Audits and investigations into the effects of ObamaCare from congressional committees, government auditors, advocacy groups, and others.
“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) could create a new divide between consumers who have high-end dental coverage and consumers who have bare-bones dental coverage, or no dental coverage at all. The National Association of Dental Plans has published data supporting that possibility in a summary of results from a recent survey of 3,044 consumers.”
“To recruit more doctors to treat the poor, President Barack Obama’s health law took a simple approach: temporarily pay doctors more money… But implementing the raise is not so simple… With two months to go, doctors, state officials, and Medicaid managed care plans say there are numerous details still to be worked out.”
“Citing Obamacare, the Infirmary Health System this afternoon announced it would close its Infirmary West Hospital on Girby Road by the end of the month. Mark Nix, the president and CEO of the Infirmary Health, said in a prepared statement that officials decided to close the 124-bed hospital after a yearlong evaluation.”
“We are about to spend $1.8 trillion over the next ten years insuring about 32 million people. About half of the newly insured will go into Medicaid and half will get private insurance. If the above chart is to be believed, which half you’re in makes a real difference. That tiny little sliver of difference between the green line and the red line is the differential survival between those who are uninsured and those who are in Medicaid. Even after five years, the differential survival is a little more than 1%.”
“In fact, if the president makes no appointments, or the Senate rejects the president’s appointees, then all of IPAB’s considerable powers fall to one person: the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The HHS secretary would effectively become an economic dictator, with more power over the health care sector than any chamber of Congress.”
“President Obama’s plan to control Medicare spending — an expert board of cost-cutters — might have trouble even coming into existence. Obama and Mitt Romney spent a lot of time during Wednesday’s debate talking about the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a 15-member panel tasked with slowing the growth in Medicare spending.”
“The lobbyists promised that these technologies would make medical administration more efficient and lower medical costs by up to $100 billion annually. Many doctors and health-care administrators are wary of such claims—a wariness based on their own experience. An extensive new study indicates that the caution is justified: The savings turn out to be chimerical.”
“The most common theory is that reform causes consolidation. But what if the effect on hospitals is even more radical? What if the legislation changes the largely nonprofit nature of the industry?”
“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.”
“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.”