“President Obama won re-election and Democrats maintained control of the Senate this month, but the states hold the future of ObamaCare in their hands. Knowing the harm the law would do to their citizens, to the economy and to American health care, governors should refuse to become its enablers.”
“But the real story is that Democrats are reaping the GOP buy-in they earned. Liberals wanted government to re-engineer the entire health-care system and rammed the Affordable Care Act through on a party-line vote, not stopping to wonder whether it would work. Now that implementation is proving to be harder than advertised, they’re blaming the states for not making their jobs easier.”
“Nearly three weeks after President Obama’s reelection, the Administration has officially published three proposed rules implementing his signature legislative package, the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The proposals are relatively uncomplicated compared to other ACA rules; together, they take up a brisk 93 pages. Nevertheless, they represent some of the more notable changes mandated by the law.”
“The vast majority of Americans with “pre-existing conditions” already have insurance. Why? Age is strongly correlated with developing a chronic illness – and seniors are covered by Medicare. If you’re disabled and poor, and can’t work, you’re eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. The low-income poor (healthy or not) are already eligible for Medicaid. In between, the majority of Americans have employer-provided insurance, and are also already protected from pre-existing insurance exclusions or rate hikes due to illness, through HIPAA. Who’s left then? Not that many people.”
“Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said on Wednesday she was rejecting a major provision of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law that calls for creating state-based health insurance markets where consumers can purchase private, federally subsidized coverage.”
“The landmark health-care law, which survived the threats of repeal and a Supreme Court review, now confronts another hurdle: living up to expectations. As the administration spells out the details, many uninsured will be surprised at how much they will have to pay. It may involve ‘very substantial amounts,’ and ‘there still will be a significant number of people who can’t afford health coverage,’ said Ron Pollack, head of Families USA, a consumer group that backs the law.”
“For the first time in 12 years, a majority say it is not the federal government’s responsibility to ensure that health care coverage is provided to all Americans, according to a poll on Wednesday.
Only 44 percent believe the government should guarantee health care coverage, and 54 percent believe it has no such responsibility, according to a Gallup survey.”
“Dozens of lawsuits have been filed in protest of the Obama administration’s policy that most employers include no-cost coverage of FDA-approved prescription contraceptives in health plans. Churches and some — not all — religious organizations are exempt. But more than three dozen for-profit and nonprofit organizations have gone to court, citing religious objections to the birth control coverage rule, which itself is part of the women’s health provisions in the controversial health law.”
“Delaying implementation until 2014 helped the president win re-election, but now the bill is coming due. The administration can’t forestall Obamacare’s massive regulatory impact any longer, and the result will keep Congress and the media occupied for months and years to come.”
“There’s a pretty stark choice for states to make on health-insurance exchanges right now: They can decide to set one up. Or they can decide not to. Those, along with one choice where the state and feds divvy up the responsibilities, are the options on the table. That seems to be true everywhere — except Utah. There, Gov. Gary Herbert is trying to carve out a completely new option: Building a health insurance exchange that is near certainly out of compliance with the federal law, and seeing how the Obama administration responds.”