ObamaCare is expected to cost the U.S. workforce a total of 2 million jobs worth of hours over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday. The total workforce will shrink by just under 1% as a result of the new coverage expansions, mandates and changes in tax rates, according to the report.
To stay on the path of repeal and replace, ObamaCare opponents need to address three critical aspects of the effort. First is the question of risk-corridor payments under ObamaCare. These are the payments made to insurers with “excessive” losses from the plans they offer on the exchanges. A second important question is the “Cadillac” tax, which imposes a 40% excise tax on plans with premiums above certain dollar thresholds, and which would be fully repealed by the bill Congress will send the president. A third important question concerns another key feature of any credible replacement plan: tax credits.
Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released its official estimates of the uninsured population and of health spending. In 2014, ObamaCare’s coverage expansion fell between 6 and 12 million short of expectations, while driving the growth of health spending to its highest rate in 7 years. ObamaCare has only reduced the percentage of U.S. residents without health insurance by about 2%: a remarkably small number, and far lower than what the law was supposed to achieve.
ObamaCare is performing worse than expected when it became law: plans are less attractive, enrollment is lower, premium increases are higher, and risk pools are sicker. Medicaid expansion is a key problem with the law. The main problem with Medicaid, which existed before the ACA took effect, is that enrollees receive little value from the program. The joint federal-state health care program needs large scale reform so that it provides better value for both enrollees and taxpayers.
Democrats like to talk a lot about being the party of choice, but under Obamacare, individuals are finding their choices increasingly limited. At its core, Obamacare forces individuals to purchase government-approved insurance policies and precludes them from buying plans that might be more in line with their healthcare needs. Though Obamacare’s defenders argue that the requirements imposed on health insurance plans only serve to guarantee that individuals have better coverage, in reality, what’s happening is that the law is driving insurers to limit choices.
The GOP has big reasons to move ahead with sending an ObamaCare repeal to President Obama’s desk: it will force the president to veto the bill, will fulfill a promise to its base, and will lay the groundwork to truly repeal the health care law under a Republican president in 2017. It’s not just optics. Republicans are carefully constructing a legislative strategy, based on Senate rules and precedents, to make it easier to unravel the health law in 2017 if a Republican wins the White House.
Cassandra Gekas, operations director for Vermont Health Connect, said staff members are working on a problem in which hundreds of people who paid their monthly premiums on time were canceled for nonpayment. Apparently, the cancellations were related to a five- to seven-day period it takes for the system to process end of the month payments. Vermont Health Connect was plagued with technical glitches and security problems after its launch Oct. 1, 2013.
U.S. health care spending last year grew at the fastest pace since President Obama took office, driven by expanded coverage under his namesake law and by zooming prescription drug costs, the government said Wednesday. The report by nonpartisan experts at the Department of Health and Human Services is an annual snapshot of the nation’s health care system, a major slice of the economy. Rising spending eventually has consequences for taxpayers, employers and individuals.
This week, as part of the reconciliation bill, Congress may vote on bailing out health-insurance companies losing money from their participation in the Affordable Care Act exchanges. With an $18 trillion national debt, Congress should stand firm and say no to the bailouts.
Insurance companies were relying on payments from the federal government to constrain their losses as part of a device known as “risk corridors.” Risk corridors allow the government to bear a portion of the costs if they become too high. Section 1342 of the Affordable Care Act states that the secretary of HHS can reimburse insurance companies if the costs of covering sick people exceed the premiums received. However, the act did not provide an appropriation for these funds. In order for risk-corridor funds to be distributed, Congress has to appropriate them.
A narrow majority of physicians say Obamacare has a negative impact on medical practice, including on the quality and cost of health care, according to a report from the Journal of the American Medical Association. The report found that 52 percent of physicians look on Obamacare as unfavorable to the general medical situation, while 48 percent say it is favorable.