Merrill Goozner

Trump's latest hustle for Big Pharma Forcing Europeans to raise their drug prices while U.S. consumers get a small break will preserve the status quo for the drug industry

What happens if a good idea is turned into its opposite?

gooznews.substack.com/p/trumps-lat...

Hope and hype trump science again The ouster of Vinay Prasad at FDA over the Sarepta saga shows the people nominally in charge of the agency are not the ones making the decisions.

What's behind the firing of Dr. Vinay Prasad at the FDA? See: open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

The cloud inside the silver lining The proposed physician pay rule throws a bone to primary care physicians while the One Big Ugly Bill aims an axe at their poorest patients.

This becomes available at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning.

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Podcast: The health and economic costs of Long Covid A conversation with Dr. Phillip Alvelda, a former official at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency sounding the alarm about the threat posed by Long Covid.

Covid cases are on the rise again, increasing the number of Long Covid cases that are inundating the health care system. For an in-depth discussion of this mounting health and economic challenge, listen to the latest GoozNews podcast:

gooznews.substack.com/p/podcast-th...

To: Columbia University president Claire Shipman
From: A J-school alumni
Re: Signing a $200 million "settlement" with the Trump regime

I will no longer be making my small contributions to the journalism school. Please use the part of university's $15 billion endowment that you didn't give to Trump.

A steady stream of assaults on health Each day brings an executive action or proposed rule that will make life worse for millions of Americans.

Every day brings another Trump administration assault on public health, the health care workforce, and workers generally. At some point, the working class will notice.

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Opinion masquerading as science Public trust in FDA decisions will plummet if Commissioner Marty Makary abandons the agency's "gold standard" principles.

How FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is undermining science-based decision-making at the agency.
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Not that anyone cares, but now that JD Vance has cast the tiebreaking vote for $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts, I'm reupping these Vance quotes from 2017, in which he flatly declared that Medicaid cuts like these betray Trumpism's promises to the working class:

newrepublic.com/article/1954...

Robin Hood in reverse If passed, the GOP's One Big Ugly Bill will cap off more than a half century of upward redistribution of wealth and income, making America more unequal than any time in its history.

I'm running out of metaphors. Why the One Big Ugly Bill is Robin Hood in reverse.
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

How Medicaid subsidizes employers The drastic cuts to health care coverage in the One Big Ugly Bill will undermine the U.S. economy and make the workforce less productive.

Employers understand how #Medicaid subsidizes nearly 20 million of their workers. Why doesn't the GOP Congress?

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Hospitals' unseemly lobbying campaign The hospital lobbyists pushing the Senate to adopt the House version of the One Big Ugly Bill are falling into a GOP trap.

Every man for himself doesn't work in war, and war against the poor is what we have with the Trump/GOP's One Big Ugly Bill. That's why I got angry when I saw hospitals main lobbying effort this week focused on saving themselves, not their patients and communities.

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Podcast: "Donny's Death Panels" This week, Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, explains how a little humor can help raise awareness about the devastating impact of Trump's One Big Ugly Bill.

This week's GoozNews podcast: Alex Lawson of Social Security Works explains how a little humor can help defeat the Trump/GOP's One Big Ugly Bill. Give a listen here:
gooznews.substack.com/p/podcast-do...

Radical opacity The new leadership at FDA unveils a program that could lead to rapid approval of new drugs without public input.

The FDA announces a new program to speed up drug approvals without public input.

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Not telling it like it is The press continues to obfuscate what's actually in the One Big Ugly Bill, especially when it comes to Medicaid work requirements.

A few observations (and pictures) from the No Kings March in Chicago (where I live); and the latest health care news.

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

It's official! The rich get richer, the poor get poorer And the upper middle class gets a tiny tax break under the One Big (Ugly) Bill.

CBO is out with its official analysis of the One Big Ugly Bill. Guess what? The poor get slammed while the rich get richer. Who'd a thunk it? See the details in my latest post:

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Medicare is in the GOP's crosshairs, too While it hasn't made major headlines, the One Big Beautiful Bill contains major cuts to the program that provides health care for over 65 million seniors citizens and the disabled.

The One Big Beautiful tax-giveaway bill now before the Senate makes major cuts to Medicare as well as Medicaid. Read more in my latest post:

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Defending democracy and health care The weekend events in Los Angeles remind us that the fight to preserve the nation's inadequate social safety net is part of the broader fight to defend democracy.

We cannot defend Medicaid, Obamacare, food stamps and more from the vicious cuts in Trump's "one big beautiful bill" unless we win the fight to preserve our democracy. Read my latest post on GoozNews:
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

2026 Rate Changes - Connecticut: +22.9% avg; 5.2% due specifically to IRA subsidy expiration (preliminary) via the Connecticut Insurance Dept: The Connecticut Insurance Department has posted the initial proposed health insurance rate filings for the 2026 individual and small group markets. There are 8 fili...

🚨 CONNECTICUT: Preliminary 2026 #ACA rate changes: +22.9% avg; 5.2% due specifically to GOP letting IRA subsidies expire:

acasignups.net/25/06/07/202...

Podcast: One mother's search for a cure The new leadership at FDA seems open to loosening regulatory standards for the new genetic therapies for rare diseases. It's not the field's biggest problem.

Listen to the voice of a young mother whose 6-year-old child is battling brain cancer. Voices like hers were largely missing from the FDA "listening session" on the problems facing biotech firms in bringing new therapies to market.

gooznews.substack.com/p/podcast-on...

Under Trump, the future of research is in Asia The regime's senseless attack on the U.S. science establishment will speed the shift to Chinese dominance.

Check out my latest post:

gooznews.substack.com/p/the-future...

The real freeloaders in our employer-based health insurance system Employers fail to provide coverage for tens of millions of full-time workers, many of whom only qualify for Medicaid because of their near-poverty wages.

Looking for ammunition for convincing your Congressperson to vote no on gutting Medicaid through trumped up work requirements, read my latest post:

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Over 13 million to lose health insurance under GOP plan Mandatory work requirements; reduced Obamacare subsidies; purging DACA recipients: and new cost-sharing for near-poor beneficiaries included in the bill.

The GOP bill unveiled Sunday night will cut more than $700 billion from health care programs and cost over 13 million their health insurance. I read through its 160 pages this morning. Here's what I found:

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Podcast: The education of a whistleblower A conversation with bioethicist Carl Elliott, whose latest book is entitled "The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No."

We need whistleblowers more than ever. Listen to the GoozNews podcast today with U. of Minn. professor Carl Elliott, whose most recent book explores the trials and tribulations of those who stood up to wrong doing within their institutions.

gooznews.substack.com/p/podcast-th...

Opinion | How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?

Levitsky, Way, Ziblatt, political scientists who study how democracies end, write definitively in today's NYTimes (www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/o...): "America has crossed the line into competitive authoritarianism."

Headline? It's still a question.

The rightward march of Dr. Vinay Prasad The latest appointment at the FDA began his research career worried about conflicts of interest in medicine and the high cost of cancer drugs.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, a vitriolic critic of Covid-era policies, will run the FDA division that oversees vaccine approvals. My latest GoozNews post explores Dr. Prasad's intellectual odyssey through the prism of his recent writings.

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Podcast: An interview with Gardiner Harris, author of No More Tears Join me for a discussion about the role Johnson & Johnson played in fomenting the opioid crisis and other medical disasters, and why the FDA needs reform.

What company was more responsible for the opioid epidemic than Purdue Pharma? Find out by listening to my podcast with Gardiner Harris, the former New York Times reporter whose scathing new book, No More Tears, is a must-read.

gooznews.substack.com/p/podcast-an...

Misogyny, racism, science suppression A reign of terror appears to be underway at NIH with scientists fearing they must toe RFK Jr.'s "correct line."

A reign of terror appears to be underway at NIH. It's time for public interest groups to ramp up their scientific integrity monitoring projects (I ran one during the Bush II administration for the Center for Science in the Public Interest).

open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

Die now, eat healthier later While RFK Jr. touts some states' efforts to promote healthier foods, GOP-led states are moving aggressively to deny poor people food stamps and access to health care.

RFJ Jr. visited Indiana today, where its governor unviled a program that would promote healthier eating in the long-run but deny people access to food stamps and Medicaid in the short-run. That's why I headlined it: open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

ICE under Trump is attacking labor rights by targeting a farmworker advocate The Trump administration has ramped up its immigration enforcement over the last month, and claims to be targeting  “the worst of the worst” for detention and deportation. However, several report...

The Trump administration knows no limits to what it will do to serve corporate interests by destroying workers' right to organize unions and press for better working conditions. Read this disturbing blog post from the Economic Policy Institute:
www.epi.org/blog/ice-und...

This covers a good study by Richard Kronick at UCSD, a former CMS official who has played a key role in uncovering the upcoding scam. MedPAC last year estimated the take by insurers for upcoding had reached $88 billion a year!