Obamacare
Commentary
Health insurers in states’ cross hairs
The new health care law encourages state politicians to increase their interference with health insurance premiums, an underreported aspect of Obamacare with consequences for patients and health plans alike. Obamacare distributes federal grants that encourage states’ insurance departments to increase their power to dictate insurance premiums. States are responding by ...
Commentary
The Latest ObamaCare Assault On Health Care Innovation
The list of health services that ObamaCare requires all insurers to cover without co-pays or deductibles keeps growing. The latest additions include an array of womens wellness services and products: birth control, breast pumps, domestic violence counseling, and more. Of course, these additional benefits arent really free. They drive up ...
Commentary
Counting Up ObamaCare’s Health Cost Inflation
Its time to add yet another study to the growing list of research showing that ObamaCare isnt delivering on its grand promises. In the July issue of the journal Health Affairs, Medicares actuaries released new estimates of the rate of growth of national health costs. Surprise, surprise theyre projected ...
Commentary
Political control unhelpful
Faced with spiraling statewide health costs, Massachusetts passed a law in 2008 mandating the states attorney general to issue annual reports with recommendations on how to keep a lid on spending. On June 22, Martha Coakley released her latest report, which recommended that the state impose price controls on medical ...
Commentary
Why Don’t Health Insurance Exchanges Work?
A previous entry reported and discussed the lackluster basically non-existent results of the Utah Health Exchange, and promised to explain why unsubsidized exchanges are unlikely to attract significant numbers of beneficiaries from the small-group market. The answer, I believe, is pretty straightforward: The administrative costs of operating an ...
Commentary
How ObamaCare Threatens Solvency Of Health Insurers
One of the most remarkable outcomes of ObamaCare is how the stock market has treated commercial health plans, which have rallied significantly. In the two years between the 2008 and 2010 elections, the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payors’ Index rallied 26% (annualized), vs. only 9% for the S&P 500. Outperformance increased ...
Commentary
Obamacare threatens solvency of Colorado health plans
Obamacare encourages state politicians to increase their interference with health-insurance premiums. In 2008 Colorado passed a law giving the Division of Insurance the power to deny premium hikes. To enhance this power, known as “prior approval,” Obamacare gave Colorado a $1 million grant last year to hire more insurance analysts ...
Health Care
Why the Utah Health Exchange is No Model for Health Reform
The Utah Health Exchange is the model some conservatives believe can be used to push back against Obamacare. Witness the Wall Street Journal (July 16) soundly rejecting regulatory guidance on what the Administration is now calling Affordable Insurance Exchanges, but encouraging governors to get on the exchange bandwagon, in the ...
Commentary
ObamaCare’s Imposition Will Lead To An Unhealthy State Of Wellbeing
The federal government has produced yet another study stating the obvious about health care that having insurance coverage is better than not having it. Yet some wonks are hailing this report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as the most important health-care policy experiment since the 1970s. ...
Health Care
Health Insurance Exchanges: What If They Issued 347 Pages of Regulations and Nobody Cared?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations governing Health Benefits Exchanges and Small-Business Health Options Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These regulations are poorly defined, confirming that the exchanges will empower state functionaries to reduce choice and competition in health ...
Health insurers in states’ cross hairs
The new health care law encourages state politicians to increase their interference with health insurance premiums, an underreported aspect of Obamacare with consequences for patients and health plans alike. Obamacare distributes federal grants that encourage states’ insurance departments to increase their power to dictate insurance premiums. States are responding by ...
The Latest ObamaCare Assault On Health Care Innovation
The list of health services that ObamaCare requires all insurers to cover without co-pays or deductibles keeps growing. The latest additions include an array of womens wellness services and products: birth control, breast pumps, domestic violence counseling, and more. Of course, these additional benefits arent really free. They drive up ...
Counting Up ObamaCare’s Health Cost Inflation
Its time to add yet another study to the growing list of research showing that ObamaCare isnt delivering on its grand promises. In the July issue of the journal Health Affairs, Medicares actuaries released new estimates of the rate of growth of national health costs. Surprise, surprise theyre projected ...
Political control unhelpful
Faced with spiraling statewide health costs, Massachusetts passed a law in 2008 mandating the states attorney general to issue annual reports with recommendations on how to keep a lid on spending. On June 22, Martha Coakley released her latest report, which recommended that the state impose price controls on medical ...
Why Don’t Health Insurance Exchanges Work?
A previous entry reported and discussed the lackluster basically non-existent results of the Utah Health Exchange, and promised to explain why unsubsidized exchanges are unlikely to attract significant numbers of beneficiaries from the small-group market. The answer, I believe, is pretty straightforward: The administrative costs of operating an ...
How ObamaCare Threatens Solvency Of Health Insurers
One of the most remarkable outcomes of ObamaCare is how the stock market has treated commercial health plans, which have rallied significantly. In the two years between the 2008 and 2010 elections, the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payors’ Index rallied 26% (annualized), vs. only 9% for the S&P 500. Outperformance increased ...
Obamacare threatens solvency of Colorado health plans
Obamacare encourages state politicians to increase their interference with health-insurance premiums. In 2008 Colorado passed a law giving the Division of Insurance the power to deny premium hikes. To enhance this power, known as “prior approval,” Obamacare gave Colorado a $1 million grant last year to hire more insurance analysts ...
Why the Utah Health Exchange is No Model for Health Reform
The Utah Health Exchange is the model some conservatives believe can be used to push back against Obamacare. Witness the Wall Street Journal (July 16) soundly rejecting regulatory guidance on what the Administration is now calling Affordable Insurance Exchanges, but encouraging governors to get on the exchange bandwagon, in the ...
ObamaCare’s Imposition Will Lead To An Unhealthy State Of Wellbeing
The federal government has produced yet another study stating the obvious about health care that having insurance coverage is better than not having it. Yet some wonks are hailing this report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as the most important health-care policy experiment since the 1970s. ...
Health Insurance Exchanges: What If They Issued 347 Pages of Regulations and Nobody Cared?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations governing Health Benefits Exchanges and Small-Business Health Options Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). These regulations are poorly defined, confirming that the exchanges will empower state functionaries to reduce choice and competition in health ...
