Tech companies looking to overhaul the health insurance industry have made much-hyped entries onto the public market. But they have yet to prove they can make money in the long run.
A long-awaited bill to fix the nation's deteriorating mail service is on the verge of passage in the Senate, but it could come at the expense of an even bigger and more complicated problem: Medicare solvency.
On the one hand, the efficacy of Aduhelm is unproven; patients face serious risks; and the drug's FDA approval was extremely controversial, so Medicare officials faced a real dilemma. On the other hand, what would have been the implications if clinical trials had clearly demonstrated that the drug could slow cognitive decline and Biogen had kept the price at $56,000 per year?
When Tufts Medical Center shutters its pediatric hospital this summer, the move will make Boston Children's Hospital, already the dominant and most expensive pediatric hospital in the region, even more powerful and could force insurers and families with sick children to pay more for healthcare.
Washington state, in its second year of offering the nation's first public option health insurance plan, has learned an important lesson: If you want hospitals to participate, you're probably going to have to force them.