The Administration is touting new $250 checks for seniors who hit the Medicare Part D coverage gap. But the State of Vermont is arguing that if the money is to defray drug costs, and not just a political giveaway, then they should be receiving those checks for the seniors who get their drugs paid for by the state Medicaid program. “The dust-up over rebate checks and who should receive them underscores the challenges of the federal-state partnership in health reform’s implementation. While rules and regulations are written within the Beltway, most of the heavy-lifting, in terms of implementation, rests with state governments.”
“Never before have I seen a CBO Director so bluntly refute the policy claims of a President and his Budget Director.”
The Senate health care bill (which, along with the Reconciliation Act, became law) would overhaul the entire health-care sector of the U.S. economy by erecting massive federal controls over private health insurance; dictating the content of insurance benefit-packages and the usage of medical treatments, procedures, and devices; altering the relationship between the federal government and the states; transferring massive regulatory power to the federal government; and restricting Americans’ personal and economic freedom by imposing unprecedented mandates on businesses and individuals, including an individual mandate to buy insurance.
House passage of the Senate version of ObamaCare means higher health costs, higher deficits, higher taxes, higher premiums, incentives for employers to drop employees’ insurance, incentives for employers to avoid hiring low-income workers, financial penalties for entering into marriage, further expansion of Medicaid and the launching of a new entitlement program, and the ushering in of a culture of statism and dependency in lieu of limited government and liberty.
In a study commissioned by the state of Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration, the Milliman consulting and actuarial firm concludes that ObamaCare would costs Indiana taxpayers $3.6 billion (in addition to their burden as federal taxpayers), as nearly one-quarter of Indiana residents would be on Medicaid by the end of the decade.
“We’re going to do everything we can to make sure this law never, ever goes into effect,” says House Minority Leader John Boehner — as the Republicans also plan to challenge the confirmation of Donald Berwick as the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
We’re about to enter a new age of chronic under-reimbursed care.
The Obama administration defends the health-care overhaul in the wake of projections by the Medicare Chief Actuary, which show that it would raise health costs by $311 billion and would shift 14 million people off of employer-provided insurance – and some of them onto Medicaid.
Creates a state option to cover childless adults though a Medicaid State Plan Amendment.
Creates a state option to provide Medicaid coverage for family planning services to certain low-income individuals through a Medicaid State Plan Amendment up to the highest level of eligibility for pregnant women.