Fix Health Care Policy

Obamacare Waivers Mount, Still

Why does anybody need a waiver to a law that’s been ruled unconstitutional? We don’t know; ask the Department of Health and Human Services. On Wednesday, HHS updated its Web site to show that it has now granted 915 waivers to Obamacare’s requirements on benefit limits in health insurance plans. The waivers allow employers to continue offering plans with annual limits on the dollar amount of benefits provided. These so-called mini-med plans are an affordable option for many workers, but they would become unavailable without the waivers.

The waivers are certainly good for the 2.4 million folks who still get to choose an affordable insurance plan, but what about the other 99 percent of Americans with private insurance? If it’s generally acknowledged that this provision makes health insurance more expensive, why not let all consumers have the option of getting mini-med plans? (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: mini-med plans, ObamaCare, private insurance, unconstitutional, waivers

Obamacare and the States: Freedom To Do What Sebelius Tells Them To Do

The Washington Post on February 10 ran an op-ed by Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius asserting that the new health reform legislation empowers the states and gives them the flexibility they are asking for. Indeed, she says, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) “gives states incredible freedom to tailor reforms to their needs.”

The Secretary’s piece offers a revealing glimpse into the mindset of PPACA’s advocates. At the same time, it is fundamentally wrong as a factual matter.

Before PPACA was enacted, states could make insurance reforms they thought would be in the public interest. A number of states were doing so, including Utah and Massachusetts, as the Secretary mentions. But PPACA now imposes a national system of regulation. This is described here. The Administration’s begrudging and constricted view of what plans are grandfathered and not subject to the new regulatory scheme is described here. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: insurance reforms, ObamaCare, Sec. Kathleen Sebelius, states' rights

Trusting but Verifying on Taxpayer Funding of Abortion

On the subject of arms treaties with the Soviet Union, President Reagan famously said, “Trust, but verify.” Now many Members of Congress want to do the same with public funding of elective abortion under Obamacare, but they are meeting new resistance from congressional Democrats, some of whom, nonetheless, insist they have the same goal.

The battle dates back to 2009, when the abortion funding issue held up the passage of the massive health care bill known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). In March 2010, the PPACA was finally adopted when a small group of House Democrats backed away from a proposal known as Stupak–Pitts, which would have plugged the abortion funding loopholes in the PPACA and established a strict standard governing the use of the new affordability tax credits created by the bill.

The House Democrats voted for the PPACA after receiving assurances that President Obama would issue an executive order that would plug the loopholes, or, as the President put it, impose “strict compliance with prohibitions on abortion funding in health insurance exchanges” and apply the fund restrictions to separate categories like community health centers. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: elective abortion, health insurance exchanges, ObamaCare, taxpayer dollars

An Opportunity to Defund Obamacare

So far, the House GOP is not including Obamacare among the programs proposed for de-funding next week.

Why not?

Although the Appropriations Committee has produced a bill that de-funds many other programs, it does not undo the billions of dollars that the last Congress appropriated to implement Obamacare. That omission can be and should be corrected by amendment when the legislation reaches the House floor next week.

Rescinding the billions appropriated to Obamacare would help reach the GOP’s well-publicized pledge to cut spending by $100 billion in their first year as a majority. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: Amendment, Appropriations Committee, defund Obamacare

Secretary Sebelius Will Not Find the Right Formula to Fix CLASS

According to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathy Sebelius, the design of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program has basic flaws, but the bureaucracy will fix those flaws with hard work and deep thinking. Sebelius spoke on the CLASS program on Monday at a Kaiser Family Foundation briefing, and she outlined the Obama Administration’s updated technocratic thinking on this new government-run, long-term care entitlement created under Obamacare.

Sebelius was in part responding to the recent assault on CLASS from a wide breadth of experts. According to the President’s deficit commission, “The program’s earliest beneficiaries will pay modest premiums for only a few years and receive benefits many times larger, so that sustaining the system over time will require increasing premiums and reducing benefits to the point that the program is neither appealing to potential customers nor able to accomplish its stated function. Absent reform, the program is therefore likely to require large general revenue transfers or else collapse under its own weight.” The commission’s solution: repeal or radically rework CLASS. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: CLASS Act, deficit commission, long-term care entitlement, Sec. Kathleen Sebelius

Even PolitiFact Admits: President Obama Raised Taxes

This Sunday while defending charges that he was a “man who wants to redistribute wealth,” President Barack Obama told Fox News‘ Bill O’Reilly: “I didn’t raise taxes once.” As PolitiFact points out, not only is this completely false, but President Obama began raising taxes almost immediately upon taking office:

The idea that Obama did not raise taxes is just plain wrong. He signed legislation raising taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products soon after taking office; that money goes to pay for children’s health insurance programs. The law went into effect in 2009. He also signed the health care law, which includes taxes on indoor tanning that went into effect last year. (Regular PolitiFact readers will remember our fact-check of reality TV star Snooki and her complaint about the new tax last year.) (Read the rest at the Foundry…)

Tags: children's health insurance programs, cigarette taxes, raises taxes

Side Effects: Children Face Reduced Access to Coverage Under Obamacare

While the Senate failed last week to pass a full repeal of Obamacare, the negative effects of the health care overhaul continue to build the case for scrapping it and starting over. Americans were told that Obamacare would open the door to medical coverage for all children. Those with preexisting conditions would become newly protected by a requirement that health insurance companies “guarantee issue” to all children 19 years old and under. No child would be denied coverage.

But being able to get child-only coverage depends on the existence of child-only policies. And under Obamacare, this is anything but certain. A recent Republican Senate committee staff survey of state insurance departments found that 20 states no longer have insurance companies offering child-only policies. According to Politico, this is because “many carriers decided to leave the market altogether … rather than take on the burdensome cost of writing policies for potentially pricey medical conditions.” (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: child-only coverage, ObamaCare, pre-existing conditions, repeal

The Obamacare Assault on the Rule of Law

Mere hours after senior federal Judge Roger Vinson, a United States Naval Academy graduate, became the second federal judge to find Obamacare’s Section 1501 (the individual mandate) unconstitutional, an anonymous White House official called in to question Judge Vinson’s entire ruling, telling reporters, “There’s something thoroughly odd and unconventional about the analysis.” The only thing “odd and unconventional” here is that a White House official felt it imperative to undermine the legitimacy of a coequal branch of government. Unfortunately this incident just fits into a larger pattern of behavior that calls into question just how far this Administration will bend the rule of law to protect President Barack Obama’s signature accomplishment: Obamacare.

According to Heritage legal expert Robert Alt, Judge Vinson’s declaratory judgment binds the parties to the suit, which includes 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business and the federal government. This means that, absent a court-issued stay, Obamacare cannot be further implemented as it pertains to these 26 states. So the White House now faces a simple choice: Will President Obama abide by a valid decision by a federal district court, or will he unilaterally ignore the rule of law? If the past is any indicator, the rule of law is in for a continued beating. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: Individual Mandate, Judge Roger Vinson, NFIB, ObamaCare, unconstitutional

Obamacare In Serious Condition

A large number of Senators went on record tonight opposing ObamaCare. The House spoke on a bipartisan basis on a measure to fully repeal the President’s health care law by 56 votes last month. Just yesterday, a Florida federal court issued a decision declaring the individual mandate, and the whole law, unconstitutional. If one of the many cases challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare makes it to the Supreme Court, move the President’s health care reform law into critical condition.

Tonight, the Senate voted 47-51 on an amendment to repeal ObamaCare that was offered to S. 223, the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act. The amendment was offered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The McConnell Amendment, SA 13, would have repealed both the ObamaCare bill (P.L. 111-148) and the reconciliation measure containing provisions modifying the ObamaCare bill (P.L. 111-152). Both laws constitute the whole of ObamaCare. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: McConnell amendment, ObamaCare, repeal, senators

Judge Vinson’s Tough Love for State and Federal Lawmakers

The principal issue addressed in Federal District Court Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling Monday on the case of Florida vs. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the application of the Constitution’s “interstate commerce” clause with respect to Obamacare’s individual mandate. But two other parts of his ruling send an important judicial “tough love” message to state and federal lawmakers that the courts cannot—and should not attempt to—solve their political and policy problems for them.

In the case of state lawmakers, Judge Vinson dismissed the states’ argument that the federal government was unconstitutionally “commandeering” state resources when Congress included in Obamacare provisions that will have the effect of increasing state costs for Medicaid. He pointed out that participation in the Medicaid program is an entirely voluntary choice by a state, under which the state agrees to accept federal funding in exchange for abiding by federal rules for how those funds are spent. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: Judge Roger Vinson, Medicaid, ObamaCare, state lawmakers