Bailing Out Pfizer Won’t Lower Drug Prices
President Trump is promising lower drugs prices, but last month’s “deal” between the government and Pfizer is more about funneling patients to Big Pharma’s direct-to-consumer online platforms.
19 Article(s) by: Veronica Riccobene
Veronica Riccobene is a reporter with the Lever based in Washington, DC. She has experience in live television, long form, and vertical video as well as reporting.
Private Equity Delivers Consistently Poor Health Outcomes
Emergency rooms, dentist offices, and nursing homes managed by the private equity industry consistently deliver worse health outcomes than other such medical institutions. The difference can mean life or death for patients.
Banks Profit From High Interest Rates but Stiff Depositors
With the help of the Federal Reserve, US banks are offering loans at higher rates than the interest they pay to depositors and pocketing the difference for themselves.
Trump Is Promising Corporations a Deregulatory Bonanza
Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is asking corporations to identify state laws that “burden industry.” Corporate lobbies are responding to the request with wish lists of consumer protection laws they want the administration to preempt.
Big Pharma Is About to Lose Billions on Expired Patents
Some of the biggest pharmaceutical firms in the US are nearing the end of multibillion-dollar patent windfalls as their exclusive rights to produce certain medications. The patent cliff could spark a massive wave of new drug manufacturing mergers.
Your Therapist’s Notes Could Become Fodder For AI
Tech companies are marketing AI-based note-taking software to therapists as a new time-saving tool. But by signing up, providers may be unknowingly offering patients’ sensitive health information as data fodder to the multibillion-dollar AI therapy industry.
CVS Strangled, Then Swallowed, Rite Aid
First CVS bled Rite Aid dry with half a billion in retroactive fees, then it bought the corpse and called it consolidation. For consumers, the result is higher drug costs.
Ballard Partners Is the Lobbyist King of the Trump Era
Corporate lobbying shop Ballard Partners previously employed Donald Trump’s chief of staff as well as his attorney general. The firm’s pull in Trumpworld has made it the highest-earning lobbying shop in the US, raking in more than $20 million last quarter.
Health Insurers Are Hiking Premiums as Their Profits Balloon
The US’s six largest health insurers reported massive profits last year, doling out billions on stock buybacks and dividends. That hasn’t stopped them from pushing for sharp hikes to Americans’ insurance premiums.
GOP Lawmakers Are Hitting a Roadblock on Tax Cuts
As Donald Trump changes his tune on cutting taxes for the rich, House Republicans are scrambling to save their personal tax cuts.
Republicans Are Trying to Block State Regulation of AI
GOP lawmakers have just added a ten-year federal preemption of state-level artificial intelligence laws to the House’s budget reconciliation bill — effectively nullifying all local efforts to regulate AI technology.
Trump’s CFPB Is Opening the Gates for Fintech and Crypto
Steering the country toward another potential financial crisis, the Trump administration has moved to completely gut the federal regulatory agency tasked with reining in financial institutions.
Trump Is Helping Airlines Reduce Payouts for Flight Mishaps
The Trump administration has just paused an initiative aimed at increasing compensation for airline passengers when carriers lose their luggage or overbook flights.
Trump Is Moving to Kill a Key Federal Environmental Law
Over the weekend, the Trump administration began the process of defanging the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act — a mandate that allows communities to protect themselves from polluters.
Trump’s Purges May Mean Less Oversight for Musk’s Businesses
Donald Trump has fired more than a dozen inspectors general, officials who provide independent oversight of federal agencies. At least five of them worked at agencies with previous or ongoing investigations of Elon Musk’s business practices.
Health Insurers Have Funneled $120B to Shareholders Since 2010
Since the passage of the ACA, the US’s largest health insurers have dumped billions into enriching shareholders through stock buybacks — with nearly half spent by UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of CEO Brian Thompson’s UnitedHealthcare.
Here’s What Dems Could Accomplish in the Lame-Duck Period
Democrats could actually do a lot in the months before Donald Trump takes office to impose guardrails against the next four years of deregulatory and extreme pro-business policies.
J. D. Vance Wants to Crack Down Harder on Abortion Access
GOP vice presidential nominee J. D. Vance has pressured lawmakers to kill a rule that blocks police from accessing the medical records of people seeking abortions — an indication of the threat a Trump-Vance administration would pose to reproductive health.
Food Retailers Are Still Lying About Inflation and Profits
American consumers are paying more and more at both grocery stores and fast-food chains. These retailers are disingenuously blaming the price hikes on inflation while they put their massive profits toward stock buybacks and fat dividends.