Obamacare
March 30, 2013 — John Hinderaker
A reader who heads an investment group came across this disclosure in a prospectus issued in connection with the recapitalization of a family-oriented restaurant chain. This isn’t a political statement, it is a legally-mandated disclosure to prospective investors, which renders the issuer liable if it isn’t true: Although [XXX] already offers health care, there is expected to be an increase in costs associated with the affordable health care act (“ACA,”
»
March 23, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In the new issue of the Weekly Standard, Jay Cost argues that Obamacare isn’t forever. After a big windup, Jay delivers a changeup. He doesn’t foresee Obamacare going away any time soon; it has too big a constituency for its benefits. He postulates that the health-insurance exchanges that will be established under Obamacare provide a mechanism for modulating Obamacare in some beneficial (if unspecified) respect. According to the Washington Post’s
»
March 17, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Last month, Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott announced his consent to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion in the Sunshine State. As we observed at the time, however, Scott agreed only to support the expansion if the legislature votes in favor of it, a condition that might very well not be satisfied. Since then, Republicans in both chambers of the Florida legislature have blocked the Medicaid expansion in committee. And Will Weatherford, Florida’s
»
March 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The Democrats knew what they were doing when they deferred the implementation of most provisions of Obamacare until after the 2012 election. What is surprising, really, is that Obamacare has been so unpopular, given that most of its baleful effects have not yet been felt. But it won’t be long now. The Associated Press reports that health insurers are warning of massive price increases beginning next year: Some Americans could
»
March 12, 2013 — Steven Hayward
The then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (and may she remain forever a former Speaker) took a lot of ridicule during the debate over the passage of Obamacare when she said that we’d have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it. I thought the critics had this all wrong. It was, in fact, the most intelligent thing she ever said, albeit unintentionally. What counts is, as Machiavelli put it,
»
February 26, 2013 — John Hinderaker
President Obama sold the voters a bill of goods on Obamacare. In obvious defiance of the facts, the administration claimed that Obamacare would help solve the federal government’s budget crisis, and enlisted the Congressional Budget Office in its effort. The administration gave the CBO a number of bogus assumptions that CBO was required to work with, and in its most transparent ploy, told the CBO to model a ten-year window
»
February 24, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
As has widely been reported, Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott recently agreed to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion for the Sunshine State. However, Avik Roy (co-author of a good piece on why the expansion is a bad idea) explains that this doesn’t mean that the expansion will occur in Florida. Roy relies on the reporting of Tia Mitchell of the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald, who covers health care developments
»
February 23, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The mandate to offer health insurance doesn’t take effect until 2014, but the “measurement period” used to determine a whether an employer has enough full-time employees to be required to offer health insurance commenced last month. Thus, as the Wall Street Journal reports, the perverse effects of Obamacare are starting to kick in. Under Obamacare, firms with 50 or more “full-time equivalent workers” must offer health plans to employees who
»
February 13, 2013 — John Hinderaker
2013 is the Chinese Year of the Snake, and also the year in which many of Obamacare’s most damaging features will come into being. Coincidence? Michael Ramirez thinks not:
»
February 9, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Introduced by Senator Jeff Sessions, Dr. Benjamin Carson spoke on Thursday this week at the National Prayer Breakfast to an audience that included President and Mrs. Obama up on the dais. Dr. Carson is a pediatric neurosurgeon who has lived a life of incredible accomplishment defying seemingly impossible odds. Watching the video, however, I couldn’t help but wonder if Dr. Carson might not have a greater contribution to make outside
»
February 4, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In the 2012 election results I learned that just about everything I “know” is wrong. One thing I thought I knew was that the average American’s natural sense of religious tolerance would be grossly offended by the Obamacare contraception mandate. False! And that the average American would find the administration’s hypothetical solution — the magical provision of the contraceptive benefit at no expense to objecting religious institutions (narrowly defined) —
»
January 31, 2013 — Steven Hayward
No, that headline is not a pop culture reference to the news that Jim Nabors (“Gomer Pyle”) has married his partner, though I was a little surprised that Nabors is still alive. Rather this refers to the “unexpected” news out today of more and more “glitches” in Obamacare as it rolls out. First, it seems there’s a “glitch” that makes some low income people ineligible for coverage. From the Puffington
»
January 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
What to do about Obamacare? With Obama reelected and with implementation of the law (and regulations) scheduled to kick in next year, the nightmare is almost upon us. I haven’t seen much creative thinking about our options. What to do? In the new issue of the Weekly Standard, James Capretta and Jeffrey Anderson propose “Delay, repeal, replace.” Their proposal has a lot of moving parts. Realistic or not, the proposal
»
January 8, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The United States is over $16 trillion in debt. The point is rapidly approaching where our young people cannot look forward to a prosperous future, and in November voters chose to make matters worse rather than better. Michael Ramirez depicts the avalanche that is about to descend on our heads:
»
December 22, 2012 — Scott Johnson
One of my bold predictions for 2013 — coming soon! — is that Obamacare will experience “unexpected” glitches as the date of full implementation approaches. As of the applicable deadline this week, only 17 states had officially declared that they would take full responsibility for creating their own Obamacare health care exchanges. Peter Suderman reviews a few of the “unexpected” glitches. Another of my bold predictions is that none of
»
December 14, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
In the post below, I discussed the news that most states apparently are unwilling to establish health insurance exchanges, a key element of Obamacare. Accordingly, it will be up to the federal government to set up an exchange for individuals living in these states. But Congress didn’t allocate money for administering federal exchanges. Moreover, it can be argued that the law as written seems to prohibit federally run exchanges from
»
December 13, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Last month, I noted that even though Obamacare survived Supreme Court review and the presidential election, it is not a done deal. Why? Because the law is heavily dependent on state implementation, and some states might not do the federal government’s bidding. Specifically, they might not set up state health-insurance exchanges, which are a central component of Obamacare. Today comes word that, on the eve of a federal deadline for
»
