Be sure to listen to the latest Heritage Libertad Radio program. For the program in English, click here. For the program in Spanish, click here. The Spanish program begins with an interview with Father Avelino González. He discusses Obamacare’s mandate for contraceptives. Is the “fix” the administration offered a real solution to Obamacare’s constitutional violations? What are parishioners saying about it? We offer our thoughts as well. The English program also kicks off with an interview with Father Avelino González. Afterward we’re joined by Heritage expert Lindsey Burke to discuss the …
As a Canadian and firsthand witness of Canada’s government-run health care system, Sally Pipes is warning that Obamacare will exacerbate the existing problems of rising costs and lack of access in the American health care system. At a recent Heritage event, Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, joined other health policy experts to speak on the need to repeal Obamacare. Pipes is the author of two books on the new health care law, The Truth about Obamacare and The Pipes Plan. At the panel and in her …
Since the Obamacare anti-conscience mandate was proposed in August, the Obama Administration has come under intense scrutiny for the rule’s violation of religious liberty. In the wake of the final rule’s publication in the Federal Register yesterday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a full committee hearing yesterday to further investigate those claims, highlighting the law’s serious threat to freedom. Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, began the panel testimony by telling …
Senators Richard Burr (R–NC) and Tom Coburn (R–OK) have just unveiled a bold Medicare reform proposal based on the free-market forces of choice and competition. The Senators’ proposal adds further momentum to the effort to reform and improve America’s largest and most challenging entitlement program. “Premium support” is at the heart of the Burr–Coburn proposal: a financing arrangement where Medicare would make a generous contribution to health plans chosen by Medicare beneficiaries. The result would be an intense competition among health plans for enrollees’ business, just as there is today …
President Obama talked the talk but then blatantly refused to walk the walk on the freedom of religious institutions from the Obamacare statute’s mandate for group health insurance coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization. The Obama Administration continues to trample on religious liberty by issuing rules that require many religious hospitals, charities, and schools to abandon the tenets of their faiths and comply with that mandate. Many voices came together in objection to the interim final regulations of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Treasury …
One especially peculiar side effect of Obamacare will cause the federal government to begin taxing itself and state governments. This begins in 2014 as the result of the new annual fee imposed on the health insurance industry. The health insurer fee was created to fund new spending under Obamacare. The new tax hits not only private insurance but state Medicaid managed care programs that are contracted to insurers as well. Many states contract with private insurers to provide care to their Medicaid beneficiaries. States pay these managed care organizations a …
The top Republican on the Senate’s health care committee warned on Wednesday that a recent administration decision to allow cabinet secretaries to raise money for political organizations could coerce individuals or organizations into financially supporting the president’s reelection in order to avoid a regulatory backlash. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is one of a handful of cabinet officials who have said they will speak at fundraising events for a major super PAC supporting the president’s reelection. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), ranking member on the Health, Education, Labor and …
Michael Tanner, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law, talked about Obamacare’s budgetary gimmicks and unsustainable costs at a recent panel discussion at The Heritage Foundation. Tanner explained how one of the biggest gimmicks in the law is double-counted savings in Medicare. The cuts are unlikely to be fully enacted in the first place because of the impact they would have on seniors’ access to providers. In addition, the approximate $500 billion …
Once again, Congress is scrambling to stop a scheduled 27 percent payment cut to physicians who serve Medicare patients. This frequent exercise serves as a perfect example for the need to move Medicare away from its current price control model toward a market-based, premium support model. Congress should take immediate action to link any “fix” with structural Medicare policy reforms. The “Sustainable Growth Rate” (SGR) is in no way a sustainable long-term solution for Medicare. This complex government formula sets payments to physicians for providing Medicare services. When enacted as part …
If it weren’t for Obamacare, we wouldn’t have this problem. By “this problem,” we mean of course the Obamacare regulation that forces health insurance plans to provide coverage, without co-pay, for contraception, sterilization, and what many people believe are abortion-inducing drugs. When it was announced last August, the forced coverage mandate contained only a very narrow religious exemption. That meant it would apply to many religious employers who object on religious or moral grounds to providing, paying for, or otherwise participating in abortion, sterilization, and contraception. This result, as Heritage …
