When it comes to the super-committee’s duty to reform Medicare, you’ll likely to hear the same tired and unsuccessful methods for lowering Medicare’s soaring costs: raising taxes, manipulating payment formulas, or making even deeper payment cuts to doctors and hospitals. The best way to reform Medicare is transform it into a premium-support program, which provides a defined contribution to seniors’ chosen health plans, which include a variety of private plans as well as traditional Medicare fee-for-service. This approach — based on injecting consumer choice and competition into Medicare — has …
The Obama Administration notified Congress today that the CLASS Act — Obamacare’s long-term care insurance plan — is flawed, unsustainable, and unable to go forward. In a letter to Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote that “Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time.” CBS News reports: The law required the administration to certify that CLASS would remain financially solvent for 75 years before it could be put into place. But officials said they discovered they could …
A lot of news was made this week when the National Federation of Independent Business filed a petition to the Supreme Court appealing the 11th Circuit’s Obamacare decision, which was quickly followed by petitions filed by the 26 state plaintiffs, and another by the Obama Justice Department. What do these filings mean for the future of Obamacare? Click here to join to find out! We are joined by Heritage’s legal expert Robert Alt, and he will be taking your questions about what the petitions mean and what they holds for …
On January 21, 2009, Barack Obama stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and, in his inaugural address, pledged to America that he would “wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.” What he did wield, of course, was a 2,000-page bill known as Obamacare. More than a year on, we now know that health care costs are soaring, and the President’s signature legislation is to blame. Most Americans know that medicine is getting more expensive, but a new survey puts a shocking sticker price …
Yesterday, Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI) shared his outlook for repealing and replacing Obamacare. Ryan pointed out that rising health care costs not only make insurance unaffordable for many Americans; they are also a main driver of growing federal deficits. As medical inflation pushes the cost of insurance and medical goods and services sky high, the cost to taxpayers of Medicare, Medicaid, and the new open-ended entitlements created in Obamacare goes up as well. Adequately addressing rising costs will require pinpointing the root causes of medical inflation. Ryan defined these as …
Many state lawmakers are concerned that if their states accept Obamacare grant funding, they will be implementing policies counter to the states’ best interests. In any battle, it is wise to pick targets strategically. Obamacare is a many-headed monster—its funding is not one block grant. Conservatives should focus on refusing federal funding for elements of Obamacare that are integral to the legislation’s design and have significant policy consequences—while giving lower priority to funding that doesn’t meet both of those tests. The Obamacare grant programs now attracting the most attention are …
At a recent Energy and Commerce hearing, health policy experts testified on the effects Obamacare will have on jobs and employer-sponsored coverage. The title of the hearing said a lot: “Cutting the Red Tape: Saving Jobs from PPACA’s [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] Harmful Regulations.” Since Obamacare will require employers to spend more money on health care plans for their employees, it’s expected to hinder job creation. To avoid this, a discussion draft under review would prevent the regulations and requirements in the new law from affecting grandfathered health …
Liberals in Congress pushed forward with an unsustainable new entitlement program, internal emails show, and dismissed repeated warnings from federal health care experts that it would be an “insurance death spiral,” as one official put it. The emails, released by congressional investigators, reveal that proponents of the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) program pushed to include it in the president’s health care bill despite warnings that it would require either a sizable federal bailout, or another insurance mandate. The program’s advocates publicly insisted, meanwhile, that it would be …
Congress and the President have low approval ratings because Congress and the President continue to ignore the will of the American people. One reason for this disapproval is ObamaCare – the President’s signature health care “reform” law. According to Real Clear Politics (RCP), the average approval rating for the President is 43.0% approval and 53.2% disapproval. RCP has Congressional job approval at a dismal 12.3% approval and 84.0% disapproval. These numbers indicate anger and rage toward federally elected politicians. Lachlan Markay wrote on The Foundry yesterday that HHS Secretary Sebelius …
A top advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently compared opposition to the administration’s new health care law to opposition to the 1960s civil rights movement, Politico Pro reported: Jay Angoff, special adviser to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, drew parallels between the two contentious efforts during a panel presentation in Baltimore. He said pushback from state governors over implementation of the law mirrors the acrimony held by many state lawmakers decades earlier when they had to adopt the civil rights package. “The states fought the civil rights …
