“So providers are rejecting the ACO model on the front end — nervous about the significant and costly administrative burdens they’ll pose. But if they fight through the red tape and establish the ACOs that Obamcare wants them, they’ll find themselves unrestrained by competition and free to raise prices. Not exactly what the Obama Administration has in mind.”
“Christian-oriented Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday challenging a mandate in the nation’s health care overhaul law that requires employers to provide coverage for the morning-after pill and similar drugs.”
“A House subcommittee late Tuesday passed legislation that would exempt commissions paid to insurance agents to find health policies in the individual and small group markets from the medical loss ratio calculation mandated under the healthcare reform law.”
“Those who built ObamaCare have historically viewed individually owned health insurance as a dangerous anomaly. By forcing everyone to purchase the bulk of his medical care through health plans with ridiculously extensive coverage of relatively inexpensive routine items, ObamaCare replaces less expensive cash purchase with more expensive purchase via an insurer. This will increase overall health care costs.”
“The country does not need ObamaCare to solve the relatively limited problem of restrictive insurance coverage for pre-existing health conditions. Nonetheless, it remains crucial for ObamaCare’s opponents to embrace a sensible fix. Apparent lack of a clear alternative should not provide an excuse for retaining the entirety of the ObamaCare edifice.”
“Perhaps that sounds like a successful jobs program, as it will keep 40,000 people fully employed, filling out paperwork and sorting through a confounding pile of government regulations. Only problem is, that work is entirely wasteful and creates zero wealth for America as a whole. It would be better for America and for the 40,000 workers to do something useful, like build the empire state building 11 times over, to use the Ways and Means example.”
“In the latest indication of how complicated putting the Affordable Care Act into action will be, the Department of Health and Human Services and Internal Revenue Service issued 18-pages of regulations just to describe what a ‘full-time employee’ is. Of note, to the Feds a full-time employee works an average of just 30 hours a week, not the normally accepted 40 hours.”
“The U.S. health care law’s process for providing insurance subsidies to middle-income families will produce a ‘burdensome, costly and frustrating quagmire,’ a former Internal Revenue Service commissioner told a congressional committee.”
“Here in Charlotte, they might be called the No-Show Health Care Caucus. They are 10 Democrats running for Congress whom the National Republican Campaign Committee has identified as particularly vulnerable on President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. So vulnerable that they opted to stay home and campaign this week rather than come to their party’s convention. So vulnerable that most of them wouldn’t even talk about the health care law by phone.”
“If there’s one aspect of Switzerland’s healthcare system that Obamacare should’ve borrowed, it’s the decoupling of health insurance from employment. The Swiss are free to pursue whatever line of work best suits their talents and interests — rather than settling for a job simply because of the health benefits. Further, by assigning individuals responsibility for securing their own health insurance, the Swiss system demands that its citizens be cost-conscious.”