulin can be 90% cheaper.

Watch: High Cost Of Insulin Sends Americans To Canada To Stock Up

KHN, in collaboration with PBS NewsHour, reports on the skyrocketing cost of insulin — and the trend’s deadly consequences. The price in the U.S. nearly doubled from 2012 to 2016, prompting some patients and activists to travel to Canada, where insulin can be 90% cheaper.

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: All About ‘Medicare for All’

Need to know more about “Medicare for All?” It’s a top issue in the Democratic presidential primary campaign. This holiday week, we are rerunning our explainer on the subject. But first, KHN’s “What the Health?” host Julie Rovner talks to KHN’s Shefali Luthra about how health played out in the first Democratic candidate debates last week.

Pelosi Aims For Feds To Negotiate Drug Prices, Even For Private Insurers

A draft plan spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would allow the federal government for the first time to negotiate prices for 250 drugs for Medicare and apply those prices to all payers, including employers and insurers.

Trump Has Blessed States’ Exploration Of Importing Drugs. Will It Catch On?

Colorado, Florida and Vermont — with the support of President Donald Trump — are exploring plans to bring drugs across the border from Canada to help lower costs.

KHN’s ‘What The Health’: Dems Debate Health Care

Democratic presidential candidates disagreed on how to fix health care in their first debate Wednesday, although they all called for boosting insurance coverage and lowering prices. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is keeping health care in the news, too, with a new plan to make medical prices more available to the public. Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this, plus the latest in news about bipartisan progress on catch-all legislation to address “surprise” medical bills. Plus, Rovner interviews NPR’s Jon Hamilton about the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” installment.

Senate Panel Makes Surprisingly Fast Work Of ‘Surprise Medical Bills’ Package

The measure also includes a range of provisions designed to address health care costs.

‘An Arm And A Leg’: Why Are Drug Prices So Random? Meet Mr. PBM

Beware at the pharmacy counter: Your insurance company could be in cahoots with a pharmacy benefit manager — and the negotiations that go on between them are trade secrets.

Fuzzy Math Fuels Sanders’ Claim That Cost Barriers To Health Care Kill 30,000 A Year

There’s a lack of confidence in the number.