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By Grace-Marie Turner Democrats and Republicans are sharply divided over how best to improve Medicare, a program that covers nearly 50 million Americans and that will spend almost $600 billion this year. President Barack Obama has highlighted the need to reform our nation's entitlement programs, saying that healthcare spending is the key driver of our ballooning federal debt and spending … [Read more...] about A Model for Reform

by Grace-Marie Turner, The Wall Street Journal. During his news conference last week, the president sounded defensive in trying to tamp down fears of an impending ObamaCare train wreck. One positive note was his boast about whittling down from 21 pages to three the application for subsidies that individuals have to file. But even that may need some defending. The three-page application is for … [Read more...] about Applying for ObamaCare: Still Not Simple

For three years, an incredibly nerdy—but consequential—debate has raged among health policy researchers regarding Medicaid, America’s government-run health-care program for the poor. Piles of studies have shown that people on Medicaid have health outcomes that are no better, and often worse, than those with no insurance at all. But supporters of Obamacare were cheered in 2011 when a lone study, … [Read more...] about Avik Roy: Oregon Study: Medicaid ‘Had No Significant Effect’ On Health Outcomes vs. Being Uninsured

Investor's Business Daily editorial At his press conference this week, President Obama tried to reassure Americans about ObamaCare. Instead, he displayed either an incredible lack of understanding about his own law, or something far worse. Asked about increasing Democratic concern over what Sen. Max Baucus called a looming ObamaCare "train wreck," Obama claimed that it's all much ado about … [Read more...] about IBD: Just how ignorant is Obama about ObamaCare?

by David Hogberg for The American Spectator. If a government actuary conducts an analysis but the committee that is supposed to receive that analysis doesn’t exist, does the analysis make a sound? The Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may soon be asking himself that question. Under Obamacare he is required to determine by this Tuesday, April 30, whether the … [Read more...] about Why is IPAB M.I.A.?

Grace-Marie Turner talks with Greg Corombos about the Obamacare legacy of Max Baucus and the implementation nightmare still to come. Listen to the podcast... … [Read more...] about Grace-Marie Turner on Radio America: Baucus to Blame for ‘Train Wreck’

A brouhaha has erupted over a Politico news story entitled, “Lawmakers, aides may get Obamacare exemption.” “Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said,” the article … [Read more...] about Would Congress have the nerve to exempt itself from ObamaCare?

An early ObamaCare program already is running out of money, and the president has decided to close it to new enrollment, leaving tens of thousands of people who were expecting help out in the cold.  The House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on legislation that would extend this safety net, and it would do so with money that HHS Secretary Kathleen is using as a slush fund to … [Read more...] about A misfire from the circular firing squad