A Project of Economic Policies for the 21st Century

Commentary

Lanhee Chen
Bloomberg
Sun, 2013-04-07

"President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats sold many Americans on the Affordable Care Act largely by emphasizing two arguments: The law would help to reduce overall health-care costs, and it would provide health insurance to those who, for financial or health reasons, cannot get it now. Unfortunately, both of these arguments are flawed."

Peter Suderman
Reason Magazine
Thu, 2013-04-04

"Democrats are to blame for the failures and problems of a law designed by Democrats, passed by Democrats, and implemented by Democrats. That it is not working now is the fault of the people who said it would work, decided to try making it work, and are now tasked with the responsibility to make it work. They are failing, and the law is failing because of them—not because of Republicans."

James C. Capretta & Yuval Levin
AEI-Ideas
Thu, 2013-04-04

"As the implementation of the major provisions of Obamacare approaches, it is increasingly clear that no one involved is prepared, and that the unintended consequences of the law’s conflicting objectives will be painfully compounded by a rushed and poorly managed effort to put it into effect."

Scott Gottlieb
Forbes.com
Wed, 2013-04-03

"Want to apply for Obamacare this fall? Start the paperwork now. The Obama Administration quietly released a draft copy of its 'single streamlined application' for Obamacare. This is the form that the government will use to certify eligibility for the program’s subsidies. The on-line version of that form requires 60 printed pages to spell out all the queries. (A condensed paper version of the same application fills 21 pages)."

Megan McArdle
The Daily Beast
Wed, 2013-04-03

"I don't get the sense that at the time of passage, people had spent a lot of time thinking about the sheer mechanics of how this would all work: how the IT would be built, the rules written, the necessary information assembled. They spent a lot of time staring at the blueprints, not so much thinking about the building materials and the labor."

Megan McArdle
The Daily Beast
Wed, 2013-03-27

"But Sebelius' answer suggests another explanation: the Democratic opposition to catastrophic plans was not strategic, or vengeful, but entirely heartfelt. The Secretary of Health and Human Services genuinely believes that health insurance should do more than just, well, protect your ability to keep paying the mortgage. Unfortunately, "more" is very expensive and inefficient."

Robert Laszewski
Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review
Wed, 2013-03-27

"Santa Claus is not going to be paying these higher subsidized premiums––federal taxpayers will be. Given that the CBO initially said the increase would only be about a third of what is coming, I have to question the original cost estimate for the new law. That said, the 40% of consumers who will not be eligible for subsides are going to see some very high prices."

Robert Laszewski
Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review
Tue, 2013-03-26

"Almost all of those surveyed are concerned that the exchanges have not involved them as users in gaining input from the industry––traditionally a very bad sign in system development. And, the executives are very concerned about being able to reconcile billing and eligibility information from the exchanges."

Dan Danner, Bruce Josten & Matthew Shay
USA Today
Fri, 2013-03-22

"Report after report has established that the only changes that have materialized under the ACA are, in fact, the opposite of what small-business owners have been demanding for decades. The law has increased costs and added profound complexity to an already confusing system; higher taxes and thousands of pages of new regulations are having a tremendous impact on the small-business community and have contributed to the slow recovery of Main Street."

Editorial
The Wall Street Journal
Thu, 2013-03-21

"President Obama often claims he wants to cut the budget smartly, using a "scalpel"—not a meat axe, machete, cleaver or chainsaw, to list a few of his favorite metaphors. He'll need a more inspired term to describe what he's now doing to Medicare Advantage, perhaps napalm or WMD. The Affordable Care Act drained $306 billion from this growing version of Medicare that 29% of seniors use to escape the traditional entitlement and obtain modern private insurance, but the Administration is imposing the cuts in ways that are even more harmful than the law requires."

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