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A wave of consolidation is sweeping through the U.S. health-insurance industry. Most recently, Aetna has offered to buy Humana, and more such mergers are on the way. That must be bad news for consumers, right? Not necessarily. As a rule, less competition is bad, because it means higher prices -- and that's the last thing U.S. health care needs. But health care is a complicated business. The likely effect of these mergers on the cost of insurance isn't so clear-cut. (7/8)

The FDA’s process for approving drugs is aging, and has failed to keep up with advances in basic science and modern analytic capabilities. Because of this, the cost of getting a new drug to market has grown from around $1 billion to over $2.6 billion. Effective patent life typically sits at around 11 years thanks to the length and complexity of FDA’s clinical trials. Simultaneously, investment in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds about half of all federal basic research (the foundation for all novel drug development) has stagnated since the early 2000s. These are very difficult problems to address. Which is why the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act – which would add additional oversight to the FDA and push it to embrace new tools like adaptive clinical trial designs and biomarkers – is so impressive. (Paul Howard and Yevgeniy Feyman, 7/9)

Since the publication of the federal government’s 1980 Dietary Guidelines, dietary policy has focused on reducing total fat in the American diet — specifically, to no more than 30 percent of a person’s daily calories. This fear of fat has had far-reaching impacts, from consumer preferences to the billions of dollars spent by the military, government-run hospitals and school districts on food. Thirty-five years after that policy shift, it’s long past time for us to exonerate dietary fat. (David S. Ludwig, 7/9)

The killings in Charleston spurred the long overdue call to remove the Confederate flag from public buildings and from license plates. Removing the symbols of racism and inequity is a significant step. Just as critical is the need to remove racist barriers to quality health care. We must continue to fight for the nearly four million people who still don't have access to health care because of their state lawmakers' refusal to expand Medicaid. Nearly 90 percent of those in the health care coverage gap live in the South, and they are disproportionately people of color. (LeeAnn Hall, 7/7)

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez was having a rough time. She was thinking of her mother, who died in 2007 and would have turned 70 this week, and she was having sleepless nights, struggling over an especially tough piece of legislation. Gonzalez truly believes in all the progressive causes. ... Then there is Senate Bill 128, which would allow physicians to prescribe lethal doses of pills to terminally ill patients who have six months or fewer to live. [Supporters] pulled the bill from consideration on Tuesday. Although the Senate had approved the measure, [it] lacked votes in the Democratic-controlled Assembly Health Committee because of opposition from several Democrats, including Gonzalez, as well as Republicans. I [wanted] to understand the thinking and politics behind liberal opposition. Gonzalez proceeded to place her heart on her sleeve, and explain what was an intensely personal decision, not at all like pro-labor votes, which are easy for the former union leader. (Dan Morain, 7/8)

Most health foundations in states with federally facilitated health insurance marketplaces breathed a collective sigh of relief after the King v. Burwell Supreme Court ruling, which retained the availability of federal subsidies for health insurance coverage. In Maine, where 89 percent of people in Marketplace plans qualified for subsidies, this ruling ensures that individuals and families can keep affordable health plans and promotes stability in our private insurance market—at least in the short term. As King v. Burwell recedes in the rear-view mirror, health funders need to focus our collective attention on the next set of fundamental threats to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) nascent successes. (Wendy Wolf and Morgan Hynd, 7/8)

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) is a nationalized health care system—meaning its physicians are employed by the government. From that familiar fact, many conclude that the United States—with its competitive, private market-based delivery system—has nothing to learn from the NHS. That’s wrong. What’s wrong with this thought is that it equates “competition” with “private.” In fact, competition can exist even in a nationalized health system, and it does among NHS hospitals. Moreover, studies of NHS hospital competition illustrate just how important it is, leading to better management, higher quality, and lower mortality. (Austin Frakt, 7/8)