Fix Health Care Policy

Obamacare’s Burden on Businesses

Obamacare is approaching its three-year anniversary next week. And while it’s having an impact on nearly all Americans in one way or another, businesses are facing some of the biggest challenges related to the law.

Heritage hosted a panel Monday to examine the implications of the Affordable Care Act. Robert Graboyes, a senior fellow for health and economics at the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation, explained the three options employers face with Obamacare: stunt business growth, shrink employee hours, or minimize the damage the mandate does on the employer’s wallet.

That’s the case for Mike Ruffer, who works in restaurant business. Ruffer purchased the franchise rights from Five Guys in 2004 with a commitment to build 11 restaurants. Ruffer owns eight Five Guys in North Carolina, but worries about opening new restaurants because of the uncertainty related to impending federal regulations.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: businesses, employer mandate, fines, impact, job loss, ObamaCare, stunted growth

By the Numbers: Medicare Costs for Seniors to Rise Under President’s Plan

Under current law, as amended by Obamacare, seniors enrolled in traditional Medicare can expect to face higher Part B and Part D premiums. Moreover, President Obama has planned in his 2013 budget proposal to increase income-related Part B and Part D premium coverage by 15 percent. As a result, out-of-pocket costs are expected to rise by 2017 under the president’s budget proposal.

Under Obama’s plan, “seniors will pay more — a lot more — and they will pay this steep price in many different ways,” Heritage’s Robert E. Moffit, Rea S. Hederman and Alyene Senger explain in a new paper analyzing the impact on seniors.

Americans may have diverse opinions on Medicare reform but what remains certain is that Medicare “as we know it” is already a thing of that past.

Tags: by the numbers, impact, Medicare, ObamaCare, Part D, premium support, traditional program

SLIDESHOW: Obamacare’s Impact—in Pictures

As health care becomes an increasingly debated topic, it is critically important for every American to understand the impact of Obamacare. The Heritage Foundation’s newly updated “Obamacare in Pictures: Visualizing the Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” shows through charts and graphs Obamacare’s far-reaching negative effects on all Americans. (continues below slideshow)

 Obamacare in Pictures: Visualizing the Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from The Heritage Foundation

Here are a few examples of what the chart series depicts:

• Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare. Obamacare cut $716 billion out of the Medicare program to pay for new spending in Obamacare. These cuts come from Medicare Advantage, hospice services, nursing homes, and more. Taking this money out of Medicare will have serious implications on seniors’ ability to access care. For instance, the Medicare Actuary predicts that by 2017, 50 percent of the seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage—7.4 million—will have to leave their private plans and move into traditional Medicare—which offers less generous benefits, no cap on catastrophic costs, and separate plans for drug coverage.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: Affordable Care Act, impact, Medicare Advantage, Medicare cuts, Obamacare in Pictures, slideshow

House Repeals Obamacare; What’s Next

Now that the House has voted to repeal Obamacare, what happens next with H.R. 6079?

The “Repeal of ObamaCare Act” will go to the Senate for consideration. If Senators take a few simple actions, they can force a debate and recorded vote in the Senate this year. They might even be able to pass it, although unlikely because of the minority party’s aversion to hardball politics.

How to get it to the floor: Once the Senate receives the “Repeal of ObamaCare Act” from the House of Representatives, it is expected that a conservative Senator will use the Senate’s rules to force a vote. A Senator can use Rule 14 of the Senate’s rules to object to a second reading of the bill. This objection would place the House-passed Obamacare repeal bill in a position for debate on a motion to proceed to the bill and a roll-call vote on whether the Senate should consider the measure.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: government takeover, House, impact, repeal Obamacare, Senate

Medicare at Risk: Visualizing the Need for Reform

Heritage’s new chart series, “Medicare at Risk: Visualizing the Need for Reform,” shows that, without the necessary structural reform, Medicare’s finances will have devastating consequences on the federal budget, not to mention taxpayers and seniors alike.

Medicare’s Impact on the Budget. Medicare spending is rising faster than any other part of the federal budget, and it’s a major driver of runaway deficit spending in the not-so-distant future. Retiring baby boomers and rising health care costs will cause Medicare’s shortfall to contribute to 81 percent of federal deficits by 2040. Clearly, the federal deficit cannot be contained without addressing Medicare’s structural problems.

Medicare’s Impact on Taxpayers. Medicare spending isn’t just busting the federal budget; its also consuming more of household budgets. In 1970, average Medicare spending per American household was $129. In 2021—just nine years from now—spending per household will be a whopping $7,987. Unless there is significant reform to deal with these rising costs, Americans will be faced with automatic benefit cuts or steep tax increases. The Medicare Part A payroll tax would have to increase by 84 percent just to make Part A alone solvent.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: budget, charts, debt, economy, impact, Medicare at risk, slideshow, taxpayers

In Pictures: The Impact of Obamacare

Today is the official second anniversary of Obamacare’s signing, but there’s little to celebrate. The Heritage Foundation’s re-launched version of “Obamacare in Pictures: Visualizing the Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” shows through new charts and graphs Obamacare’s far-reaching negative effects on Americans.

Here are just a few examples of what the series reveals about Obamacare: 

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: impact, in pictures, negative effects, Obamacare anniversary

Reforming Health Care Online Chat

As part of our “Lunch With Heritage” series, we will be feature Director of Health Policy studies Nina Owcharenko. Nina will answer your questions on what is wrong with the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (PPACA) and the correct way forward. There is a lot that needs to be done but with the right education we can hold congress accountable and make sure they do what they were elected to do.

Nina recently wrote a paper on everything that needs to be done so health care can be reformed.

Tags: hold Congress accountable, impact, Nina Owcharenko, ObamaCare, right way forward