Recent Articles

“The cost for businesses to buy health coverage for workers rose the most this year since 2005 and may reach $32,175 for a family in 2021, according to a survey of private and public employers… The health law enacted last year accounts for 1 to 2 percentage points of the premium increases in 2011, said Drew Altman, chief executive officer of the Kaiser Family Foundation.”

“The uninsured truly in need of help are those with household incomes below $25,000. They represent roughly a third of the uninsured, or 16.1 million.
Now, 16 million uninsured is nothing to sneeze at. But they represent only 5% of the American population. Finding coverage for them doesn’t require remaking one-sixth of the U.S. economy, as ObamaCare does. Many of these 16 million people are already eligible for public insurance, chiefly Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. They just haven’t signed up.”

“Jim Capretta, Andrew Stiles, and others have written in these pages about the looming fiscal disaster that is CLASS, Obamacare’s long-term care entitlement. This morning, CLASS’s chief actuary — the official in charge of designing the program’s structure — sent out an e-mail stating that ‘HHS has decided to close down the CLASS Office effective tomorrow.’ The actuary went on to tell National Journal that ‘all of the people [in the CLASS office] are being reassigned.'”

“A new study by the Small Business Administration shows the health insurance tax credit, effective starting in the 2010 tax year, may not be enough incentive for small businesses to offer their employees health care. Only about two-thirds — 2.6 million of the 4 million eligible small businesses — will benefit from the health insurance tax credit included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, according to the study.”

“Ohioans who buy individual insurance policies could see their premiums jump 55 to 85 percent in 2014 when key provisions of the new federal health-care law kick in, according to a new report. Rates also are expected to increase for those with employer-sponsored coverage but not nearly as much. “

“In the end, the fate of Obamacare will almost certainly be decided in the political and legislative arena, not the courts, and the 2012 election is likely to be the decisive battle in that regard. Keeping this in mind, Republicans and conservatives should be doing all they can to make the 2012 election another referendum on the damage Obamacare will do to the American economy and health system.”

“The Obama administration is closing down the office charged with putting in place one of the most controversial provisions of the healthcare reform law, the long-term care program’s actuary writes in an email obtained by The Hill…
The actuary in charge of implementing the long-term care program for people with disabilities, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, sent an email to colleagues Thursday informing them that HHS is closing down his office on Friday.”

‘There is no hard evidence of a link, but it is perfectly reasonable to assume that this demographic increased their health insurance coverage, while all other demographics saw their coverage rates fall, thanks to the Obamacare provision that forces insurance companies to allow parents to add their adult children to their employer-provided health plan.
But, while these mostly unemployed but newly insured young adults are benefiting from increased health care, that increased care comes at a cost. Health insurance is never free…
A big reason why health spending continues to grow is because more and more Americans have health insurance. Contrary to what advocates of Obamacare claimed, expanded health insurance coverage increases, it doesn’t decrease, health care spending.”

On Thursday night, President Obama gave a speech to a joint session of Congress outlining his new program to stimulate the economy. There was only one small reference to ObamaCare, but it was packed with misinformation.

“But what we can’t do — what I will not do — is let this economic crisis be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades.  (Applause.)  I reject the idea that we need to ask people to choose between their jobs and their safety.  I reject the argument that says for the economy to grow, we have to roll back protections that ban hidden fees by credit card companies, or rules that keep our kids from being exposed to mercury, or laws that prevent the health insurance industry from shortchanging patients.” [EA]

The laws to which the President is referring to are presumably the “medical-loss ratio” regulations which are part of ObamaCare. The laws are supposed to restrict the administrative overhead—and thus the profit—of insurance companies. Instead, this rule will drive many insurers out of business or cause them to leave certain smaller markets, driving down the quality of coverage and increasing the price. Many states are applying for waivers to delay implementation of these rules, because their insurance commissioners have said their citizens will lose access to their current insurance plans.

“And now, today, a new Congressional investigation led by John Thune reveals that the Obama Administration knew all along that CLASS was unsustainable. ‘As a result of this investigation,’ the authors write, ‘it is now clear that some officials inside HHS warned for months before passage that the CLASS program would be a fiscal disaster. Within HHS the program was repeatedly referred to as “a recipe for disaster” with “terminal problems.”‘”