Between Congress and the Courts, Obamacare took more hits this week: The most despised part of the ACA—the moribund individual mandate—was declared unconstitutional in a 2-1 decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but the judges left it to a lower court to sort out the complex task of deciding how much, if any, of the rest of the law should stand.Congress repealed for good three key … [Read more...] about More Hits And Misses For Obamacare
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Spending Deal Would Make Obamacare More Fiscally Irresponsible
In selling Obamacare before Congress a decade ago, President Barack Obama promised that he “would not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits, either now or in the future.” From her perch behind the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi leaped out of her seat applauding at this line. So did Vice President Joe Biden and the entire Democrat caucus. But it turns out that … [Read more...] about Spending Deal Would Make Obamacare More Fiscally Irresponsible
Politics Prevail Over Solutions To Drug Pricing
It won’t make the headlines, but Congress was hard at work this week producing health reform legislation around ideas that have bi-partisan support and which actually could become law. But that apparently is not Speaker Pelosi’s goal. Pelosi strong-armed her drug pricing bill, H.R. 3, through the House yesterday, with unanimous Democratic support and two Republican defections (Reps. … [Read more...] about Politics Prevail Over Solutions To Drug Pricing
Hot topics: Drug prices and surprise bills
Amidst the deluge of impeachment coverage, Speaker Pelosi has announced she will be bringing her aggressive prescription drug pricing bill to a vote in the House on Wednesday. The bill would impose destructive price controls on medicines, levy crushing taxes of 95% on sales if companies that don’t play along, and extend the price controls to private plans. The Council … [Read more...] about Hot topics: Drug prices and surprise bills
New York City is a hot spot for illegal Medicaid enrollment
New York state is grappling with a Medicaid shortfall in the billions of dollars. And one of the main reasons is improper enrollment. Using annual information from the Census Bureau to assess the demographic make-up of Medicaid enrollees over time, researcher Aaron Yelowitz and I estimated that 2.3 million to 3.3 million Medicaid enrollees nationally make an income in excess of what is … [Read more...] about New York City is a hot spot for illegal Medicaid enrollment
Why Obama Stopped Auditing Medicaid
The share of recipients who aren’t eligible has grown sharply since the expansion began in 2014 Improper spending in the Medicaid program more than tripled in 2019, according to an analysis by scholars Brian Blase and Aaron Yelowitz, pointing to misuse of the program since it was dramatically expanded under Obamacare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a … [Read more...] about Why Obama Stopped Auditing Medicaid
Three Cheers for Transparency
Hospitals and insurers will howl, but the Trump administration today took a big step toward consumer empowerment with administrative actions designed to increase price transparency for hospital and other medical charges. Galen Senior Fellow Brian Blase, who was instrumental in developing the executive order on price transparency issued in June, congratulated the administration for its … [Read more...] about Three Cheers for Transparency
ObamaCare Made Individual Market Worse
The Wall Street Journal published another commentary by Galen Senior Fellow Brian Blase about the damage the ACA has done to individual health coverage. He also describes efforts by the Trump administration to broaden choices and make insurance more affordable. Here are highlights:Biden’s Plan for Health is Already a FailureObamaCare was supposed to improve the individual market. It … [Read more...] about ObamaCare Made Individual Market Worse