ObamaCareWatch is NO LONGER being updated.  The Galen Institute maintains this website for archival purposes only.

 

 

 

 

Health care is fast becoming an unsustainable expense for American families. This year the total cost of insurance for the typical family of four eclipsed $28,000, according to the Milliman Medical Index. Rising insurance premiums are also eroding worker compensation, as companies shift increased costs to employees. Health care in the U.S. suffers symptoms of what Justice…

Details

As November’s midterm elections approach, Democrats, even the comparatively centrist members, are embracing government-run health care. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, for instance, has officially endorsed a public insurance option, as have other Democrats running in swing districts in Kentucky and Illinois. Meanwhile, single-payer advocates have won Democratic congressional primaries in New York, Nebraska, Texas,…

Details

A federal judge on Friday blocked Kentucky’s closely watched plan to require many Medicaid recipients to work, volunteer or train for a job as a condition of coverage. The state had been poised to start carrying out the new rules next week and to phase them in fully by the end of this year. Judge James E.…

Details

California’s leading progressives are currently debating — amicably, for the moment — when the right time will arrive to destroy the state’s healthcare system. The frontrunner in the race for the governor’s mansion, current Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, has long championed single-payer health care. But he recently softened his support. “[Single-payer] is not an act that…

Details

The CMS is ratcheting up scrutiny of state Medicaid programs. The agency announced Tuesday that it is boosting audits to confirm that Medicaid beneficiaries are correctly identified as expansion or pre-expansion enrollees. States receive higher federal match rates of around 90% for expansion enrollees, while the match rate can be as low as 50% for…

Details

The Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce would like to get back into the health insurance business. Such a move became more likely Tuesday when the Trump administration announced a rule that would let small businesses or associated groups band together to purchase what are known as association health plans. The U.S. Department of Labor…

Details

This year will be the last in which uninsured Americans are forced to pay ObamaCare’s penalty for lack of coverage. The change—part of the GOP’s tax reform—comes as relief on the demand side of health insurance. Yet nothing has changed on the market’s supply side. Without additional reforms to ObamaCare’s restrictions on insurers, millions of…

Details

The Affordable Care Act’s regime of regulations, penalties, mandates and subsidies has accomplished a remarkable feat: It has produced unaffordable insurance coverage that often doesn’t finance care for those who need it most.

The federal government should therefore give states flexibility to permit the sale of alternative policies.

. . .

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) on Friday signed a bill to impose controversial work requirements on Medicaid recipients. If the plan is approved by the Trump administration, Michigan would become the fifth state to add work mandates to its program. In January, Trump officials released their guidelines for work requirements on Medicaid, a move that has drawn…

Details