author and former health insurance executive
Author of the forthcoming book Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do about It; former senior fellow on healthcare at the Center for Media and Democracy; former head of corporate communications for CIGNA, the country's fourth-largest insurer
America's Wild West of Drug Pricing Earlier this year, when pharma exec Martin Shkreli bought the rights to an old drug and then raised its price 5000%, Americans named him the most hated man in the country. But he is only doing what Big Pharma does everyday thanks to patent laws and America's free market approach to drug pricing. Rising costs are outraging patients, doctors and health insurers all along the political spectrum, but with all the money Big Pharma spends on lobbying, will Washington take up drug pricing reform?
Healthcare Reform: Competition and the 'Public Option' Last night, ABC News televised a so-called “ town hall ” from the Obama White House. Today on Capitol Hill, committees were meeting both in public and behind closed doors while thousands rallied on the streets outside. It was all about healthcare reform, and debate is focused on quality, cost and proposals for a government-sponsored alternative to private insurance, the so-called “public option.”
Healthcare Reform: Competition and the 'Public Option' Last night, ABC News televised a so-called " town hall " from the Obama White House. Today on Capitol Hill, committees were meeting both in public and behind closed doors while thousands rallied on the streets outside. There's a rare consensus in Washington that this is the moment for healthcare reform if Congress takes action before the end of this year. With protracted wrangling, the opportunity could be lost, and debate has bogged down over a public plan to compete with private insurance. Would it help maintain high quality at reduced cost? Would it drive insurance companies out of the healthcare business? We look at the pros and cons and at competing efforts to shape a winning message. What are the roles of ideology, media manipulation and money?
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
