There will be a broad financial disincentive in Rhode Island for a significant number of individuals and families to obtain private health insurance coverage under the President’s Affordable Care Act. As a result, Rhode Island should be prepared to see enrollment through the Rhode Island Health Benefits Exchange that is significantly below current expectations. Based on proposed insurance rates … [Read more...] about Sean Parnell: Will Rhode Islanders Purchase Insurance Under ObamaCare?
Some youths unlikely to pay for ObamaCare Coverage
Virtually all Americans will be required to have health insurance under the Affordable Care Act starting in 2014, and President Barack Obama especially wants young, healthy people to sign up. About two-thirds of the uninsured are younger than 40. They use fewer health services, and their premiums are needed to help keep insurance costs down for everyone else. Yet the incentive structures in … [Read more...] about Some youths unlikely to pay for ObamaCare Coverage
The IRS and its 46 new powers to enforce ObamaCare
The power granted to the IRS to enforce ObamaCare’s mandates, taxes, penalties, reporting, and other requirements is unprecedented. Based upon Government Accountability Office data, we count 46 new responsibilities assigned to the IRS under the health law.1 IRS officials have acknowledged the huge problems these major new responsibilities will create for the agency. On March 5, 2013, an official … [Read more...] about The IRS and its 46 new powers to enforce ObamaCare
Stuart Taylor: Obamacare’s Slush Fund Fuels A Broader Lobbying Controversy
A little-noticed part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act channels some $12.5 billion into a vaguely defined “Prevention and Public Health Fund” over the next decade–and some of that money is going for everything from massage therapists who offer “calming techniques,” to groups advocating higher state and local taxes on tobacco and soda, and stricter zoning restrictions on fast-food … [Read more...] about Stuart Taylor: Obamacare’s Slush Fund Fuels A Broader Lobbying Controversy
Tom Miller: A hidden tax in Obamacare
The central provisions of the Affordable Care Act require younger and healthier Americans to buy insurance policies that will, in essence, subsidize the healthcare of older and sicker Americans. But one of Obamacare's hidden taxes — a new limit on contributions to health flexible spending accounts, or FSAs — will hit older and chronically ill individuals hardest. Starting this year, the … [Read more...] about Tom Miller: A hidden tax in Obamacare
45 states have safety net coverage for citizens
By Grace-Marie Turner. States have been operating high-risk pools for decades, long before the ACA's Temporary High Risk Plan was instituted, providing coverage to tens of thousands of their citizens. The House of Representatives is considering an initiative to provide new federal assistance to the states to create or maintain high-risk pools and continue providing coverage to these … [Read more...] about 45 states have safety net coverage for citizens
A Model for Reform
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
Secure The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain From Risky Counterfeiters
By Grace-Marie Turner The Food and Drug Administration is investigating a rising number of cases involving counterfeit prescription drugs — cases that threaten the health of individual patients and the safety of the nation’s drug supply. The FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigation opened 72 new cases in 2010, up from just six a decade earlier. Federal officials document that American … [Read more...] about Secure The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain From Risky Counterfeiters