Thursday, January 10, 2013
The conversion to electronic health records has failed so far to produce the hoped-for savings in health care costs and has had mixed results, at best, in improving efficiency and patient care, according to a new analysis by the influential RAND Corporation. Optimistic predictions by RAND in 2005 helped drive explosive growth in the electronic records industry and encouraged the federal government to give billions of dollars in financial incentives to hospitals and doctors that put the systems in place.
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Tuesday, January 08, 2013
Things aren’t going so well for Obamacare.
Even Democrats in Congress aren’t huge fans any more. It seems after passing the law and finding out what’s in it, the allure has faded—so much so that Congress actually repealed part of Obamacare in the fiscal cliff deal last week.
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Wednesday, January 02, 2013
The third wave of ObamaCare taxes began on January 1, the latest blitz before the tsunami of changes from the health overhaul law hit in 2014. These new and higher taxes are being levied to partially pay for ObamaCare’s massive new subsidies for private health insurance and expansion of Medicaid.
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Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
States are tasked under Obamacare with setting up and running the exchanges. But here’s the kicker: If they don’t, the law can’t work. Thanks to a quirk in the law’s drafting, only state-established exchanges are “valid.” In states that decline to set up an exchange, while the feds can certainly come in and set one up, it will be illegal forthat exchange to distribute health insurance premium subsidies to individuals or enforce the employer mandate. In which case, the system stops.
This means that, in order to stop Obamacare, all a state needs to do is … nothing.
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Monday, December 31, 2012
For sheer political farce, not much can compete with ObamaCare's passage, which included slipping the bill through the Senate before dawn three Christmas eves ago. But the madcap dash to get ready for the entitlement's October 2013 start-up date is a pretty close second.
The size and complexity of the Affordable Care Act meant that its implementation was never going to easy. But behind the scenes, even states that support or might support the Affordable Care Act are frustrated about the Health and Human Services Department's special combination of rigidity and ineptitude.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
The Post in recent days has shined a glaring spotlight on the hurt New Yorkers will feel from looming tax hikes, absent a fiscal-cliff deal. But just a year later, they’ll get another round of sticker shock when they see the high price of “free” health insurance under ObamaCare.
Here are a couple of examples of what New York families would have to pay for coverage when the program starts in 2014:
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Thursday, December 13, 2012
South Carolina may soon join the ranks of states struggling to reclaim their constitutional sovereignty stolen from them by the federal government. The states, through the exercise of the Tenth Amendment and their natural right to rule as sovereign entities, may stop ObamaCare at the state borders by enacting state statutes nullifying the healthcare law.
Nullification is the “rightful remedy” and is a much more constitutionally sound method of checking federal usurpation and is quicker and less complicated than an attempt to have the law repealed by Congress or overturned by a future federal bench more respectful of the Constitution.
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Tuesday, December 04, 2012
I count myself as an ObamaCare supporter, but this doesn't blind me to the law's flaws. Bipartisan compromise will be necessary to reform health care in a constructive way. I have been researching ObamaCare and assisting with its implementation, and have come to this realization: Without further reforms, the law will create unnecessary costs for working-class Americans.
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Monday, December 03, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Missouri, Kansas Reject State-Run Health Insurance Exchanges
Elana Gordon, KCUR
"Immediately after the presidential election, and more than a week ahead of the Nov. 16 deadline, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, announced he had made up his mind. The state would not be setting up its own health insurance exchange. Next door in Kansas, Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, made a similar announcement."
Ala. Governor Rejects State Exchange, Medicaid Expansion
Sam Baker, The Hill
"Another Republican governor on Tuesday formally refused to set up an insurance exchange under President Obama's healthcare law. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said the state will not establish an exchange and also will not participate in the law's Medicaid expansion."
Governor Jindal Confirms No On Health Care Exchange, Suggests Medicaid Premium Support
Jon Ward, The Huffington Post
"While other Republican governors are starting to back away from their opposition to implementing a key part of President Obama's health care law, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Tuesday that he's not reconsidering.
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Thursday, November 22, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Champions of ObamaCare want Americans to believe that the president's re-election ended the battle over the law. It did no such thing. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act won't be fully repealed while Barack Obama is in office, but the administration is heavily dependent on the states for its implementation.
Talk of the law's inevitability is intended to pressure these governors into implementing it on the administration's behalf. But states still have two key choices to make that together will put them in the driver's seat: whether to create state health-insurance exchanges, and whether to expand Medicaid. They should say "no" to both.
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Thursday, November 15, 2012
Throughout the debate over ObamaCare – and back to HillaryCare and beyond – the fundamental question in health reform has always been this: Who will control our choices – government or individuals?
Each side has won battles over the last 15 years in the tug of war between those who want a system that empowers the individual and one that cedes more and more authority to the state.
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Thursday, November 15, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
The left scored a knock-down with the president's re-election, but the fight isn't over if the conservatives opposed to the law get up off the canvas and fight on. Oklahoma has, and some states have joined them, though not yet in the courts. They should, and soon. Obamacare was nightmare before the election, and it is a nightmare still. The president's re-election was manifestly not about Obamacare, and the decision is not final and won't be until every good argument is made and every opportunity given the Supreme Court to review the law in full.
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Tuesday, November 13, 2012
President Obama’s re-election and Democratic gains in the US Senate end any possibility of repealing the Obama health law. It will roll out as written, imposing major changes soon on you and your family. If you are uninsured because you can’t afford it, help may be on the way. But if you are one of the 250 million Americans with coverage, there are big problems ahead.
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