Yet another provision of Obamacare is expected to cost taxpayers more than they expected. The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) asking for details regarding the probable loss of $3.1 billion out of the $3.4 billion in Obamacare loans to its Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (“CO-OP”). The estimate comes from the President’s Budget Appendix, and the committee is considering rescinding funds that haven’t already been obligated. The Obamacare initiative gives CMS the authority to award $3.4 billion …
On Monday, the Obama Administration signaled that another part of its signature health care law may not be working out as planned. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) put an end to a program that offered a $100 incentive to insurance brokers and agents for recommending eligible people to Obamacare’s Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan (PCIP). Obamacare created the PCIP, commonly called a high-risk pool, as a temporary way to cover those with pre-existing or chronic conditions before 2014, when insurance companies will be prohibited from excluding people based …
Last week, the Senate Budget Committee Republican staff released a report revealing that, over the next 75 years, Obamacare will add an additional $17 trillion in unfunded obligations—i.e., the benefits promised by the federal government that haven’t yet been paid for. Before Obamacare, federal programs were already responsible for racking up 75-year unfunded obligations of an astounding $65 trillion. According to the report, Medicare accounted for $38 trillion, Medicaid was responsible for over $20 trillion, and Social Security added $7 trillion. With the enactment of Obamacare, projected federal unfunded obligations …
Everyone remembers President Obama’s repeated promise, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.” Unfortunately, Obamacare breaks this promise many times over. One way is through its medical loss ratio (MLR) requirement and the impact it will have on consumer-driven, high-deductible health plans (HDHP) that include health savings accounts (HSA) in individual and small group markets, a new report from Milliman shows. The MLR requires that insurance companies spend 80 percent of revenue from premiums on medical claims or anything that …
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 …
Last week, the IRS released its proposed plan to implement the 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices designed to help foot the bill for Obamacare. Harmful effects of the health law’s new taxes and requirements on business continue to emerge as its implementation continues. As Heritage’s Curtis Dubay explains, “All tax increases have negative economic effects because higher taxes take resources from the productive hands of the private sector and transfer them to the wasteful hands of politicians.” As the National Center for Policy Analysis shows, the medical device …
Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that average premiums in Medicare Advantage (MA) for 2012 have fallen by 7 percent, and enrollment has increased by about 10 percent. This is great news for the program, which allows seniors to receive Medicare benefits through a private plan of their choice. But in a serious twist of logic, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius credited Obamacare with MA’s success: “Now this is just one of the ways the Affordable Care Act is making …
Over the course of the campaign, President Obama repeatedly promised: “If you like your current insurance, you can keep your current insurance”—despite any reforms his Administration would implement. This claim is far from true, as Amy B. Monahan and Daniel Schwarcz illustrate in their 2011 study “Will Employers Undermine Health Care Reform by Dumping Sick Employees?” published in the Virginia Law Review. Schwarcz presented the study on Capitol Hill last week. Obamacare mandates that employers provide health insurance for their employees or pay a fine. With the increasing cost of …
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 added to the list of poorly thought-out provisions of the new law. A temporary reinsurance program to run through 2014, the ERRP is an attempt to encourage companies to continue employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees between the ages of 55 …
