Obamacare created several costly federal programs, but the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has become one of its clearest failures. The agency was supposed to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality through new payment models. Instead, it has spent billions of taxpayer dollars while producing little evidence that it has improved care or delivered savings. Congress now has an opportunity to end this wasteful experiment. Rep. Aaron Bean has introduced H.R

Joe Rogan’s discussion of nonprofit hospital abuses pushed a long-running health care problem into the national spotlight: many of America’s largest tax-exempt hospital systems are operating more like corporate conglomerates than charitable institutions. The Center for a Free Economy has been working extensively to expose this problem and advance reforms that bring more accountability, transparency, and competition to the hospital sector. CFE has repeatedly highlighted how la

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is considering S. 2658, the "Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act," a bill that supporters claim would improve transparency between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In reality, the legislation would weaken intellectual property protections, encourage more litigation, and burden federal agencies with new paperwork that could slow innovation and dr

President Trump has put a long-running problem in clear terms: foreign governments are using drug pricing policies that leave American patients paying too much of the world’s pharmaceutical research and development bill. Congress now has legislation that would help turn that concern into action. H.R. 4780, the “USTRx Act,” introduced by U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington and other lawmakers, would create a Chief Pharmaceutical Trade Negotiator within the Off

A new report from the Paragon Health Institute finds that 28 states now have more low-income Obamacare exchange enrollees than eligible residents in the income range receiving the program’s most generous subsidies, a striking sign that the program’s enrollment problems remain far from resolved. Paragon estimates that 6.2 million individuals are improperly enrolled in Affordable Care Act exchange plans in 2026. While that figure is slightly below the institute's estimate of 6.

A growing coalition of conservatives is raising alarms about S. 4668, the "Protect College Sports Act," arguing that the legislation would move far beyond establishing rules for college athletics and instead place Washington at the center of the industry. The latest warning came from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who told Politico that the Senate bill faces serious obstacles in the U.S. House. Scalise specifically cited concerns over student-athlete employment status a

A new Health and Human Services study adds a major data point to the Medicaid reform debate: community engagement requirements for able-bodied adults should lift between 1.6 million and 2.9 million people out of poverty. The finding strengthens the case for H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” and its effort to restore work, accountability, and fiscal discipline to welfare programs. The study, released by HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluatio

The Trump administration is taking direct aim at one of Washington's least scrutinized spending pipelines: the federal grant system. Last week, the Office of Management and Budget unveiled a sweeping overhaul of how more than $1 trillion in federal grants and assistance are distributed, reviewed, and monitored. The new rule follows President Trump's Executive Order 14332, "Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking," and represents one of the most significant attempts in deca

America had a corporate flight problem before the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Companies had powerful incentives to move headquarters overseas, shift profits abroad, and escape a tax code that made the United States one of the least competitive places to do business. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act changed those incentives. It made America more competitive, helped stop corporate inversions, and delivered stronger revenue than critics predicted. New analysis from the Committee t