Medicare is the second-largest program in the federal budget, topping $1 trillion last year. In 2023, it accounted for 14% of federal spending — a share projected to reach 18% by 2032. After years of ballooning costs, something is finally being done to slow the growth. A new Medicare pilot program, the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction model, borrows a successful private-sector tool: prior authorization. And that’s good news.Medicare Part B premiums now sit at $185 per month — up 28% from five years ago and a staggering 76% since 2015. Last year, 12% of the 61 million Americans enrolled in Part B spent more than a tenth of their annual income on premiums. That burden is unsustainable.In a system as expensive and fragmented as ours, no one can afford to keep writing blank checks for low-value care.WISeR, set to launch in Ohio, Texas, Washington, New Jersey, Arizona, and Oklahoma, will require prior approval for a short list of “low-value” services — procedures that research shows are frequently overused, costly, and sometimes harmful.To some, the idea of Medicare reviewing certain treatments before covering them may sound like red tape. But when done correctly, prior authorization is not a barrier. It is a guardrail — one that protects patients, improves quality, and helps ensure that both tax dollars and premiums are spent appropriately.The goal of WISeR is simple: Cut unnecessary treatments and shift resources toward more effective, evidence-based care. Critics warn about the possibility of delays or extra paperwork, and those concerns are worth monitoring. But they don’t negate prior authorization’s potential to make U.S. health care safer, more efficient, and more financially stable.Prior authorization directly targets some of the most persistent problems in health care. Medicare spends billions each year on low-value services. A 2023 study identified just 47 such services that together cost Medicare more than $4 billion annually. Those are taxpayer dollars that could be put to better use.The private insurance market shows the same pattern: unnecessary imaging, avoidable specialist referrals, and brand-name drugs chosen over generics all contribute to rising premiums. Prior authorization, when used properly, reins in this waste by ensuring coverage lines up with medical necessity and evidence-based best practices. Research from the University of Chicago shows that Medicare’s prior authorization rules for prescription drugs generate net savings even after administrative costs.Consider one striking example. Medicare Part B covers wound-care products known as skin substitutes. But an Office of Inspector General report found that expenditures on these products skyrocketed over the past two years to more than $10 billion annually. Meanwhile, Medicare Advantage plans — which rely heavily on prior authorization — spent only a fraction of that amount for the same treatments.RELATED: When a ‘too big to fail’ America meets a government too broke to bail it out DNY59 via iStock/Getty ImagesMore importantly, prior authorization helps promote evidence-based medicine. It curbs outdated clinical habits and reduces financial incentives to overtreat. Health plans consistently say that prior authorization aligns care with gold-standard clinical guidelines, particularly in areas prone to misuse.Of course, the system must be designed responsibly. A well-functioning PA process should be transparent, fast, and grounded in strong clinical evidence. Decisions should be made in close coordination with the patient’s treating provider. The appeals process must be straightforward. And both public and private payers should be held accountable for improper denials or harmful delays.When structured this way, prior authorization is far more efficient than the current “pay-and-chase” model, where Medicare pays first and tries to recover improper payments later.Prior authorization already works in the private sector. It can work in Medicare.Public and private payers have an obligation to steward the dollars they spend — whether those dollars come from taxpayers or premium-payers. In a system as expensive and fragmented as ours, no one can afford to keep writing blank checks for low-value care. When implemented wisely, prior authorization keeps coverage aligned with medical necessity, elevates the value of care, and helps deliver better outcomes at a sustainable cost.

If you haven’t finished Christmas shopping yet, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales has an excellent suggestion for you to avoid giving your little ones: a new book titled “Abortion Is Everything.”The book was created by left-wing group Shout Your Abortion and is being marketed for 5-to-8-year-olds.The back cover reads, “What is an abortion? With accessible, inclusive language, ‘Abortion Is Everything’ speaks directly to 5 to 8 year olds about what abortion is and why people have them. Abortion is a tool that helps human beings build the lives we imagine for ourselves, and the whole world around us has been shaped by abortion.”Like Gonzales, BlazeTV contributor Grant Stinchfield is extremely disturbed.“You see how selfish that is? Like, it’s not even funny. Like, ‘It shapes the world around [us] for the lives we imagine for ourselves,’ but not the child in the mother’s womb. It’s just so selfish. And why does a 5-to-8-year-old need to learn about any of this?” Stinchfield asks.“It’s demonic,” Gonzales says.“That’s child abuse. You want to teach a 5-year-old, a 5-year-old, ‘Well, you could have had a big brother or a sister, but Mommy decided to kill them instead. So, now you’re an only child.’ Like, what? That’s so damaging,” she says.“Well, at least they’re being honest about the fact that they want to go after the kids,” BlazeTV contributor Matthew Marsden chimes in. “I mean, we’ve been saying it for years.”“The fact that they’re going after the innocence of children disgusts me. ... It’s evil, is what it is,” he adds.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

With the first year of the second Trump administration coming to a close, Present Donald Trump has articulated a new national security strategy that will "build upon" his substantial achievements thus far. On Friday, the Trump administration published a document that lays out the National Security Strategy to put America first going forward. 'In everything we do, we are putting America First.'The 33-page document highlights President Trump's successes and frames his time in office as a correction of failed policies from past administrations and conventional wisdom. RELATED: University of Minnesota faces backlash over project that seeks to cure the 'Whiteness Pandemic' Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesLooking to the future, the document asks a simple question: what should the United States want? It goes on to highlight the core tenets of what the Trump administration will work to achieve, including the "survival and safety" of U.S. citizens, control over our borders and freedom from "destructive propaganda and influence operations," a strong military, economy, energy grid, and a "robust industrial base." The document goes into more detail and lists other wants of the country, but it also issues a reimagining of "soft power" entails: "'Soft power' that serves America's true national interest is effective only if we believe in our country's inherent greatness and decency."In our dealings with the world, the strategy reiterates its desire to control the Western Hemisphere without foreign incursions and to have unimpeded strategic access in the hemisphere, thus asserting a "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine.In addition, the strategy highlights the desire to avoid "forever wars," maintain primacy in the tech sector, and to restore a Europe, it says, that is in danger of "civilizational erasure" thanks to institutions which have "undermined political liberty and sovereignty." "We want Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation." The strategy also highlighted that Europe's principal alliance with the United States, NATO, is not guaranteed perpetually if the character of the nations change through rampant immigration from the third-world. The document says it is "plausible" that certain NATO countries will be "non-European" in the next few decades, which could mean that they will view the United States and themselves differently than those who signed the charter. Crucially, President Trump writes: "In everything we do, we are putting America first. ... In the years ahead, we will continue to develop every dimension of our national strength--and we will make America safer, richer, freer, greater, and more powerful than ever before." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Comedian Joe Rogan praised Christianity as a faith that really "works," calling biblical scripture "fascinating" during a recent interview.Rogan also touched on what he thinks the resurrection of Jesus Christ would look like, a viewpoint that was met with criticism by host Jesse Michels.'You don't think that He could return as artificial intelligence?'On an episode of "American Alchemy," Rogan cited the Bible when he spoke about how easily knowledge could become mysterious, conflated, or unbelievable when passed down through generations."We'll tell everybody about the internet. We'll tell everybody about airplanes. We'll tell everybody about SpaceX; as much as you can remember, you'll tell people, but you won't know how it's done. You won't know what it is. And I think that's how you get to, like, the Adam and Eve story," he said.After adding that he believes biblical stories are "recounting real truth," the podcaster brought up a question he had clearly been pondering for a while: "Who's Jesus?"Rogan prefaced that many will disagree with his perspective, but then asked about the possibility that Jesus could be resurrected, in a sense, through artificial intelligence."Jesus is born out of a virgin mother. What's more virgin than a computer?" Rogan began. "So if you're going to get the most brilliant, loving, powerful person that gives us advice and can show us how to live to be in sync with God. Who better than artificial intelligence to do that? If Jesus does return, even if Jesus was a physical person in the past, you don't think that He could return as artificial intelligence?"The host, however, did not accept Rogan's theory.RELATED: Joe Rogan, Christian? The podcaster opens up about his ongoing exploration of faith First, though, Rogan clarified, indicting that he doesn't believe artificial intelligence would actually be Jesus but instead that it would serve as the return of Jesus in terms of affect and capability."Artificial intelligence could absolutely return as Jesus. Not just return as Jesus, but return as Jesus with all the powers of Jesus," Rogan said. "Like all the magic tricks, all the ability to bring people back from the dead, walk on water, levitation, water into wine."In response, Michels said Rogan's description sounded like an unwanted "dystopian" future.Still Rogan argued that the prerequisite for a Jesus-like being could come about due to the human need to improve."It's only dystopian if you think that we're a perfect organism that can't be improved upon. And that's not the case," he rebutted. "That's clearly not the case based on our actions, based on society as a whole, based on the overall state of the world. It's not. We certainly can be improved upon."While the host accepted that perhaps humans could improve morally and ethically, he said that attempts at improving by means of a computer "seems destructive."RELATED: Joe Rogan says we’re at ‘step 7’ on the road to civil war. Is he right? Glenn Beck answers Photo by AFP PHOTO/AFP via Getty Images The conversation flowed smoothly into Rogan's love of Christian scripture, with the 58-year-old saying how joyful his experience has been at his new church."The scripture, to me, is what's interesting; it's fascinating," he said. "Christianity, at least, is the only thing I have experience with. It works. The people that are Christians, that go to this church that I go to, that I meet, that are Christian, they are the nicest f**king people you will ever meet."Rogan gave examples about the polite society he has found himself immersed in, hilariously citing the church parking lot as an example."Everybody lets you go in front of them. There's no one honking in the church parking lot. It works," he said.What Rogan hammered home throughout the conversation was that he finds real truth in what he has read in the Bible. Still he isn't sold on having predictions provided for him about the future; but he is certainly open to it. He described biblical stories positively as an "ancient relaying" of real history and events. But about the book of Revelation, Rogan said of his pastor, "There's no way that guy telling you that knows that. ... He's just a person. He's a person like you or me that is like deeply involved in the scripture."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!