Fix Health Care Policy

Side Effects: Obamacare’s CO-OPs Put Taxpayer Dollars at Risk for No Good Reason

Yet another provision of Obamacare is expected to cost taxpayers more than they expected. The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) asking for details regarding the probable loss of $3.1 billion out of the $3.4 billion in Obamacare loans to its Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (“CO-OP”). The estimate comes from the President’s Budget Appendix, and the committee is considering rescinding funds that haven’t already been obligated.

The Obamacare initiative gives CMS the authority to award $3.4 billion in loan subsidies to states to fund start-up costs and to help meet state solvency requirements for the health plans in the CO-OP initiative, The Committee’s letter explains that these loans are a bad investment for taxpayers: “[T]he amount of expected losses is estimated to be about $3.1 billion of the $3.4 billion appropriated (91 percent). These losses exceed the estimate HHS presented in its proposed rule.”

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: bad investment, CMS, Co-Op, House Energy and Commerce Committee, President's budget appendix, taxpayers

Doctors Need a Permanent Fix to the Medicare Payment Mess

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider solutions to Medicare’s flawed physician payment scheme. Physician payment is annually updated on the basis of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), a special economic formula which, as configured today, would result in deep annual payment cuts.

This directly threatens seniors’ access to care as it becomes financially infeasible for doctors to continue to take new Medicare patients under progressively lower payments. The problem will only get worse in the future, and it represents one of the most poignant examples of the negative impact of central planning on doctors and patients under the current Medicare program. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: doc fix, House Energy and Commerce Committee, low reimbursement, Medicare, ObamaCare, payment formula

House Moves Toward Draining Obamacare Slush Funds

Efforts to defund Obamacare one bite at a time are making progress in the House, although Senate prospects remain dim. The House is addressing parts of Obamacare which are so loosely-drafted that House Speaker John Boehner and others label them multi-billion-dollar “slush funds.”

Five bills (numbered HR 1213 through 1217) targeted at parts of the health care law were approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday. The bills repeal some portions of Obamacare, totally defund other parts, and convert some automatic funding into a requirement for annual Congressional approval before anything could be spent. (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: defund Obamacare, House Energy and Commerce Committee, House Speaker John Boehner, slush funds

House Hearing: Secretary Sebelius Talks Fiscal Responsibility and Obamacare

Yesterday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the President’s fiscal year 2012 budget and implementation of Obamacare. The Secretary’s remarks highlighted the need for fiscal responsibility and health care reform that gives greater power to individuals and more flexibility to the states. Unfortunately, none of these goals can be achieved under Obamacare.

Sebelius told the committee, “We can’t build lasting prosperity on a mountain of debt. And we can’t win the future if we pass on massive debts to our children and grandchildren. We have a responsibility to the American people to live within our means so we can invest in the future.” (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, House Energy and Commerce Committee, ObamaCare, state flexibility

The Obama Budget Plan: Taxes and Rationing

Suddenly, the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders seem to want health-care news stories to fall off of the front page.

This week, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman abruptly cancelled a high-profile hearing he had called just days earlier to berate corporate CEOs who dared to tell their investors that the health-care bill would raise their costs. It seems to have dawned on Congressman Waxman and his staff that his transparent effort to intimidate anyone who tells the truth about the legislation could actually backfire on him and turn into a PR disaster.

The Democratic contention that the bill actually lowers costs for American business is not supported by any rigorous analysis that would justify use in auditable corporate accounting methods. The Business Roundtable study that many Obamacare advocates like to cite as proof of the bill’s savings provides no such proof at all. The prediction of cost savings in the study, from the mostly minor provisions in the legislation aimed at “delivery system reform,” are highly speculative at best. Indeed, the study itself notes the potential for much higher costs and cites many cost-cutting provisions that are not in the new health law. (more…)

Tags: debt commission, deficit, economic crisis, House Energy and Commerce Committee, ObamaCare, Rep. Henry Waxman, retiree drug-benefit coverage, value-added tax (VAT)