Agents of Behemoth

A report published Wednesday estimates that privately run, government-funded Medicare Advantage plans are overcharging U.S. taxpayers by up to $140 billion per year, a sum that could be used to completely eliminate Medicare Part B premiums...

The board of trustees for Medicare and Social Security released a report Friday showing the programs' trust funds will be able to cover all benefits and expenses until 2031 and 2034 respectively, findings welcomed by advocates as further confirmation that the key lifelines are strong...

Top House Republicans are planning to threaten to shut down the U.S. Government by refusing to raise the debt ceiling next year in a scheme to force Democrats to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, should they win the House in November critics warn, pointing to a Bloomberg report.

In a new polling memo, the Center for American Progress Action Fund argues that this is a fight Democrats should want to have. The memo points out that social programs poll extremely well and that we’ve seen recently how much GOP attacks on those programs motivate voters. Health care was a central issue propelling Democrat Ralph Northam to victory in the Virginia governor’s race in November, and the Republicans’ attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act produced a huge backlash in large part because of the millions of Americans they wanted to toss off Medicaid.

Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday joined senior citizens, people with disabilities, and healthcare campaigners at a Capitol Hill press conference to kick off a week of action demanding Congress move to stop abuses by so-called Medicare Advantage programs...

A U.S. lawmaker is taking action after a KHN investigation exposed weaknesses in the federal system meant to stop repeat Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse. 

BOSTON – Pharmaceutical company Biogen Inc. (Biogen), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has agreed to pay $900 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by causing the submission of false claims to Medicare and Medicaid by paying kickbacks to physicians to induce them to prescribe Biogen drugs.

The president’s spending outline for the first time acknowledges that the Republican tax overhaul passed last year would add billions to the deficit and not “pay for itself” as Trump and his Republican allies asserted. If enacted as proposed, though no presidential budget ever is, the plan would establish an era of $1 trillion-plus yearly deficits.

The Republican plan has its priorities backwards. It focuses on the top and assures everyone else that benefits will trickle down to them. But the reality is that nearly 28 million working families across the country will face a tax increase within 10 years. And in New Mexico, more than 200,000 families with earnings under $74,000 will see their taxes go up. It would take the typical household in New Mexico nearly four years of work just to match the giveaway being provided to a single wealthy person under this tax plan.