Last year, Congress reauthorized the Food and Drug Administration’s user fee system for drugs and devices made to address human needs, and this year lawmakers are working on similar legislation for the growing industry of animal pharmaceuticals.
The Food and Drug Administration is able to do its work in part because of a symbiotic relationship with the industries it regulates. But recently that relationship has been knocked off balance.
The current draft of the Senate’s immigration overhaul appears to give some employers a $3,000-a-year incentive to hire a newly legalized immigrant rather than an American citizen in order to avoid the new employer mandates in the health care law.
Members of the American Dental Association will be fanning out across Capitol Hill this week in an effort to educate and influence lawmakers regarding what they think will improve access to dental care.
In May we celebrate Older Americans Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the many contributions seniors make every day in our communities. It is also a time to reflect on what we can do, as policymakers, to ensure their lifetime of hard work is rewarded and their golden years are comfortable.
Looking to up the ante on debt limit negotiations, House conservatives will push to enact spending changes included in the House-passed budget in exchange for an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling.
To mark National Skin Cancer Awareness Month, a group dedicated to educating schoolchildren about the hazards of too much sun exposure will hold a reception Wednesday to honor winners of its annual poster contest.
Conservative groups and some lawmakers are pushing Republicans to focus on legislation that would ruin the health care law’s implementation — a strategy that complicates efforts to pass any other kind of health care bill.
Last month, the U.S. government stood on the sidelines as much of the world united for the final push to eradicate polio. Now, Congress has a chance to put us back on track.
When enrollment in the health care law’s new insurance exchanges opens in October, the prospects for success will turn on a crucial element: people who actually understand health insurance coverage and can explain it in plain language to consumers.
On an August night in 1998, our 15-month-old baby girl almost died. Shortly after receiving her measles, mumps and rubella vaccination, she developed a fever that we thought was either a normal response to the shot or possibly a summer virus. It seemed like any ordinary hot, humid Sunday evening in Kentucky.
California plans to deploy 21,000 people across the state to sign up consumers when enrollment in the health insurance exchange begins Oct. 1. The squads of trained, government-paid helpers will be armed with the know-how to untangle the complexities of insurance coverage.
Dr. Jeffery C. Ward, a cancer specialist, has not yet faced the painful task many of his colleagues have this year: closing the door to patients because of federal budget cuts. But that’s only because Ward already made the hard choice of switching from running a private practice to serving on staff at a large hospital.
Lawmakers and outside coalitions supported by doctors and drug companies face an uphill battle in their bid to reverse sequester cuts that have hit cancer drugs.
For the first time in more than 50 years, spending on prescription drugs actually dropped in 2012. Even with this good news, spending is projected to increase over the next several years, highlighting the need to promote greater use of tools pioneered by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) that reduce costs and expand access to prescription drugs for public and private sector programs.
Rates of obesity among American children continue to be at pandemic levels, and according to a new study released by the Campaign to End Obesity this week, obesity costs our country not only its health but also some of its wealth, driving up health care and related costs by about $450 billion each year. The other costs of obesity are perhaps more obvious — children who struggle with their weight can be the subject of taunting and suffer emotional distress, and more often than not, they become obese adults and suffer one or more dangerous health side effects such as diabetes or heart disease.
President Barack Obama chided Congress Tuesday for failing first to prevent, and now to stop, the sequester and defended his decision to sign a legislative fix carved for the Federal Aviation Administration to prevent air traffic delays.
To repeal or dismantle? That is the internal debate roiling House Republicans as they plot their strategy on the landmark 2010 health care law, as its implementation accelerates.
Lawmakers and congressional staff members are concerned about whether the federal government will continue to pay part of their premiums as they move to buying insurance through the exchanges next year.
House Republicans pulled a controversial health care bill from the floor Wednesday, after a strenuous attempt by leaders to secure enough votes for its passage failed. It’s the latest instance of Speaker John A. Boehner’s difficulties in controlling his unruly conference.
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