The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) delivered a major victory by expanding the number of tobacco harm reduction (THR) products that smokers can access to transition away from cigarettes. On May 5, 2026, the FDA issued its first marketing authorization of fruit-flavored electronic cigarette products, which overturns the 2020 ban on such products. The FDA […]
As the rising cost of healthcare continues to concern American businesses and families, the House Ways and Means Committee has been holding a series of hearings exploring the variety of causes of rising healthcare costs. The April 28, 2026, hearing with health system CEOs examined the role of health systems in relation to healthcare affordability, […]
The Missouri General Assembly has taken a crucial step in the process to amend the Missouri Constitution by phasing out the state income tax and increasing the sales tax. On April 21, 2026, the Missouri House of Representative passed HJR 173 by a vote of 95 to 59. The process in the House started with […]
The U.S. boasts the most innovative biopharmaceutical industry in the world. These companies deliver vital cures to patients and the majority of sales the industry make are made by domestic companies. But that global leadership in a critical industry was challenged in May 2025, when the Department of Commerce announced it was initiating an investigation […]
State legislators across the country are addressing healthcare costs as a top priority during this legislative session. While making healthcare more affordable is a worthy goal, several bills that have been introduced claiming to lower healthcare costs would instead increase costs, reduce access to prescription drugs, and cause the loss of thousands of jobs. Since […]
Americans are continually worried about the cost of healthcare. There are a plethora of good and bad ideas to make healthcare more affordable, including Most Favored Nation (MFN) price controls, which would import prices for pharmaceuticals from other countries, many of which rely on socialized medicine and government-run healthcare. But price controls in any industry, […]
Congress created the 340B program in 1992 to fix a problem it had created two years earlier when it implemented price controls, or rebates, in the Medicaid drug benefit program. As a condition to participate in Medicaid, pharmaceutical companies must also partake in the 340B program, giving significant discounts of between 20-50 percent, to certain federally-funded […]
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which extended and enhanced the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, included other significant benefits to taxpayers, like fulfilling the promise President Trump made during the 2024 presidential election campaign to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits. The OBBBA allows taxpayers aged 65 and over to deduct between […]
Missouri is moving ahead with the process of eliminating the state income tax. In his January 13, 2026, State of the State Address, Governor Mike Kehoe (R) called for the income tax to be eliminated over five years. The process would require the approval of voters in the November 2026 election. On January 28, 2026, […]
The enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that were at the center of the October government shutdown were not only made available to people making as much as $500,000 annually but also turned out to be rife with waste, fraud, and abuse. A December 3, 2025, Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that the advanced premium […]
