PHARMACEUTICALS
California’s 2022-23 Budget Proposal Builds Upon Enduring Goals of Healthcare Access and Affordability
Enne Mae Guerrero, Graduate Research Fellow April 14, 2022
In January, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled California’s 2022-23 state budget proposal—dubbed the California Blueprint—which proposes spending $286.4 billion in total state funds.[1] As the California Blueprint acknowledges, “[t]oo many Californians find themselves on the wrong end of income inequality – crushed by the rising costs of the most basic expenses like healthcare.”[2] With proposed investments to tackle health care issues facing the state, the Governor’s 2022-23 budget proposal addresses healthcare inequality, access, and affordability in a number of ways—such as in establishing an Office of Health Care Affordability; creating universal …
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The Source Roundup: February 2022 Edition
Hannah Park, Student Fellow February 1, 2022
This month’s roundup focuses on articles and reports highlighting new research and insights relating to the high and rising costs of health care, which remain a major regulatory challenge for state and federal policymakers across the nation. First, we examine 1) research discussing potential strategies for price regulation and how it could support market competition, as well as 2) proposals for price growth caps via insurance rate review. Also highlighted in this month’s roundup are studies on healthcare costs, specifically 3) state-level trends in the overall cost of employer health …
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What’s Ahead for 2022: Promising Healthcare Bills Pending in the California Legislature
Enne Mae Guerrero, Graduate Research Fellow December 13, 2021
The California legislature has passed nearly 800 bills in the 2021 session. As part of the two-year term, the legislature still has the opportunity to enact more meaningful healthcare legislation in the second year of the 2021-2022 legislative term. In the last issue of the California Legislative Beat, we recapped the 2021 legislative session and detailed the enacted and vetoed bills that enhance healthcare delivery, ensure healthcare access and coverage, promote price transparency, and reinforce competition and enforcement. In this post, we summarize some of the key pending legislation in …
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Recapping the 2021 Session: Healthcare Legislation Passed in California
Enne Mae Guerrero, Graduate Research Fellow November 14, 2021
In the 2021 legislative session, California’s democratic-held legislature has passed roughly 800 bills, 770 of which have been enacted after approval by Governor Newsom.[1] A number of bills impacting the healthcare industry passed overwhelmingly in both houses, yet a couple of critical bills were vetoed. Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic, which shifted legislative focus away from healthcare costs in 2020, has amplified the various pitfalls of the healthcare system. This session, the legislature returned to propose several bills to mitigate these shortcomings and address healthcare costs and access. This post summarizes …
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The Source Roundup: September 2021 Edition
Hannah Park, Student Fellow September 1, 2021
This month, our round-up proudly features a new issue brief written by our Source colleagues that discuss what state regulators need to strengthen state antitrust laws and prevent further healthcare provider consolidation. Also highlighted in this month’s round-up are studies on the potential impact of the federal No Surprises Act on health care prices, state-level strategies to reduce health care spending, better methods to assess policy-relevant financial information of hospitals, a grassroots push towards the public option, and industry trends and implications in the pharmacy market. Market Competition/Consolidation In …
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Biden Executive Order Seeks to Tackle Healthcare Consolidation and Boost Competition
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor July 12, 2021
In an encouraging boost to efforts to promote healthcare competition and price transparency, President Biden signed a sweeping executive order that targets consolidation and lack of competition in the healthcare industry, among others. As part of the Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy released on July 9th, the President targeted specific market players in the healthcare sector, including hospitals, health insurers, and prescription drug manufacturers. The Executive Order affirms the policy of the Biden Administration “to enforce the antitrust laws to combat the excessive concentration of industry, …
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The Source Roundup: June 2021 Edition
Michele Ellson, Student Fellow June 1, 2021
The election of Joe Biden to the presidency could mean expanded access to healthcare coverage and increased government regulation of anticompetitive mergers and other practices. Already, Biden and Congress have increased access by temporarily expanding eligibility for health plan premium tax credits. Are other changes on the horizon? This month’s Roundup covers research on 1) the potential fiscal impacts of expanding eligibility for Medicare, 2) the views of a key stakeholder in conversations about expanding government’s role in providing care and regulating competition, 3) the potential savings that could be …
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2021 California Healthcare Bills Part 2: Prescription Drug Pricing and Price and Quality Transparency Initiatives
Mallory Warner, Health Policy Research Fellow April 14, 2021
Last month, we highlighted California’s proposed healthcare bills from this legislative session that focus on healthcare market and system reform measures. This month, we’re covering more proposed healthcare bills that focus on prescription drug pricing regulation and price transparency. The bills outlined in this post were designed with the health care consumer in mind and are attempts to curtail excessive health care bills and pharmaceutical pricing, while increasing transparency around consumer’s healthcare plans. Prescription Drug Pricing Regulation Americans spend more on prescription drugs than any other country. In response …
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The Source Roundup: March 2021 Edition
Alex Montague, Health Policy Researcher March 1, 2021
Happy March! This month’s roundup focuses on health policy pieces and reports that examine 1) the future of value-based care, 2) the efficacy of various policy options to address healthcare prices, including increasing price transparency and market competition, 3) comparisons of brand-name drug prices, and 4) the impact of the Affordable Care Act on uninsured young adults. Valued-Based Reform In a white paper published this past month, The Future of Value-Based Payment: A Road Map to 2030, researchers from the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University …
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Litigation and Enforcement Highlights – January 2021
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor January 14, 2021
We kick off the new year with a handful of new developments in healthcare litigation and enforcement that transpired at the end of 2020. In price transparency, a pair of legal challenges intended to block transparency efforts in drug pricing and hospital pricing, respectively, were denied by the circuit courts. On the antitrust front, the Federal Trade Commission saw both victory and defeat in its challenges of proposed mergers that would lessen competition in the healthcare markets. Judges Refuses to Block California’s Drug Pricing Transparency Law SB 17 On …
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