Prescription drug prices continue to be a hot political issue, with the Trump administration preparing to release an action plan as soon as repeal and replace legislation clears Congress. Mick Mulvaney, who heads the White House budget office and is participating in the talks, floated an idea last week that should quickly be crossed...
by Doug Badger ABSTRACT: Congressional Republicans have called for restructuring Medicaid, reviving a debate that has largely remained dormant for two decades. During the mid-1990s, Congress and President Clinton advanced competing Medicaid reform proposals. Republicans urged that the federal government issue Medicaid block grants to states. The White House and congressional Democrats proposed instead...
California politicians and interest groups have been working overtime to figure out a way to fix an illegal Medicaid provider tax—the subject of my recent Mercatus Center study. These taxes are problematic because they are generally accompanied with the guarantee of increased Medicaid payments to the providers paying the tax—payments largely financed with federal matching...
MONTPELIER – During the past decade, Vermont has spent $675 million setting up Medicaid managed-care programs but has done such a spotty job monitoring them that they can’t even be audited. That’s the upshot from a letter state Auditor of Accounts Douglas Hoffer sent to lawmakers last week. It followed up on an internal...