Millions may lose coverage next year if Congress does not repeal Obamacare.
That’s not what this week’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis says, but it is reality. CBO’s estimating models seem impervious to reality.
In the real world, the Obamacare exchanges are in crisis, millions of uninsured people willingly pay or avoid IRS penalties, and consumers struggle with rising premiums and cost-sharing requirements. Read more on National Review Online.
Obamacare’s fourth open enrollment period will begin November 1. For the Internal Revenue Service, it will be open season on uninsured taxpayers. Read more on NRO.
When is a government program not a government program?
When the insurance industry says it isn’t.
In its effort to keep billions in unlawful Obamacare corporate subsidies flowing, the industry is trying to persuade Congress that it receives no federal funds through the federal “reinsurance” program. Good luck with that. Read more.
![Some conservatives have charged that Marco Rubio has proposed an individual mandate for health insurance. [Credit: ABC News]](https://i0.wp.com/www.dougsbriefcase.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Credit-ABC-News.jpg)
Some conservatives have charged that Marco Rubio has proposed an individual mandate for health insurance. [Credit: ABC News]
![CMS administrator Andy Slavitt has a $3.5 billion problem. Will Congress and presidential candidates talk about it? [Credit:nextgov]](https://i0.wp.com/www.dougsbriefcase.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/credit-nextgov.jpg)
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]
Well, they didn’t exactly announce it. You had to read between the lines. Continue reading
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.
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