Medicaid
Commentary
Ordinary consumers are paying for Obamacare’s ‘savings’
Federal programs rarely come in under budget. Consider Medicare, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. In 1967, lawmakers projected annual spending in the program would reach $12 billion in 1990. The actual tab that year? A cool $110 billion. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office says that ...
Commentary
Numbers raise doubts about Obamacare spin
The Obama administration has counted everyone who signed up for health coverage through its exchanges this year. Unsurprisingly, they’ve declared the law a success. As of late February, some 11.7 million people enrolled — 8.8 million on Healthcare.gov and 2.9 million via state marketplaces. That’s nearly 30 percent more than ...
Commentary
Medicare Part D saves money and lives
Federal officials recently set off budgetary alarm bells with new data on Medicare prescription drug spending. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pegged Medicare Part D’s 2013 price tag at $103 billion. That’s a large number — and largely misleading. A closer look at Part D reveals a program ...
Commentary
Obamacare will make U.S. doctor shortage worse
Need to see a doctor? It might take a while, thanks to Obama-Care. A recent report from the Association of American Medical Colleges projects the United States will lack as many as 31,000 primary-care physicians by 2025. For specialists, the shortage could exceed 63,000 by then. That’s not what the ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s ‘gobbledygook’ defense sets a fightening precedent
Justice Antonin Scalia provided the most memorable bon mot from last week’s oral arguments in King v. Burwell — the latest and most important Supreme Court challenge to Obamacare since 2012. “How can the federal government establish a state exchange?” he asked Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. “That’s gobbledygook.” ...
Commentary
Buried In The Numbers: Obamacare’s Costs Are Climbing, Not Receding
Late last month, the Congressional Budget Office reported that the provisions within Obamacare expanding access to insurance coverage would cost 20% less than the agency estimated in 2010, when the law passed. The White House was ecstatic. “The estimates released today by CBO once again confirm the progress we’ve made,” ...
Commentary
Letting patients buy Canadian drugs will only import trouble
Good news for American patients — prescription drugs are effectively on sale. Drug spending climbed just 2.5 percent in 2013. Drug cost growth has now lagged overall health inflation for four straight years. Naturally, Washington lawmakers are ignoring the cost problems plaguing the rest of the healthcare marketplace and focusing ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion Is Nothing to Brag About
At the end of last year, the Obama administration boasted that almost 10 million people had enrolled in Medicaid since Obamacare went into effect. “This is great news,” an administration official exclaimed. Maybe for the White House. But not for patients and doctors, according to several recent studies. Even before ...
Commentary
Sally Pipes: Resolutions for a do-something Congress
Here’s a New Year’s resolution for the new Republican Congress: Resolve to shed the “do-nothing” moniker. With Republicans in control in the Capitol and a Democrat in the White House, two years of political gridlock seems certain — especially over the president’s signature achievement, Obamacare. It will be virtually impossible ...
Commentary
New Year, New Problems For Obamacare
Low-income Americans are in for a nasty surprise this tax season, thanks to an Obamacare accounting glitch. Obamacare overpaid up to 3.4 million Americans to help them buy subsidized health insurance. Now, those citizens will have to pay back the IRS when they file their taxes. But most of these ...
Ordinary consumers are paying for Obamacare’s ‘savings’
Federal programs rarely come in under budget. Consider Medicare, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. In 1967, lawmakers projected annual spending in the program would reach $12 billion in 1990. The actual tab that year? A cool $110 billion. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office says that ...
Numbers raise doubts about Obamacare spin
The Obama administration has counted everyone who signed up for health coverage through its exchanges this year. Unsurprisingly, they’ve declared the law a success. As of late February, some 11.7 million people enrolled — 8.8 million on Healthcare.gov and 2.9 million via state marketplaces. That’s nearly 30 percent more than ...
Medicare Part D saves money and lives
Federal officials recently set off budgetary alarm bells with new data on Medicare prescription drug spending. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pegged Medicare Part D’s 2013 price tag at $103 billion. That’s a large number — and largely misleading. A closer look at Part D reveals a program ...
Obamacare will make U.S. doctor shortage worse
Need to see a doctor? It might take a while, thanks to Obama-Care. A recent report from the Association of American Medical Colleges projects the United States will lack as many as 31,000 primary-care physicians by 2025. For specialists, the shortage could exceed 63,000 by then. That’s not what the ...
Obamacare’s ‘gobbledygook’ defense sets a fightening precedent
Justice Antonin Scalia provided the most memorable bon mot from last week’s oral arguments in King v. Burwell — the latest and most important Supreme Court challenge to Obamacare since 2012. “How can the federal government establish a state exchange?” he asked Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. “That’s gobbledygook.” ...
Buried In The Numbers: Obamacare’s Costs Are Climbing, Not Receding
Late last month, the Congressional Budget Office reported that the provisions within Obamacare expanding access to insurance coverage would cost 20% less than the agency estimated in 2010, when the law passed. The White House was ecstatic. “The estimates released today by CBO once again confirm the progress we’ve made,” ...
Letting patients buy Canadian drugs will only import trouble
Good news for American patients — prescription drugs are effectively on sale. Drug spending climbed just 2.5 percent in 2013. Drug cost growth has now lagged overall health inflation for four straight years. Naturally, Washington lawmakers are ignoring the cost problems plaguing the rest of the healthcare marketplace and focusing ...
Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion Is Nothing to Brag About
At the end of last year, the Obama administration boasted that almost 10 million people had enrolled in Medicaid since Obamacare went into effect. “This is great news,” an administration official exclaimed. Maybe for the White House. But not for patients and doctors, according to several recent studies. Even before ...
Sally Pipes: Resolutions for a do-something Congress
Here’s a New Year’s resolution for the new Republican Congress: Resolve to shed the “do-nothing” moniker. With Republicans in control in the Capitol and a Democrat in the White House, two years of political gridlock seems certain — especially over the president’s signature achievement, Obamacare. It will be virtually impossible ...
New Year, New Problems For Obamacare
Low-income Americans are in for a nasty surprise this tax season, thanks to an Obamacare accounting glitch. Obamacare overpaid up to 3.4 million Americans to help them buy subsidized health insurance. Now, those citizens will have to pay back the IRS when they file their taxes. But most of these ...
