Before passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), President Obama made several promises to the American people in an attempt to build support for his health care plan. Among them was a promise that “nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.” However, since the PPACA was signed into law and began down the long road of enactment, the truth has proven to be the opposite: No matter how much individuals may like their current health plan, under the new law, there’s no guarantee …
States have a lot to lose under Obamacare. Beyond representing a huge overreach of Congress’s constitutional authority, the new law includes several provisions that restrict states’ ability to reform their health care systems in ways that best serve residents’ specific needs. Obamacare requires all states to extend eligibility for Medicaid to an additional 18 million citizens. This will have serious implications for state budgets, which are already stretched thin by the cost of the program. The law also requires that states set up health insurance exchanges, for which the rules …
Elected officials in Washington finally seem to get it that something must be done to reduce federal spending. Last week, House Republicans unveiled a plan to cut $74 billion from President Obama’s budget request for this year, and members of the Republican Study Committee have proposed an even more ambitious plan to cut $2.5 trillion over the next decade. Members of both parties in the Senate are eyeing plans for long-term deficit reduction. Even President Obama, in his 2011 State of the Union address, confessed that “we have to confront …
Next week, President Obama will release his budget proposal for fiscal year 2012. Though the President’s budget carries no real legislative weight, it will showcase his financial priorities and the seriousness of his rhetorical commitment to rein in federal spending. A recent New York Times article by Jacob Lew, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, provides a snapshot of what Americans can expect from the President’s proposal. He describes the coming budget as “a comprehensive and responsible plan that will put us on a path toward financial …
While the Senate failed last week to pass a full repeal of Obamacare, the negative effects of the health care overhaul continue to build the case for scrapping it and starting over. Americans were told that Obamacare would open the door to medical coverage for all children. Those with preexisting conditions would become newly protected by a requirement that health insurance companies “guarantee issue” to all children 19 years old and under. No child would be denied coverage. But being able to get child-only coverage depends on the existence of …
In the wake of federal Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling that Obamacare’s individual mandate is unconstitutional, yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to further examine the issue. The individual mandate forces Americans to purchase a level of insurance deemed appropriate by the federal government or else pay a fine. Heritage’s legal experts write that the individual mandate is both unprecedented and unconstitutional. Its proponents claim that Congress holds the authority to compel Americans to purchase private insurance under the Commerce Clause, which allows Congress to “regulate Commerce with foreign …
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) promised during his campaign that he would balance the Empire State’s budget without increasing taxes or borrowing. Left untouched, the state’s $135 billion budget would otherwise result in $10 billion in deficit spending. This week, Cuomo appears to have taken the first step to making good on his promise. He unveiled a budget proposal that would, on paper, reduce New York’s spending by $3.5 billion from what was spent last year. (This is, however, a deceptively high estimate based on accounting gimmicks. The actual …
Last Thursday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner sent a letter extolling the impact of Obamacare on small business. Geithner touted small business tax credits and the creation of health insurance exchanges as ways to enable a greater number of employers to offer health benefits. But reality tells a different story. A day earlier, the House Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing to unveil the effects of the new health care law on businesses. Testifying before the committee were employers and economists, and their message was simple: Obamacare is bad …
Last week served up another dose of reality for Obamacare supporters. In addition to House committee hearings that exposed the negative effects of the new law, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its new 10-year baseline, which unveils the “daunting economic and budgetary challenges” facing the United States. In 2011, the federal deficit will hit $1.5 trillion. Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl writes, “Historic increases in federal spending are set to create permanent trillion-dollar deficits, eventually pushing the national debt past 100 percent of the GDP. Without change, the nation …
On Wednesday, the House Budget Committee convened a hearing to explore the fiscal consequences of Obamacare. Lawmakers heard from Richard Foster, Chief Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); James Capretta, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; and Dennis Smith, Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Foster’s remarks echoed the findings of the CMS Actuary’s report released last April. Of the promise that “if you like your current insurance, you can keep it,” Foster claimed that this would be “not true in …
