A new poll of voters in battleground states finds a rare opportunity for bipartisan agreement on health care, with Americans strongly favoring action on public policies that support medical discovery into new treatments and cures. The poll was jointly commissioned by the Galen Institute and Center Forward, center-right and center-left think tanks. Purple Insights interviewed 800 registered … [Read more...] about In A Politically Polarized Year, Poll Finds Wide Agreement Among Voters On A Key Health Care Agenda
Innovation
UnitedHealthcare launches a smaller, ‘very, very different’ insurer
UnitedHealthcare is facing competition this year in Atlanta and Chicago from a new name in health insurance — a carrier that’s actually one of its subsidiaries. For the first time, individual shoppers are buying coverage from Harken Health, a company with about 100 employees based at an office on the UnitedHealthcare corporate campus in Minnetonka. Harken is being run as an independent entity, … [Read more...] about UnitedHealthcare launches a smaller, ‘very, very different’ insurer
Why Life-Sciences Innovation Is Politically ‘Purple’
The United States has long had the world’s most effective and competitive system for discovering and developing new drugs—and for more than a half century, there has been a bipartisan consensus that there are two reasons for that success: First, the federal government provides robust funding for scientific research, mostly through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Second, the U.S. system … [Read more...] about Why Life-Sciences Innovation Is Politically ‘Purple’
4 Principles to Guide Health Care Reform
Last month, Congress provided temporary relief from two taxes that would hamper America’s middle class: the Cadillac tax, which could have affected employees in up to 23 percent of insurance plans, and the medical device tax, which would curb critical medical research and drive up health care costs. With the House of Representatives poised to pass a reconciliation bill that includes the repeal … [Read more...] about 4 Principles to Guide Health Care Reform
Using Better Data to Produce Better Patient Outcomes
The next big challenge in the pharmaceutical sector is not going to be producing breakthrough treatments for once-deadly illnesses. The industry is on track to accomplish that with 3,400 medicines in development today in the United States alone, an increase of 40% since 2005.[1] Forty-one new drugs were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2014, the most in 18 years.[2] Instead, the … [Read more...] about Using Better Data to Produce Better Patient Outcomes
Lift The Ban On Physician-Owned Hospitals
As Congress considers year-end legislative options, one small change in the Affordable Care Act could make a big difference in access to quality health care for millions of Americans: Lifting the ban on creation and expansion of physician-owned hospitals. Physicians have an ownership stake in approximately 250 hospitals operating in 34 states, and they have a strong track record of providing … [Read more...] about Lift The Ban On Physician-Owned Hospitals