“The free-rider problem was caused by clumsy government policy. The solution to the problem, therefore, isn’t to add more clumsy government policy on top: it is to fix the original policy. PPACA’s individual mandate is not needed to address the free-rider problem. Furthermore, aspects of the individual mandate have nothing to do with the free-rider problem.”
Details“Today’s decision by Judge Vinson is another stinging defeat for the administration in its defense of Obamacare. Defenders of the health care bill had tried to paint any legal challenge as ‘frivolous.’ When then-Speaker Pelosi was asked by a reporter ‘where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate,’ Pelosi responded incredulously, ‘Are you serious? Are you serious?’ To wit, Judge Vinson offered a serious response, striking down not only the mandate, but the whole of the health care bill.”
Details“The 2011 National Physicians Survey, conducted by Thomson Reuters/HCPlexus and polling almost 3,000 American doctors, shows that while Obama are would raise spending, premiums, overall U.S. health costs, and debt, it wouldn’t raise the quality of American health care. Rather, by a margin of well over 3 to 1, doctors expect the quality of American health care to decline over the next five years, in the wake of Obamacare’s passage: Only 18 percent of doctors expect the quality of health care to ‘improve,’ while a whopping 65 percent expect it to ‘deteriorate.'”
Details“A federal district court judge in Florida ruled today that a key provision in the new health care law is unconstitutional, and that the entire law must be voided.”
Details“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.”
Details“Obamacare has led to one more health insurance company withdrawing from the market. This means less competition, fewer choices, higher rates. Aetna is pulling out of the Colorado market as of 2/1/2011. They will no longer offer health insurance for individuals, families or self employed in Colorado.”
Details“Health insurers in 34 states have stopped selling child-only insurance policies as a result of the health reform law, and the market continues to destablize.
According to a survey of state insurance departments by Republican Senate committee staff and obtained by POLITICO, states that have seen carriers exit the market include those that have been ardent supporters of the health reform law, like California and Oregon. Twenty states now have no insurers offering child-only policies.”
“Without President Barack Obama’s health care law, as many as 129 million Americans — half of those under age 65 — could be denied coverage or charged more because of a pre-existing medical condition.
The new estimate by the Health and Human Services Department is more than twice as high as a figure that supporters of the law were using last year.
It just might need an asterisk.
Most of those millions of people are covered by health insurance at work and don’t face any immediate risk of being denied care for their pre-existing medical problems. And as a rule, those who take a new job and sign up in their employer’s health plan are already protected by a 1990s law.”
“Today’s ruling vindicates the constitutional first principle that ours is a government of delegated, enumerated, and thus limited powers. Like Judge Hudson in the Virginia case, Judge Vinson recognized that the individual mandate represents an unprecedented and improper incursion beyond those powers: the federal government, under the guise of regulating commerce, cannot require that people engage in economic activity.”
DetailsChili’s, the popular chain restaurant, is trimming staff and changing their operating procedures in anticipation of ObamaCare’s new labor costs.
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