Fix Health Care Policy

Rep. Steve King: Obamacare Repeal Is Still Possible – and Priority #1

In the weeks since President Obama signed his health care plan into law, Republicans have done more to repeal and replace their own rhetoric than to repeal and replace Obamacare, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said at The Heritage Foundation Bloggers Briefing Tuesday. Yet, repeal is still possible, he said—and should be priority No. 1.

Two days after the health care bill passed, Republicans said they would work to rescind the legislation entirely. Now, some say they’d like to revoke only its most egregious aspects.

“They’re trying to redefine what ‘repeal’ means,” King said. (more…)

Tags: 26-year-old "kids", ObamaCare, parental insurance coverage, Rep. Steve King, repeal the law

Cuccinelli on Obamacare Lawsuit: ‘We Are Doing What the Founders Expected’

RICHMOND — Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said he will file a formal response as early as next week to the federal government’s attempt to dismiss Virginia’s legal challenge to Obamacare.

In an exclusive interview with Heritage, Cuccinelli said the federal government’s motion to dismiss, released on Monday, was mostly predictable. He said the attorney general’s office had already anticipated the government’s arguments and will have its response ready on or before June 7.

“What they filed on Monday was very much what we expected,” Cuccinelli said in an interview at his Richmond office. “You never know exactly how they’re going to present it, but we did expect them to move to dismiss the case.”

The legal maneuvering puts Cuccinelli at the center of the Obamacare court battle. In addition to Virginia’s lawsuit, 20 states have joined a legal challenge from Florida. Virginia is pursuing its own strategy because its legislature adopted a law protecting its citizens from the individual mandate.

Cuccinelli said the stakes are high and he expects Virginia’s case — and probably Florida’s — to end up before the Supreme Court within the next two years.

(more…)

Tags: government-run health care, motion to dismiss, ObamaCare, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia's legal challenge

Side Effects: Cost Of Medicaid Expansion Going Nowhere But Up

In passing Obamacare, Congress has put the states in quite a pickle. To sharply expand health coverage, Obamacare flung wide the gates of Medicaid eligibility. It envisions a massive expansion of the federal-state health program that, historically, delivers low-quality care to low-income Americans.

Not a smart move.

States were already struggling to meet their share of Medicaid program costs—even though Medicaid payments to providers often don’t even cover the cost of care. And, due to the inadequate reimbursement rates, more and more doctors were already refusing to accept new Medicaid patients.

How fiscally shaky is Medicaid today? Well, last year Congress used the stimulus bill to give states $87 billion to help them cover rising Medicaid costs. And that doesn’t seem to be enough.

A recent letter from House Democrats encourages their colleagues to give states another $24 billion to help them cover Medicaid costs for another six months. “Without this funding,” the letter says, “our states will be forced to make severe cuts to Medicaid providers and benefits, and the ensuing budget shortfall would have grave consequences for school funding and other essential state programs.” (more…)

Tags: deficit, federal-state program, low-quality care, Medicaid Expansion, ObamaCare, Side Effects

Obamacare’s Cooked Books and the “Doc Fix”

The Obama administration continues to insist (see this post from White House budget director Peter Orszag) that the recently enacted health-care law will reduce the federal budget deficit by $100 billion over ten years and by ten times that amount in the second decade of implementation. They cite the Congressional Budget Office’s cost estimate for the final legislation to back their claims.

And it is undeniably true that CBO says the legislation, as written, would reduce the federal budget deficit by $124 billion over ten years from the health-related provisions of the new law.

But that’s not whole story about Obamacare’s budgetary implications — not by a long shot. (more…)

Tags: Congressional Budget Office, cook the books, doc fix, entitlement expansion, Medicare, ObamaCare, Peter Orszag

Side Effects: Seniors Will Lose Big Under Obamacare

Passage of Obamacare will have negative consequences for practically all Americans. However, it is the nation’s senior citizens who will get the short end of the stick after enactment of the President’s health care agenda. In a recent paper, Heritage health policy expert Robert Moffit, Ph.D., lays out the specific provisions of Obamacare that will hurt seniors:

– Less Choice. Obamacare will reduce payments to Medicare Advantage, likely decreasing benefits and causing approximately half of current participants to drop out. These seniors will have little choice but to go back to traditional Medicare, and buy a supplemental policy to cover Medicare’s big gaps in coverage. (more…)

Tags: coverage gap, higher taxes, Medicare Advantage cuts, Medicare payment cuts, ObamaCare, Side Effects

Side Effects: ER Overload Will Only Get Worse

Remember how Obamacare was going to save big bucks and reduce wait time in emergency rooms? The idea was that millions of previously uninsured Americans accustomed to using ERs for basic medical treatment would snatch up Obamacare coverage and start getting primary care from regular (and cheaper) medical practices.

Nice thought. But it doesn’t look like it’ll pan out.

Indeed, notes Rick Dallam, it looks like “it’s going to be exactly the opposite over the next four to eight years.” In an article in The Hill, Dallam, a health care partner at a firm that designs health care facilities, notes: “We don’t have the primary care infrastructure in place in America to cover the need. Our clients are looking at and preparing for more emergency department volume, not less.” (more…)

Tags: ER, medical treatment, ObamaCare, physician shortage, Side Effects, uninsured