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Merrill Goozner

@gooznews.bsky.social

1.1K followers 33 following 138 posts

Journalist, former editor of Modern Healthcare, specializing in health care for past 24 years. In prior two decades I served as business, economics, foreign and national correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and other publications.

Posts Replies Media

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Charles Gaba as always is on top of the administration's B.S. They're using AI to predict how many people will earn over 400% of poverty and thus be ineligible for the tax subsidies they received this year for signing up for ACA plans. This isn't fraud! charlesgaba.substack.com/p/breaking-v...

charlesgaba.substack.com

Breaking: Vance/Oz to kick ~760,000 off of ACA coverage and/or subsidies based in part on "fraud" claims "predicted" by an AI model

Nothing to worry about, if they make a mistake you can appeal from your hospital bed!

Reposted by Merrill Goozner

Chris Hendel @chrishendel.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

"Nearly 3 million people dropped ACA plans this year because of ⬆️ premiums & the Trump regime’s failure to extend the additional subsidies passed during the Biden years. Nearly 4 million people have already been thrown off Medicaid." by @gooznews.bsky.social gooznews.substack.com/p/before-the...

gooznews.substack.com

Before the fall

The number of Americans without health insurance is soaring this year. Today’s Census Bureau report on the uninsured rate for 2025 is the last good news we’ll get for a while.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Now that Putin is asserting (www.nytimes.com/video/watch) Russia's claims to the Kurile islands, once part of Japan, someone in the media should travel there to ask what the islanders think. I did. In 1992. And here's what I found: www.chicagotribune.com/1992/08/24/k...

chicagotribune.com

KURILE ISLANDERS PAWNS IN JAPAN-RUSSIA DISPUTE

A thick fog usually blankets the lonely and forbidding landscape of this southernmost Kurile island, just 10 miles off the coast of Japan. The 18th Century French explorer who first peered at its kelp...

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Trump leads MAGA into full anti vax mode while Sens. Paul and Johnson (dumb and dumber) lie about Fauci and spread disinformation about pregnancy and covid shots. Sheesh. open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

open.substack.com

There’s No Vaccine for Stupid

Innumerate Republican senators castigate Fauci for something he didn’t do.

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The "surprising" decline in employment last month was largely due to a sharp falloff in the pace of new job creation in the health care sector -- led by a decline in hospital jobs ... just as I predicted earlier this week. See: gooznews.substack.com/p/hospital-j...

gooznews.substack.com

Hospital jobs engine grinds to a halt

Indiscriminate cuts to the health care sector could send the economy into recession early next year.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

"We live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun." -- Bill McKibben www.ted.com/talks/bill_m...

Our last, best chance to cool the Earth

We're living through oil wars, wildfire smoke and extreme weather driven by a warming planet. But environmentalist Bill McKibben says one thing is finally going right: the price of clean energy has pl...

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Thanks, WaMo, for relinking to @mattizcoop.bsky.social's incisive review of Nicholas Lemann's Returning (wwnorton.com/books/978163...). This goes to the top of the "must read" list for this child of an eastern European Jewish immigrant.

Compulsive, shattering, if not fundamentally disruptive, Returning emerges as one of the most important and searingly honest family sagas of our time., Returning, A Search for Home Across Three Centur...

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Will the acting FDA commissioner go along with the clearly unscientific advice offered by RFK Jr.'s stacked advisory committee and allow compounding pharmacies to produce peptides never shown to be either safe or effective? open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Compounding the problem

The FDA staff says compounding pharmacies shouldn't be allowed to produce untested peptides. RFK Jr.'s stacked FDA advisory committee thinks otherwise.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

My heartfelt thanks to @timothynoah.bsky.social for his dogged determination to preserve the precious artworks inside the Cohen building. Repeal the Ernst amendment!

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

gooznews.substack.com/p/trump-regi...

gooznews.substack.com

Trump regime's Lysenkoism draws pushback

OMB's proposed rule putting political appointees in charge of all government science grants has already drawn more than 98,000 comments -- almost all negative, including from Big Pharma and Biotech.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Re: On resumed war in Iran “The likeliest outcome is a continuing series of low-level, tit-for-tat attacks, followed by frantic diplomacy by mediators, the emergence of a new and fragile cease-fire, and then probably another round of strikes." Richard Fontaine, Center for a New American Security.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

These blatant COIs are a clear violation of FACA and FDA guidance UNLESS the current leadership issues a waiver documenting why their expertise is needed and can’t be obtained from non-conflicted sources. Do such waivers exist? We don’t learn that from this story. www.statnews.com/2026/06/29/n...

Longevity, wellness physicians named to panel advising FDA on peptides

The panel will soon consider whether to relax restrictions on certain peptides.

Reposted by Merrill Goozner

Larry Levitt @larrylevitt.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

At the bicentennial in 1976, the U.S. spent 7.6% of GDP on health care compared to 6.2% in other high-income countries. Now, we spend 17.2% of GDP on health care vs. 11.2% in comparable countries. www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collec...

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

gooznews.substack.com/p/the-onrush...

gooznews.substack.com

The onrushing uninsurance crisis

The uninsured rate likely to soar to 11% this year. Skyrocketing private premiums are sure to follow.

Reposted by Merrill Goozner

Chris Hendel @chrishendel.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Excellent column by @gooznews.bsky.social Social movements' role in change We need a movement with a Four Freedoms-style agenda for the 21st century. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Social movements' role in change

We need a movement with a Four Freedoms-style agenda for the 21st century.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

I'm not a religious man, but I found this opinion piece by E.J. Dionne encouraging. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/o...

Opinion | A Different Kind of ‘Values Voter’ Will Power the 2026 Midterms

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

open.substack.com

These Are the Issues That Could Decide Michigan’s Crucial Senate Race

Watch my interviews with all three candidates.

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Most experts seem to agree the Andes strain of the hantavirus poses no immediate threat to the general public. But at least one questions the conventional wisdom about how it spreads.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Inflation is soaring with oil and gas prices, driven by Trump's war, getting most of the attention. But hospital prices are soaring, too, and are the major driver of continuing medical inflation. See my latest Substack post here: open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Profiting from inflated hospital prices

Today's CPI report shows hospital prices continue to race ahead of price increases in other health care sectors. In the past year, so have hospital profits.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

substack.com/@senatorwarr...

Senator Elizabeth Warren (@senatorwarren)

I got a letter from hundreds of U.S. career diplomats who were FIRED before Donald Trump's war with Iran. You won't believe what they had to say.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

A new study shows hospitals in Maryland, who've operated within budgets since 2014, reduced utilization more than other states over the past decade without diminishing quality. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Hospitals can live within a budget

A new study shows Maryland hospital use fell dramatically compared to other states in the decade after it adopted health care budgeting. Other states should follow.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

This tax season, families with children will be receiving a tax credit that's far below what even some GOP leaders say is needed. @_GoozNews open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Taking from children

This tax season, thanks to the One Big Ugly Bill, tens of millions of families will receive a child tax credit that is far below what even some GOP leaders say is needed.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

A federal judge finally calls out RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine nonsense. I suspect he'll find a friendly appeals court to stay the decision. gooznews.substack.com/p/judge-halt...

gooznews.substack.com

Judge halts RFK Jr.'s hand-picked vaccine advisers

Cites panel's failure to follow federal law or science in scrapping long-standing vaccine recommendations.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Can prior authorization be fixed? Should it be? gooznews.substack.com/p/can-prior-...

gooznews.substack.com

Can prior authorization be fixed? Should it be?

Controlling health care costs depends on eliminating unnecessary, low-value care. But insurers have an inherent conflict of interest and shouldn't be running prior authorization.

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

The Washington Monthly this morning posted my analysis of why current Democratic Party health care reform proposals miss the mark. See washingtonmonthly.com/2026/03/05/h...

washingtonmonthly.com

Democrats need an achievable program that addresses the affordability issue plaguing the majority of Americans: health care costs.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Trump's war of choice has forced health care affordability from the headlines. It gives us time to assess what ought to be the Democrats' reform plan for the mid-terms. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Trump’s undeclared war in the Middle East postpones the much-needed debate over health care affordability – the #1 issue bedeviling average Americans.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

If Trump really put a dent in drug prices, why are Big Pharma stocks soaring at 2-3x the rate of the overall market? gooznews.substack.com/p/the-stock-...

gooznews.substack.com

The stock market and TrumpRx

Trump's SOTU address will tout his big wins on lowering drug prices. Don't believe it.

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Another insightful piece by @CitizenCohn: open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

open.substack.com

Why Trump’s Attack on Refugees Could Hurt Grandma

It’s immigrants from ‘shithole’ countries who care for our elderly, and nobody’s lining up to take their place.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

I reflect on A Year Spent Degrading Health by you know who. gooznews.substack.com/p/a-year-spe...

gooznews.substack.com

A year spent degrading health

People will die, more will get sick, and many will forgo care because of the Trump administration's assaults on public health over the past year.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Ian McKellen, speaking to a youth audience in Chicago last night, ended with lines from Thomas More: “Imagine that you see the wretched strangers Their babies at their backs .... As that you sit as kings in your desires …This is the strangers’ case. And this your mountainous inhumanity.” Bravo!

blockclubchicago.org

Ian McKellen Enchants Chicago Students With Tales Of X-Men And Shakespeare

The acclaimed stage and screen actor, well known to movie audiences as Magneto from "X-Men" and Gandalf from "Lord of the Rings," regaled the crowd during a benefit performance at the Chicago Shakespe...

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

open.substack.com/pub/nealgabl...

open.substack.com

This is Who We Are Now

Liam Canejo Ramos: This is who we are now, America.

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Why is the Trump's DOJ and DHS going after fraud among the Somali immigrant community in Minneapolis when they are all but ignoring the biggest fraudster in that city. See: gooznews.substack.com/p/fraud-figh...

gooznews.substack.com

Fraud fight rule #1: Go after the big fish

The DOJ crackdown on fraud at Somali-run social service organizations ignores the biggest alleged fraud scheme based in Minnesota.

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Happy to see my pieces on RFK Jr.'s debasing of the dietary guidelines run on the LeverNews website. I was impressed by their rigorous fact-checking. #nutrition www.levernews.com/robert-f-ken...

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s New Food Pyramid Scheme

The Trump administration’s updated dietary guidelines are adulterated with corporate conflicts and questionable science.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

What did the NYTimes, WSJ and Washington Post forget to report yesterday or today? Several members of the advisory panel for the new nutrition guidelines issued by RFK, Jr. yesterday had ties to industry. Thanks @statnews.com for reporting. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Advisors to new nutrition guidelines rife with conflicts of interest

When RFK, Jr. dismissed the old advisors, he cited their corporate ties. Their replacements took cash from the National Cattlemen Beef Association and National Dairy Council, among others.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

CMS unveiled a rural health care grant program late last week. My latest post suggests how it will be used to boost the GOP's election chances next fall. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

The rural slush fund

How the $50 billion bailout for rural health care providers will be used to aid vulnerable Republicans in the mid-term elections.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

The first two"articles on my "ten best of 2025" list offer a guide to the perplexed politician (and others) for what ought to be at the top of the health care policy agenda as we head toward the fateful 2026 mid-term elections. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

The GoozNews year in review

In a year when my readership grew fivefold, it makes no sense to offer a "ten most read" list as in previous years. So here's my judgment of the ten best stories on GoozNews in 2025.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Pegging U.S. drug prices to those paid abroad is a good idea. Unfortunately, the pilot project announced by CMS on Friday and Monday is barely a start. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Big talk, minimal action on drug pricing

The Trump administration offered a limited half-step toward bringing U.S. drug prices in line with Europe and Japan.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

My review of a new book about the health consequences of misinformation and disinformation ... Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Review: Curing Mis- and Disinformation

An astute diagnosis of the roots of modern-day quackery falls short when it comes to prescribing an effective cure.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

The last day to sign up for 2026 ACA health plans. GOP Congress offering $1000-$1500 health savings accounts to people buying $5000-10,000 high deductible plans to keep their premiums low. "That's like offering people a 10-foot ladder to climb out of a 70-foot hole."--Anthony Wright, Families USA.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that drug prices are "FALLING AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, 500%, 600%, 700%, and more." He must have failed sixth grade math, where I learned nothing can go down by more 100% (unless, of course, someone pays you to take their product off their hands).

truthsocial.com

Truth Social is America's

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Why is the Trump regime delaying biosimilars? I thought he wanted to lower drug prices. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

How Trump's patent office appointees are delaying low-cost drugs

The president talks a lot about lowering drug prices. But when it comes to action, his appointees are doing just the opposite.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

ICE may be reducing presence in Chicago this week. Bovino's masked goons leave behind: two people shot, one dead; protesters & first responders tear-gassed, shot with rubber bullets; citizens handcuffed & detained, including kids; and more. blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/11/b...

blockclubchicago.org

Border Patrol Boss And Agents Could Be Leaving Chicago This Week: Reports

Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino and federal immigration agents are expected to leave the city within days for another assignment, the Tribune and CBS News reported.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Capitulation puts millions at risk of losing their insurance. And don't expect Republicans to offer relief in those December negotiations. They have other plans. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

Capitulation put millions at risk

Soaring premiums for ACA plans are only the start of GOP plans to ransack health care

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

With the GOP deliberately raising the uninsured rate, there's now a transformed landscape for health care reform. It's time for Democrats to abandon the gradualist approach. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

A changed landscape for health care reform

Republicans have stopped pretending to care about universal coverage, a prerequisite for bringing costs under control.

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

"The Republican wrecking ball has shattered one of the core beliefs of centrist health care reformers, which states: Incremental reforms will eventually lead the U.S. to the promised land of health insurance for all." washingtonmonthly.com/2025/11/06/r...

washingtonmonthly.com

Republicans Have Stopped Pretending to Care About Health Care

The long-term medical cost crisis can’t be solved without universal healthcare coverage. The GOP doesn’t even have a concept of a plan.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

I use Spotify a lot. My wife uses Amazon Prime a lot. I think we have to start talking seriously about targeted boycotts to force corporate tech America to stop supporting the Trump regime. sign.moveon.org/petitions/st...

sign.moveon.org

Stop streaming ICE recruitment ads NOW!

The Trump administration has funneled billions of dollars into these dystopian ICE recruitment ads. Meanwhile, cities are being terrorized by ICE agents who are running rampant with abuses of power, s...

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Is Medicare Advantage about to fall to less than half of all seniors in the Medicare program? There's good reason to think so as this open enrollment season gets underway. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

The beginning of Medicare Advantage's downhill slide?

Insurers are pruning plans; purging providers; and pushing people out. John Oliver explains why consumers are souring on this over-hyped privatization program.

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Lawrence O. Gostin, JD on the White House purge of expertise from health-related advisory committees and the CDC. Reprinted with permission from the always excellent Milbank Quarterly. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

"You are no longer wanted or needed"

A first-hand account of the White House purge of expertise from health-related advisory committees.

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Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Insightful piece by @CitizenCohn on how infectious disease docs and researchers are fighting back against RFK Jr.’s destruction of the CDC. open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

open.substack.com

The CDC Diaspora Fights Back

How America’s scientific army is trying to stand up for public health—and stand up for itself.

Merrill Goozner @gooznews.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Health insurance for the 154 million Americans who rely on their employers for coverage isn't working so well, either. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...

open.substack.com

The affordability crisis grinds on

Republicans push skimpy plans, health savings accounts and stricter limits on Obamacare subsidies as their non-answer to the rising cost of employer-based health insurance.