“The Obama administration envisions accountable care organizations (ACOs) as the drivers of health care innovation, but such innovation has historically come from entrepreneurs in the private sector.
ACOs offer financial incentives to cut costs, but this means restricting patient choice and limiting the use of some expensive care.
The ACO concept is not new. Similar ideas have been tried before, but they failed because they were unable to control costs or manage medical risk.”
“This month, Jan Brewer of Arizona became the first governor to request what most of the states really need — a waiver from HHS freeing the states from an Obamacare provision known as the maintenance of effort requirements. This is a mandate that forces states to maintain their current Medicaid rolls until 2014 for adults and 2019 for children. If the states trim programs, they end up forfeiting all of Medicaid’s federal matching funds.”
“In a hearing of the House Budget Committee today, Paul Ryan asked CBO director Douglas Elmendorf about that claim, saying that some people have argued the new law ‘will create jobs and increase labor force participation. But if I recall from your analysis, it was quite the opposite. Is that not the case?’ Elmendorf answered ‘Yes.'”
“I will discuss why the Affordable Care Act is much more likely to increase the deficit than
reduce it; explain how the mandates, taxes, and penalties that it imposes on insurers and employers will
increase health care costs and decrease employment; and conclude by exploring the negative effects of
regulatory uncertainty at a time when companies are ‘sitting’ on trillions of dollars in cash that could
be used for job creation.”
“The United States faces severe economic consequences if skyrocketing federal spending on health care is not addressed. Rather than acknowledge this, Obamacare left in place an unsustainable policy that adds billions to the deficit each year. It creates the illusion of fiscal responsibility through its unsustainable cuts to Medicare and sets up yet another entitlement program to further burden taxpayers. The CBO’s report is a reminder of the ailing fiscal health of the country, which is made worse by Obamacare.”
Chili’s, the popular chain restaurant, is trimming staff and changing their operating procedures in anticipation of ObamaCare’s new labor costs.
“Abbott Laboratories, maker of the rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira, said it will cut about 1,900 jobs as part of a restructuring of its pharmaceutical business. The cuts, amounting to 2 percent of the workforce, will help the Abbott Park, Illinois-based company cope with the U.S. health-care law passed last year, Abbott said in a statement today.”
“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) imposes numerous tax hikes that transfer more than $500 billion over 10 years—and more in the future—from hardworking American families and businesses to Congress for spending on new entitlements and subsidies. In addition, higher tax rates on working and investing will discourage economic growth both now and in the future, further lowering the standard of living.”
“One of the central goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was to increase the number of individuals with health insurance coverage. To encourage employers to offer coverage, the new law creates a tax penalty on firms with more than 50 workers that fail to provide “adequate” coverage for their employees. The result is government intrusion into voluntary arrangements made between employer and employee. The cost of the tax penalty will ultimately be borne by workers (lower wages and fewer jobs), shareholders (lower profits), and consumers (higher prices).”
“Ah, I know what you’re thinking. How can a law that raises the cost of labor by up to $6.00-an-hour for every worker in the country and has significant taxes on capital as well possibly be a job creator? (See my debate yesterday with the editors of USA Today over the magnitude of expected job losses these provisions will generate.) The answer: Cutler’s study ignores those things. Ignores them? Yes, ignores them.”