ObamaCare Watch

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ObamaCareWatch.org Event - Six Months Later: What Else Have We Learned?

OCW Event

Tue, 2010-09-14

On the six month anniversary of the signing of health care reform legislation, research is emerging on the impact of many provisions of the bill, including the cost to taxpayers, the destruction of jobs, reduced quality of health services, and the burden of regulatory requirements. The symposium will feature the release of a new study co-authored by OCW director Jim Capretta and Senior Research Fellow in Health Economics Robert Book on the consequences of the new health care law on the Medicare Advantage program.

Dear Patients: Vote to Repeal ObamaCare

The Wall Street Journal

Wed, 2010-09-01

"To counter this election-year ruse, my colleagues and I at Docs4PatientCare are enlisting thousands of doctors in an unorthodox and unprecedented action. Our patients have always expected a certain standard of care from their doctors, which includes providing them with pertinent information that may affect their quality of life. Because the issue this election is so stark—literally life and death for millions of Americans in the years ahead—we are this week posting a 'Dear Patient' letter in our waiting rooms."

Exclusive Video: Gov. Mitch Daniels on Obamacare’s Devastating Consequences

The Heritage Foundry

Fri, 2010-08-27

"I note with special sadness that first and foremost amongst the bill’s consequences will be the probable demise of the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP). This program is currently providing health insurance to 50,000 low-income Hoosiers. With its Health Savings Account-style personal accounts and numerous incentives for healthy lifestyle choices, it has been enormously popular and successful. Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid, soon to cover one in every four citizens, will not only scoop up most of HIP’s participants, but will also cost the state between $3.1 and $3.9 billion over the next decade. It is hard to see how my successors as governor will be able to avoid a steep state tax increase to pay for it."

Dems Retreat on Health Care Cost Pitch

Ben Smith, Politico

Thu, 2010-08-19

The outside groups that championed ObamaCare and continue to campaign on its behalf are admitting defeat behind closed doors when it comes to claims that the law will lower costs. "The presentation also concedes that the fiscal and economic arguments that were the White House's first and most aggressive sales pitch have essentially failed."

Repealing Health Reform: For Heritage Action, It Would Be A 'Grand Slam'

Andrew Villegas, Kaiser Health News

Wed, 2010-09-01

"As part of the run up to the November elections, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, has established an "action arm" to push for repeal. Much of the focus involves tapping into what it perceives is significant grassroots backing. The group has enlisted the help of 74 conservative organizations to talk to lawmakers. The effort, which is being led by Michael Needham, also has a form letter available on its website for voters to send to their representatives in Congress. The ultimate goal is to have lawmakers vote up or down on repealing the health reform law. With 170 Republican signatures currently on a discharge petition to bring a repeal bill to the House floor – 218 is the necessary number – Heritage Action is now eyeing Democrats who voted against passage of the health law. And, despite the long odds against repealing the law anytime soon, Needham says the prospects of success are good, even if it takes another four years and a new Congress."

Public Sours on Health Care Law As Midterms Loom

Jennifer Haberkorn, Politico

Tue, 2010-08-31

“A new poll shows that public support for health care reform dropped sharply in August – a dagger in Democrats’ hopes that their landmark legislation will help them in November’s midterm. The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll has support for the bill dropping seven percentage points in August – down to 43 percent – while opposition rose 10 points to 45 percent. That’s the weakest showing since May – and a far cry from the bump proponents had hoped to see as some of the law’s more consumer-friendly provisions kick in.”

Key House Dem: Health Reform May Have Seemed like Distraction from Economy

Michael O'Brien, The Hill

Tue, 2010-08-31

In the teeth of a severe recession, ObamaCare supporters pushed a government take-over of the health care system filled with job-killing taxes and mandates instead of any activity to promote economic growth. This fact is only now dawning on many progressives. “Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the president of this Congress's first-term Democrats, said that his party's months-long battle to pass healthcare reform might have come off as a distraction considering the tough economic climate in the U.S.”

Five Conservative Dems Campaigning on Opposition to Health Reform

Eric Kleefield, Talking Points Memo

Mon, 2010-08-30

“An interesting pattern has started to emerge in this midterm election, which could be dominated by the continuing debate over the health care reform law passed earlier this year. A whole bunch of Dems from Republican-leaning districts have been running ads in which they tout their opposition to the bill.”

Health Reform Group Aids Campaigns

Sarah Kliff, Politico

Mon, 2010-08-30

Progressive ObamaCare supporter Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is organizing a field campaign to help Democrats in tough re-election races. But HCAN staffers aren’t going around touting the success of ObamaCare, because it’s so unpopular. “Now, HCAN’s field crews are finding that the best way to support reform-friendly lawmakers is to talk about something else: jobs, the economy or other issues likely to resonate more with voters.”

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll -- August 2010

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

Mon, 2010-08-30

Despite a summer-long campaign from ObamaCare supporters, their own polling demonstrates the public is still opposed to the new law. "The August Health Tracking Poll finds that support for health reform fell over the course of August, dipping from a 50 percent favorability rating in July to 43 percent, while 45 percent of the public reported unfavorable views."

How ObamaCare Empowers the Medicare Bureaucracy: What Seniors Should Know

Clete DiGiovanetti, M.D. and Robert Moffit, Ph.D., Heritage Foundation WebMemo

Tue, 2010-08-24

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA) is projected to yield $575 billion in Medicare savings over the next 10 years, mostly from Medicare payment reductions to doctors, hospitals, and health plans. But beneath these payment reductions, the PPACA also makes statutory changes that could challenge the autonomy of physicians to treat patients as they think best, undercut the freedom of physicians to remain in private practice, and threaten the continuation of fee-for-service medicine regardless of the preferences of doctors and patients.”

Large Employers’ 2011 Health Plan Design Changes

National Business Group on Health

Wed, 2010-08-18

Large employers are expecting next year’s health costs increase more than they did this year, with ObamaCare’s new regulations taking much of the blame. “While there was uncertainty about the regulations determining grandfathered plan status, the majority of employers (53%) were still planning to make changes to their plan designs. To comply with the law, employers are having to remove lifetime dollar limits on overall benefits (70%), make changes to annual limits on specific benefits (40%), remove annual dollar limits on overall benefits (26%), and remove pre-existing conditions exclusion clauses for dependent children under age 19 (13%). Employers are still evaluating retiree health offerings as a result of new provisions related to taxation of retiree drug subsidies as well as changes in Medicare Advantage plans.”

Projected Medicare Expenditures under an Illustrative Scenario with Alternative Payment Updates to Medicare Providers

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary Report

Thu, 2010-08-05

"In the 2010 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds, the Board warns that 'the actual future costs for Medicare are likely to exceed those shown by the current-law projections.' The Trustees Report is necessarily based on current law; as a result of questions regarding the operations of certain Medicare provisions, however, the projections shown in the report do not represent the 'best estimate' of actual future Medicare expenditures. The purpose of this memorandum is to present an alternative scenario to help illustrate and quantify the potential magnitude of the cost understatement under current law."

Lost Opportunity

Paul Howard, City Journal

Tue, 2010-08-03

Indiana’s proven health reforms are about to be overturned by ObamaCare’s Washington-led directives. “A key part of American federalism is states’ ability to serve as laboratories where the consequences of various programs can be explored without committing the entire nation to what may turn out to be expensive blunders. For instance, Wisconsin successfully took the lead on welfare reform in the early 1990s, setting the template for national bipartisan legislation in 1996 that lifted millions of women and children out of poverty. But in health-care reform, President Obama and congressional Democrats didn’t wait for state experiments to run their course. State reform efforts—on the left and right—were still in their earliest stages in March 2010, when Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, committing the nation to trillions of dollars of new health-care spending. The consequences of this rush to national reform could be dire.”

Dear Patients: Vote to Repeal ObamaCare

Hal Scherz, M.D.

The Wall Street Journal

Wed, 2010-09-01

"To counter this election-year ruse, my colleagues and I at Docs4PatientCare are enlisting thousands of doctors in an unorthodox and unprecedented action. Our patients have always expected a certain standard of care from their doctors, which includes providing them with pertinent information that may affect their quality of life. Because the issue this election is so stark—literally life and death for millions of Americans in the years ahead—we are this week posting a 'Dear Patient' letter in our waiting rooms."

The Repeal Windfall

James C. Capretta

National Review's Critical Condition Blog

Wed, 2010-09-01

"They now understand that the public has not, and will not, buy the argument that a government takeover of American health care will somehow lower costs. Americans have long understood that Obamacare is a massive new spending commitment, piled on top of the unaffordable ones already on the federal books. That’s a recipe for financial disaster, not deficit cutting. The solution is repeal coupled with a reform that puts consumers, not the government, in charge of controlling costs. That’s the way to fix health care — and the budget too. And, yes, it can be done."

More Health Care Fiction

Editorial

The Boston Herald

Mon, 2010-08-30

“The notion that ‘if you like your health plan you can keep it’ under Obamacare has already been proven a lie. Just ask the 200,000 Massachusetts residents enrolled in Medicare Advantage who will be forced to switch, with the elimination of that popular program. Now a new analysis by a private research firm estimates that more than 3 million Medicare beneficiaries nationwide will be forced to find a new prescription drug plan, thanks to an expected culling of the plans offered in each state. Gee, nobody mentioned that!”

For Health Care Lobbyists, ObamaCare Is the Gift That Keeps On Giving

Peter Suderman

Reason Magazine's Hit & Run Blog

Mon, 2010-08-30

A consequence of the government take-over of the health sector is the vast new influence that health lobbyists will have. On the federal and state level, influence-peddlers will become more important, violating a key campaign promise that President Obama would reduce corporate influence in government.

The Medicare Reform Illusion

Sec. Michael O. Leavitt

The Washington Post

Fri, 2010-08-27

“What Congress passed this spring is the illusion of Medicare reform. It does not ease cost pressures but papers over them with unsustainable price controls. It will end in disappointment, just as every other such effort has.”

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