“In a truly market-based insurance exchange, women would be able to choose a health plan that met their needs and was consistent with their values, and those who wished to forgo certain benefits would have the freedom to do so. If any attempt at health reform is to succeed at reducing costs and tailoring coverage to the specific needs of each individual, it must ensure that consumers are able to choose the plan and benefits that work best for them, rather than submitting to the decisions of a bureaucratic board.”
“President Obama says that his health plan’s popularity will grow once its provisions start being implemented. But peculiar rules tucked into the legislation are likely to make the entire scheme even more disliked as its implementation approaches… The problem is that the actual insurance that health plans offer may be fairly lousy — perhaps just a little better than the typical managed care plan offered under Medicaid. That’s because of the way these insurance products are going to be regulated, and the way they will be priced under the federal scheme.”
“In our most dynamic case, when all covered employees are compensated in higher wages to offset their payment
of the full ESI premium in order that some will be able to take full advantage of an affordable coverage rule that
is broadly interpreted to mean affordable family coverage, we estimate that the movement of workers out of ESI
and into exchange-based coverage will: 1) overwhelm the number of workers moving into ESI by currently
uninsured workers in large firms due to the mandates; 2) cause the provision of health care insurance to working
Americans to become more sharply segregated based on family income; and 3) cost taxpayers up to $5 billion
dollars in gross subsidies for every one million workers who switch from being an ESI main policy holder to
receiving subsidized exchange coverage, all else equal. As a result, we estimate that increased exchange use in
the most dynamic case will require about $47.5 billion more in gross yearly subsidy payments than in the least
dynamic case.”
“Bernie Marcus co-founded Home Depot (HD) in 1978 and brought it public in 1981 as the U.S. was suffering from the worst recession and unemployment in 40 years. The company thrived, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and redefining home improvement retailing… ‘His speeches are wonderful. His output is absolutely, incredibly bad. As he speaks about cutting out regulations, they are now producing thousands of pages of new ones. With just ObamaCare by itself, you have a 2,000 page bill that’s probably going end up being 150,000 pages of regulations.'”
“A major provision of the healthcare reform law designed to prevent businesses from dropping coverage for their workers could inadvertently leave families without access to subsidized health insurance. The problem is a huge headache for the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, because it could leave families unable to buy affordable health insurance when the healthcare law requires that everyone be insured starting in 2014.”