ObamaCare's Tax on Taxes Wall Street Journal, 8/23/10
Lately a lot of Democrats are taking the ObamaCare walk of shame, and not only those whose votes may return them to the labor market this fall. Liberals still think the bill didn't raise taxes enough. So they've cooked up a virtuoso new scheme. A phalanx of powerful committee Chairmen—including Henry Waxman (House Commerce), Max Baucus (Senate Finance) and Sander Levin (Ways and Means)—want to tax the taxes that the health insurance industry already pays. Read more...
Health Reform Rules Can Prove Onerous, but There's a Fix George J. Pantos Sun Sentinel, 8/22/10
The White House just released rules governing "grandfathered" insurance plans. Those who qualify will remain legal under the new health care law. Those who don't will have to comply with costly new mandates. Throughout his campaign for health reform, the president vowed that he wouldn't disrupt Americans' existing policies. These rules are meant to fulfill that promise. They're so onerous, though, that most employers will find it impossible to follow them. Grandfathered plans are prohibited from increasing deductibles, out-of-pocket spending limits or co-payments beyond a certain amount. Plans are also barred from eliminating benefits — even if those benefits aren't popular and consumers want the savings. Read more...
Ease the Burden of Obamacare's Paperwork Washington Examiner, 8/22/10
Among the first things members of the U.S. Senate should do when they return from their August recess is approve Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns's amendment to repeal Section 9006 of Obamacare. Not familiar with Section 9006? That's the provision requiring that every business, charity, and state and local government file a separate IRS Form 1099 listing every purchase of goods or services worth $600 or more. Yes, you read that right, every single purchase of $600 or more gets its very own IRS return. Your office got a $601 phone bill last month? Goes to the 1099. Those Xeroxes your office staff can't live without and cost more than $600 in paper? Goes to the 1099. And so on and so on. Read more...
Will the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Address the Problems Associated with Medical Malpractice? Randall R. Bovbjerg Urban Institute, 8/10
Political battles over malpractice reform have recurred for 35 years, starting at the state level. Many states have enacted caps on awards and other tort reforms amid liability insurance crises proclaimed in the mid-1970s, mid-1980s, and early 2000s. Since the mid-1990s, Republicans have unsuccessfully sought similar malpractice limits at the federal level. Sharp run-ups in claims rates preceded the first two crises; the last seemed more driven by increases in awards and other costs, along with insurance market developments. Defensive medicine arose separately as a national policy issue in the late 1960s. At the time, medical liability was expanding from the very low level of the 1950s because of shifts in both tort doctrines and social culture. ... The liability provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordability Act (PPACA)2 did nothing to change this political dynamic or the underlying problems. Read more...
Who's ObamaCare's Daddy? Wall Street Journal, 8/21/10
"I know this is a tough vote," President Obama told House Democrats at a March pep rally merely hours before they passed national health care. But he added that he was "actually confident" that "it will end up being the smart thing to do politically because I believe that good policy is good politics." Apparently not, as even some liberal lobbies are now being forced to concede. On Thursday, Families USA hosted a "messaging" conference call with Democrats and Democratic allies, admitting that ObamaCare has not in fact become more popular since it passed. Families USA called for a wholesale shift in how Democrats now attempt to sell its handiwork to the public, the central theme being that "The law is not perfect, but it does good things and helps many people. Now we'll work to improve it." Read more...
Will Your Paycheck Take a Health-Care Hit? Fox News, 8/20/10
On Friday, August 20, Michael Ramlet debated Igor Volsky from the Center for American Progress on the Fox Business Network. You can watch the debate which focuses on PPACA’s cost and impact on employer sponsored insurance here...
Assurant Health Cutting Jobs Ahead Of Health Reform Implementation Kaiser Health News, 8/20/10
Milwaukee-based Insurer Assurant Inc. is cutting its workforce in various locations around America ahead of health care reform implementation. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that 130 jobs in Milwaukee and Plymouth, Minn., will be cut. "The company, which sells health insurance for individuals and small employers as well as short-term policies, faces an onslaught of new federal health care reform regulations, including the requirement that it spend 80% of premiums on medical care. Read more...
Early Signs Point to Obamacare Rejection Ronald L. Trowbridge Odessa American Online, 8/20/10
What most Americans do not know about the current legal challenges against Obamacare: the constitutional resolution depends exclusively on how the case for adjudication is written. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says often that if the case is presented as a judgment about the individual mandate requiring individuals to purchase a certain private sector product or service, “we win.” If, on the other hand, the case is presented as a matter of whether the federal government can control health care, as it does with Medicare, “we lose.” Georgetown law professor Randy Barnett, counsel for Angel Raich in the Supreme Court’s Raich case, coined what he called “the dirty little secret of constitutional law” — whether a petitioner will find relief in federal court “depends on which accurate description a court chooses to accept.” He sums up: A “court may rule however it wishes simply by choosing how to describe the right.” Read more...
Sen. Mike Johanns: Let’s Fix Obamacare’s Tax Paperwork Problem for Small Business Sen. Mike Johanns Washington Examiner, 8/20/10
Next month, Congress will have a clear choice between standing up for our nation’s job creators or burdening them with unfair and unnecessary regulations. At the heart of the problem is a flawed provision in the new health care law that places a mountain of new tax paperwork requirements on businesses. It has nothing to do with health care. To fix the problem, I introduced an amendment which completely repeals this misguided provision. However, an alternative amendment was recently introduced, exempting some businesses from the provision but not others and adding confusion, rather than clarity, to the misguided mandate. Read more...
