Healthcare

Trump Announces Weight Loss Drug Price Deals With Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk

| Importance: 7/10

President Trump announced on November 6, 2025, that his administration had reached agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to dramatically reduce prices for popular weight loss and diabetes medications, including Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound, and Orforglipron. …

Donald Trump Eli Lilly Novo Nordisk Department of Health and Human Services healthcare pharmaceutical-industry drug-pricing medicare political-messaging
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Trump Signs Pediatric Cancer AI Executive Order After Cutting Billions in Research Funding

| Importance: 6/10

President Trump signed an executive order on September 30, 2025, titled ‘Unlocking Cures for Pediatric Cancer with Artificial Intelligence,’ committing an additional $50 million to explore AI applications in pediatric cancer research. The order directs the MAHA Commission to coordinate …

Donald Trump White House Department of Health and Human Services MAHA Commission executive-power executive-orders healthcare tech-policy
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Grover Norquist and 35 Conservative Groups Urge Trump to Let ACA Tax Credits Expire While Opposing Corporate Tax Credit Expirations

| Importance: 9/10

On September 26, 2025, Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform led a coalition of 35 conservative organizations—including Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity—in sending a letter to President Trump urging him to let enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits expire in December …

Grover Norquist Americans for Tax Reform Club for Growth Americans for Prosperity David McIntosh +2 more institutional-capture regulatory-capture tax-policy healthcare kleptocracy +2 more
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ACA Enhanced Subsidies Set to Expire, Threatening 20M with 114% Premium Increases

| Importance: 8/10

Kaiser Family Foundation analysis revealed that enhanced ACA premium tax credits helping over 20 million Americans afford health coverage are set to expire December 31, 2025, triggering an average 114% premium increase ($1,016 annually). Households at 150-200% of poverty level would see premiums …

Donald Trump Congress Kaiser Family Foundation healthcare aca-sabotage economic-harm public-health institutional-sabotage
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Trump Tests Positive for COVID-19, Hospitalized at Walter Reed with Experimental Treatments

| Importance: 8/10

President Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on October 2, 2020, and was flown by Marine One helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that evening, where he received an experimental monoclonal antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals under “compassionate …

Donald Trump Melania Trump Sean Conley Mike Pence Hope Hicks COVID-19 Public Health Healthcare Accountability Crisis
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HHS Secretary Tom Price Resigns After $1 Million Private Jet Scandal

| Importance: 8/10

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned after revelations he spent over $1 million in taxpayer funds on private jets and military aircraft for travel that included personal business. Price took at least 26 private charter flights costing over $400,000, often to places where he had …

Tom Price Donald Trump Department of Health and Human Services corruption resignation misuse-of-funds healthcare insider-trading +5 more
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Raytheon Paveway Bomb Strikes MSF Hospital in Yemen, Killing 11 Including Healthcare Workers

| Importance: 10/10

At approximately 3:45 PM on August 15, 2016, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike struck the Abs Hospital in Yemen’s Hajjah governorate, killing at least 11 people including an MSF staff member and injuring at least 19 others. The hospital was clearly marked as a medical facility and Médecins Sans …

Raytheon Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Doctors Without Borders Amnesty International raytheon yemen-war saudi-arabia war-crimes civilian-casualties +2 more
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Max Baucus Confirmed as Ambassador After Healthcare Industry Staffers Become Lobbyists

| Importance: 8/10

The Senate confirmed former Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) as U.S. Ambassador to China by a vote of 96-0, ending his 36-year congressional career. Baucus had served as chairman and ranking member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, where he was the chief architect of the …

Max Baucus Senate Finance Committee Merck UnitedHealth Group Jeffrey Forbes revolving-door lobbying congressional-corruption healthcare regulatory-capture
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Healthcare.gov Launch Disaster Costs $1.7B from $93M Contract

| Importance: 7/10

The Healthcare.gov launch on October 1, 2013 became one of the most expensive government IT failures in history, with costs ballooning from an initial $93.7 million CGI Federal contract to over $1.7 billion total. The site crashed within minutes of launch, with only 6 people successfully enrolling …

CGI Federal Healthcare.gov HHS CMS Accenture +1 more healthcare it-failure government-contracting obamacare waste
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Obama Cuts $80B PhRMA Deal Abandoning Medicare Negotiation Promise

| Importance: 8/10

The Obama White House secretly negotiated an $80 billion deal with pharmaceutical industry lobbyists, abandoning the president’s campaign promise to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. White House officials Jim Messina and Rahm Emanuel met with PhRMA CEO Billy Tauzin, agreeing to maintain …

Barack Obama PhRMA Billy Tauzin Jim Messina Rahm Emanuel +1 more healthcare pharmaceutical-industry lobbying broken-promises regulatory-capture
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Energy and Commerce Committee Members Receive $45M From Pharma During ACA Debate

| Importance: 8/10

Analysis of pharmaceutical industry campaign contributions from 1999-2018 revealed that the top 40 congressional recipients jointly received $45 million, with 39 serving on committees with health-related legislative jurisdiction—24 in senior positions. Of the top 20 House recipients, 17 served on …

House Energy and Commerce Committee Fred Upton Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Pfizer Merck regulatory-capture campaign-finance pharmaceutical-industry healthcare congressional-corruption
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Tom Daschle Joins Private Equity Firm and Lobbying After Senate Majority Leadership

| Importance: 8/10

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) joined InterMedia Advisors, a New York-based private equity firm, as a consultant and chairman of its executive advisory board just months after losing his 2004 reelection bid. Simultaneously, Daschle joined the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird …

Tom Daschle InterMedia Advisors Alston & Bird Leo Hindery revolving-door lobbying congressional-corruption healthcare private-equity
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Billy Tauzin Joins PhRMA as CEO After Shepherding $200B Medicare Drug Bill

| Importance: 9/10

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced that former House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) would become its president and CEO, effective January 2005. The announcement came shortly after Tauzin’s retirement from Congress, where from 2001 …

Billy Tauzin PhRMA Medicare revolving-door regulatory-capture healthcare lobbying congressional-corruption
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Medicare Part D Passes After Pharmaceutical Industry Writes Price Negotiation Ban

| Importance: 9/10

The House of Representatives passed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act at 5:53 AM after an unprecedented 3-hour vote that House leaders held open for nearly three hours past the normal 15-minute voting period to secure enough votes. The legislation created Medicare …

Billy Tauzin House Energy and Commerce Committee PhRMA Medicare regulatory-capture healthcare pharmaceutical-industry congressional-corruption lobbying
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Bush Administration Hides 39B Medicare Part D Cost from Congress

| Importance: 8/10

The Bush administration systematically concealed the true 34 billion cost of Medicare Part D from Congress, presenting false 95 billion estimates to ensure passage. CMS Administrator Thomas Scully ordered Chief Actuary Richard Foster to suppress accurate cost estimates, allegedly telling him …

Thomas Scully Richard Foster George W. Bush Charles Rangel Congress medicare-part-d cost-deception scully congress-fraud healthcare
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Clinton Healthcare Reform Dies After Insurance Industry Lobbying Campaign

| Importance: 9/10

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell declares the Clinton administration’s Health Security Act dead, with the bill never coming to a vote in either chamber of Congress. The failure represents a devastating defeat for comprehensive healthcare reform after an intense lobbying campaign by …

Bill Clinton Hillary Clinton Health Insurance Industry Health Insurance Association of America Pharmaceutical Industry healthcare regulatory-capture lobbying insurance-industry corporate-power +1 more
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