Fix Health Care Policy

The Power of Public Opinion: A Tried and Tested Force for Full Repeal of Obamacare

Today, the House of Representatives is scheduled to take a vote—its second—to fully repeal Obamacare. House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) said it best: “We will not flinch from our resolve to make sure this law is repealed in its entirety.”

Repealing the massive law may seem like a tall order, but the history of health policy shows that it can be done. As research by Heritage Foundation health policy expert Bob Moffit concludes, “Based on Washington’s record of health policymaking, ending or rolling back Obamacare is hardly implausible.” Moffit points to the repeal of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 and President Bill Clinton’s failed attempts at reform in 1994.

As Moffit explains, the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 was originally enacted with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, but it was repealed one year later. It was the disapproval of the American people that drove the law’s removal. President Clinton’s 1,342-page health reform plan of 1994 was initially so popular that its enactment was considered inevitable, but it later collapsed on the Senate floor. Again, it was the growing opposition of the public that changed the course of health policy.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: fully repeal Obamacare, House of Representatives, Medicare Catastrophic Coverage, Senate

The Case Against Obamacare: A Health Policy Series for the 112th Congress

As the country nears its first anniversary of the passage of Obamacare, the health care fight is just getting started.

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a measure to fully repeal Obamacare, and 28 states have filed lawsuits to contest the law’s constitutionality, a decision that will ultimately be made by the Supreme Court. At the same time, the states continue to resist the federal health care overhaul by passing new legislation and delaying implementation.

Clearly, the future of Obamacare is anything but settled. Rather, its passage has served only to ignite the fire, fueled by accounts of the numerous negative effects of the law, which include everything from increasing premiums and loss of coverage to new taxes and job losses.

Now, Heritage health policy experts have compiled “The Case Against Obamacare: A Health Policy Series for the 112th Congress.” This collection of papers highlights the 15 major provisions of the new law. Our analysts explain the disastrous consequences these provisions of Obamacare will have for all Americans and highlight the right way for legislators to solve the issues that Obamacare fails to address. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: House of Representatives, negative impact, Obamacare series, repeal the law

Micromanagement of Health Benefits Under Obamacare Begins Now

The House of Representatives passed a measure to fully repeal Obamacare, but the negative effects of the law will continue to unravel until the legislation makes it to the President’s desk. These include the requirement under the new law that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) define “essential health benefits,” which must be included in all plans sold in the new health exchanges beginning in 2014. The process began last week.

The legislation outlines general categories to guide the Administration, which is otherwise given unlimited authority to further define the vague guidelines and include others as HHS sees fit.

This expansion of central authority presents several problems. First, the uniformity sought by the authors of Obamacare will be next to impossible for Administration officials to achieve. In determining the essential health benefits, they can take one of two approaches, as health policy expert John Hoff writes in recent Heritage research. The first would be to keep it general, defining required benefits as those that fall under the categories listed, as well as any other categories that HHS includes. This route would provide little useful information about what insurers must actually cover. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: essential health benefits, House of Representatives, ObamaCare

The Start of the Debate

Fellow conservatives,

Last night, the House of Representatives, the legislative chamber of Congress closest to American popular opinion, voted to repeal Obamacare—the increasingly unpopular law which led directly to a change in the control of Congress just three months ago.

Many will tell you that yesterday’s bipartisan vote of 245 to 189 was an exercise in futility—an empty, symbolic measure. Liberals in Congress, the White House and their echo chamber in the media all insist, as NPR has duly reported, that “this measure will go no further.”

Don’t believe this for a single minute. The vote last night was an important step in the democratic process of protecting and conserving our constitutional freedoms.

Our country, it is increasingly clear, has arrived at a pivotal moment – perhaps the pivotal moment – in its history. Together, we face a choice between two futures. One is a collectivist future where the federal government claims ever increasing shares of our income and grants itself the authority to make decisions affecting virtually every aspect of our daily lives. The other future is built upon the idea that individual freedom trumps government authority, and that in those rare cases when solving a problem requires government, the government that governs best is the one that is smallest and closest to the people. That is the future that we should seek – reaffirming our individual liberty, strengthening private markets, shrinking the size of governments, and making decisions wherever possible at the local level rather than in Washington. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: constitutional, House of Representatives, individual liberty, repeal Obamacare

Countdown to Repeal: Economy Will Suffer If Obamacare Stands

The House of Representatives will soon vote on full repeal of Obamacare. In an attempt to defend the health care overhaul, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner writes this morning that, in light of continued unacceptably high unemployment, “Given where we are, we must do things that help bolster the recovery, and repealing the Affordable Care Act would be a step in the wrong direction.”

Geithner is right that Congress should act to improve the economy, but leaving Obamacare in place would do the opposite. Repeal of Obamacare is the only way to restore economic prosperity in the United States, according to the 200 economists who signed a letter addressed to House and Senate leadership in support of overturning the new health law. The letter stresses that “the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a threat to U.S. businesses and will place a crushing debt burden on future generations of Americans.” (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: economists, House of Representatives, repeal Obamacare, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Countdown to Repeal: Father Fears Obamacare’s Impact on Family, Business

As the House prepares to consider the repeal of Obamacare this week, Heritage is showcasing stories about the law’s impact on America.

Last year we traveled to Dallas to speak with Larry Patterson. As a small business owner and father, he has much to fear about Obamacare’s consequences to his livelihood and family.

Patterson worries the law will make it more expensive to offer insurance for his employees. But he’s also concerned about how his family will fare as doctors adapt to the changes. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: House of Representatives, insurance coverage, repeal Obamacare, small business impact

It Will Not Stand

Members of the House of Representatives tonight approved President Obama’s health care agenda, the biggest expansion of government power since the Great Society. The Obama health care legislation is universal in scope and will profoundly impact the personal lives of more than 300 million Americans. It will restrict our personal freedom while undercutting the independence and authority of the several states.

This unprecedented congressional action will give Washington control over the content of health benefits packages; the kind of health insurance available to Americans and the organization and regulation of health insurance markets. This has been accompanied by one of the most shocking Congressional exhibition of arrogance and special interest deal-making in memory.

In 1774, in response to the first Tea Party, the British Parliament issued a series of acts designed to control the colonists, stop their protests and restrict their liberty. The Americans called these “The Intolerable Acts.”

Obamacare is today’s Intolerable Act. In poll after poll, in town hall meetings, in popular protests and in special elections, ordinary Americans have declared their firm opposition to this scheme, only to be derisively dismissed.

This imposition of legislation is intolerable for two reasons:

– Process: The outrageous way in which this massive restructuring of one six of the economy has been pushed through.

– Substance: Huge obligation shifted to future generations, a huge lurch toward European-style welfare states.

The Heritage Foundation will have a full answer to Congress’ action tomorrow and in the days and weeks and months to come. We will do all within our power to recommend, and make the intellectual case for, the repeal of these acts. We will help marshal the full resources of the conservative movement for this cause. You can join the fight to keep America the Land of the Free today

Fortunately, there are no permanent victories or defeats in Washington. For millions of Americans and for Heritage, Round One of this fight is over. Tomorrow morning, we are answering the bell.

Tags: government takeover, House of Representatives, Intolerable Act, ObamaCare, Senate Health Bill, unfunded entitlements

The Health Care Fight is Not Over

Although the left has been celebrating the passage of Obamacare in the Senate as further evidence that the President’s health care reform initiative is a done deal the health care reform fight is not over. The truth is that this bill can not yet be transmitted to the President until very different versions of Obamacare are reconciled. The House and Senate must agree on what to send to the President for his signature before this fight is over.

There are key differences between the House and Senate approaches to Obamacare as explained by Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D. in a paper published by the Heritage Foundation lists 6 key differences between the two bills. Procedurally, the House passed a version of Obamacare with a public option, an income surtax and with strong language forbidding the use of federal monies to fund abortion. The Senate chose not to take up the House bill and passed a version of Obamacare with no public option, taxes on expensive health care plans and with weak language forbidding the use of federal funds for abortion. Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have since blocked the appointment of conferees to reconcile the differing versions of Obamacare. The options liberals have to get the bill to the President’s desk are therefore limited. (more…)

Tags: 6 key differences, House of Representatives, ObamaCare, Senate

Industry Groups Oppose House Health Reform Plan

More than 30 business trade groups, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the American Farm Bureau Federation, yesterday voiced their opposition to the House’s latest health reform bill, saying in a letter to representatives that the legislation “would not improve the [health care] system, but in fact would jeopardize the parts of the system that currently work.”

Among the more contentious provisions the coalition opposed:

– The creation of a government-run health insurance plan.

– Mandates on employers to provide health coverage for workers or pay an 8 percent payroll tax (“pay or play”).

– A new Health Benefits Advisory Council that would determine health benefit requirements in coverage plans.

“We call on Congress to enact reforms that lower cost, improve quality and provide greater access to affordable coverage for all without jeopardizing those who currently have coverage,” the group said.

Tags: chamber, farm bureau, House of Representatives, public plan