“Measures in four states—Alabama, Florida, Montana and Wyoming—were on the ballot last night relating to ALEC’s model Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act. Preliminary results show the measures passed as constitutional amendments in Alabama (Amendment 6) and Wyoming (Amendment A), and as a referendum in Montana (LR 122). The Florida measure failed.”
“With the Presidential election one week away, it’s worth reviewing how Obamacare will impact the residents of key swing states. In Ohio, as elsewhere, Obamacare will drive up the cost of private health coverage, especially for those who buy insurance on their own. A non-partisan study found that, by 2017, individual premiums in Ohio will increase by as much as 85 percent. “
“As the federal government tries to leave the states with the freedom to set up individualized local health exchanges, state officials say they’ve received so little guidance that they’re afraid they’ll have to make changes as more regulations come out after the presidential election.”
“California officials have floated the idea of legislating lower prices. One way would be to throw West Los Angeles and Orange County into the same risk pools. That might reduce premiums in West L.A., but only by increasing premiums in Orange County. With a few simplifying assumptions, premiums in both West L.A. and the O.C. could rise by 19 percent. An alternative would be to cap premium increases. One state official proposes a cap of 8 percent. But that would just be an implicit form of government rationing. If insurers cannot charge premiums that cover their costs, they will cover fewer services.”
“November 16th is the deadline for states to submit a blueprint to the federal government for Obamacare’s insurance exchanges — a key component of the new healthcare law. Already, the exchange system is proving to be an unmitigated disaster.”
“Leaders of the deeply conservative state say that even if Mississippi receives boatloads of cash under President Barack Obama’s health care law, it can’t afford the corresponding share of state money it will have to put up to add hundreds of thousands of people to the government health insurance program for the poor.”
“A state-run health insurance exchange is unlikely to be ready for a scheduled January 2014 rollout, Pennsylvania’s top insurance regulator said Wednesday. Insurance Commissioner Michael Consedine said development of the online exchange—a key element of the federal Affordable Care Act—has stalled because too many questions about its cost and other operational details remain unanswered by the federal government.”
“Republican Gov. Phil Bryant says the 2010 federal health care overhaul is slowing Mississippi’s economy because business owners are confused about how much it will cost them to meet demands of the law.”
“Since passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the American Action Forum (AAF) has tracked the state of its regulatory implementation. To date, the ACA has imposed a total of $27.6 billion in new regulations – at least $20.4 billion in lifetime costs on private entities and $7.2 billion in increased burdens on state budgets. In this paper AAF examines how this $27.6 billion in new costs break down on a state-by-state level. The data show that five states will endure at least $1 billion in ACA regulatory costs.”
“The experts believed states would want to tailor the exchanges to their own populations. But the task has proved exceedingly complicated. Participating states must set up a call center as well as a Web site that allows people to easily find and understand health plans, in much the way that Orbitz and Travelocity help people find airline flights.”