This year, Congress will have to reauthorize the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), which funds the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) drug approval process. As noted by Amanda Kronquist, a Heritage Health Policy Graduate Fellow, the FDA drug approval process has become “increasingly unpredictable, uncertain, and inefficient.” The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held its first hearing this year on the topic yesterday. It heard from the FDA commissioner and others in the field on the PDUFA reauthorization and its effect on jobs, innovation, and patients. In …
Click here to join us right now for our “Lunch with Heritage” chat. We are joined by Health Policy expert Kate Nix. She is taking your questions about the CLASS Act and Obamacare. Earlier this week, the House voted to repeal the CLASS Act, which is part of Obamacare. The CLASS Act would have set up a government-run long-term care insurance program that the Administration has already deemed unsustainable and unworkable. Lunch with Heritage feat. Kate Nix
It has not even been two years since Obamacare was enacted, and already the President’s health care law has taken another victim — the religious freedoms Americans hold dear, as reflected by the First Amendment. The Obama Administration recently reaffirmed a rule under Obamacare that requires many religious employers to provide health care coverage for all FDA-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and related education and counseling. On the grounds that certain FDA-approved contraceptive methods can sometimes “cause the demise of embryos both after and before uterine implantation,” many groups also …
The enormous storm brewing over health care in the last several years has included debate on everything from costs of care to covering the uninsured. One of the most charged issues involves moral controversies that intersect with health care. In 2006, Heritage published a paper explaining how reducing personal control over health care decisions would burden freedom of conscience. The paper argued that the main problem for freedom of conscience in health care “is that most Americans, as a practical matter, do not have [adequate] control over their own health …
The Obama Administration’s mandate under the Obamacare statute that many religious employers provide health care coverage for contraception, abortifacients, and sterilization tramples upon their free exercise of religion. The Obama Administration should immediately exempt such religious employers from the contraception mandate. The Administration’s trampling upon religious liberty with the contraception mandate illustrates yet again the need to repeal the Obamacare statute. What the Obamacare Statute Says Section 2713 of the Public Health Service Act, enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) (the “Obamacare” statute), provides …
As budget season approaches, premium support is gaining traction as the only viable option to save Medicare. In a recent Politico article, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D–MD) is quoted as saying liberals will use Obamacare’s new provisions to combat a conservative budget that reforms Medicare using premium support. Hoyer told reporters, “Yes, we need to make Medicare viable. We believe that the health care bill—and very frankly CBO (Congressional Budget Office) believes the health care bill will do something that Medicare very badly needs, and that is to constrain …
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its Budget and Economic Outlook for years 2012 to 2022 yesterday, and as Heritage’s Patrick Knudsen shows, the numbers add up to a dismal fiscal future. As the government continues its fiscal irresponsibility, 2012 will be the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar deficits. This trend is on track to continue as a result of increasing federal spending on health care, which will more than double between 2012 and 2022. The CBO estimates that by 2022, the government will spend $1.8 trillion on health care, …
In this week’s Heritage in Focus, expert Bob Moffit discusses how Obamacare ends Medicare as we know it. Click here to listen. How does the health reform law break up traditional Medicare? What’s a better way to fix Medicare? And how much could we save by bringing free market reforms to it? Be sure to hear Dr. Moffit answer these questions and more!
The House of Representatives is expected to vote as early as tomorrow on H.R. 1173, the Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011. This bill would repeal the CLASS Act, Obamacare’s new long-term care entitlement. The CLASS Act is just another reminder that the entire health care law is flawed and unworkable. As noted by Heritage policy analysts, the CLASS Act is doomed to fail. It was created as a budget gimmick to help Obamacare pass. This is due to the illusion that CLASS produces a short-term deficit reduction …
Monday on The Daily Show, comedian Jon Stewart interviewed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The Secretary didn’t escape the hot seat in what turned out to be an interesting discussion regarding the implementation of Obamacare. One notable topic covered during the interview was the surprise proposal by HHS to let states determine their own definitions of “essential health benefits.” Obamacare explicitly instructs HHS to fill in the details of the legislation’s mandatory minimum benefit package, but as the Galen Institute’s John Hoff previously noted in a Heritage …
