Health Headlines for Monday, September 24

AP review: Drug prices keep going up despite Trump pressure

ABC News

President Donald Trump made reducing drug prices a key promise during his election campaign, repeatedly accusing drugmakers of “getting away with murder.”

Republicans cast opioid bill as their health care achievement

Politico

Endangered Republicans are running ads defending their achievements on health care — but it’s opioids they are boasting about, not the toxic fight about Obamacare and pre-existing conditions.

Surprise medical bills could be a powerful campaign issue

AXIOS

There is growing interest in the problem of surprise medical bills in the media and on Capitol Hill, with a bipartisan group of senators drafting legislation to crack down on the problem. But the issue has not been prominent in midterm campaigns and is not showing up in campaign ads.

Why there’s an overdose epidemic — in two graphs

STAT

The “overdose epidemic” that so many Americans are talking about isn’t really a single epidemic. It’s actually several of them, something we began exploring when we graphed the yearly counts of overdose deaths for the last 40 years.

Inevitable or unthinkable? Employers debate single-payer health care (Video)

Albany Business Review

Tony Hynes believes it is only a matter of time until the United States moves to a single-payer health care system.

U.S. health care’s biggest problem: a doctor shortage

Salon

America’s medical system is facing a full-blown primary care crisis. To meet our nation’s current needs would require almost 15,000 additional primary care doctors.