Real Health Care Reform

Have you ever wondered why health insurance is purchased by the employer?  Our car insurance or homeowner's insurance isn't provided by employers.  Employer-provided health insurance often traps people in jobs they don't want, because if they leave the job they are not allowed to take their coverage with them. The reason we purchase health insurance through employers is that it is much cheaper for the employer to pay for it than the individual, since the employer gets a tax deduction on | Continue reading this entry »

Many students are having complications with their student loans due to an obscure provision of ObamaCare that prevents private firms from participating in the student loan program. Department of Education has been transferring large batches of federal student loans to new loan-servicing companies 2014 leaving in the lurch some borrowers who are suddenly encountering problems with their loans, such as payments that are mysteriously adjusted up or down. The switch, which has been going on for months | Continue reading this entry »

The average cost to get a prescription drug approved by the FDA: $403 million (in 2002). The average length of time for drug approval: 8.5 years. | Continue reading this entry »

The bronze plans that will be available are not low-cost stripped down plans. | Continue reading this entry »

Recently the Congressional Budget Office announced that ObamaCare would cost $1.76 trillion through 2022, roughly twice the original CBO projection of $938 billion when Congress passed the bill.  This may be a surprise to some, I suppose.  But take a quick look at our history, and you'll see that this is nothing new.  When Medicare was passed in 1965, it was predicted to cost $12 billion by 1990.  In fact, costs were almost 10 times higher. I was at a dinner the other night where someone expressed | Continue reading this entry »

Whether Obamacare is declared constitutional or not, there are still serious problems with our health care system.  As John Cochrane points out in this piece in the Wall Street Journal, most of the problems are the result of government regulation.  The solutions – a competitive marketplace and price transparency – come mostly from getting government out of the way.

Today the supreme court justices all got together, sat around a table, and told each whether they think PPACA is constitutional. They'll then write opinions, vote again, and publish their decision in June.  Three possible scenarios: The law is declared constitutional, and implementation proceeds as planned.  Open enrollment begins Octobober 1, 2013, and by January 1 2014 you are required by federal law to have purchased a qualifying plan.  You may qualify for a subsidy based on your income. The | Continue reading this entry »

Well, we head to see this one coming. 128 Democratic representatives have cosponsored H.R. 5808 to establish a government run public option within the health insurance exchanges. At this time it is unlikely for this bill to go anywhere. And the coming elections may bury its possibilities for quite a while. But the current and coming regulations on the health insurance industry will make health insurance more unpopular than ever. Expect large and larger rate increases as plans are required | Continue reading this entry »

Propaganda is not always easy to recognize. If you are not real familiar with the subject, it could just look like good unbiased information. According to Wikipedia, "Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position." A great example is the "fact sheet" put out today by the department of Health and Human Services at http://www.healthreform.gov/newsroom/keeping_the_health_plan_you_have.html. Amazingly, most people | Continue reading this entry »

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had asked U.S. District Judge roger Vinson for an extension on the deadline to respond to a joint lawsuit filed by 20 states, challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform law. This request has been denied, and HHS officials must respond by the June 16th deadline. As provisions of the law continue to be implemented, more Americans will personally feel the impact. Individual health insurance rates will be growing rapidly, while | Continue reading this entry »