Free Republic

When you go out and make a major purchase for yourself or your family, do you ever do it without first knowing what it’s going to cost you? Of course not. Yet that is what our health care system asks of millions of Americans every day, when they make health care decisions without knowing what they will cost or show up to the pharmacy counter to pick up a drug they need without knowing the price. Take prescription drugs: Patients are often in the dark about what their medications will cost them until they get to the pharmacy counter. But...

( Full Title )While Everyone Was Focused on SCOTUS Pick, US Judge ELIMINATED Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Over the last month or so, people have been wondering who Trump would appoint to replace Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Obviously, that’s an incredibly important news story to follow and it’s nice to know that Trump ultimately picked a solid conservative in Brett Kavanaugh. However, there’s still a lot of other stuff going on that Americans should be paying attention to. For example, an Obama appointed judge recently ruled against work requirements for welfare programs. Here’s more on that. From...

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has sharpened his opposition to the federal government’s separation of children from adults who attempt to illegally enter the U.S., specifically linking the policy to President Donald Trump and declaring in a letter late Tuesday that “This practice needs to stop now.” Scott expressed his position in a letter to Health and Human Services Sec. Alex Azar seeking information about an HHS-run facility in Homestead that is housing 94 minors who were separated from their parents.

A former pharmaceutical industry official who says drug prices are too high will now be in charge of buying more medications than anyone in the world. Alex Azar, former president of the U.S. arm of Eli Lilly & Co., was confirmed Wednesday as the secretary of health and human services. In that role, he'll oversee the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates prescription drugs including those produced by his former employer. He'll also oversee Medicare and Medicaid, which together spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year on prescription medications. He'll take over the agency at a time when rising...