Health care reform

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Should health care exchanges go national?

James Pethokoukis | March 25, 2013, 3:59 pm

First a perfunctory “Obamacare delenda est.” Now onto reality. Reihan Salam offers a sensible choice, either a) push health care to the states and make them pay for the ACA exchange subsidies, or b) create a national exchange with the Feds … read more >

Economics, Health Care, Pethokoukis

Is the way to fix Obamacare … more Obamacare?

James Pethokoukis | February 20, 2013, 4:23 pm

Democrats from President Harry Truman onward have pushed for government-provided health insurance. And they thought their moment had arrived with the election of Barack Obama as president and huge Democratic majorities in Congress. It didn’t quite happen the way they … read more >

Economics, Pethokoukis

Will Obama’s health care reform accelerate the rise in health care spending?

James Pethokoukis | January 8, 2013, 10:52 am

For the third consecutive year — 2009-2011 — US health care spending rose at the historically low rate of 3.9%, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s good news given the way rising health care costs have inflated … read more >

Economics, Health Care

If you don’t buy insurance, will you really pay the tax?

Michael R. Strain | July 20, 2012, 10:17 am

My AEI colleague Joseph Antos and I discuss the limits ObamaCare places on the IRS’s ability to enforce the individual mandate: What happens most of the time is very simple: If you refuse to pay your taxes, then the government … read more >

Pethokoukis

Yes, there is a free-market alternative to Obamacare

James Pethokoukis | July 3, 2012, 12:55 pm

It often seems that supporters of President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act see only two ways to reform American health care: either PPACA or some version of a single-payer system. What both have in common is a lot more … read more >

Pethokoukis

U.S. Supreme Court upholds individual mandate and Obamacare

James Pethokoukis | June 28, 2012, 10:27 am

So the SCOTUS has decided, in an opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, that Obamacare’s individual mandate is upheld since it is within Congress’s taxing power. This, via SCOTUSblog, is the key quote: Our precedent demonstrates that Congress had the … read more >

Pethokoukis

Health care reform: Does Supreme Court’s Arizona immigration decision make anti-Obamacare ruling more likely?

James Pethokoukis | June 25, 2012, 11:16 am

Looking ahead to the PPACA decision due out, it seems, on Thursday, I wonder if this decision doesn’t somewhat inoculate the SCOTUS to charges that it is a cabal of anti-Obama, right-wing activists. read more >

Pethokoukis

More evidence Obamacare distracted Obama from the economy

James Pethokoukis | June 13, 2012, 2:25 pm

It’s more than just a GOP talking point. The push for healthcare reform in 2009 and 2010 does seem to have distracted the Obama administration from focusing more on boosting economic growth and job creation. Some Obama allies, like Ezra … read more >

Economics

The Big Distraction: Yes, Obamacare diverted Obama from helping the economy

James Pethokoukis | June 7, 2012, 2:28 pm

Mitt Romney is accusing President Obama of having put his legacy—in the form of healthcare reform—ahead of the economy back in 2009, saying the president ”knowingly slowed down the recovery in this country… in order to put in place Obamacare.” Part … read more >

Economics, Entitlements

Key Obamacare architect endorses Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan

James Pethokoukis | May 21, 2012, 4:03 pm

First private equity and now the Ryan Plan. Will MIT economist Jon Gruber have to do a Cory Booker-like retraction (via the WaPo): One health policy idea he thinks could work, albeit in the future, would be a premium support model akin … read more >