In his first State of the Union Address, President Donald Trump told the American public that 鈥渙ne of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs.鈥� But that message could barely begin to sink in before other health news developed: The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was forced to resign Wednesday after conflict-of-interest reports.
Meanwhile, outside the federal government, Idaho is proposing to allow the sale of individual insurance policies that specifically violate portions of the Affordable Care Act. And three mega-companies聽鈥� Amazon, Berkshire-Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase聽鈥� say they will partner to try to control costs and improve quality for their employees鈥� health care.
This week鈥檚 鈥淲hat The Health?鈥� panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo and Julie Appleby and Sarah Jane Tribble of Kaiser Health News.
Among the takeaways from this week鈥檚 podcast:
- Despite Trump鈥檚 strong rhetoric in the State of the Union Address, the president has taken few actions during his first year in office to reduce drug prices.
- The president touted that Republicans had repealed the health law鈥檚 requirement that individuals get health insurance or pay a penalty. But that change in the law doesn鈥檛 go into effect until 2019, so his comments could be confusing to some taxpayers.
- Idaho officials have announced that they are going to allow insurers to issue policies that don鈥檛 meet all the criteria of the federal health law. But it鈥檚 not clear that insurers are interested in participating in the experiment.
- 鈥淎lexa, send me my Lipitor!鈥� Can Amazon鈥檚 announcement that it and two other corporate behemoths are taking on employees鈥� health care create a new formula for keeping costs down and improving quality?
Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥� the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Julie Rovner: Kaiser Health News鈥� 鈥�
No Car, No Care? Medicaid Transportation At Risk In Some States,鈥� by JoNel Aleccia.
ALSO: JAMA鈥檚 鈥溾�� by Nicholas Bagley.
Alice Ollstein: Politico鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Sarah Karlin-Smith and Brianna Ehley.
Julie Appleby: The Atlantic鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Julie Beck.
Sarah Jane Tribble: The New York Times鈥� 鈥溾�� by Jack Healy.
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