Americans pay more for healthcare than any other developed nation, yet have worse outcomes on most metrics. The pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable sector in the U.S. economy and the biggest spender on federal lobbying — a combination that directly shapes drug pricing, FDA regulation, and the political impossibility of meaningful reform.
Gen Us covers healthcare and pharma because the gap between what Americans pay and what they receive is a direct product of corporate influence over policy. Drug companies set prices based on what the market will bear, not on research costs or patient need, and then spend billions ensuring that no law changes this dynamic.
We trace pharma lobbying to specific policy outcomes, document the FDA revolving door, analyze how drug company advertising distorts both media coverage and clinical practice, and compare U.S. drug prices to the rest of the world.
The reporting trail
New evidence joins the permanent record here, so each investigation remains connected to the larger system.
Christa Pike survived two pentobarbital injections on September 30, 2026, and was hospitalized in critical condition, while Tennessee Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada prepared to resign. The central accountability question is not whether one official leaves, but whether Tennessee can identify and disclose the institutional decisions and safeguards behind a failed execution.
Christa Pike survived two pentobarbital doses during Tennessee’s September 30 execution attempt and was reported in critical condition after being taken to a hospital. Governor Bill Lee paused executions and ordered a third-party review, but had not publicly identified its investigator as of October 1.
Breitbart reported that Sen. Tom Cotton called Abdul El-Sayed a “true radical” and described an alleged fusion of socialism or communism and Islamism, while Cotton’s 2024 letter demanded that the United States use “all available resources” to expedite military aid to Israel. The records support a Gen Us inference of selective state power, but they do not show Cotton explicitly linking his attack to El-Sayed’s Medicare for All proposal.
The Trump administration has officially frozen over $1 billion in healthcare funding for California and Minnesota. Led by Dr. Mehmet Oz, the 'CRUSH' initiative aims to audit state spending while leaving millions of safety-net patients in the lurch.
Dr. Helena Vance oversaw the approval of Zencyta, a $45,000-per-dose drug. Six weeks later, she joined the board of the company that makes it. We track the $3.1M lobbying trail that locked in this taxpayer-funded windfall.
71-year-old Dr. Mazen Rantisi is being held in Ofer prison without access to his own heart medication. While Israel cites 'terror ties' for his NGO, critics argue the arrest is a calculated move to dismantle the healthcare safety net for thousands of Palestinians.
The June 2026 primaries just sent a shockwave through the establishment. 29-year-old attorney Melat Kiros unseated Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado political fixture for three decades, signaling a total breakdown in the party's old-school leadership model. While some pundits blame age, FEC filings tell a different story. It's about the money. Challengers like Kiros, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Claire Valdez are winning by trashing the corporate-funded playbooks that have kept the party's center stable for years. With New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani using his platform to fund these federal insurgents, the movement is gaining teeth, even as the media ignores how popular policies like Medicare for All actually are with the public.
PhRMA and the American Hospital Association spent a combined $263.8 million in early 2026 to dismantle legislation designed to lower drug costs and disclose hospital pricing. The massive lobbying push successfully flipped 14 co-sponsors and captured 84% of the House Ways and Means Committee.
With only three days until kickoff, health officials are warning that the 2026 World Cup could be a perfect storm for infectious diseases. Measles cases in the U.S. have already hit 2,030 this year, nearly matching the total for all of 2025. Between a new Ebola emergency in Africa and a U.S. retreat from global health funding, the stakes feel high. But history suggests these events are often more resilient than the models predict. This is as much a story about budget fights and pharma profits as it is about biology.