Fix Health Care Policy

In Obamacare, the President’s Disregard for Consent of the Governed

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. (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: approval, disapproval, Kaiser Family Foundation, ObamaCare, Rasmussen Reports, Real Clear Politics, repeal the law

Top HHS Official Likens Obamacare to Civil Rights Act

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. (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: civil rights movement, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, ObamaCare, repeal the law, state governors

Lunch with Heritage Online Chat on Obamacare

Click here to read the online chat on Obamacare. We were joined by Health Policy Analyst Kate Nix. She talked about the future of Obamacare and other policy alternatives that can be implemented to drive costs down.

Tags: health care costs, ObamaCare, policy alternatives, transcript

Employers Consider Dropping Health Coverage Under Obamacare

Reports from employers continue to belie President Obama’s repeated insistence that, under his new health care law, Americans would not lose their employer-provided health insurance coverage. A new survey shows that more than one in ten midsized and large employers are at least “somewhat likely” to drop their health coverage once Obamacare’s “exchanges” go into effect in 2014.

“Let me be exactly clear about what health care reform means to you,” President Obama said during his Obamacare push. “First of all, if you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. Nobody is talking about taking that away from you.”  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: doctors, employer coverage, health insurance, ObamaCare, plans

In Verizon Strike, Unions Protest Obamacare Law They Supported

Two unions are on strike against Verizon Communications in protest of proposed company policies that the unions themselves helped bring about. The new Obamacare law, which both unions supported, dramatically hikes the cost of Verizon’s employee health care plan. Efforts to pass some of that cost on to employees have sparked outrage.

Verizon’s health care plan is what President Obama commonly referred to as a “Cadillac plan” – expensive and luxurious – during his push to get health care legislation through Congress. The new law will levy a 40 percent tax on all health care plans with individual coverage worth more than $10,200 and family coverage worth more than $24,000. (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: Cadillac Plans, individual coverage, ObamaCare, repeal the law, unions, Verizon Communications

Podcast: Obamacare and the 11th Circuit Ruling

In this week’s Heritage in Focus, experts Nina Owcharenko and Todd Gaziano discuss the recent Obamacare ruling from the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals, from both a legal and policy angle. Listen here.

Though the decision did not uphold the entirety of Judge Vinson’s prior ruling in Florida, conservatives won a victory nonetheless, as the individual mandate was struck down.

However, the question remains: If only the mandate is ultimately ruled unconstitutional, what happens to the rest of Obamacare? Will the law unravel?

Furthermore, the 11th Circuit’s decision splits from the decision reached by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which means the Supreme Court will hear the case, but when exactly will that be?

Listen to answers to those questions and more, in this week’s podcast.

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To listen to more Heritage in Focus podcasts, visit our podcast page.

Tags: 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Individual Mandate, Obamacare ruling, Podcast, Supreme Court

A Blueprint for Medicare Reform

Heritage Policy Analyst Kathryn Nix recently released a paper explaining why the premium support, or defined contribution, model for Medicare reform found in Heritage’s Saving the American Dream is the best way to get out of our health care spending and debt crises. Several elements of this approach to reform have already been applied to the program under Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage. Writes Nix, “Applying their successes to the rest of Medicare can restore permanent solvency to the program, preserve robust access to high-quality care, encourage continued physician participation, and strengthen Medicare as real insurance for tomorrow’s seniors.”

The Heritage plan would replace the current “defined benefit” structure of Medicare with a defined contribution for seniors to offset their costs, whether they choose to enroll in traditional Medicare’s fee-for-service program, keep their existing private health insurance and bring it with them into retirement, or purchase another private plan that better suits their personal needs.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: debt crises, fee-for-service, health care spending, Medicare, ObamaCare, Part D, Saving the American Dream

VIDEO: The Obama Economy Is Killing Jobs, Restaurant CEO Explains

Want to know the true impact of Obamacare on job creation in America? Listen to what the job creators have to say. Last month, Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, testified before Congress about the law’s impact on his business. And in this new video he explains how government regulations are costing America jobs.

CKE, which owns and franchises 3,182 restaurants in 42 states and 23 foreign countries under the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s brand names, employs about 70,000 people in the United States. As Puzder explains, his company is “a job creation machine,” but he fears that Obamacare, or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), will be the wrench that grinds it to a halt.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: CKE Restaurants, health insurance, job creation, ObamaCare

Breaking Health Care Research: “Accountable Care” Unlikely

Medicare continues to be a looming problem in the fiscal crisis. In an effort to lower the program’s cost and improve quality of care for the seniors it serves, Obamacare creates accountable care organizations (ACOs), which are supposed to encourage health care providers to band together and create savings through better coordinated care. In a new Heritage research paper, health policy expert John Hoff writes:

The ACO scheme is a microcosm of the PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and, like it, will not deliver on its rhetorical promises. In the process of failing, it will waste financial and human resources, detract from meaningful reform, and give the Administration one more tool to exert control over Americans’ health care choices.

Hoff explains that the ACO scheme is a complex web of regulations, often internally inconsistent and confused, resulting in an odd structure. As one example, Hoff writes,

Medicare beneficiaries may be surprised to learn that they do not join an ACO as members. Nor is the process voluntary. Strange as it may sound, the CMS ‘assigns’ beneficiaries to an ACO, whether they like it or not…Beneficiaries will not know if they have been assigned to an ACO, or if so, which one. There is no provision for informing beneficiaries that they have been assigned to an ACO.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: Accountable Care Organizations, ACOs, CMS, Medicare, ObamaCare, physicians

Obama Donor Gets Plum Appointment on Federal Health IT Advisory Panel

A major donor to the Democratic Party has received favorable treatment from the Obama administration, including a choice appointment to a federal advisory committee, and lavish praise from the president himself.

Yet health information technology vendor Epic Systems Corp. opposes a key administration position on health IT. Its founder, Judith Faulkner, has spoken out on numerous occasions against “interoperability” in electronic medical records technology.

So why was Faulkner appointed to a 13-member panel charged with recommending how $19 billion in stimulus money be spent? One can’t help but notice that Faulkner and other epic employees have given nearly $300,000 to Democrats since 2006.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: Epic Systems Corp., federal advisory committee, health IT, Obama administration, ObamaCare