Category Archives: Medicaid

Tolerance, The Amish And Hobby Lobby

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Pamela Harris, shown here with her disabled son, prevailed at the Supreme Court this week in her challenge to an Illinois law requiring her to pay union dues. [Credit: Heartland Institute]

Pamela Har­ris, shown here with her dis­abled son, pre­vailed at the Supreme Court this week in her chal­lenge to an Illi­nois law requir­ing her to pay union dues. [Cred­it: Heart­land Institute]

For a brief time dur­ing the 1980s, I was Direc­tor of Pol­i­cy Devel­op­ment for the Social Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion.  The title is more glo­ri­fied than the real­i­ty.  Social Secu­ri­ty is a big and ossi­fied pro­gram that resists “pol­i­cy devel­op­ment.”  Con­gress, ever cog­nizant of the polit­i­cal risks of tam­per­ing with the pro­gram, had been forced by its loom­ing insol­ven­cy to pass a mas­sive law hik­ing pay­roll tax­es and rais­ing the retire­ment age just a few years before.  They were in no mood to enter­tain addi­tion­al legislation.

But my job was to pre­pare options for the Commissioner’s con­sid­er­a­tion, so I met with career staff who had an idea: why not advo­cate for a bill requir­ing self-employed Amish farm­ers to pay social secu­ri­ty tax­es? Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Was Speaker Boehner Right About Obamacare?

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House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was heavily criticized for saying last month that Obamacare cancelations had outnumered enrollments. Now a new study touted by the Administration shows that he had a point. [Credit: Politico]

House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH) was heav­i­ly crit­i­cized for say­ing last month that Oba­macare can­ce­la­tions had out­nu­mered enroll­ments. Now a new study tout­ed by the Admin­is­tra­tion shows that he had a point. [Cred­it: Politico]

“When you look at the 6 mil­lion Amer­i­cans who have lost their poli­cies and some — they claim 4.2 mil­lion peo­ple who have signed up — I don’t know how many have actu­al­ly paid for it — that would indi­cate to me a net loss of peo­ple with health insur­ance.”  House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH)

Boehner’s state­ment last month that few­er peo­ple had gained cov­er­age through health exchanges than had lost their insur­ance due to can­ce­la­tions required by the health care law was met with wide­spread deri­sion. The state­ment earned him 4 Pinoc­chios from the Wash­ing­ton Post’s Fact-Checker.

But a new sur­vey released by the RAND Cor­po­ra­tion at least par­tial­ly vin­di­cates the Speaker’s claim. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare By The Numbers: Medicaid

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Obamacare supporters are greatly inflating estimates of the number of previously uninsured people that have gained coverage because of the new law. Here's sensible look at the numbers. [Credit: CNN/Money]

Oba­macare sup­port­ers are great­ly inflat­ing esti­mates of the num­ber of pre­vi­ous­ly unin­sured peo­ple that have gained cov­er­age because of the new law. Here’s sen­si­ble look at the num­bers. [Cred­it: CNN/Money]

Near­ly 13 mil­lion Amer­i­cans now have health insur­ance thanks to Oba­macare. Tell Repub­li­cans to stop vot­ing to take their cov­er­age away. – Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leg­isla­tive Cam­paign Com­mit­tee peti­tion drive

Hyper­bole over how many peo­ple have pre­sum­ably gained health cov­er­age as the result of Oba­macare won’t sub­side any­time soon. At its cur­rent pace, we seem des­tined to reach the point where the num­ber of peo­ple who are alleged to have gained cov­er­age because of Oba­macare sur­pass­es the num­ber that lacked cov­er­age in the first place. Con­tin­ue read­ing →