The Heartland Institute

Publications

Search/Filter
Topics
Select Topic
Document Type
Select Types

  • MAHA Commission Report: Sickest Generation in History

    Published July 1, 2025
    By Ashley Bateman
    Publication -
    The first report by a presidential panel commissioned to “Make America Healthy Again (MAHA)” raises concerns about the rising rate of childhood disease, suggests possible causes, and recommends a 10-step strategy “to close critical research gaps” to guide efforts to solve the problem. The 71-page “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment,” released on May 22, […]

  • Supreme Court Affirms State Authority on Medicaid Providers

    Published June 27, 2025
    By AnneMarie Schieber
    Publication -
    South Carolina has the constitutional authority to block a provider from its Medicaid program without being vulnerable to lawsuits from recipients, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in late June. Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic weighed in on whether Medicaid enrollees have a right to sue the state government if they believe their right to […]

  • Grace-Marie Turner, Leading Force for Free Market Health Care, R.I.P.

    Published June 25, 2025
    By AnneMarie Schieber
    Publication -
    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
    By Raymond J. March
    Publication -
    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since mid-February. Despite being new to the job, Kennedy has made more statements to provoke public outrage than any HHS secretary in history. One example is when Kennedy once stated the measles vaccine (usually part of the combination measles-mumps-rubella […]

  • Medicaid Is Not a Test Lab for Foreign Price Controls – Commentary

    Published June 17, 2025
    By Sally C. Pipes
    Publication -
    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, […]

  • Fauci’s Fortune Doubled While He Led COVID-19 Policy

    Published June 16, 2025
    By Kevin Stone
    Publication -
    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 […]

  • Why Are Lower-Cost Biosimilars So Hard for Patients to Get?

    Published June 11, 2025
    By Kevin Stone
    Publication -
    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 […]

  • Pfizer’s COVID-19 Shot Linked to More Deaths Than Moderna’s, Study Finds

    Published June 9, 2025
    By Kenneth Artz
    Publication -
    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
    By Robert Koshnick, M.D.,
    Publication -
    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
    By Harry Painter
    Publication -
    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
    Publication -
    Research and Commentaries -
    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 […]

  • HHS to Require Placebo-Controlled Trials for New Vaccines

    Published June 3, 2025
    By Kevin Stone
    Publication -
    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 […]

  • DOJ Pressures Medical Journals for Lack of Neutrality

    Published June 2, 2025
    By Bonner R. Cohen
    Publication -
    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
    By Ashley Bateman
    Publication -
    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
    By Bonner R. Cohen
    Publication -
    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
    By AnneMarie Schieber
    Publication -
    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
    By Bonner R. Cohen
    Publication -
    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 […]

  • Kennedy Orders Top-Down Review of Abortion Pill after Alarming Study

    Published May 21, 2025
    By Harry Painter
    Publication -
    A new study has led to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to order a “complete review” of the abortion pill, mifepristone, amid queries from Congress. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MO) asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reinstate safety protocols for the drug in response to […]

  • How to Get $880 Billion in Savings from Medicaid Without Cutting Benefits – Commentary

    Published May 20, 2025
    By John C. Goodman
    Publication -
    Because the payment rates are so low, many doctors refuse to see Medicaid patients. Among those who do, the Medicaid patient is the last they want to see. This is one reason why newly enrolled Medicaid patients increase their visits to the emergency room by 40 percent. Parkland Hospital in Dallas (the city’s safety-net hospital) […]

  • Medicaid Overhaul Falls Short, Jeopardizing Tax Cuts

    Published May 19, 2025
    By AnneMarie Schieber
    Publication -
    Republican lawmakers are resisting efforts to overhaul Medicaid, a program that now insures one-in-five Americans and involves billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse. House Republicans dropped their “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” on May 12, a reconciliation bill that doesn’t require the Senate’s 60 vote threshold to pass. Instead of per-capita cuts or a […]

  • Trump EO to Bring U.S. Drug Prices in Line with Other Countries’

    Published May 17, 2025
    By Kevin Stone
    Publication -
    President Donald Trump issued an executive order (EO) aimed at drastically reducing the cost of prescription drugs for Americans by tying their prices to those in other nations. A February 2024 Rand report found U.S. drug prices average 2.78 times higher than those in an index of 33 other nations. The disparity is even greater […]

  • Rep. Chip Roy: U.S. Health Care Is Worse Than Single-Payer – Interview

    Published May 15, 2025
    By AnneMarie Schieber
    Publication -
    Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) released a 46-page report, “The Case for Healthcare Freedom,” earlier this year. The paper is a comprehensive review of the multiple challenges in health care today, which have driven up costs and reduced access to an unprecedented level. Roy discussed the report with Health Care News Managing Editor AnneMarie Schieber, explaining […]

  • Utah Enacts Nation’s First Statewide Ban on Water Fluoridation

    Published May 14, 2025
    By Kenneth Artz
    Publication -
    Utah now prohibits state and local governments from adding fluoride to public water systems, becoming the first state in the nation to do so. Gov. Spencer Cox signed House Bill 81 into law on March 27, and it went into effect on May 7. The legislation also bans political subdivisions from enacting or enforcing laws […]

  • Handout Helps Patients Determine Doctors’ Independence

    Published May 9, 2025
    Publication -
    Patients often trust they are getting personalized advice from their health care providers, yet that is not always the case, a new consumer handout sheet warns. “Hospitals and health systems are quietly swallowing up private medical practices,” states a handout published on April 3 by the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF). “Once independent physicians […]

Heartland Newsletters

The Heartland Institute offers free email subscriptions to all of its newsletters and monthly public policy newspapers.

Subscribe Now!