Fix Health Care Policy

Obamacare Exchanges: State of the States

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gave seven more states “conditional approval” to operate state-run Obamacare exchanges.

The announcement came two days after the deadline for HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to determine which states will be ready to run their own exchanges in 2014. So it appears HHS was dressing up its numbers by granting conditional approval to more states—including ones that, in the end, will likely prove either unwilling or unable to set up state-run exchanges.

A handy summary table compiled by the Kaiser Foundation shows that exactly half (25) of the states are a firm “no.” As for the other half, HHS has so far granted conditional approval to 19 of the 21 states that submitted a blueprint for creating an exchange. The two others are Illinois and Mississippi. Mississippi’s governor wrote Sebelius on December 28 restating his opposition and informing her that Mississippi’s insurance department does not have legal authority to continue pursuing its plan for setting up an exchange on its own. The remaining four states have expressed some interest but have not yet even submitted blueprints.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: conditional approval, HHS, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, ObamaCare, opposed, state health insurance exchanges

Sebelius Misleads the Public on Medicare Advantage

Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius has misled the American public again.

HHS just announced that enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) is projected to increase by 11 percent next year. That’s good news. But the Secretary goes terribly wrong when she credits the increase to Obamacare, stating, “Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug programs have been strengthened and continue to improve for beneficiaries.”

As Heritage has pointed out before, Obamacare severely damages MA. The law is projected to cut $156 billion from the program between 2013 and 2022. Because of these cuts, the Medicare actuary predicts that enrollment in MA will decrease 50 percent by 2017. For those who remain in MA, Heritage estimates, “By 2017, Medicare beneficiaries who would have enrolled in Medicare Advantage under prior law will lose an average of $1,841 due to the MA changes alone and $3,714 when the effects of the entire bill…are considered.”

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, MA, Medicare Advantage, misleading public, ObamaCare

Investigators: Sebelius Illegally Campaigned on Taxpayer’s Dime

Independent federal legal officials have concluded that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law by conducting political activity “in an official capacity,” according to a statement released on Wednesday.

“Sebelius violated the Hatch Act when she made extemporaneous partisan remarks in a speech delivered in her official capacity on February 25, 2012,” the news release from the U.S. Office of Special Council states.

The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official authority or influence to affect the outcome of an election. A federal employee is permitted to make partisan remarks when speaking in their personal capacity, but not when using their official title or when speaking about agency business.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: campaigning, Hatch Act, HHS, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, ObamaCare

Side Effects: Unlawful Use of $8.3 Billion in Taxpayer Dollars?

Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius raising questions over her legal authority to spend $8.3 billion on a quality bonus payment demonstration for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.

The demo was the most expensive project ever undertaken by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and GAO concluded that it will be unsuccessful at improving quality and reducing costs.

Thus far, CMS has offered no response to the challenge of its legal authority. Section 402 of the Social Security Amendment of 1967 allows the Secretary to “modify methods of payment under Medicare to establish additional incentives to increase the economy and efficiency of services provided under the program by carrying out experiments and demonstration projects.”

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: bonus demo, CMS, Government Accountability Office, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Medicare Advantage, unsuccessful

Senator: Sebelius Fundraising Could Compel Companies to Support Obama

Health and Human Services Department (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

The top Republican on the Senate’s health care committee warned on Wednesday that a recent administration decision to allow cabinet secretaries to raise money for political organizations could coerce individuals or organizations into financially supporting the president’s reelection in order to avoid a regulatory backlash.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is one of a handful of cabinet officials who have said they will speak at fundraising events for a major super PAC supporting the president’s reelection.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: fundraising, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, reelection, super PAC

Jon Stewart Forces Secretary Sebelius to Sweat Obamacare’s Details

Monday on The Daily Show, comedian Jon Stewart interviewed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The Secretary didn’t escape the hot seat in what turned out to be an interesting discussion regarding the implementation of Obamacare.

One notable topic covered during the interview was the surprise proposal by HHS to let states determine their own definitions of “essential health benefits.” Obamacare explicitly instructs HHS to fill in the details of the legislation’s mandatory minimum benefit package, but as the Galen Institute’s John Hoff previously noted in a Heritage writing, “Although HHS can, of course, produce a piece of paper (or, more likely, hundreds of pages of regulation) purporting to define the term, in reality this will not provide the real-world uniformity of coverage contemplated by [Obamacare]. HHS has an impossible task.”  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: employer dump, essential health benefits, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, John Stewart, ObamaCare, The Daily Show

Another Obamacare Failure

On Friday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius admitted that the CLASS program can’t work. After months of insisting that it could meet a 75-year actuarial soundness test and keep with the statutory requirements, Sebelius acknowledged that “despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time.”

The CLASS Act was a key provision included to pass Obamacare. It would have established a new, government-run long-term-care insurance program. But it was also used to claim that the health care law was paid for and would help bring down the deficit. From the beginning, Heritage warned that it was poorly designed and was included in the legislation primarily as a budget gimmick.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: actuarially sound, budgeting gimmick, CLASS Act, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, long-term care insurance

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

Lawmakers Press HHS for Information on Controversial Obamacare Waivers

Wondering how all those businesses in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s district ended up with Obamacare waivers? The story drew national attention last month, but there’s still little known about the process used by the Obama administration to grant the controversial waivers.

That’s prompted more than 30 members of Congress to write Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius seeking “transparency, fairness, and due process” for the department’s waiver decisions. Heritage’s Ed Haislmaier testified in March that “HHS has exceeded its statutory authority in creating this waiver process.” In fact, HHS apparently developed the waiver rules on its own using a broad interpretation of the law.

“The process by which waivers are approved and denied remains largely unknown,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), who wrote the letter signed by 31 colleagues. “We are hoping Secretary Sebelius will shine some sunshine on the waiver process, making it known how businesses and labor unions are chosen or denied exemptions.”  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, ObamaCare, repeal the law, statutory authority, waivers

New Report Shows Sec. Sebelius is Overstepping Her Authority

One negative provision of Obamacare is back in congressional crosshairs. The CLASS (Community Living Assistance Services and Support) Program, a new long-term care entitlement, has already endured withering criticism. In July 2009, the American Academy of Actuaries released a blistering report on its structural flaws. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman of the Budget Committee, referred to CLASS as a Ponzi scheme during the Obamacare debate. And more recently, President Obama’s deficit commission recommended repealing or significantly revamping the program.

Secretary Sebelius has repeatedly asserted that CLASS is unsustainable. She has advocated repeal if CLASS can’t be reformed. It appears likely that the Obama Administration knew the program was fiscally unsustainable before Obamacare became law, and included it in the health care law only as a mechanism to reduce the price tag of the bill. Now, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is asserting power that Congress did not grant her in a futile attempt to remake the program into something sustainable. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: CLASS Act, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Ponzi scheme, repeal Obamacare