“Typically, demonstration programs exist to prove the effectiveness of a reform proposal before implementing it nationwide. This was apparently forgotten in the drafting of ObamaCare, which relies heavily on accountable care organizations (ACOs) to curb runaway spending in Medicare and the health care system at large… Unfortunately, the authors of ObamaCare didn’t wait around to see how effective ACOs would actually be before including them as a main cost-reduction strategy in their health care overhaul.”
“The cost and quality of healthcare will get worse because of healthcare reform rules that let the federal government review rates and set limits on how insurance companies spend their money, small businesses and insurance agents said Thursday.”
“A key government experiment that set out to lower costs and coordinate care for Medicare patients — now the blueprint for an innovation the Obama administration is trying to move to a national scale — has failed to save a substantial amount of money. The five-year test enlisted 10 leading health systems around the country and offered financial bonuses if they could save enough by treating older patients more efficiently while providing high-quality care.”
“Despite advice from most free-market analysis, some Republican governors are executing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) by establishing Health Benefits Exchanges. These governors dislike PPACA, but they believe that exchanges can be vehicles for more choice than the federal law anticipates.
But I think that the real news is how much difficulty states that want to implement PPACA as fast as possible are having. “
“Are small-business owners taking advantage of a new tax credit made available last year under the Affordable Care Act?
The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, an advocacy group that has been critical of the health-care law, says no – and offers its own research indicating that owners aren’t finding the tax credit useful or applicable to their companies… The SBE Council polled a random sample of 304 small-business owners and found that only 7% have taken advantage of the health-care tax credit.”
“I’ve predicted that lots of parts of Obamacare will not work the way they’re expected to. But here’s one I wouldn’t have predicted: the high-risk pools, which were meant to tide people over until 2013, have signed up just 18,000 people as of March. There were supposed to be millions of people who were uninsurable because of pre-existing conditions. We heard lengthy testimony about their terrible plight… It was estimated by Medicare’s Chief Actuary that around 400,000 would sign up… The administration is now loosening the requirements (you just need a note from a doctor or nurse saying you’ve been sick in the last year) and lowering premiums. But this doesn’t mean that they’re finally covering more ‘uninsurables’; it just means they’ve decided to use the money allocated for those people to cover someone else. They’re changing the “high-risk pools” to something that looks a lot more like simply subsidizing insurance.”