WASHINGTON (AP) — Starting in 2012, the government will charge a new fee to your health insurance plan for research to find out which drugs, medical procedures, tests and treatments work best. But what will Americans do with the answers?

The goal of the research, part of a little-known provision of President Barack Obama’s health care law, is to answer such basic questions as whether that new prescription drug advertised on TV really works better than an old generic costing much less.

But in the politically charged environment surrounding health care, the idea of medical effectiveness research is eyed with suspicion. The insurance fee could be branded a tax and drawn into the vortex of election-year politics.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute – a quasi-governmental agency created by Congress to carry out the research – has yet to commission a single head-to-head comparison, although its director is anxious to begin. (more…)

LAS VEGAS – While the Great Recession has affected almost all Americans, Nevadans may be the hardest hit. The state leads the nation in unemployment (13 percent) and home foreclosures (three times the national average).

Because of the faltering economy and slowed tax revenue, the Clark County School District needs to cut $78 million from its budget over the next two years. The district must do this either by freezing teacher pay and finding a more affordable employee health insurance carrier, or by laying off 1,000 educators as early as next month.

The first alternative is obviously preferable, because students would be adversely affected by larger class sizes and the loss of many enthusiastic young teachers. Unfortunately, the second option may be unavoidable, because the district has been unable to negotiate a new contract with its teachers union, the Clark County Education Association (CCEA).

CCSD is the fifth largest school district in the nation, serving around 310,000 students in 340 schools in and around Las Vegas. The district is also the largest employer in Nevada with some 33,000 employees, 18,000 of which are teachers.

The main sticking point seems to be the district’s desire to find a less expensive health insurance provider. CCEA members currently receive health insurance from the Teachers Health Trust, a company actually owned and operated by their union. (more…)

From Reuters:

A key recommendation for medical coverage standards under President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul will be released on October 7, according to the organization preparing the report.

The Department of Health and Human Services has asked the influential Institute of Medicine, an independent agency in Washington, to recommend how HHS should determine the basic health benefits for millions of Americans who will qualify for coverage sold through insurance exchanges beginning in 2014.

IOM spokeswoman Christine Stencel on Thursday said the agency will release the report on October 7, just a week later than the self-imposed deadline of the end of September.

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From the Associated Press:

States and a business group opposed to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday for a speedy ruling that puts an end to the law aimed at extending insurance coverage to more than 30 million people.

The high court should strike down the entire law, not just the main requirement that individuals purchase insurance or pay a penalty beginning in 2014, their appeals said.

The filings, on behalf of 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business, also said the justices should act before the 2012 presidential election because of uncertainty over costs and requirements.

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From the Washington Examiner:

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman, and doctor, Howard Dean backed a McKinsey & Co. survey today that found that almost a third of private-sector employers will drop their employee health insurance coverage when Obamacare’s government-managed insurance exchanges come online.

Dean told Morning Joe, “The fact is it is very good for small business. There was a McKinsey study, which the Democrats don’t like, but I do, and I think its true. Most small businesses are not going to be in the health insurance business anymore after this thing goes into effect.”

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Imagine America faces a crisis of malnutrition. Millions of Americans are consuming too many processed foods and too few fresh foods. To stem the crisis, Congress enacts a comprehensive food reform law, requiring food sellers to meet minimum nutritional standards and provide access to healthy foods. The new law makes food more expensive, and many Americans opt out of the food market altogether, choosing to grow their own food instead. The food industry teeters on the verge of collapse. To prevent this collapse, Congress passes another law mandating that individuals buy a minimum amount of healthy food each month. Individuals who fail to buy the minimum amount face a stiff penalty.

Can Congress do this? Does the Constitution give the federal government power to make you buy healthy food? These questions are the heart of the Obamacare lawsuits—merely substitute “health insurance” for “healthy food.” If Obamacare’s health insurance mandate is upheld—as the federal Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in late June—individual liberty is in serious long-term jeopardy.

The rationale behind forcing individuals to buy health insurance versus healthy food is indistinguishable. The Obama Administration contends that, if people aren’t forced to buy health insurance, the market will collapse. Because Obamacare made health insurance more expensive—doing things like forbidding insurers from excluding those with preexisting conditions—many Americans, particularly healthy young people, would have decided to stay out of the health insurance market altogether and “self-insure.” Government must force these people to buy health insurance, the argument goes, to capture their premium dollars and help subsidize older, sicker people, keeping the overall market affordable and viable.

No matter how ardently you believe the health care system is flawed, or how angry you are at insurance companies, you must resist the temptation to let these considerations distract you from the broader and critically important constitutional choice posed by the health reform litigation. At stake are two related constitutional concepts: “federalism” and “limited and enumerated powers.” These concepts aren’t just quaint, outdated relics. They aren’t about “states’ rights.” They are both designed to protect individual liberty by restraining government’s innate tendency toward ever-expanding power.

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After the birth of our second daughter, my husband and I knew we needed some sort of contraceptive. Not ready for #3, and unwilling to give up the very activity that could lead to another ankle-biter, we decided to take advantage of modern medicine and use birth control.

We settled on the Mirena (and now you know way more about my uterus than you probably wanted to), even though it wasn’t covered by our insurance plan. It cost close to $500, but was economically worth it for us for its longevity. The pharmaceutical company I bought it from negotiated a payment plan with me, and after $35 a month for a year, the thing was paid for.

Sure, it would’ve been nice if insurance had covered it, but it didn’t. It was their choice not to cover the device, and my choice to use it anyway. Key word? Choice.

Obamacare robs American individuals and businesses of free choice at every turn, in the name of the common good. Don’t want to spend money on health insurance? Too bad, now everyone has to buy it.

One of the latest requirements to hit insurers in the U.S. is the birth control mandate. Starting January 1, 2013, health care providers will be legally obligated to offer birth control-with no co pay-to anyone that wants it. This sanction falls under the umbrella of women’s preventative care as written in Obamacare.

Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius says:

“These historic guidelines are based on science and existing (medical) literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need.”

This isn’t about helping women obtain contraceptives; this is about exerting control over yet another portion of U.S. business. Women already have access to birth control for little or no money. Medicaid (government-sponsored medical care for those that meet income guidelines) covers contraceptives. Planned Parenthood hands out condoms like they’re candy. Walmart fills birth control pill prescriptions for as little as $9 per month.

In other words: If a woman really can’t afford contraceptives, she won’t have a problem getting them anyway.

(more…)

President Obama says he doesn’t like bullies. The White House has even launched a website to help kids and parents recognize the signs of bullying and advise them on how to get help.

Maybe the White House should take its own advice, as the individual mandate portion of Obamacare is nothing short of bullying American citizens into purchasing something they may or may not want or need.

Take a look at this short video from Momthink.org:

The video depicts a group of kids playing on a playground, and a big, mean bully coming in and forcing them all to buy lemonade – whether they want it or not. The idea is that the kids playing are Americans, and the lemonade stand bully is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The bully demands that the children purchase his lemonade, and when they can’t afford it, he takes their toys as payment.

The White House articulates three points that bullying involves: 1) An imbalance of power, 2) Intent to cause harm, and 3) Repetition. Let’s take a look at how these concepts apply to the individual mandate laid out in section 1501 of the health care law.

(more…)

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech discuss the recent McKinsey health insurance survey, the inability of children to gain access to medical care through Medicaid, and the costs that program has shoveled upon states.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

The McKinsey Health Insurance Survey Was Rigorous, After All
New England Journal: Two-Thirds of Medicaid Children Denied a Doctor’s Appointment, vs. 11% for the Privately Insured
Children on Medicaid Shown to Wait Longer for Care
Auditing Access to Specialty Care for Children with Public Insurance
New Study: Medicaid’s Access Problem With Dentists and Clinics
Medicaid’s Access Failure
States Battle Over Medicaid Eligibility
Reform Medicaid

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The debate about healthcare coming from the Democrats is steeped in purposeful misdirection on one hand and a complete lack of any real knowledge about what Obamacare will even do on the other. It is also a major overreach on a federalism level which is why it is hard to understand why more people aren’t talking about the Healthcare Compact plan (healthcarecompact.org).14 states have already signed onto it and has even been signed into law in two of them, Georgia and Oklahoma.

Of course, the problem is that we are expected to believe that Obamacare — which is essentially a nationalized healthcare policy — will work just fine on a national level. Despite that history has proven over and over again that centralized planning simply does not work, most especially with something as unwieldy and complicated as healthcare.

It doesn’t help that we are not being told the truth by those pushing Obama’s plan, either. Many times the president has claimed that with Obamacare you can “keep your health care plan” if you like it, you can keep your doctor if you like him. This, however, has been generously called a “questionable” promise. And that isn’t the only untruth coming from Obamacare supporters.

Just this week it was revealed that as much as 30% of the businesses in America that offer their employees healthcare plans will stop that practice once Obamacare kicks in. This number is likely low, too, as once bigger businesses start to jettison their healthcare plans it will start a snowball rolling down hill that will gather up nearly every other business with it.

Even the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is compromised at this on in the debate. The CBO has just hired an Obamacare pusher straight from the White House to become the CBO’s deputy assistant director in its Health and Human Resources (HHR) Office. This woman, Melinda Beeuwkes, has been an advocate of Obamacare, worked to push Obamacare in Obama’s administration, and has been a large donor to Democrats and Obama both.

(more…)

The obvious question is why?  Why would the Obama administration who boasted open and transparent discussions of such a sensitive subject as healthcare close the door to the opportunity to present its factual case to the American people?  Messaging anyone?  Nope.

Complying with the records request from the House Energy and Commerce Committee “would constitute a vast and expensive undertaking” and could “implicate longstanding executive branch confidentiality interests,” White House lawyer Robert Bauer wrote the committee. Translation: Nice try.

Before the Democrats rammed through the Obamacare bill (and don’t think for one little ol’ minute that our narcissistic President doesn’t love that branding), Obama and WH officials met with several high-profile insurance executives as the WaPo lists:

The list included George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Health Plans; Scott Serota, president and CEO of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; Kenneth Kies, a Washington lobbyist representing Blue Cross/Blue Shield, among other clients; Billy Tauzin, then head of PhRMA, the drug industry lobby; Richard Umbdenstock, chief of the American Hospital Association; and numerous others.

The most concerning is George Halvorson as he was the only executive to meet with Obama.  And here is why:

(more…)

A second federal judge has just ruled that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority when it mandated that most Americans must purchase health insurance starting in 2014.

Whatever the Supreme Court eventually decides on that constitutional question, the so-called “individual mandate” is an unprecedented expansion of government power.

The government has long claimed the power to coerce you not to act in specific ways.  In other words, the government says “You can’t do X.”  This happens, for example, when a law says you can’t drive above the speed limit or steal from your neighbor.

The government also claims the power to coerce you to act in specific ways, but when it does so, it rarely says “You must do X.”  Instead it says, “If you choose to do X, you must do X in a certain manner.”  For example, if you choose to build a house, you must comply with building codes.  Or it says, “If you choose to do X, you must do Y as well.”  If you choose to earn taxable income, you must file a tax return and pay a tax; or if you choose to drive a car on public roads, you must purchase auto insurance.

Until now, the only time the federal government has flat out said “You must do X” has been in the case of military conscription.  In that case, the government coercion has had nothing to do with a choice you’ve made.  It has applied merely because you reside in this country. (State laws requiring the education of children are similar.)

The Obamacare individual mandate is like military conscription.

(more…)

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Director Dr. Donald Berwick and Chief Actuary Rick Foster testified before the Ways and Means Committee today to provide answers to pressing questions about the trillion dollar health care law.  Dr. Berwick, having been in office eight months, had never testified before the Ways and Means Committee even though the committee oversees health care policy for the entire country.  Chief Actuary Foster didn’t testify before the committee in the last Congress even though health care was being “debated.”

To put it in perspective two Obama Administration officials control a budget at CMS larger than the entire budget of the Department of Defense.

Play the videos or read the excerpts of CMS Director Berwick’s evasive responses followed by excerpts from Chief Actuary Foster’s testimony.

Dr. Berwick

What is your opinion on a rationing system and universal health care?

Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp: “Well, regarding the British National health service, you made a statement, and that is a service that is notorious for rationing care, you said and I quote ‘I fell in love with the NHS…to an American observer, the NHS is such a seductress.’ Are you still in love with the NHS?”

Dr. Berwick: “There are strengths and weaknesses for every health care system around the world.”

Chairman Camp: “Well you also wrote and I am quoting here, ‘I admit to my own devotion to a single-payer mechanism as the only sensible approach to health care finance I can think of.’ Do you still feel a government run single payer health care system is the only sensible approach?”

Dr. Berwick: “I am really excited by the promise the Affordable Health Care Act offers, Mr. Chairman, to American health care.”

Is there anything you would change to the Democrats’ Health Law?

Rep. Dave Reichert (WA): “Is there anything that stands out in your mind that you would change? What don’t you like about the bill, or is it all good?”

Dr. Berwick: “It is a very complicated bill sir.”

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So the latest disappointing news from the Republican leadership in Congress comes from Majority Whip in waiting, Eric Cantor.  As Whip, Congressman Cantor carries the message of the caucus.  So what does he think about healthcare?  Does he support full repeal of Obamacare?  Does he share the view of most Americans that the federal government should get back into its Constitutional cage and get out of health care, education, mohair subsidies and a host of other spheres of American life over which they should have zero sway?  Nope!  Sadly, Congressman Cantor has just affirmed our worst fear.  He thinks the federal government should absolutely be regulating health care and guaranteeing Americans “free stuff”.

I suppose the Congressman fancies himself a limited government fiscal conservative.  Ok.  What does that mean?  I thought it meant that the federal government should handle basic things like fighting wars and coining money (and please coin way less than you are).  Everything else should be left to the “several states”.

But hey, at least the Republican leadership wants to give us less free stuff than the Democrats.  Here is what Cantor says about Obamacare:

“We too don’t want to accept any insurance company’s denial of someone and coverage for that person because he or she might have a pre-existing condition,” he said. “Likewise we want to make sure that someone of your age has the ability to access affordable care if it’s under your parent’s plan or elsewhere.”

So, the Democrat are promising a chicken in every pot and the Republicans are promising a nice broth.  Great message guys.   Certainly your pollsters really dug deep for that.

(more…)

111 companies and organizations were granted waivers by Obama’s Dept. of Health and Human Services so that they could get out of having to comply with Obamacare and unions were particularly well rewarded by the HHS with these waivers.

Interestingly, there was no great announcement of these waivers issued to the press. The HHS buried the waiver announcement six layers deep on its webpage and posted them on Friday when they imagined no one would notice. It’s a typical Friday evening document dump so common when an administration wants to avoid the prying eyes of the people. So much for the “most transparent administration in history,” eh?

One thing is sure about these waivers. Obama rewarded his union pals quite well. Som 15 unions and union healthcare or financial fund and insurance providers fill the list of companies and groups that will not have to operate under Obamacare’s destructive rules.

• The Service Employees Benefit Fund
• United Food and Commercial Workers Allied Trade Health & Welfare Trust Fund
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union No. 195
• Asbestos Workers Local 53 Welfare Fund
• Employees Security Funds
• Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 123 Welfare Fund
• United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227
• United Food and Commercial Workers Maximus Local 455
• Service Employees International Union Local 25
• United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1262
• Musicians Health Fund Local 802
• Hospitality Benefit Fund Local 17
• Transport Workers Union
• United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund
• International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (AFL-CIO)

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Since when did it become OK to run right over the majority views of the American people?

Since never.

When Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid decided it was more important to cut deals with interest groups and each other to pass the Health Care Act than actually follow the will of the people, they betrayed their oaths of office— and they betrayed us.

At every turn Americans were misled in the politician’s zeal to deliver a brand new social program to make citizens dependent on government—and entirely political—decisions about health care. Well, here’s a little news flash for Washington power brokers, pundits and political schemers–in politics we have the last word and we will on ObamaCare.

They said that health care costs would be controlled—they weren’t. They said that taxes and private insurance premiums won’t go up—they are. They said that healthcare won’t be rationed—it will. They said that this will help, not hurt, the national economy and the national debt—it won’t.

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Some of Obamacare’s most destructive forces are quickly becoming common knowledge. We have, for instance, become painfully aware that Obama’s claim that we all could keep our plans and doctors “if you like them” is an outright falsehood as some people are already losing their coverage.

It is also becoming clear that companies will be dropping plans all over the place making a lie of the idea that plans will be cheaper and easier to get once Obamacre comes into force. Another aspect of the destructive nature of this top down-style of “healthcare” is that once government takes over the system Democrats will assume they have the power to force religious-based healthcare providers to perform abortions and this will cause thousands of facilities to close down. This will, of course, make care even harder to get in many cities across the nation as hospital beds are lost in great numbers.

In fact, we are already seeing this disastrous situation of closing hospitals playing out in Scranton, Pennsylvania where three Catholic-operated hospitals are likely going to be shut down and/or sold off because of the negative affects Obamacare will have on these facilities.

Kevin Cook, the CEO of Mercy Health Partners, the company that operates these three hospitals, told WNEP TV News that Obamacare “absolutely” playing a role in the decision to sell off the facilities.

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“…to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.”

John Adams, Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin, Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1780

In a blatantly unconstitutional move, the Feds have let McDonalds off the hook from some of ObamaCare’s requirements. This violation of the Equal Protection clause is just one more reminder, as if we needed it, that D.C. is now completely ignoring the rule of law and deciding issues based on political pressure and pull.

“McDonald’s and 29 other firms have received waivers from a requirement to up the minimum benefit covered by insurance, making it possible for their employees to continue to buy low-cost coverage. But thousands of other workers are not exempted and will not be able to afford the government’s idea of good insurance.

Starting next year, insurers will be required to cover up to $750,000 in costs, ratcheting up over the next few years so that coverage must be unlimited by 2014. The administration calls that a consumer protection, but it only protects you if you can afford it.

Firms that hire low-wage workers, such as McDonald’s, can offer “mini-med” plans that provide lower benefits than a typical comprehensive health plan at a correspondingly lower cost. By far the most popular mini-med plan offered by McDonald’s costs $24.30 a week and covers doctor visits, hospital stays, and some prescription drugs, up to $5,000 each year.

Raising the benefit cap to $750,000 would put insurance out of reach for workers who clearly want coverage. They are buying that insurance with their own money, without the government telling them they have to. Fortunately, they can now keep that coverage, at least for next year.

True, that’s always gone on. But it used to be hidden, and when discovered heads rolled. Or, at least newspaper headlines made the perpetrators uncomfortable. Now, it’s done in the open and without apology. Though Sebelius did offer this quasi-defense: “We can’t waive a regulation that doesn’t exist.”

(more…)

The Obama-Pelosi Regime took control of one-sixth of the nation’s economy when they passed their nationalized health care bill and signed it into law in late March. The bill was never popular but Democrats persisted and rammed the bill through Congress. Now, there are even reports that the Obama Administration sat on damning information and hid it from the public until after their bill was passed into law.
* * * * *

Results from a report released a month after the health care vote were troubling. The report released by Medicare and Medicaid actuaries showed that medical costs will skyrocket rising $389 billion 10 years. 14 million will lose their employer-based coverage. Millions of Americans will be left without insurance. And, millions more may be dumped into the already overwhelmed Medicaid system. 4 million American families will be hit with tax penalties under this new law.

Of course, these were ALL things that President Obama and Democratic leaders assured us would not happen.

Via Special Report:

Six months after democrats voted to take over the nation’s health care industry and force Americans to purchase their government plan the administration has already missed several deadlines. Here are a few stats on this awful bill:

–4,103 – Pages of regulations issued on the health care law through Sept. 17, 2010
–12 – Number of final regulations not subjected to public scrutiny before taking effect
–5 – Missed implementation deadlines to date.

Rep. Michael Burgess M.D. (R-TX), the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Regulations called for Secretary Sebelius to come before the committee and explain some of her troubling comments and the flawed bill.

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Today is the six-month anniversary of the passage of President Obama’s signature legislation, what has come to be known as ObamaCare.  The White House is feting this semi-anniversary, but few Americans are in a mood to join the celebration.

Obama, who can be thin-skinned when people disagree with him, was downright irritated when the early polls showed that a majority of Americans opposed his health care “reform” bill.  On April 1, he criticized the polls as premature, saying “So before we find out if people like health care reform, we should wait to see what happens when we actually put it into place.  Just a thought.”

The problem with his argument is that the more Americans find out what is actually in this monstrosity of a bill, the less they like it.  Polls conducted by Rasmussen Reports show that 55 percent of the public supported the repeal of ObamaCare on March 25, just two days after its passage.  Today, a half-year later, the number of those favoring repeal has grown to 61 percent.

I am not one to call the President a liar.  I have too much respect for the office held by giants like George Washington and Ronald Reagan for that.  But I do believe that much of what Obama has said about his own health care bill is simply not true.  He claimed in Maine that people could keep their own health insurance, in Maryland that people could keep their own doctors.  In Washington, DC, he promised that his plan would cut costs but would not lead to the rationing of care.  He has consistently claimed that it would not fund abortions, and that its “end-of-life visits” would not lead to euthanasia.

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