Fix Health Care Policy

Side Effects: Obamacare Encourages States to Drop Medicaid

Because of Obamacare, states are considering dropping out of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor, rather than deal with the additional fiscal strain resulting from the health law.

One of the main drivers behind health care reform was to reduce the nation’s number of uninsured. Under the new law, this will be partially achieved by adding 18 million Americans to the Medicaid program.

This expansion will strain already hurting state budgets. By expanding a program for which states share the cost, the federal government is able to hide the true cost of the expansion while draining state coffers, at the expense of other state spending priorities.

This cost shift strategy to the states is pushing some states to consider dropping Medicaid altogether. The New York Times reports that Texas is already considering this route. Texas Rep. Warren Chisum (R-District 88) said the state will be restricted in how it can otherwise cut costs. “With Obamacare mandates coming down, we have a situation where we cannot reduce benefits or change eligibility,” he said in the article. “This system is bankrupting our state.” (more…)

Tags: dropping coverage, Medicaid Expansion, ObamaCare, state budgets, uninsured

Health Care Voters Overwhelming Favor Repealing Obamacare

The Kaiser Family Foundation polled 1,502 adults ages 18 and older, including 1,017 adults who say they voted, in the days after last Tuesday’s election. KFF allowed respondents to name, in their own words, the biggest factors influencing their vote for Congress. The top response was economy/jobs (29%), followed by voting for or against a specific party (25%), and then voting for a specific candidate (21%). Health care came in fourth at 17%.

But among those voters who said health care was the top factor influencing their vote, repealing all or parts of Obama was extremely popular. A full 71% of health care voters either want to repeal Obamacare entirely (45%) or repeal parts of the law (26%). Only 11% of health care voters (and only 16% of all voters) want to leave the law as is. Obamacare is not very popular among the entire population either KFF reports: (more…)

Tags: Kaiser Family Foundation, ObamaCare, Public Opinion, repeal the bill, voters

Get to Work Repealing Obamacare

During his post-election press conference Wednesday, President Barack Obama was asked: “As you’re well aware, obviously, a lot of Republicans ran against your health care law. Some have called for repealing the law. I’m wondering, sir, if you believe that health care reform that you worked so hard on is in danger at this point, and whether there’s a threat, as a result of this election.” The President replied:

“Well, I know that there’s some Republican candidates who won last night who feel very strongly about it. I’m sure that this will be an issue that comes up in discussions with the Republican leadership. As I said before, though, I think we’d be misreading the election if we thought that the American people want to see us for the next two years relitigate arguments that we had over the last two years.”

The President just doesn’t get it. According to the national exit poll just 16% of voters want to leave Obamacare as is. A full 48% of voters want to see it outright repealed and another 31% want to see it changed in some way. Americans do want to relitigate Obamacare. Yesterday, here at The Heritage Foundation, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell promised to do just that:

“On health care, that means we can — and should — propose and vote on straight repeal, repeatedly. But we can’t expect the president to sign it. So we’ll also have to work, in the House, on denying funds for implementation, and, in the Senate, on votes against its most egregious provisions. At the same time, we’ll need to continue educating the public about the ill-effects of this bill on individuals young and old, families, and small businesses.”

(more…)

Tags: enable portability, get to work, market-based reform, personal control, President Barack Obama, repeal Obamacare, Sen. Mitch McConnell

Side Effects: Bad News for New Mexico Residents Who Like Their Current Health Plan

Once again, the promise that Americans can keep the health coverage they like under Obamacare has been broken. National Health Insurance, Aetna, John Alden, and Principle have reported that they “need to make adjustments in their business to accommodate the nation’s new federal health care law.”

The National Health Insurance Co. (NHIC), a Dallas-based insurer, recently announced that it would no longer offer insurance plans in the individual and small group markets in New Mexico. According to NHIC President Charles Harris, “After careful consideration…National Health Insurance Company has determined it will not be able to meet the requirements set forth by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” (more…)

Tags: coverage drop, higher premiums, individual insurance market, New Mexico, ObamaCare, Side Effects

Get to Work

My fellow conservatives,

The people have spoken. Reckless spending, stifling regulations, ever-rising taxes, endless debt and the looming government takeover of health care have brought this nation to a tipping point. Not surprisingly, the American people have now taken matters into their own hands.

How we got to that tipping point is clear. For too long, Washington’s preening elites have assumed that they knew best and that government was in itself the all-purpose solution to every perceived problem.

But the American people have a collective wisdom, and they expressed it yesterday. They took a stand and decided on a new direction because continuing down the path we’re currently on would mean the end of the American Dream.

They repudiated “change” that denies our character and tradition, and called instead for an American Renewal that taps our values. The message that came out of this election, I can assure you, was heard around the world. Everyone now knows that Americans remain a strong and free people, unbowed by adversity and unwilling to exchange their birthright of liberty for a perpetual stew of bureaucratic rule and government dependency.

But let’s be clear, now we must all get to work. The new Congress has a choice: answer the call of renewal or betray the hopes of the American people. It is time for conservatives to be conservative, and not backslide.

We here at The Heritage Foundation are inspired by your commitment to America’s principles, and bolstered by your demand for practical, conservative solutions to our common problems. We and our 700,000 members will work day and night to make sure Washington has heard you, too, for now the real work begins. (more…)

Tags: debt, get to work, government takeover, reckless spending, repeal Obamacare

Is Orszag Proposing Medical Malpractice Reform or Something Else?

Former Office for Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag recently wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times on the need for medical malpractice reform. Well, kind of.

Orszag’s approach has more to do with creating stricter mechanisms to enforce physicians’ compliance with evidence-based guidelines than with reforming the tort system to better protect doctors and patients.

Orszag writes, “What’s needed is a much more aggressive national effort to protect doctors who follow evidence-based guidelines. That’s the only way that malpractice reform could broadly promote the adoption of best practices.” He describes malpractice reform as a way to “encourage doctors to adopt new evidence more quickly.” (more…)

Tags: comparative effectiveness research, malpractice reform, Medicare, ObamaCare, Peter Orszag

Side Effects: Now Even Democrats Are Voicing Concern About Obamacare’s Consequences

Imagine that one day, your boss takes you out to coffee. You offer to pick up the tip as a contribution. The two of you head down the street and are faced with quite the conundrum: two coffee shops to choose from! Both offer a delicious cup of joe for the same price, but in front of one, a benevolent gentleman who calls himself Uncle Sam (weird, right?) offers you a coupon for 50 percent off, so both you and your boss will save. Which coffee shop do you think your employer would take you to?

This is not a trick question. The scenario described above captures how employers are likely to react to incentives created by Obamacare to dump employer coverage, as Governor Philip Bredesen (D–TN) explained recently in The Wall Street Journal. (more…)

Tags: health insurance premiums, ObamaCare, Side Effects, taxpayer-funded subsidies, Tennessee Gov. Philip Bredesen

If You Like Your Medicare Advantage Plan, You Probably Cannot Keep It

Earlier this year, Richard Foster, the Chief Actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), issued a report projecting that about half of all seniors and disabled Americans enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans will be pushed out of that program due to the new health care reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

In response to a request from Sen. Charles Grassley (R–IA) and three other Republican Senators, Foster recently confirmed that in addition to losing access to the health plan of their choice, those who are able to remain in Medicare Advantage plans will face substantially higher out-of-pocket costs as a result of the cuts to Medicare Advantage in the new law.

The Senators requested an analysis of the relative impact of the changes on urban compared to rural areas. The letter from the Actuary declined to answer that question, saying his office had not made such a calculation.

However, we have done these calculations. Jim Capretta, Jason Richwine and I have calculated the impact of the Medicare Advantage changes—both in terms of lost enrollment, and lost dollars—for seniors and the disabled not only nationally, but regionally as well. (more…)

Tags: CMS Chief Actuary Rick Foster, coverage loss, Medicare Advantage cuts, ObamaCare, Sen. Chuck Grassley