Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new initiatives intended to provide states with increased flexibility to better manage their Medicaid programs. However, these initiatives do not seriously address states’ mounting Medicaid crises. The first HHS initiative is to improve coordination of care for individuals enrolled …
Medicare, the federal health care program for America’s seniors, represents $30.8 trillion in long-term unfunded obligations. If Medicare’s runaway costs are not reined in, the program could cease to exist for future generations. The issue is not whether Medicare costs should be controlled but how. Congress can pursue one of …
Obamacare will cost Americans trillions of dollars in the decades to come. To help pay for its new coverage provisions, the plan makes sweeping cuts to Medicare. But as it turns out, serious doubts exist about the likelihood of these cuts actually occurring, and evidence has already shown that lawmakers …
As has been well documented, Obamacare is destructive to Americans on several fronts: economically, medically, Constitutionally, ethically, and otherwise. This government takeover of America’s health care system (mislabeled as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA) must be stopped. And therein may lie the one positive side effect …
Efforts to defund Obamacare one bite at a time are making progress in the House, although Senate prospects remain dim. The House is addressing parts of Obamacare which are so loosely-drafted that House Speaker John Boehner and others label them multi-billion-dollar “slush funds.” Five bills (numbered HR 1213 through 1217) …
Americans are well aware by now that Obamacare was sloppily written, a fact that has resulted in numerous unintended consequences that will adversely affect the nation. In light of a recent report from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the newly created Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) can be …
Yesterday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI) unveiled his budget proposal for fiscal year 2012. The transformative proposal would reverse the current trajectory of out-of-control federal spending largely due to the inclusion of a bold proposal to reform the currently unsustainable Medicare program. Ryan’s approach would change the way …
When Obamacare was passed into law, its proponents touted the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis showing that it would reduce the deficit. A lot has changed since then. Heritage research reveals that “a close examination of what CBO said, as well as other evidence, makes it clear that the deficit reduction …
One negative provision of Obamacare is back in congressional crosshairs. The CLASS (Community Living Assistance Services and Support) Program, a new long-term care entitlement, has already endured withering criticism. In July 2009, the American Academy of Actuaries released a blistering report on its structural flaws. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman …
