Category Archives: Health Care

Obamacare Does NOT Have A Mandate

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Some conservatives have charged that Marco Rubio has proposed an individual mandate for health insurance. [Credit: ABC News]

Some con­ser­v­a­tives have charged that Mar­co Rubio has pro­posed an indi­vid­ual man­date for health insur­ance. [Cred­it: ABC News]

Some con­ser­v­a­tives have accused Mar­co Rubio of propos­ing an Oba­macare-like man­date on all Amer­i­cans to buy health insur­ance. They’re wrong about Rubio.  And about Oba­macare.  Read more on Nation­al Review Online.

Will HHS Get Away With A $3.5 Billion Heist?

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CMS administrator Andy Slavitt has a $3.5 billion problem. Will Congress and presidential candidates talk about it? [Credit:nextgov]

CMS admin­is­tra­tor Andy Slavitt is plan­ning to short the U.S. Trea­sury $3.5 bil­lion. Will Con­gress and pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates talk about it? [Credit:nextgov]

The Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices (HHS) announced Fri­day night that it was in the process of short­ing the U.S. Trea­sury $3.5 billion.

Well, they didn’t exact­ly announce it.  You had to read between the lines. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

What We Know And Don’t Know About Obamacare, Part II

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More than five years after its enactment there still are many questions about whether Obamacare is working. Here are four of them.

More than five years after its enact­ment there still are many ques­tions about whether Oba­macare is work­ing. Here are four of them.

My pre­vi­ous post dis­cussed what we know about Oba­macare as its third open enroll­ment sea­son begins.  Here are four major ques­tions about the future of Oba­macare that remain unanswered.

Can insur­ance com­pa­nies make mon­ey in the exchanges with­out cor­po­rate wel­fare? Oba­macare con­tains some very expen­sive sweet­en­ers to entice insur­ance com­pa­nies to sell through the exchanges. These include risk cor­ri­dor pay­ments and $20 bil­lion over three years in inapt­ly named “rein­sur­ance” pay­ments, mon­ey gov­ern­ment takes from par­tic­i­pants in group health plans and gives to insur­ers that par­tic­i­pate in the exchanges. Both are sched­uled to end in 2017.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

What We Know And Don’t Know About Obamacare, Part I

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Obamacare's third open enrollment season launched yesterday. Here are six things we know about the program. (Tomorrow: four things we still don't know.) Credit:americanlegislator.org

Oba­macare’s third open enroll­ment sea­son launched yes­ter­day. Here are six things we know about the pro­gram. (Tomor­row: four things we still don’t know.) Credit:americanlegislator.org

Obamacare’s third open enroll­ment sea­son has kicked off, begin­ning the next chap­ter in its tur­bu­lent his­to­ry.  Today’s post dis­cuss­es what we know about Oba­macare.  Tomorrow’s will dis­cuss what we still don’t know.

What We Know

Few­er peo­ple are unin­sured. How many few­er is a mat­ter of dis­pute, but the improve­ment is sub­stan­tial by any mea­sure.  HHS Sec­re­tary Sylvia Bur­well cred­its Oba­macare with reduc­ing the num­ber of unin­sured peo­ple by 17.6 mil­lion since 2010.   And though you’ll like­ly hear this num­ber repeat­ed (and often round­ed up to 18 mil­lion), it’s almost cer­tain­ly exag­ger­at­ed.   Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare’s Next Chapter

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Chief Justice John Roberts ' opinion in King v. Burwell betrayed widely-held misconceptions about health insurance markets. [Credit: Human Events]

Chief Jus­tice John Roberts ’ opin­ion in King v. Bur­well repeat­ed wide­ly-held mis­con­cep­tions about health insur­ance mar­kets.  Con­ser­v­a­tives should take note. [Cred­it: Human Events]

“The Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act grew out of a long his­to­ry of failed health insur­ance reform.” Chief Jus­tice John Roberts, in uphold­ing Oba­macare subsidies.

Oba­macare is the newest chap­ter in that long his­to­ry of failed health insur­ance reform.  Con­ser­v­a­tives who hope one day to replace it would do well to learn from its errors and con­ceits. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare And The Daughters of (40% Less) Charity

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The President last week professed his love -- appropriately chaste, of course -- for Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association and tireless Obamacare advocate. [Credit: Wikipedia]

The Pres­i­dent last week pro­fessed his love — appro­pri­ate and chaste, of course — for Sis­ter Car­ol Kee­han, pres­i­dent of the Catholic Health Asso­ci­a­tion and tire­less Oba­macare advo­cate. [Cred­it: Wikipedia]

I just love nuns gen­er­al­ly.  I’m just say­ing.  – Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, June 9

And nuns just love him too.  At least nuns who run hos­pi­tals seem to.  And with good rea­son: the Pres­i­dent advo­cates poli­cies that enable hos­pi­tals like those oper­at­ed by the Daugh­ters of Char­i­ty to pro­vide less char­i­ty.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare Has Reduced Uninsured By Nearly 8 Million

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A fresh government study has found that Obamacare has so far reduced the number of uninsured by eight million. [Credit: publicbroadcasting.net]

A fresh gov­ern­ment study has found that Oba­macare has so far reduced the num­ber of unin­sured by eight mil­lion. [Cred­it: publicbroadcasting.net]

The num­ber of unin­sured peo­ple declined by near­ly eight mil­lion dur­ing the first nine months of 2014, reduc­ing their ranks to 37.2 mil­lion, accord­ing to an analy­sis of data released late last week by the Nation­al Cen­ter for Health Sta­tis­tics (NCHS).

The survey’s find­ings con­flict with a report issued last month by the RAND Cor­po­ra­tion, which esti­mat­ed that the num­ber of unin­sured fell by 16.9 mil­lion since Obamacare’s imple­men­ta­tion [sub­scrip­tion required].  The RAND study put the num­ber of unin­sured at 25.8 mil­lion, near­ly 12 mil­lion few­er than the NCHS esti­mate. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Is Obamacare What We Deserve?

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Many who signed up for Obamacare coverage

Some who signed up for Oba­macare cov­er­age had been unin­sured for years.  That cov­er­age could unrav­el if the Supreme Court rules next month that the Admin­is­tra­tion unlaw­ful­ly sub­si­dized their cov­er­age. [Cred­it: Mia­mi Herald]

For 20 years, I was afraid.  Afraid of get­ting sick and not hav­ing health insur­ance.  But when I got can­cer, I final­ly had a health plan that I could afford.  With­out it, I wouldn’t be here…I’ll always remem­ber how afford­able health care saved my life.  I believe every­one deserves the same chance I had.  Don’t you?  Julie, the pro­tag­o­nist of a recent ad pro­mot­ing Obamacare

The Supreme Court next month will issue a rul­ing that could result in Julie los­ing the health insur­ance cov­er­age she feels she deserves. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Let States Exchange Obamacare For Something Better

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Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper established an Obamacare state exchange that is now "teetering," according to a state official. [Credit: mnginteractive.com]

Col­orado Gov­er­nor John Hick­en­loop­er estab­lished an Oba­macare state exchange that is now “tee­ter­ing,” accord­ing to a state offi­cial. [Cred­it: mnginteractive.com]

In the 34 states that did not estab­lish Oba­macare exchanges, Gov­er­nors ner­vous­ly await a Supreme Court rul­ing that could throw their health insur­ance mar­kets into chaos. Mean­while, many of the Gov­er­nors who did estab­lish exchanges are regret­ting their decision.

More than five years after its enact­ment, Oba­macare has proven a bit­ter brew for many states.  Nowhere is this more evi­dent than in health care exchanges.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →