Last Wednesday, August 23, 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that only one county, Paulding County, Ohio, would have no health insurers participating in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare. Admittingly, this was a very different scenario from what was anticipated just a few months ago. In June, the New York […]
The Summer of Healthcare Discontent
As the end of their summer recess approaches, the Republican-controlled Congress has still not done what it has promised to do since March 2010: repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, and allow consumer-driven forces to create more competition and choices in order to drive down healthcare costs. It has been said that Republicans behaved like a dog which had constantly chased after a car and then finally caught it: They were ill-prepared about what to do after Obamacare was snagged in their metaphorical jaws.
The FDA Should Pave the Way to Tobacco Harm Reduction
Passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) in June 2009 gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory control over tobacco products. The purpose of the TCA, as stated in the bill’s report language, was to permit the FDA “to restrict the sale and distribution of tobacco products, including advertising and promotion” and to “take specified actions, including public notification and recall, against unreasonably harmful products.” The law also required the FDA “to establish tobacco product standards to protect the public health” but prohibited the agency from “banning all cigarettes, all smokeless tobacco products, all little cigars, all cigars other than little cigars, all pipe tobacco, or all roll-your-own tobacco products,” or “requiring the reduction of nicotine yields of a tobacco product to zero.” Notably, the law also set forth standards for the sale of “modified-risk tobacco products.”
Wasteful Spending by Hospitals Increased Under Obamacare
In 1998, Citizens Against Government Waste released “Are You Getting Your Money’s Worth from Nonprofit Hospitals?” which analyzed the level of charity care nonprofit hospitals were providing to their local communities as a requirement under their tax exemptions. The report found that for-profit and nonprofit hospitals are not much different in terms of the charity they provide to their respective communities. The only difference is that taxpayers are subsidizing the nonprofits.
They Were for It Before They Were Against It
Healthcare reform is not going well for the Republicans, even though they have called for the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare, since the legislation was signed into law in 2010. Republicans have had seven years to write, debate, and agree to a plan to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something. They promised to repeal ACA for every election since 2010 and as a result, retook the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Presidency.
Time to Move Forward and Pass an Alternative to Obamacare
Today, the Senate leadership released their revisions to H.R. 1628, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) and there are some important changes. Whether the new language will be enough to garner the votes needed to pass a bill remains to be seen. Importantly, the legislation continues to eliminate many of the onerous taxes and provides relief from the mandates contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, and reforms Medicaid. The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste announced its support today for the legislation.
They’re Ba-ack! Congress Returns
With apologies to Poltergeist, the Congress returns this week from its Independence Day break. All eyes are on the Senate as the country wonders if the Republicans can come together and pass healthcare legislation that will stabilize the individual health insurance market that has been devastated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare.
Senate Delay on Obamacare Repeal is a Pothole in the Road
On June 27, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced there would be no vote on the Senate’s bill, H.R. 1628, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, until after the Independence Day recess. Capitol Hill staffers have said the delay is simply a “pothole in the road.” In other words, while efforts have slowed down, the legislative process is moving forward.
Obamacare Repeal and Replace: It’s the Senate’s Turn
Tomorrow, on June 22, Senators are supposed to receive a discussion draft of the Senate version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), an Obamacare repeal and replacement bill. Currently, the goal is to vote on the legislation next week, just before the July 4 recess. The House passed its version, H.R. 1628, on May 4, 2017, by a vote of 217 to 213. Everyone in Washington is anxiously waiting to see and review the draft bill.
Au Revoir, Paris Accord
On June 1, 2017 President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Treaty, often called the Paris Agreement or Accord. Based on the caterwauling and wringing of hands by environmentalists, the media, state and local officials, and foreign leaders, you would have thought that floods would be ensuing within days due to the polar ice caps melting overnight and the end of the world was nigh.