On May 14, Governor Newsom released the May revision to the initial 2025-2026 California budget proposal that was released in January. The May Revise proposes a total expenditure of $321.9 billion, representing a $300 million decrease from the January estimate. Despite a projected surplus in the January budget, changing national economic conditions and increased expenditure growth (especially in Medi-Cal) have resulted in a $12 billion deficit in the updated budget. In 2024, the budget’...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
Market Consolidation and Merger Review The Forgotten Anti-Monopoly Law: The Second Half of Clayton Act Section 7 (Texas Law Review) Robert H Lande, John M Newman, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter The authors of this article analyze the second prong of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits mergers that “tend to create a monopoly.” In comparison to the well-known first prong that seeks to “substantially lessen competition,” the second prong is posited to wield more statutory power as it ...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
The California State Legislature kicked off the first year of its 2025-2026 biennial Legislative Session on December 2, 2024. This year, the legislature got off to a sprinting start as it raced to meet the February 21, 2025 deadline to introduce new bills. Compared to last year, this year’s legislature proposed a wider swath of bills aimed at healthcare-related concerns, including enhanced merger review, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, and expanding access to both pro...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
Department of Justice Looking Into United Health On February 21, 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched a civil fraud investigation against UnitedHealth. The investigation is centered on Medicare billing practices, with sources saying that UnitedHealth-employed physicians were trained to document higher revenue-generating diagnoses, even if that was not what patients were being treated for. Additionally, the investigation is apparently loo...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
On January 10, 2025, Governor Newsom released his proposed California state budget for the 2025-26 term. Following last year’s $46 billion budget shortfall, the Governor’s new budget looked quite different this year. Specifically, the budget had no deficits, reporting a projected surplus of $363 million due to the state’s prediction that it will collect almost $17 billion more in revenue than was originally planned. In fact, this year is slated to go down as California’s second-larges...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
Healthcare Pricing Can Public Option Plans Improve Affordability? Insights From Colorado (Health Affairs Forefront) Roslyn Murray, Christopher M. Whaley In the face of individuals and families unable to afford increasing insurance premiums due to lack of healthcare insurance competition, a variety of states are considering offering public option plans, commonly for ACA Exchange plans. These plans seek to provide coverage with low premiums by means of capped prices for those who do not meet Me...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
In November of 2024, three lawsuits were filed by pharmaceutical manufacturers against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), challenging how HRSA oversees the Federal 340B Drug Pricing Program. (HRSA is the sub-agency within HHS that administers the 340B Program). The potential impact of the lawsuits on the 340B Program is significant in its own right, but the outcome of the lawsuits could also have an indirect effect ...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
The California legislation concluded the 2024 legislative session when it adjourned on August 21, 2024. Overall, the legislature introduced a variety of health care bills spanning a list of hot-topic issues from Medi-Cal eligibility to health care worker minimum wage increases. Below we recap noteworthy bills from the 2024 legislative session impacting California’s health care market that were not enacted (to learn what bills were enacted please see Recapping the 2024 California Legislative...| The Source on HealthCare Price and Competition
