Obamacare
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 Care
Bust or Bailout? The Future of Private Health Plans Under ObamaCare
A new research study released by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based free-market think tank, shows how ObamaCare threatens the solvency of private health plans, which will significantly reduce consumer choice and increase costs. The ultimate result will likely be either a massive taxpayer bailout of private health plans ...
Business & Economics
Small-Business Health Care Tax Credits Are having a Miniscule Impact
The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently surveyed 304 small business owners about how satisfied they were with the new healthcare reform laws tax credits. Nearly 90% had not applied for the credits. Some had no idea they existed, others were deemed ineligible, and more than a fifth found that ...
Commentary
Medicaid Mess-up
Last week, government officials discovered that up to 3 million middle-class Americans with annual incomes as high as $64,000 could qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, thanks to Obamacare. Medicares chief actuary, Richard Foster, summed the situation up nicely: [T]hat just doesnt make ...
Commentary
Price Caps Will Only Cap Availability of Insurance
Earlier this month, the California Assembly voted to give the state insurance commissioner the power to reject health insurance rate hikes that he deemed excessive. The state senate must now take up the measure, known as AB 52. A week later, AB 52 effectively went national. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) ...
Commentary
Will Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Survive Obamacare?
Reports from consulting firms dont normally make national news. Then again, most such reports dont predict the downfall of the American health care system. Earlier this month, the consulting group McKinsey projected that tens of millions of Americans could find themselves without the health coverage they now get through their ...
Commentary
Path Dependency in Medicare Reform
Arguments will not change this fact: People change when the pain of not changing becomes greater than the pain of changing, but not before. This can be the only explanation for the majority of respondents to polls (described here) which ask the foolish question whether “Medicare should remain as it ...
Business & Economics
Federal Health Reform and Stock Market Returns of Health Insurers
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) would not have passed without the support of business interests in the health sector. Stock prices of for-profit health plans have significantly outperformed the broader stock market since President Obamas election in 2008, but also since the Republican wave of 2010. ...
Commentary
Even Obamacare’s Supporters Don’t Support the Rationing Board
The House Energy and Commerce Committee just scheduled hearings for next month on one of the most controversial components of ObamaCare the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). This 15-member, unelected Board will be charged with making recommendations for reducing Medicare spending if costs exceed a specified cap. Those recommendations ...
Commentary
Single Payer Health Care Systems, Multiple Health Care Disasters
Democrats have recently seized on a novel way of reducing health care costs threats. The Obama Administrations Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced that any insurance company that wants to increase premiums more than 10% will have to get approval from the government. Congress didnt pass ...
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 ...
Bust or Bailout? The Future of Private Health Plans Under ObamaCare
A new research study released by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based free-market think tank, shows how ObamaCare threatens the solvency of private health plans, which will significantly reduce consumer choice and increase costs. The ultimate result will likely be either a massive taxpayer bailout of private health plans ...
Small-Business Health Care Tax Credits Are having a Miniscule Impact
The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently surveyed 304 small business owners about how satisfied they were with the new healthcare reform laws tax credits. Nearly 90% had not applied for the credits. Some had no idea they existed, others were deemed ineligible, and more than a fifth found that ...
Medicaid Mess-up
Last week, government officials discovered that up to 3 million middle-class Americans with annual incomes as high as $64,000 could qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, thanks to Obamacare. Medicares chief actuary, Richard Foster, summed the situation up nicely: [T]hat just doesnt make ...
Price Caps Will Only Cap Availability of Insurance
Earlier this month, the California Assembly voted to give the state insurance commissioner the power to reject health insurance rate hikes that he deemed excessive. The state senate must now take up the measure, known as AB 52. A week later, AB 52 effectively went national. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) ...
Will Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Survive Obamacare?
Reports from consulting firms dont normally make national news. Then again, most such reports dont predict the downfall of the American health care system. Earlier this month, the consulting group McKinsey projected that tens of millions of Americans could find themselves without the health coverage they now get through their ...
Path Dependency in Medicare Reform
Arguments will not change this fact: People change when the pain of not changing becomes greater than the pain of changing, but not before. This can be the only explanation for the majority of respondents to polls (described here) which ask the foolish question whether “Medicare should remain as it ...
Federal Health Reform and Stock Market Returns of Health Insurers
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) would not have passed without the support of business interests in the health sector. Stock prices of for-profit health plans have significantly outperformed the broader stock market since President Obamas election in 2008, but also since the Republican wave of 2010. ...
Even Obamacare’s Supporters Don’t Support the Rationing Board
The House Energy and Commerce Committee just scheduled hearings for next month on one of the most controversial components of ObamaCare the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). This 15-member, unelected Board will be charged with making recommendations for reducing Medicare spending if costs exceed a specified cap. Those recommendations ...
Single Payer Health Care Systems, Multiple Health Care Disasters
Democrats have recently seized on a novel way of reducing health care costs threats. The Obama Administrations Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced that any insurance company that wants to increase premiums more than 10% will have to get approval from the government. Congress didnt pass ...
