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Premiums for Medicare drug plans are set to increase sharply next year, due to rising costs, regulatory changes and cutbacks to a subsidy program. The subsidy program, which sent extra federal funds to the private insurers that offer the drug benefit—known as Part D—had largely shielded seniors from rising monthly bills in 2025. (Mathews and Essley Whyte, 7/28)

The trade deal reached between the United States and the European Union on Sunday will impose a 15 percent tariff on imported medicines from Europe. Drugmakers manufacture some of their biggest and best-known blockbusters there, including Botox, the cancer medication Keytruda and popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic. The tariff rate is much lower than the levies of up to 200 percent that President Trump had threatened. Still, the new import costs stand to add billions of dollars in expenses for the drug industry and could lead to price increases for some medicines. That could translate into higher out-of-pocket costs and higher health insurance premiums for Americans. (Robbins, 7/28)

Continuing to embrace a populist stance, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley again is partnering with Democratic colleagues on legislation aimed at consumers. The bill, co-sponsored with Democratic U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Peter Welch of Vermont, takes aim at pharmaceutical companies' practice of securing a series of patents on the same drug. Dubbed "patent thickets" by critics, companies that hold patents on some drugs make minor changes in the drug and then apply for a new patent, which in turn stops other companies from making cheaper, generic versions, Hawley said. (Holleman, 7/28)

A federal judge temporarily blocked on Monday Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation law that would have prohibited pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies in the state. U.S. District Judge Brian Miller issued a preliminary injunction against the law restricting pharmacy benefit managers, who run prescription drug coverage for big clients that include health insurers and employers that provide coverage. Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the restriction into law earlier this year, and it was set to take effect Aug. 5. CVS and Express Scripts had sued the state over the law. (DeMillo, 7/29)

After months of deliberation, information gathering and public testimony, a state board unanimously agreed Monday that two common medications for type-2 diabetes and other conditions appear to pose an affordability challenge to the state and Marylanders. The state Prescription Drug Affordability Board approved two resolutions saying that prescription drugs Jardiance and Farxiga likely pose an “an affordability challenge for the state health care system” and the state should look for ways to bring down those costs. (Brown, 7/29)

Express Scripts will stop covering weight-loss drugs for workers at Anheuser-Busch, one of the region’s biggest employers, next month. In a letter to an Anheuser-Busch employee dated July 2025 and obtained by the Post-Dispatch, Express Scripts and its parent company, Evernorth Health Services, suggested its existing coverage of the popular drugs had been a mistake. (Barker, 7/28)

As federal scrutiny and legislative proposals continue around the 340B drug pricing program, health systems are stepping up advocacy efforts and preparing for potential disruptions. At St. Louis-based Ascension, one of the nation’s largest Catholic health systems, Chief Pharmacy Officer Michael Wascovich, PharmD, said leaders are monitoring developments that could change the way safety-net hospitals access and use discounted drugs. (Murphy, 7/28)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Lawfully Present Immigrants Help Stabilize ACA Plans. Why Does The GOP Want Them Out? 

If you want to create a perfect storm at Covered California and other Affordable Care Act marketplaces, all you have to do is make enrollment more time-consuming, ratchet up the toll on consumers’ pocketbooks, and terminate financial aid for some of the youngest and healthiest enrollees. And presto: You’ve got people dropping coverage; rising costs; and a smaller, sicker group of enrollees, which translates to higher premiums. (Wolfson, 7/29)

If the government wants poor children to thrive, it should give their parents money. That simple idea has propelled an avid movement to send low-income families regular payments with no strings attached. Significant but indirect evidence has suggested that unconditional cash aid would help children flourish. But now a rigorous experiment, in a more direct test, found that years of monthly payments did nothing to boost children’s well-being, a result that defied researchers’ predictions and could weaken the case for income guarantees. (DeParle, 7/28)

UnitedHealth Group emerged as a health care colossus over the past decade and a half, earning one of the highest stock market values in the nation. But in the last two years, it has been hit with just about every misfortune that can befall a company: A gargantuan cyberattack. Federal investigations, including a criminal inquiry into one of its most important businesses. The killing of a top executive. A public relations crisis. Disappointing profits. A plummeting stock price. (Abelson, 7/28)