Fix Health Care Policy

Earlier today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an updated cost estimate for Obamacare that showed that the law will cost less over 10 years than last predicted—because fewer people will be covered.

Now, although Obamacare spends more than $1 trillion, CBO predicts it will leave 30 million Americans uninsured, falling far short of what was promised.

The reason for the changes to the law’s cost projection is the recent Supreme Court ruling. Though the Court allowed Obamacare’s individual mandate to stand as a tax, it deemed a separate provision—the Medicaid expansion—to be unconstitutional. As a result, states can choose not to expand their Medicaid programs and are no longer at risk of losing all their federal Medicaid dollars if they don’t. As Heritage health policy expert Nina Owcharenko explains, “If the Administration’s attempt to centralize health care decision making in Washington was unworkable, its unconstitutional imposition on the states has made its problems even worse.”

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: CBO, deficit, ObamaCare, repeal the law, Supreme Court ruling, total cost, unconstitutional, uninsured

President Obama has reassured Americans that if they like their current health insurance, they can keep it.

“If you’ve got health insurance through your employer, you can keep your health insurance, keep your choice of doctor, keep your plan,” Obama insisted on Oct. 15, 2008.

But two years after signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, Obama gave many Americans a false sense of security that Obamacare won’t change the status quo.

Four reputable research institutions have run the numbers and found that not only is Obama’s claim false, but employees will be dropped from their current coverage by the millions. This week’s chart outlines each of the four studies.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: dropped coverage, employers, false security, ObamaCare, uninsured

Shortly after President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law two years ago, the National Federation of Independent Business joined a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. After victories in district court and federal appeals court, Obamacare goes before the U.S. Supreme Court next week.

Karen Harned, executive director of NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center, has argued passionately on behalf of business owners against the law. During a visit to The Heritage Foundation yesterday, she sat down with us to preview the six hours of oral arguments and the what’s at stake before the high court.

Listen to the interview with Karen Harned on this week’s Scribecast

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: Individual Mandate, NFIB, ObamaCare, penalties, Supreme Court challenge, unconstitutional, uninsured

This week, Obamacare will have its second birthday, but there’s little reason to celebrate. Throughout the week, Obamacare advocates have emphasized the law’s supposed benefits on specific groups of Americans, but as Heritage’s research over the past two years has shown, Obamacare harms Americans—even the groups showcased by the left.

Today, the focus is on Obamacare’s extension of coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. Advocates argue that the expensive health law was necessary to meet the needs of this population, but far fewer Americans have taken advantage of new programs than expected so far, suggesting the problem may have been overstated. Meanwhile, costs have grown well above what was expected.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: anniversary, ObamaCare, pre-existing conditions, uninsured

Yesterday, the Administration released data from the 2011 National Health Interview Survey that shows, among other things, that the number of uninsured young adults declined over the last year. In a short press release, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) touted this as evidence that Obamacare is working, specifically attributing increased coverage of young adults age 19–25 to the Obamacare provision allowing those individuals to stay on their parents’ health plans.

Undoubtedly, it’s true that some of those individuals did get coverage due to that provision, but HHS claiming credit for Obamacare for all of the increase appears to be an example of the classic statistical fallacy of confusing correlation with causation. Even more importantly, over the long term, the net effect of Obamacare’s many provisions will be to increase the already unaffordable cost of health care, which is one of the main reasons young adults and other uninsured forego coverage.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: HHS, ObamaCare, parents' health plans, repeal the law, unaffordable cost, uninsured, young adult

In its yearly survey of health insurance coverage, the U.S. Census Bureau published figures that underscore the trend toward greater dependence on government for coverage.

The percentage of Americans on government health programs continues to grow, while employer-based coverage continues to decline. According to the latest Census report, 31 percent of the population received coverage through the government in 2010 compared to 23 percent in 1987. In contrast, 64 percent of the population had private coverage in 2010, compared to 75.5 percent in 1987. Employer-based coverage declined from 62.1 percent in 1987 to 55.3 percent in 2010. (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: Census Bureau, government-run health care, health coverage, ObamaCare, uninsured

The literature on the quality of Medicaid has mixed findings—some shows that having Medicaid is better than being uninsured; some shows the opposite. But virtually all of these studies suffer from a statistical issue that makes it impossible to tell whether or not it’s Medicaid or something else driving the results.

This is because there are lots of reasons why people may enroll in Medicaid or decide to remain uninsured—and some of the reasons are completely unknowable to the researcher. For instance, developing a chronic condition that’s expensive to treat might drive some of the uninsured who qualify for Medicaid to the program. Therefore, the benefits or non-benefits of Medicaid might actually be a reflection of the underlying conditions that drove people to apply for the program in the first place.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: enrollees, Medicaid, mixed findings, Oregon, quality of care, uninsured

Earlier this week we shared the troubling circumstances facing Dr. Martha Boone in the wake of Obamacare. Last night the Atlanta urologist appeared on Fox Business with David Asman to talk about the latest challenge for her small practice — a 27 percent increase in health insurance for her five employees.

In the interview, Boone explains the difficulties for doctors. Medicare is reimbursing less for her most common procedure, prompting her to move to a less expensive office in an older building. She also cut her own salary by 32 percent. That helped Boone avoid laying off an employee, but it might not stop the bleeding.

“Running a small business, I have a few options,” Boone explained. “I could have my [employees] be uninsured. I can lay someone off; I certainly can’t hire anybody. And I can consider stopping taking Medicare, which I really do not want to do.” (See the video on The Foundry…)

Tags: Medicare reimbursement rates, ObamaCare, physicians, uninsured

The big news out of a majority of state capitols is that Obamacare’s Medicaid mandates will exacerbate state budget problems and drive many states to the brink of insolvency.

Thirty-three Republican governors and governors-elect have signed a letter to the White House and Congress making an emphatic appeal that Obamacare’s Medicaid provisions be repealed.

Medicaid pays health care and long-term care expenses for certain categories of individuals. Medicaid has many problems, but the central one is that it costs taxpayers nearly $400 billion annually without providing recipients a high quality of care.

National spending on Medicaid has more than quintupled over the past two decades, and about 16 percent of the population is currently enrolled. A recent study from the University of Virginia found that Medicaid patients have worse surgical outcomes than individuals without insurance. Despite these problems, Obamacare relies heavily on the Medicaid program to reduce the number of individuals without health insurance. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: Medicaid, national heath care spending, ObamaCare, state mandates, uninsured