Friday Five: Top 5 healthcare business news items from the MCOL Weekend edition

By Claire Thayer, January 19, 2018

Every business day, MCOL posts feature stories making news on the business of health care. Here are five we think are particularly important for this week:

Shutdown Looms; Blame Game Already in Full Swing

A bitterly divided Congress hurtled toward a government shutdown this weekend in a partisan stare-down over demands by Democrats for a solution on politically fraught legislation to protect about 700,000 younger immigrants from being deported.
The Associated Press
Friday, January 19, 2018

Trump again targets drug policy office, proposing 95 percent budget cut

President Donald Trump is planning to slash the budget of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in what marks his administration’s second attempt to gut the top office responsible for coordinating the federal response to the opioid crisis.
Politico
Thursday, January 18, 2018

Four health systems band together to create generic-drug company

Four health systems have joined forces to create a not-for-profit generic-drug company with the goal of creating cheaper, more accessible pharmaceuticals for patients than are currently available on the market.
Modern Healthcare
Thursday, January 18, 2018

UnitedHealth expects $1.7B windfall from tax law

UnitedHealth Group, the country’s largest insurer, will gain $1.7 billion in additional earnings in 2018 because of the GOP tax bill, the company’s CEO said Tuesday.
The Hill
Tuesday, January 16, 2018

U.S. healthcare uninsured rises most in near decade: Gallup

The number of Americans without healthcare insurance rose by 3.2 million people between 2016 and 2017, or 1.3 percentage points to 12.2 percent, according to a Gallup poll released on Tuesday, the biggest jump in the uninsured rate in nearly a decade.
Reuters
Tuesday, January 16, 2018

These and more weekly news items on the business of healthcare are featured in the MCOL Weekend edition, along with the MCOL Tidbits, and more, for MCOL Premium level members.