Thanks to former Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak and his group of seven pro-life Democrats, women across their districts face higher insurance premiums today.
In a report on its website, the credit rating firm Moody's pushes for Medicaid expansion. The firm warns that states who do not expand Medicaid will face "political and budgetary pressure."
The closer we get to the launch date for full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the more it appears to contradict its own, essential premises.
Mitt Romney may have tied his dog’s kennel to the top of his car and made him ride in it, but at least he didn’t make it harder for everyone else’s dog to get to the vet. The same cannot be said of President Obama and his signature legislation.
When Chris Wallace asked Mitt Romney on Fox News Sunday why he lost the election, one of the reasons Romney gave was, “Obamacare was very attractive, particularly [for] those without health insurance, and they came out in large numbers to vote, so that was part of a successful campaign.” Like much of the Republican response to the 2012 election, this is exactly the opposite conclusion from that which should be drawn.
Much of Obamacare wasn’t passed as fixed law but rather as an open-ended invitation for the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make law, our constitutional separation of powers notwithstanding. That’s how the requirement came about that essentially all health plans must hereafter give privileged status to birth control pills, sterilization, and the abortion drug ella.
There is a lot about Obamacare that can stimulate awe. Not least the fact that it turns the concept of "insurance" on its head. Imagine if you could buy automobile insurance after you had totaled your car. Or life insurance after the doctor tells you that it is time to get your affairs in order.
David Goldhill is a liberal Democratic business executive whose father was killed by a hospital-borne infection several years ago. The experience drove him to study the American health care system in search of an explanation. “How is it possible,” he writes, “that my father’s death was an avoidable accident with no one to blame?” The answer shocked him.
Goldhill discovered that health care is unlike any other industry:
Ever since outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced a week ago that the U.S. military would lift its ban on women in combat roles, the debate, which has been simmering for decades, boiled up again. Much of the argument has centered on cultural, social, and morale-related effects that such a change would bring about, though other practical issues have been raised as well. However, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released just this week may bring some other considerations to the fore, among them, the financial impact.
President Obama, take note. Small business owners think Washington has become increasingly hostile in recent years to free enterprise and thus to job creation, a survey conducted last week found. And his policies are part of the problem.
President Barack Obama said that he stands by the medical device tax in Obamacare, despite growing bipartisan opposition:
"No," Obama told WCCO in an interview today, when asked whether he's changed his mind about the medical device tax. "And here's why: The health care bill is going to provide those medical device companies 30 million new customers. It's going to be great for business. And they're doing really well right now."
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