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How drug companies influence Medicaid programs

Medicaid spending on drugs has gone up 50% per patient from 2008 to 2016. Photo: Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Pharmaceutical companies attempt to maximize their Medicaid sales by luring doctors with consulting fees and dinners, and by paying speakers to testify positively about their drugs, according to an investigation from The Center for Public Integrity and NPR.

Go deeper: Read the story, which outlines how one doctor in Arizona who promoted schizophrenia drugs received $700,000 from the industry.

Go deeper

Alayna Treene, author of Sneak Peek
2 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Trump revokes ethics order barring former aides from lobbying

Photo: Spencer Platt via Getty

Shortly after pardoning members of Congress and lobbyists convicted on corruption charges, President Trump revoked an executive order barring former officials from lobbying for five years after leaving his administration.

Why it matters: The order, which was signed eight days after he took office, was an attempt to fulfill his campaign promise to “drain the swamp.”

  • But with less than 12 hours left in office, Trump has now removed those limitations on his own aides.
Lachlan Markay
32 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Trump pardons former fundraiser Elliott Broidy

President Trump has pardoned Elliott Broidy, a former top Republican fundraiser who pleaded guilty late last year to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws as part of a campaign to sway the administration on behalf of Chinese and Malaysian interests.

Why it matters: Broidy was a deputy finance chair for the Republican National Committee early in Trump’s presidency, and attempted to leverage his influence in the Trump administration on behalf of his clients. The president's decision to pardon Broidy represents one last favor for a prominent political ally.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow
Ursula Perano
32 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Trump grants flurry of last-minute pardons

Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

President Trump issued 73 pardons and commuted the sentences of 70 individuals, hours from leaving office early Wednesday, hours from leaving office.

Why it matters: It's a last-minute gift to some of the president's loyalists and an evident use of executive power with only hours left of his presidency. Axios reported in December that Trump planned to grant pardons to "every person who ever talked to me."

Go deeper (<1 min. read)Arrow