Healthcare & Policy News
Reporting on health care policy, insurance coverage, and federal health programs. Includes news updates and conservative commentary from The Daily Signal.
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- Opinion
The Results Are In: Obamacare Is Driving Up Medicaid Rolls
An examination of Obamacare data reveals the president’s signature law has mostly been an expansion of the failing Medicaid program. In fact, the coverage numbers are far worse than the Congressional Budget Office projected in the summer of 2012. According to recent analysis by The Heritage Foundation, Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is responsible for almost all of…Sen. John Barrasso -
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Obamacare Co-Ops Cost Taxpayers $17,000 Per Enrollee
More than 500,000 people enrolled in health plans offered by nonprofit insurance companies created under the Affordable Care Act. And with the co-ops receiving an average of $108.7 million from the federal government, taxpayer-backed funding per enrollee topped $17,000. Twenty-three co-ops received a total of $2.5 billion from the federal government and enrolled more than…Melissa Quinn -
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One Year After Obamacare’s Implementation, Taxpayer-Funded Co-Ops Struggle to Survive
After receiving $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars from the federal government, the vast majority of nonprofit insurance companies created under the Affordable Care Act recorded losses in revenue, an analysis by The Daily Signal found. Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans, or co-ops, are nonprofit insurance companies created by the Affordable Care Act. Though the concept…Melissa Quinn -
- Opinion
Obamacare Makes Tax Time More Taxing
As Americans begin to file their 2014 taxes, they will encounter some new forms and paper work, thanks to burdens imposed by Obamacare’s flawed policies. First, taxpayers now must report their health insurance coverage status and that of their dependents. Those who were uninsured in 2014 either must file for one of the individual mandate’s…Alyene Senger -
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Cartoon: The Vaccine We Need
From Heritage Foundation's Romina Boccia and Michael Sargent: For the first time in his two terms in office, President Obama released his annual budget on time. This is a welcome step towards normalcy in the budget process, though one wonders why it took six years for the administration to decide it should adhere to the…Glenn Foden -
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Did Congress Lie About Key Facts to Obtain Obamacare Exemption?
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., wants to know why members of Congress and their staff are exempted from Obamacare. “Washington insiders should be forced to live under Obamacare just like the rest of America without a special taxpayer funded subsidy,” says @DavidVitter Vitter, who launched an investigation this week, said in a statement that “false information may have…Kate Scanlon -
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IRS Seeks 9,000 New Employees as It Prepares to Enforce Obamacare
As millions of Americans brace for tax season, the Internal Revenue Service is requesting a $2 billion boost to its budget and 9,000 new employees as it prepares to enforce Obamacare’s tax provisions. President Obama released his $4 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2016 this week, which includes $13.9 billion for the Internal Revenue…Melissa Quinn -
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Outbreak of Pro-Vaccine Sentiment From Rivals Afflicts Two White House Hopefuls
Potential candidates for president today rushed to endorse government-mandated vaccination shots for children after a media dustup over comments in support of parental choice from two other hopefuls. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, both considered players in the Republican field for 2016, made their remarks amid public concern over a measles outbreak…Ken McIntyre -
- Opinion
The House Just Voted to Repeal Obamacare. Why the Senate Should Do the Same.
The U.S. House of Representatives has voted for the fourth time to repeal—in full—the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The margin was 239 to 186. Now, the national debate moves to the Senate. For the past five years, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the former majority leader, protected U.S. senators from such a recorded vote. Senators will now…Robert Moffit -
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What’s Different About Today’s Obamacare Repeal Vote
Tuesday, for the fourth time, the U.S. House will vote to fully repeal Obamacare. What’s different, though, is that with a GOP-controlled Senate, Republicans can attack President Obama’s signature legislation on their own terms. The showdown over the Affordable Care Act comes as conservatives want GOP leaders to fulfill a campaign promise to repeal the…Kelsey Bolar -
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5 More Reasons to Completely Repeal Obamacare in 2015
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on repealing Obamacare this week. Heritage has already laid out five of the biggest reasons for Congress to repeal the entire law but because the law and its effects are so far-reaching, here are five more: Obamacare’s tax credits are overly complicated. The premium tax credits used…Alyene Senger -
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Ohio’s Obamacare Expansion Has Already Cost Over $2 Billion
Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion blew past projections in its first year, putting 471,452 Ohioans on Medicaid and costing taxpayers $2.1 billion. Because enrollment has so dramatically exceeded Kasich administration estimates—the governor expected 366,00 to enroll by July 2015—the Obamacare money appropriated to pay for program benefits will be exhausted months early. If recent…Jason Hart -
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If You Received a Higher Obamacare Subsidy Than You Were Eligible For, You Don’t Have to Pay It Back This Year
Ever since the individual health insurance mandate in Obamacare was upheld as a tax in 2012, taxpayers have been waiting to see how Obamacare affects their tax bill. TurboTax, an online tax service, recently estimated that the average tax penalty for lacking health insurance will be $301. When faced with unpopular requirements of law, the…Andrew Kloster -
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Republican Congressman Urges House Leadership to Use Reconciliation to Repeal Obamacare
Rep. John Fleming, R-La., is emboldening House leadership to embrace a budget tactic that would lower the threshold of votes needed to rollback provisions of Obamacare. “We all say that we want to repeal Obamacare, and we would all love a clean, full repeal,” Fleming said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “But the…Melissa Quinn -
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3 Problems With Indiana’s Medicaid Expansion
It’s official: Indiana has given in and adopted Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Before jumping into the weeds of Indiana’s Medicaid expansion agreement with the Obama administration, it is important to realize the agreement still fails some basic principles of reform. First, it adds more people on to the Medicaid rolls, not fewer. The Indiana plan puts…Nina Owcharenko Schaefer -
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Report: 12 Million People Predicted to Use Obamacare Exchanges This Year
The Congressional Budget Office’s new Budget and Economic Outlook includes some interesting projections regarding Obamacare. CBO director Douglas Elmendorf is testifying on the report at a Senate Budget Committee hearing Wednesday and hopefully some of these projections will be questioned: 1. Enrollment. The CBO projects that 12 million people will obtain coverage on the ACA’s…Alyene Senger -
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5 Takeaways from the CBO’s Report on Obamacare
A nonpartisan entity of the federal government has found that the Affordable Care Act will cost the government less than expected. However, the reduction in the law’s price tag comes among findings that millions of Americans could lose their employer-provided health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office came out with a report yesterday revising the costs…Melissa Quinn -
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Star Parker’s Personal Confession on Why She Is ‘Adamant’ About Ending Abortion
While speaking at ProLifeCon at the Family Research Council last week, nationally syndicated columnist Star Parker called abortion a “crime against humanity,” and lamented the four children she aborted before her conversion to Christianity. “I got caught up in the lies of the left,” she said, “including their lies about abortion.” Watch the video for the…Kate Scanlon -
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Carly Fiorina: ‘Hypocrisy of Liberals’ on Abortion Is ‘Breathtaking’
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina criticized House Republican leadership in a speech Saturday for their decision this week to postpone the vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, after some Republican House members objected to the legislation. She also took aim at the left as well, saying in her remarks at the Iowa…Daily Signal Staff -
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Audit: HHS Failure to Screen Obamacare Contract Recipients Cost Taxpayers $400M
An internal investigation into how the federal government awarded contracts for developing and building the Affordable Care Act’s most important public element — the online exchanges that were to be used by millions of Americans to purchase health insurance — has found the process was flawed. The investigation showed that The Department of Health and Human Services…Eric Boehm