“The recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims to transform regulation of private health insurance. It would put in place a new federal regulatory regime that prescribes various mandates for covered benefits, imposes tighter restrictions on insurance premiums, sets limits on how premium dollars are spent, and exerts much greater political and bureaucratic control over health insurance.”
“The coauthors argue that a more sustainable, marketbased, and patient-centered version of health reform must instead convert existing defined benefit promises into ‘defined contributions’ that individuals and their families then can use to enroll in coverage arrangements of their choice. Capretta and Miller recommend that Medicare subsidies should no longer hide the true cost of promised benefits but provide beneficiaries incentives to obtain the most value for them. They find that a move to replace both traditional Medicaid assistance and the tax preference for ESI with defined contribution payments would open up new possibilities for explicit and beneficial coordination between the Medicaid program and the coverage normally offered to working-age Americans.”
“The results of the 2010 midterm elections represent a wake-up call for Democrats and Republicans alike. Thanks in large part to widespread dissatisfaction with the country’s economic performance and a lack of public confidence in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives and will have additional votes in the Senate. This return to two-party government creates a tougher political climate for the White House in implementing health care reform.”
“During the 2010 midterm elections Republican Congressional Candidates promised
voters that if they took control of Congress, they would withhold the funding needed by the
Obama Administration to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
House Republican leaders also signed a “Pledge to America” that they would return the country
to 2008 discretionary spending levels. To achieve these spending objectives, Republicans must
start by identifying discretionary programs to target for defunding when they assume control of
the House of Representatives in January 2011. This analysis identifies potential programs in
the healthcare reform law that may serve as a starting point for the 112
th
Congress.”
“In the midst of the legislative debate over
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(PPACA), Speaker Pelosi famously said, “We have to
pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.”
Indeed, the 112
th
Congress must find out what is in the
law before irrevocable damage is done to our care
delivery system, private health insurance, and the
federal budget deficit. Oversight hearings should begin
immediately as the Obama Administration has abused
the traditional rulemaking process to limit public
comments from key stakeholders and the American
people. We recommend the following five areas for
oversight hearings in the 112
th
Congress.”
“The healthcare reform law flunks the test of real healthcare reform. Real reform would: encourage providers to offer higher-quality care at lower costs; reduce the cost pressures that threaten to bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid; and give every American access to more options for quality insurance. To enact real healthcare reform, and help to restore fiscal balance to the nation’s budget, the next Congress should pursue substantial changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). We recommend the following five healthcare objectives for the 112th Congress.”
ObamaCare created an unworkable cost-control method when it proposed Accountable Care Organizations to manage care in Medicare. Medicare’s payment board is predicting that they will have negative consequences and is calling for them to be pared back.
“The Susan B. Anthony List, responding to Rep. Steve Driehaus’s defamation lawsuit against the anti-abortion group, said his vote for healthcare reform — and not the group’s messaging — cost him a seat in Congress.”
“During the recent health care debate I heard many people on both sides of the debate worry out loud about passing a heath care bill that did not enjoy broad support. I guess this question is no longer a theoretical one. December will be a big month when it comes to seeing some of the fallout accruing from the very partisan passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
The Obama Administration has now granted over 200 waivers to corporations for different ObamaCare mandates so they can keep their current plans. ObamaCare is so restrictive with its new mandates that corporations will be unable to keep their current plans and will have to switch to more expensive ones. Businesses are concerned that only the larger and more politically connected firms will be exempted from the rules.