Medicare

What it is

Medicare is the United States federal insurance programme for people over 65 and some younger people with disabilities, covering about 68 million Americans. It sets the prices and rules that the rest of American healthcare follows, so changes to drug-price negotiation, hospital payments, Medicare Advantage plans and telehealth rules land as health news well beyond retirees. Coverage here leans on US policy outlets; readers outside the US can treat it as a window on how the largest payer in the world's largest market behaves.

This week · The biotech trade group BIO joined the legal challenge to a Medicare pilot tying some drug prices to prices in peer countries.

Written by the Alivewire editors from the coverage below, 3d ago. Not medical advice; how the ratings work.