Tag Archives: health insurance exchanges

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 →

Why Obamacare Subsidies Matter

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Protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court yesterday as judges heard arguments over the legality of Obamacare subsidies. [Credit: AP]

Pro­test­ers gath­ered out­side the Supreme Court yes­ter­day as judges heard argu­ments over the legal­i­ty of Oba­macare sub­si­dies. [Cred­it: AP]

The future of Oba­macare hangs on the Supreme Court’s rul­ing in King v. Bur­well for a very good rea­son: unless health insur­ance is sub­si­dized, mil­lions of Amer­i­cans don’t want it, even if they can afford it. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

What We Know And Don’t Know About Obamacare

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The White House spent billions last year on efforts like this to promote Obamacare enrollment. How will they do this year? [Credit: Washington Post]

The White House spent bil­lions last year on efforts like this to pro­mote Oba­macare enroll­ment. How will they do this year? [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

If you are a law­ful res­i­dent of the Unit­ed States and you lack health insur­ance today, it’s almost cer­tain­ly your fault.  You can’t blame your employ­er, the gov­ern­ment or the insur­ance com­pa­nies.  It’s on you.

That is the last­ing achieve­ment of Oba­macare, whose sec­ond open enroll­ment peri­od began yes­ter­day. Gone are the days when peo­ple with pre-exist­ing med­ical con­di­tions could not find afford­able cov­er­age.   Whether the ends of this achieve­ment, which are unde­ni­ably good, jus­ti­fy the means its sup­port­ers employed to win its enact­ment remains a mat­ter of con­tro­ver­sy. 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: Should Taxpayers Take the Risk of Subsidies?

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I testified on Obamacare yesterday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

I tes­ti­fied on Oba­macare yes­ter­day before the House Over­sight and Gov­ern­ment Reform Committee.

I tes­ti­fied yes­ter­day before the House Over­sight and Gov­ern­ment Reform Com­mit­tee on a some­what tech­ni­cal pro­vi­sion of Oba­macare.  The pro­vi­sion estab­lish­es “risk cor­ri­dors,” which lim­it prof­its and loss­es of insur­ers that sell through the exchanges.  Plans that make “excess prof­its” must pay into the risk cor­ri­dor fund; those that suf­fer “excess loss­es” receive mon­ey from that fund.   Con­tin­ue read­ing →

A Modest (And Potentially Bipartisan) Obamacare Proposal

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Here are three changes Congress should make to Obamacare: 1) no cancellations; 2) no bailouts; 3) no tax on the uninsured. [Credit: thinkquest.org]

Here are three changes Con­gress should make to Oba­macare: 1) no can­cel­la­tions; 2) no bailouts; 3) no tax on the unin­sured. [Cred­it: thinkquest.org]

Here’s a crazy idea: Repub­li­cans and at least some Democ­rats say they sup­port mak­ing changes to Oba­macare; why doesn’t Con­gress give vot­ers a pleas­ant sur­prise and change it?

These changes would be polit­i­cal­ly pop­u­lar, rel­a­tive­ly mod­est and enjoy at least some bipar­ti­san sup­port. Although the pre­vail­ing polit­i­cal cli­mate makes it hard for law­mak­ers to do any­thing of sub­stance, mak­ing the health care law more friend­ly to con­sumers and less accom­mo­dat­ing to cor­po­rate inter­ests would appeal to vot­ers across the spec­trum. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Is Congress Still Relevant?

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All 100 Senators gathered last year for this photo. They have done little since. Have they become irrelevant? [Credit: senate.gov]

All 100 Sen­a­tors gath­ered last year for this pho­to. Under Har­ry Rei­d’s lead­er­ship, they have done lit­tle since. Have they become irrel­e­vant? [Cred­it: senate.gov]

Here is all you need to know about the decline of the Unit­ed States Con­gress: a US Sen­a­tor recent­ly asked a fed­er­al judge to block the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion from unlaw­ful­ly sub­si­diz­ing his own health insur­ance coverage.

The law­suit illus­trates how Con­gress has become a sub­servient branch of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment.  Sub­ject to the whim of the Exec­u­tive Branch, one of its Mem­bers must now appeal to the Judi­cial Branch for relief.  Actu­al­ly leg­is­lat­ing seems out of the ques­tion. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare’s Comfort Food For The Insurance Industry

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The President huddled with health insurance executives last month, part of a White House effort to assure them that the government has their back. (Credit: LA Times)

The Pres­i­dent hud­dled with health insur­ance exec­u­tives last month, part of a White House effort to assure them that the gov­ern­ment has their back. (Cred­it: LA Times)

The healthcare.gov web­site now works to the Admin­is­tra­tion’s sat­is­fac­tion.  While only 30 per­cent of users could enroll when the site first launched, it’s now up to 80 per­cent.

Frus­trat­ing one in five poten­tial cus­tomers, evi­dent­ly the gold stan­dard for the White House, is viewed less favor­ably by pri­vate insur­ers.  It’s among the rea­sons that the health care law is caus­ing such anx­i­ety in the C‑suites of insur­ance com­pa­nies that are hop­ing to prof­it by sell­ing poli­cies through the exchanges. Which is why White House meet­ings with insur­ance exec­u­tives are hap­pen­ing more fre­quent­ly than Cab­i­net meet­ings. Con­tin­ue read­ing →