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HealthAffairs, July 10, 2014 A primary aim of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to expand insurance coverage, especially among households with lower incomes. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that about one-third of the additional insurance coverage expected to occur because of the law will come from expansion of the existing, unreformed Medicaid program. The … [Read more...] about Joseph Antos and James Capretta in HealthAffairs: A Health Reform Framework: Breaking Out Of The Medicaid Model

Adapted from the February 24, 2014, issue of National Review  It was an important step forward for Republicans. They could have continued to deploy their anti-spending fervor against the discretionary side of the budget rather than taking on the larger, faster-growing, and politically trickier entitlements. They could, that is, have adopted a posture rather than a policy. Medicare reform was a … [Read more...] about Ramesh Ponnuru in National Review Online: Reform Conservatism

Forbes, June 18, 2014 There are hundreds of aspects of Obamacare that people argue over. But there’s one question that matters above all others: does the Affordable Care Act live up to its name? Does it make health insurance less expensive? Last November, our team at the Manhattan Institute published a study indicating that Obamacare had increased the underlying cost of … [Read more...] about Avik Roy in Forbes: 3,137-County Analysis: Obamacare Increased 2014 Individual-Market Premiums By Average Of 49%

The Daily Signal, June 24, 2014 In April, President Obama told the nation that “marketplace” or “exchange” enrollment, at 8 million customers as of March 31, had exceeded expectations and costs were lower than expected. Many in the news media accepted the selectively released statistics, despite the Obama administration’s record of sometimes providing inaccurate or incomplete information on … [Read more...] about Sharyl Attkisson in The Daily Signal: Obamacare Exchanges Are ‘Disappointing’

Washington Post,  June 23, 2014 Kevin Settles prides himself on being an early adopter. The owner of the mini-chain Bardenay in Boise, Idaho, says he was the first restaurateur in the country to get a federal license to distill liquor at a restaurant. He put Thai satay and baba ganoush on the menu despite his customers’ steak-centric palates. So when the health-care law went into effect, … [Read more...] about Sandhya Somashekhar in the Washington Post: As health-care law’s employer mandate nears, firms cut worker hours, struggle with logistics

Forbes, June 2, 2014 It’s above my pay grade to weigh in on the national security ramifications of President Obama’s release of five Guantanamo Bay detainees in exchange for American soldier Bowe Bergdahl. Likewise, I don’t pretend to be an expert on the law, but am willing to take CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin’s assertion that the president ”clearly broke the law” in doing so. This … [Read more...] about Chris Conover In Forbes: The White House’s Five Most Egregiously Unilateral Changes to Obamacare

Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2014 The bond of trust between patient and physician has always been the essential ingredient in medicine, assuring that the patient receives individual attention and the best possible medical care. Yet often lost in the seemingly endless debate over the Affordable Care Act is how the health-care bureaucracy, with its rigid procedures and regulations, undermines … [Read more...] about Zane F. Pollard: The Bureaucrat Sitting on Your Doctor’s Shoulder

Grace-Marie Turner was invited to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee during a hearing entitled “Delivering Better Health Care Value to Consumers:  The First Three Years of the Medical Loss Ratio.” In her testimony, she explained key problems and distortions created by the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR), which specifies that health plans must spend at least 80% of premium dollars on medical … [Read more...] about Testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee: The first three years of the medical loss ratio