Mark Hobraczk

Obamacare sticker shock is more shocking in some states than others The premium hikes can be higher or lower depending on a person’s state, income and how much help they receive. For some, the loss of subsidies can amount to triple-digit increases.

ACA marketplace premium hikes can be higher or lower depending on a person’s state, income and how much help they receive. For some, the loss of subsidies can amount to triple-digit increases. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Amgen Sues Colorado Again as State Adopts Pay Cap on Enbrel (1) Amgen Inc. filed a second lawsuit against a Colorado drug affordability panel for placing a state payment cap on its blockbuster drug Enbrel, challenging an action that it says will cause injuries tha...

Amgen sues Colorado again now that PDAB price cap causes actual injury. news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-a...

Bausch Health leaves Medicaid and 340B programs as drugmakers face changing calculus on pricing Bausch Health has exited Medicaid and a federal government drug discount scheme known as 340B, a step that suggests more drugmakers may do the same.

Bausch Health leaves Medicaid and 340B programs as drugmakers face changing calculus on pricing www.statnews.com/pharmalot/20... via @statnews.com

What happens when you trust AI for news AI chatbots are surging in popularity.

New research by the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC found that 20% of AI chatbots’ answers to questions about current news stories “contained major accuracy issues, including hallucinated details and outdated information.”

popular.info/p/what-happe...

Patient navigation: helping people through the health system maze Patient navigation programmes expand access to best-practice care and improve health outcomes. But uneven implementation is limiting their impact.

Patient navigation helps people move through the health system, improving outcomes and cutting costs. But implementation is uneven.

It’s time to make patient navigation a standard part of person-centred care.

#HealthPolicy #PatientNavigation #HPP

www.healthpolicypartnership.com/patient-navi...

340B Reform Prospects Complicated By Bipartisan Concerns With Weakening Safety Net A Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing marked the resumption of lawmakers’ work on 340B reform legislation, which now includes heightened concerns about risk to rural hospita...

Reforms to the complicated drug discount program known as 340B complicated even more now by millions expected to lose insurance coverage because of Republican policies targeting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

insights.citeline.com/pink-sheet/m...

#healthpolicy

Cancer Drug Pulled From Market Regains FDA Approval Blenrep once again indicated for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma drug pulled from market gains FDA approval despite lingering safety concerns. www.medpagetoday.com/hematologyon...

We need your help to collect more stories like this one. Strong patient voices are needed to advocate for data-informed decisions by our government representatives. Share YOUR story now: zurl.co/BKKdV #PatientWhy #PrescriptionCosts #HealthcareReform

Officials Show Little Proof That New Tech Will Help Medicaid Enrollees Meet Work Rules - KFF Health News The Trump administration says it’s developing a digital tool to help people prove they’re meeting new Medicaid work requirements. KFF Health News talked to officials from the two states running pilot ...

KFF: Officials Show Little Proof That New Tech Will Help Medicaid Enrollees Meet Work Rules. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Two members of a Colorado drug-pricing board don’t live in the state. Does that matter? Two of the five members of the Colorado Prescription Drug Affordability Board now live outside of the state. Does that matter?

Colorado PDAB members live out of state. Does it matter when they are deciding what drugs are affordable in state? coloradosun.com/2025/10/21/c...

We need your help to collect more stories like this one. Strong patient voices are needed to advocate for data-informed decisions by our government representatives. Share YOUR story now: zurl.co/BKKdV

#PatientWhy #PrescriptionCosts #HealthcareReform

mRNA Covid shots may boost the effects of certain cancer treatments, study suggests The potential reasons that a Covid vaccine would help treat cancer are intriguing.

Research shows that patients who got COVID vaccine before starting cancer immunotherapy lived "significantly longer." www.statnews.com/2025/10/19/m...

US FDA Drug, Biologics Centers Lost Nearly 1,000 Employees In FY 2025 Fourth Quarter The hiring and departure data provide more evidence of the extent of the Trump Administration’s efforts to shrink the FDA workforce through cuts and voluntary departures.

The data seem to call into question FDA statements that it is hiring more reviewers, inspectors and criminal investigators.

Agency officials hired only 11 people at CDER and five at CBER in the third and fourth quarters.

insights.citeline.com/pink-sheet/a...

Runaway Insurance Costs Bring Back Talk of Price Caps Increasingly, insurers in both red and blue states are being told to cap prices as lawmakers come under pressure.

America is in a cost crisis when it comes to home and auto insurance. A number of states have a controversial answer: price controls.

Idaho First to Pull Back the Curtain on Health Insurance Pain Hi, it’s Uma in New York. Now that I’ve graduated, I’ve started thinking about health insurance. While I was reporting this week, I learned how being an adult can require making some really difficult ...

Good article in @bloomberg.com about the sticker shock #IDAHO residents received yesterday as it became the first state to launch 2026 #ACA Open Enrollment (I get a quick mention):

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Very large premium increases on the horizon. www.inquirer.com/health/penni...

A new wave of middlemen offers 'alternative funding' for specialty drugs. Patients bear the risks As someone living with cardiac sarcoidosis, 60-year-old Kevin Danahy can’t afford to have bad health insurance. | Alternative funding programs claim to help self-insured employers save money on specia...

A 2024 survey of more than 210 patients found the average wait to get meds through an #AlternativeFundingProgram was 68 days, which worsened a quarter of respondents’ conditions. www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/new-w...

UnitedHealth paid AARP $9 billion to sell branded health coverage The disclosure sheds more light on a partnership dating to the 1990s.

UnitedHealth paid AARP $9 billion to sell Medicare products www.axios.com/2025/10/10/u...

Another cool advancement for those of us getting older: FDA cleared a novel biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease that can be used in primary care settings

Regeneron, with ‘game-changing’ new data, to seek approval of hearing loss gene therapy Study results published in The New England Journal of Medicine show the therapy significantly improved hearing in nearly a dozen children with a rare, genetic form of deafness.

New Regeneron gene therapy for deafness appears promising. www.biopharmadive.com/news/regener...

Most-Favored-Nation Drug Pricing—How Courts Could Shape Future Health Regulation This Viewpoint discusses legal questions around the Trump administration’s recent Executive Order about most-favored-nation drug pricing in the US.

Most-Favored-Nation Drug Pricing—How Courts Could Shape Future Health Regulation url: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirement Program Spent Twice as Much on Administrative Costs as on Health Care, GAO Says Republican lawmakers cite Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage as a national model for federal Medicaid work requirements that are set to take effect in 2027. A new report shows the program has spent at lea...

As if we needed more evidence that Medicaid work reporting requirements are counterproductive. www.propublica.org/article/geor...

Study on Medicaid Work Requirements Finds No Gains in Insurance, Employment State-level findings from Georgia may predict nationwide rollout

Work requirements enacted as part of a Medicaid expansion program in Georgia did not increase insurance coverage or employment relative to neighboring states that did not expand Medicaid, a study suggested.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/medicaid/117748?trw=no

We are disappointed the CO PDAB ignored patient voices and adopted an unproven UPL that risks new barriers to care. Patients deserve policies that actually lower out-of-pocket costs.

Read our Statement: https://eachpic.org/each-pic-statement-on-co-pdab-setting-upl-for-enbrel/

*Way* worse than forecast: How did KFF's estimate of pending ACA premium increases rise from 75% to 114%? Ravages of time -- and ravages of Trump's CMS

Keep in mind: much of the difference between KFF's initial estimate of an average premium increase for ACA enrollees of 75% and the update to 114% is b/c Trump's CMS deliberately choose to cut subsidies even further by changing inflation calculation.

Judge rejects Democratic state AGs' push to block ACA final rule A federal judge has denied a request from 20 Democratic attorneys general to delay the implementation of a significant overhaul to the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) exchanges. | A federal judge has de...

Judge rejects Democratic state AGs' push to block ACA final rule. www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/j...

Support for Congress to extend the enhanced premium tax credits remains very high, even among Republicans and MAGA supporters.

Today we’re launching #WTHellth?! — a space for patients fed up with long waits, high bills, insurance headaches, and more. 📢 Share your story, meme, or reel & tag #WTHellth?! or submit at WTHellth.org. Let’s be heard!

Trump, Pfizer drug pricing deal short on details, possible impact A pact to offer “most favored nation” prices to state Medicaid programs and via direct-to-consumer channels doesn’t affect those on commercial insurance or who won’t pay out of pocket.

An analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald argues that the Pfizer deal “appears largely benign” and is “more optics than bite.” www.biopharmadive.com/news/pfizer-...

The EACH/PIC Coalition (www.eachpic.org) is now on Blue Sky @eachpic.bsky.social! See the results of their recent patient survey on drug access and affordability.