Fix Health Care Policy

President Obama’s Unworkable Non-Solution on Conscience

Today, President Obama unsuccessfully attempted to extricate himself from a political crisis of his own making.

The issue is Obamacare’s requirement that health insurers and employer-sponsored health plans cover federally mandated “preventive services” in their benefit packages—with no co-pays for enrollees—and the Administration’s subsequent regulatory requirement that those mandated preventive services include contraceptive products and services—including abortion-inducing drugs.

The “compromise” the President announced today is that contraception coverage “will be offered to women by their employers’ insurance companies directly, with no role for religious employers who oppose contraception. Insurance companies will be required to provide contraception coverage to these women free of charge.”  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: abortifacients, compromise, contraceptives, Obama administration, preventive services, religious employers

Happy Birthday, Obamacare? What It Really Means for Women

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of Obamacare. While advocates spend the week highlighting the new law’s effects on different groups of Americans, we will do the same. A review of the facts on the ground and the conclusions of Heritage research over the past year reveal the far-reaching negative consequences of the new law.

Today, the argument is that Obamacare is good for women. Though there are sure to be those who experience some benefit under the new law, its overall effect will be negative for all Americans, women included.

The act includes new requirements that all health plans cover specific preventive services with no cost-sharing. Increasing prevention of serious illness is necessary to promote better health among Americans and would also likely reduce long-term health care spending. But Obamacare goes about it in the wrong ways, and it will have unintended consequences that hurt patients. Last year’s recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) regarding breast cancer screening for women between the ages of 40 and 50 highlights how these changes could hurt women specifically. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: cost-sharing, negative consequences, Obamacare anniversary, preventive services, women

Side Effects: How Government Micromanagement Could Discourage Access to Some Preventive Services

A recent letter from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reveals how Obamacare will erode patients’ access to certain preventive services.

The new health care law requires insurers to cover all preventive measures rated “A” or “B” by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) with zero cost-sharing. Otherwise, “a plan or issuer has the discretion to either cover or not cover additional preventive services not recommended by the USPSTF,” according to the CRS letter. (more…)

Tags: controversial recommendations, HHS, mammograms, ObamaCare, preventive services, Side Effects, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force