Poll: Health Mandate Still Unpopular Andy Barr Politico, 8/20/10
A CNN/Opinion Research poll shows that, despite Democrats' best efforts, portions of their health care bill still remain unpopular. In a poll of 1,009 adults, 44 percent said they favor the health care mandate, which has yet to take effect. Nearly the same number 45 percent favored the bill when it passed. Forty-nine percent favored the mandate in November 2009. Fifty-six percent oppose the mandate, up 3 percentage points from when the bill passed. Democrats do still enjoy positive poll numbers for preventing health insurance companies from denying care based on preexisting conditions and from dropping coverage for patients who are seriously ill. Read more...
ObamaCare Has Failed Grace-Marie Turner Galen Institute, 8/20/10
The wheels are coming off ObamaCare even sooner than most had predicted. The American people are not being fooled by the sugar-coated sales campaign, jobs are being lost, health costs are rising, and the first program to be launched is a dud. A new CNN poll shows that 56 percent of Americans oppose the health overhaul law, with only 40 percent supporting it - virtually unchanged from March when the legislation passed. Rasmussen's latest poll of likely voters shows 60 percent want it repealed. Liberal advocates for the law now have no choice but to admit that their messaging campaign has failed. In a conference call yesterday hosted by Families USA to share extensive polling data, advocates were told to stop saying that the law will reduce costs and lower the deficit. It's not true and people don't believe it. Instead, they advised liberals to focus on anecdotes about people who have been helped by the changes. Read more...
Troy & Fodeman: Slow Down on Health IT Tevi Troy and Dr. Jason D. Fodeman The Washington Times, 8/20/10
With federal checks for electronic health records only months away, our nation's health care system is on the brink of an unprecedented digital makeover. The stage was set for this technological revolution when $20 billion in government money for health information technology found its way into the $787 billion stimulus bill. The stimulus package contains bonus payments to doctors and hospitals designed to encourage adoption of electronic health records starting in 2011. These payments are to be phased out gradually and replaced by penalties beginning in 2015. The stimulus legislation also created the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and directed it to establish standards to attain interoperability and define key terms. Read more...
Cleveland Clinic CEO Worries Comparative Effectiveness Could Stifle Innovation Katherine Hobson Wall Street Journal: Health Blog, 8/20/10
The last time we looked at consumer effectiveness research basically defined as identifying which health care services work best under which circumstances it was consumers who were skeptical. Now its the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic whos expressing concern, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported yesterday. In response to a question after a speech, Toby Cosgrove said he wanted to ensure that manufacturers and investors would still be willing to make financial bets on unproven devices and drugs. He used the example of a heart valve, saying it now takes two decades to bring a new valve product to market and then assess the effectiveness. Read more...
Fast Track To Government Health Care Grace-Marie Turner Investor's Business Daily, 8/20/10
While there is broad agreement there are problems in our health sector that must be solved, the American people consistently have said they oppose government control. Yet many of the decisions now being made in the bowels of the bureaucracy could lead to a government system that people fear. The consequences of government involvement in health care have become more and more apparent as people have become informed about what the health overhaul law would do. No longer does the government seem to be a fairy godmother but rather a tough enforcer of an avalanche of new mandates, taxes and regulatory requirements. Read more...
Gov. Mitch Daniels Promotes NFIB Healthcare Lawsuit on Behalf of Small Business Owners
Obama Employs Politics of Fear in Social Security Debate The Oklahoman Editorial, 8/20/10
Obama used the massive retirement program's 75th birthday to claim the GOP wants to destroy it. Naturally, he hauled out a boogeyman: Some Republicans want to make "privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda" if they win a majority in Congress. Run for your lives! In fact, a leading proposal by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to reform Social Security, Medicare and health care includes giving Americans younger than 55 the option of investing up to one-third of their payroll taxes in private retirement accounts managed by the Social Security Administration but owned by the individual worker. Ryan's plan would preserve the current program for people 55 and older, while gradually raising the retirement age over the next 100 years. Is it a finished proposal? No, but it's a good starting point for a long-needed national discussion on Social Security's future. Read more...
Dems Retreat on Health Care Cost Pitch Ben Smith Politico, 8/20/10
Key White House allies are dramatically shifting their attempts to defend health care legislation, abandoning claims that it will reduce costs and deficit, and instead stressing a promise to "improve it." The messaging shift was circulated this afternoon on a conference call and PowerPoint presentation organized by FamiliesUSA one of the central groups in the push for the initial legislation. ... The confidential presentation, available in full here and provided to POLITICO by a source on the call, suggests that Democrats are acknowledging the failure of their predictions that the health care legislation would grow more popular after its passage, as its benefits became clear and rhetoric cooled. Instead, the presentation is designed to win over a skeptical public, and to defend the legislation and in particular the individual mandate from a push for repeal. Read more...
Opinion Journal: Who's Afraid of Paul Ryan?
Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans: HSA-Qualified Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans, administered by the Government Employees Health Association (GEHA), are HSA-qualified. Read more...
