Fix Health Care Policy

Side Effects: Obamacare May Be Fatal for Your HSA

President Obama promised Americans that “If you like the plan you have now, you can keep it.” It was a fundamental promise of Obamacare.

But if the coverage you like comes via a Health Savings Account (HSA) or a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), that promise may not hold.

A recent analysis from HSA Consulting Services concludes the new law will probably lead to major changes in how consumers can use such plans. And many of those changes may make the accounts far less appealing. It all depends of how the Department of Health and Human Services writes the regs, says study author Roy Ramthun. (more…)

Tags: consumer-driven reform, Flexible Spending Account (FSA), Health Savings Account (HSA), ObamaCare, Side Effects

Obamacare Spells Disaster for Americans

Now that Obamacare passed, the Left is calling it a truly historic achievement, chalking it up as a victory for health care reformers everywhere. With the enactment of the House-Senate reconciliation bill, the so-called “fix” to the Senate bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) remarked that the bill did “something very important for the American people, very significant to their daily lives.” Well, Congressional liberals are correct about one thing. It’s historic. It is an unprecedented takeover of Americans’ health care now equal to one-sixth of the entire US economy. It is historic for its partisan backroom deals and controversial parliamentary tactics. And it is historic for its apparent disregard for the strongly held opinion of the majority of the American people. But it will long be remembered for its catastrophic side effects- in record spending and its disruption- on the lives of millions of Americans.

Recent research by Heritage’s Kathryn Nix looks at some of the major consequences of Obamacare. The paper outlines the ten ways in which liberals’ health care agenda will be a disaster for Americans. They include: (more…)

Tags: Caterpillar Inc., entitlements, federal deficit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, John Deere & Co., ObamaCare, reconciliation bill

Side Effects: Medical Devices Tax Will Costs Jobs

There’s only one way to pull the economy out of the doldrums. We need more jobs. Now.

As Obamacare inched its way toward passage, boosters of the radical legislation began making bold new claims about its virtues. The bill, they said, would do far more than simply fix the health care system; it would create jobs and boost the economy, too.

[Oddly, they stopped short of claiming it would also help melt away the pounds as you sleep.]

Not surprisingly, the early evidence is quickly proving their claims to be false. (more…)

Tags: IRS, job killer, job loss, Medical device tax, ObamaCare, Side Effects

Side Effects: Young to Pay Higher Health Insurance Premiums

Remember those lower health insurance premiums Obamacare would bring us? Don’t count on it—especially if you’re young. The Associated Press reports that a new analysis by Rand Health predicts premiums for young adults could rise as much as 17 percent under the new law.

The new age rating requirement is the culprit. It bars insurers from charging older patients much more than their younger, healthier customers. Today, the AP notes, “Insurers typically charge six or seven times as much to older customers as to younger ones in states with no restrictions. The new law limits the ratio to 3-to-1….” So how will insurers make up the difference? It will be “will be shouldered by young people in the form of higher premiums.” (more…)

Tags: 17 percent insurance premium jump, age rating requirement, lower health insurance premiums, ObamaCare, Rand Health

Guest Blogger: Rep. Michael Burgess, M.D. (R-TX) on Obamacare’s Impact on Doctors

As the health care reform debate began over a year ago, the American Medical Association, the top doctors group in the country, released a list of its top priorities for health reform. The AMA is a powerful association, and many have credited it with helping to kill HillaryCare, so the organization, of which I am a member, was in a good position to impact President Obama’s health care reform plan and accomplish some of doctors’ long-awaited goals. Remember, without doctors, there is no health care, so it is important that health reform address the issues that are important to doctors and will help them keep their doors open and better serve America’s patients.

Two of the AMA’s top priorities are also two of the main reasons I decided to run for Congress almost 10 years ago – repealing the flawed Medicare physician payment formula, and nationwide medical liability reform. Unfortunately for doctors, Democrats in Washington, who have had control of Congress for over 3 years, have shown absolutely no signs of seriously addressing either of these issues. But with the AMA’s clout, I was hopeful that this time, with comprehensive health care reform a major goal for President Obama, these two big issues would finally be addressed.

(more…)

Tags: American Medical Association, doc fix, HillaryCare, IRS, medical liability reform, Medicare physician payment formula, ObamaCare, Rep. Michael Burgess

Heritage President Ed Feulner Responds to President Obama’s Claims

President Obama this morning cited The Heritage Foundation’s research in an attempt to sell his health care package as a “middle of the road, centrist approach.” We take great exception to this misuse of our work and abuse of our name. This is but the latest act in a campaign to sell this big-government program as a moderate law that incorporates conservative ideas. Americans should not be fooled.

Let’s be very clear: We oppose this new law because it is a radical new intrusion into the daily lives of all Americans and a massive takeover of one-sixth of the U.S. economy. We view the President’s health care law as inimical to our national interests and offensive to the historic American dedication to the principle of self-government.

Our research has shown that President Obama’s health approach is financially unsustainable and will ultimately lead to health care rationing, a lower quality of care and a greater degree of dependence on government. We deplore those outcomes and are committed to making the intellectual case for this law’s repeal.
What part of that does President Obama not understand?

Specifically, President Obama told NBC’s Today Show host Matt Lauer that a centerpiece of his health care package, “in terms of the exchange, just being able to pool and improve the purchasing power of individuals in the insurance market—that originated from The Heritage Foundation.”

But the President knows full well—or he ought to learn before he speaks—that the exchanges we and most others support are very different from those in his package. True exchanges are simply a market mechanism to enable families to choose their health insurance. President Obama’s exchanges, by contrast, are a vehicle to introduce sweeping regulation and federal standardization on health insurance. (more…)

Tags: big-government program, health insurance exchanges, health insurance premiums, Heritage President Edwin Feulner, IRS, President Barack Obama

Side Effects: Obamacare the Television Ad

Facing an American public that hates their new health care law, the Obama administration and their union/corporatist allies are planning a multi-million dollar television ad campaign to sell the benefits of Obamacare. While Food and Drug Administration regulations require all advertising for prescription drug to “present side effect information in a manner similar to that used for the benefit information,” the Obama administration faces no such hurdle when making their pitch. But if it did, this is what a typical pro-Obamacare ad would look like.

As we announced in today’s Morning Bell, we are launching a new Foundry feature, titled “Side Effects”. In this space, we will be updating you about all consequences of Obamacare, as a way of highlighting the importance of its eventual repeal.

Tags: Food and Drug Administration, ObamaCare, repeal, Side Effects, start over

Side Effects: Higher Health Insurance Taxes

Union bosses howled about one Obamacare tax hike: the levy on “Cadillac” health plans (expensive plans rich in benefits). The problem with this tax, as they see it, is that it hits the very plans often enjoyed by their rank-and-file.

Ever eager to please the unions, Democratic leaders added a “fix” to the reconciliation bill the president will sign into law today (Tuesday). It delays the unpopular tax to 2018. The pols are touting it as a scaled back version of the tax. But even the “fix” is broken.

While the tax won’t bite until after the president leaves office, “scaled back” it is not. The revised version raises the threshold for plans that would be subject to the tax. But it also indexes the threshold to rise with the general inflation rate. (more…)

Tags: Cadillac tax, ObamaCare, premium tax, scaled back, Side Effects

Side Effects: Obamacare Doesn’t Work on Children After All

A signature achievement of Obamacare, we were told, was that it would provide immediate protection for children with pre-existing conditions. In the brave new world of Obamacare, no ailing child could be denied coverage.

Turns out, that just ain’t so. According to the Associated Press, “Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday. However, if a child is accepted for coverage, or is already covered, the insurer cannot exclude payment for treating a particular illness, as sometimes happens now.” (more…)

Tags: denied coverage, ObamaCare, pre-existing conditions, Side Effects

VIDEO: Solving Pre-Existing Conditions Doesnt Take 2,700 Pages

Ed Haislmaier, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Health Policy Studies, takes on the 2,700 pages of Obamacare — and the notion that all that legislation is needed to fix the problem of pre-existing conditions.

As Haislmaier explains, Congress could solve the pre-existing conditions problem quite simply and in only two pages. How? Watch this video to find out.

Tags: health insurance premiums, ObamaCare, pre-existing conditions