Patients spend billions of dollars on medicines each year. And one of the biggest buyers — Medicare — is now going to negotiate the price they will cost.
Medicare is the health insurance plan from the federal government for people 65 and older. It never was allowed to negotiate drug prices directly with drug makers until now.
The Inflation Reduction Act law opened the way and Medicare will soon be bargaining over prices for the first 10 drugs covered by the government insurance plan.
Guests:
- Dr. Meena Seshamani, director of the Center for Medicare within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
- Brian Brito, vice president of pharmacy for CareMax.
- Emma Dean, assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Miami’s Herbert Business School.
Educators navigate new state rules
We are several weeks into another school year — one that began with some uncertainty around how new state policies would affect learning from kindergarten to college.
There’s plenty of controversy around new rules over the school curriculum and a wave of books being removed from school libraries, something the American Library Association called unprecedented earlier this year.
But one of the consequences of banning books is that it makes some curious and want to read them.
New social studies teaching standards in Florida public schools have taken aim at Black history, including a standard that claims some Black people benefited from skills they gained while enslaved.
That followed the banning of AP African American History. Both faced sharp criticism by teachers and civil rights groups.
The regulations do not affect private schools, and some are offering educational experiences rich in civil rights history.
Education changes and controversies have also included Florida’s public colleges and universities. The latest is this month’s decision to approve a new college admissions test.
Florida is now the first state university system to accept the Classic Learning Test — the CLT — for students applying to college.