Tag Archives: Heritage Foundation

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 →

Frenemies of the Poor

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The 50th anniversary of the President Johnson's declaration of a War on Poverty has provoked strong views on whether it has succeeded or failed. The truth lies somewhere between. [Credit: Huffington Post]

The 50th anniver­sary of the Pres­i­dent John­son’s dec­la­ra­tion of a War on Pover­ty has pro­voked strong views on whether it has suc­ceed­ed or failed. The truth lies some­where between. [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

It’s not much of an exag­ger­a­tion to say that right now Repub­li­cans are doing all they can to hurt the poor, and they would have inflict­ed vast­ly more harm if they had won the 2012 elec­tion. More­over, GOP harsh­ness toward the less for­tu­nate isn’t just a mat­ter of spite (although that’s part of it); it’s deeply root­ed in the party’s ide­ol­o­gy.  Paul Krug­man, “Ene­mies of the Poor,” Jan­u­ary 12, 2014

The 50th anniver­sary of Pres­i­dent Johnson’s War on Pover­ty has occa­sioned a good deal of moral exhi­bi­tion­ism. Lib­er­als heap praise on the pro­grams and flat­ter them­selves for sup­port­ing the trans­fer of an esti­mat­ed $20.7 tril­lion (in 2011 dol­lars) in cash and non-cash ben­e­fits from those who earned it to those who did not. And they are rel­ish­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to denounce con­ser­v­a­tives as ene­mies of the poor, moti­vat­ed by ide­ol­o­gy and spite.

Some con­ser­v­a­tives, like the Her­itage Foundation’s Robert Rec­tor, are using the anniver­sary to declare the War on Pover­ty lost. Rec­tor recent­ly was quot­ed as say­ing that “the War on Pover­ty has been a com­plete cat­a­stro­phe.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →

More Than A Website: Will Insurers Prosper Under Obamacare?

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The Bee Gees' "More Than A Woman" was a 70s sensation. In promoting his health care law, the President now has a similar mantra: "More Than A Website." (Credit: AP)

The Bee Gees’ “More Than A Woman” was a 70s sen­sa­tion. In pro­mot­ing his health care law, the Pres­i­dent has adopt­ed a sim­i­lar phrase, remind­ing us that Oba­macare is more than a web­site. (Cred­it: AP)

The Pres­i­den­t’s health care law has had a trou­bled first month, but it is far too soon to know whether its prob­lems will prove last­ing and severe.  Even some of its most fer­vent sup­port­ers, like the Wash­ing­ton Post’s Ezra Klein, acknowl­edge that its defi­cien­cies run deep­er than a clunky web­site.  Oba­macare, the Pres­i­dent reminds us, is more than a web­site, but its prob­lems extend far beyond its 5 mil­lion lines of errant code. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Immigration Reform: Will It Boost The Economy Or Hurt It?

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Supporters of immigration reform say it will spur growth and raise living standards. Opponents disagree. Who's right? [Credit: ABCNews.go.com]

Sup­port­ers of immi­gra­tion reform say it will spur growth and raise liv­ing stan­dards. Oppo­nents dis­agree. Who’s right? [Cred­it: ABCNews.go.com]

“Immi­gra­tion Reform Would Boost Econ­o­my, CBO Report Finds,” ABC News report­ed last week.

Not exact­ly.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →