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  • Health Insurance Coverage Not the Only Measure of Success – Commentary

    Published June 27, 2025
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    In evaluating the success of Obamacare in general and Medicaid expansion in particular, reporters and commentators have tended to focus on only one measure: the increase in the number of people with health insurance. At the same time, in evaluating the health consequences of the House Republican reconciliation measure, almost all the focus has been […]
  • Supreme Court Affirms State Authority on Medicaid Providers

    Published June 27, 2025
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    South Carolina now has the right to block Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the state did not violate a federal provision known as the “free choice of provider” clause.      Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic weighed in on whether Medicaid enrollees have the right to sue if […]
  • Research & Commentary: New Index Shows Missouri Falling Behind on Education Choice

    Published June 26, 2025
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    A new report shows Missouri has gradually fallen well behind in a nationwide education movement still building momentum.  According to the 2025 EdChoice Friedman Index—a new measuring system released in April by the titular education reform organization, which is designed to measure how much educational choice families in a particular state actually have— Missouri only […]
  • Grace-Marie Turner, Leading Force for Free Market Health Care, R.I.P.

    Published June 25, 2025
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    A nationally respected voice for “individuals, not bureaucracies” in health care, Grace-Marie Turner never lost her belief that health reform was within the nation’s grasp as long as advocates stayed unified and persistent. Turner, aged 77, died on May 29, 2025, from brain cancer, according to the organization,  CURE Policy. Turner was the founder and […]
  • How Operation Warp Speed Helped Create RFK, Jr. – Commentary

    Published June 20, 2025
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    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (often shortened to RFK Jr.) has only been Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since mid-February. Despite being new to the job, Kennedy arguably made more statements to provoke public outrage than any HHS Secretary in history.  As a quick sample, RFK Jr. first stated the measles […]
  • Research & Commentary: New Index Shows Florida Leading the Education Choice Movement, But Work Still Needs to Be Done

    Published June 19, 2025
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    A new report shows Florida is the leader in a nationwide education movement still building momentum.  According to the 2025 EdChoice Friedman Index—a new measuring system released in April by the titular education reform organization, which is designed to measure how much educational choice families in a particular state actually have—Florida takes the top spot, […]
  • Medicaid Is Not a Test Lab for Foreign Price Controls – Commentary

    Published June 17, 2025
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    In a desperate bid to claim fiscal discipline without touching entitlements, President Donald Trump is pushing congressional Republicans to adopt a “most favored nation” (MFN) drug pricing model for Medicaid. This policy would tie Medicaid reimbursements to the lowest prices paid in other developed countries—countries where government officials dictate drug prices under threat of coercion, […]
  • Research & Commentary: New Index Shows Georgia Lagging Behind Neighboring States on Education Choice

    Published June 16, 2025
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    A new report shows Georgia has gradually fallen well behind its neighboring states in a nationwide education movement still building momentum.  According to the 2025 EdChoice Friedman Index—a new measuring system released in April by the titular education reform organization, which is designed to measure how much educational choice families in a particular state actually […]
  • Fauci’s Fortune Doubled While He Led COVID-19 Policy

    Published June 16, 2025
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    Anthony Fauci, the retired director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), doubled his fortune from $7.6 million to more than $15 million from January 2019 and the end of 2023, the watchdog group Open the Books reports. Fauci earned $3.5 million in his first year of retirement in 2023 alone. In […]
  • Research & Commentary: New Index Shows Education-Choice Pioneer Wisconsin Falling Behind

    Published June 12, 2025
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    Once the pioneering state in bringing choice to students and parents, Wisconsin is gradually falling behind in a nationwide education movement still building momentum.  According to the 2025 EdChoice Friedman Index—a new measuring system released in April by the titular education reform organization, which is designed to measure how much educational choice families in a […]
  • Why Are Lower-Cost Biosimilars So Hard for Patients to Get?

    Published June 11, 2025
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    The House Ways and Means Committee heard testimony on hindrances to the expansion of use of biosimilars, medications close in structure and function to a patented biologic medicine. Witnesses at the April 8 hearing told legislators biosimilars save patients and taxpayers money, that pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) middlemen often raise prices or limit availability for […]
  • Research & Commentary: Report Finds New York’s Decision to Ban Fracking Had Serious Economic Consequences for Shale Counties

    Published June 11, 2025
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    A Special Report released by the Heritage Foundation in April 2025 has found that New York’s decision to ban the process of hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as “fracking”) for natural gas in 2010 has had serious economic consequences for the residents of the Empire State living above the Marcellus Shale. It has resulted in a […]
  • Pfizer’s COVID-19 Shot Linked to More Deaths Than Moderna’s, Study Finds

    Published June 9, 2025
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    Recipients of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine experienced more all-cause deaths within the first 100 days post-vaccination than those who received the Moderna shot, a new study of 1.47 million people found. Although all-cause mortality for either shot should have been the same, 230 more people per 100,000 who got the Pfizer jab died within the […]
  • Best Way to End Medicaid Waste: Give Enrollees Cash – Commentary

    Published June 5, 2025
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    In their paper titled “Leveraging the Medicaid Expansion,” David Hyman and Charles Silver write, “We propose that rather than adhering to Medicaid’s traditional structure, where states pay providers at unreasonably low rates for treating beneficiaries, expansion projects should be modeled on Social Security and the Earned Income Tax Credit, both of which distribute money that […]
  • ‘Designer Babies’ through IVF Raise Critics’ Ethical Concerns

    Published June 4, 2025
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    Genetic screening technology now allows parents employing in vitro fertilization (IVF) to select for certain traits, allowing them to avoid passing on diseases or undesirable traits to their children. Orchid, a genetic screening company that bills itself as “the world’s most advanced whole genome screening for embryos during IVF,” allows parents essentially to customize children, […]
  • Research and Commentary: Texas Bill Would Unleash Faster, Better Health Care Treatments

    Published June 3, 2025
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    Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that would speed and improve health care treatments by easing preauthorization requirements for physicians and providers delivering certain health care services. Senate Bill 1380 would establish “that certain health care services, including emergency care, intervention-necessary care, outpatient mental health treatment, and preventive services, cannot require preauthorization from health maintenance […]
  • Research & Commentary: Heartland Policy Study Provides State-Level Blueprint for Curbing the Destructive Expansion of Industrial Solar Power

    Published June 3, 2025
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    A new Policy Study from The Heartland Institute details the major problems caused by the construction of industrial solar facilities and offers legislators solutions they should consider to prevent large scale solar development in their states.   In “How States Can Push Back Against the Destructive Expansion of Industrial Solar Power,” the authors relay how industrial […]
  • HHS to Require Placebo-Controlled Trials for New Vaccines

    Published June 3, 2025
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    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it will enact a new policy requiring placebo-controlled trials for all new vaccines. The Washington Post reported on May 1 that HHS sent the outlet a statement that said, in part, “All new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials prior to licensure—a radical departure […]
  • Hurricane 2025 Fact Sheet

    Published June 3, 2025
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    1. HURRICANES ARE NOT MORE FREQUENT There is no relationship between emissions or “global warming”, and frequency of hurricanes. 2. HURRICANES ARE NOT GETTING STRONGER There is no relationship between emissions or “global warming”, and hurricane strength. 3. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICES IN HURRICANE-PRONE STATES ARE NOT UNDERSTAFFED Any staffing cuts or shortages in National […]
  • DOJ Pressures Medical Journals for Lack of Neutrality

    Published June 2, 2025
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    The Justice Department has sent letters to leading medical journals, requesting information on how the publications chose and present their content. Although the letters do not constitute a formal DOJ investigation into the journals’ practices, their wording leaves little doubt the publications are under scrutiny in the latest escalation of the conflict between the Trump […]
  • FDA to Phase Out Synthetic Food Dyes

    Published May 27, 2025
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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan to phase out all petroleum-based synthetic dyes from food and drugs in the United States by the end of 2026. The agencies plan to create a national standard and timeline to transition from synthetic to natural alternatives. That […]
  • Hospitals Say No to Medicare Advantage

    Published May 27, 2025
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    Hospitals and medical centers across the United States are increasingly opting out of Medicare Advantage (MA), a popular program that provides coverage to millions of older Americans. Providers are exiting MA so fast that Becker’s Hospital Review now continuously updates its growing list of cancellations. In 2025, Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White severed ties with […]
  • Medically Assisted Suicide Bills Are Sweeping the Nation

    Published May 23, 2025
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    Forgoing the long, expensive, and unpredictable ballot proposal process, an increasing number of states are pushing legalized assisted suicide through their legislatures. The bills are having mixed success. Maryland defeated an eighth attempt to pass assisted suicide legislation when a bill failed to gain traction before the Maryland General Assembly ended its session for the […]
  • Innovators Call for More Access to Cutting-Edge Treatments

    Published May 22, 2025
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    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should not overlook new applications of existing therapies and treatments to improve patients’ lives in pursuing the goal of making Americans healthier, a panel discussion hosted by The Heritage Foundation concluded. The panel focused on photobiomodulation (PBM) and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) as two proven treatments that […]

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