Tag: ACA

A ‘Sick Joke’: Democrats Attack Health Secretary on Pre-existing Conditions Image

The following article by Robert Pear was posted on the New York Times website June 12, 2018:

Alex M. Azar II, Secretary of Health and Human Services, conceded that President Trump’s promise late last month that drug companies would come forward with “voluntary massive drops in prices” within two weeks might not be fulfilled by that deadline. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite, AP

WASHINGTON — Democratic senators blistered President Trump’s health secretary on Tuesday, telling him that the Trump administration’s efforts to undo health insurance protections for people with pre-existing conditions made a mockery of the president’s campaign to rein in prescription drug prices.

The secretary of health and human services, Alex M. Azar II, told Congress that he would be glad to work with lawmakers on legislation — “alternatives to the Affordable Care Act, modifications of the Affordable Care Act” — to provide access to insurance for people with pre-existing conditions. Continue reading “A ‘Sick Joke’: Democrats Attack Health Secretary on Pre-existing Conditions Image”

Rate Filings Make Clear ACA Sabotage is Driving Premiums Up

The following article by Thomas Huelskoetter and Madeline Twomey was posted on the Center for American Progress website June 13, 2018:

Hundreds of people show up to a rally to protest the Trump administration’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act, February 25, 2017, in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Credit: Getty/NurPhoto, Bastiaan Slabbers

Last year, as part of the recently passed tax law, Congress repealed the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate penalty, despite estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that this would increase average individual market premiums by 10 percent. The individual mandate fined people who chose to remain uninsured in order to encourage younger and healthier people to purchase health coverage. This resulted in a healthier insurance pool, lowering premiums for everyone.

In recent weeks, state have begun to hit their deadlines for insurers to file their proposed individual market premium rates. The emerging trend from these rate filings is clear: Congress’ repeal of the mandate penalty is significantly driving up premiums.

In many states thus far, insurer rate filings have explicitly pointed to Congress’ actions as a major driver of premium increases.

Continue reading “Rate Filings Make Clear ACA Sabotage is Driving Premiums Up”

Trump’s Justice Department says the ACA is unconstitutional

The following article by Sam Baker was posted on the Axios website June 7, 2018:

The Justice Department will not defend the Affordable Care Act in court, and says it believes the law’s individual mandate — the provision the Supreme Court upheld in 2012 — has become unconstitutional.

Why it matters: The Justice Department almost always defends federal laws when they’re challenged in court. Its departure from that norm in this case is a major development — career DOJ lawyers removed themselves from the case as the department announced this shift in its position.

The details: The ACA’s individual mandate requires most people to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty. The Supreme Court upheld that in 2012 as a valid use of Congress’ taxing power. Continue reading “Trump’s Justice Department says the ACA is unconstitutional”

Obamacare bringing people together instead of dividing them

Some of Obamacare’s loudest critics are now defending the law in court

By Paige Winfield Cunningham, Washington Post, June 15

For once, Obamacare is bringing people together instead of dividing them. Believe it or not, five prominent scholars who have been sharply divided over past courtroom kerfuffles over the Affordable Care Act are uniting in opposition to the health-care law’s latest challenge.

Their argument, detailed in a friend-of-the-court brief filed yesterday, represents an usual alliance among liberal, conservative and libertarian legal minds — and could signify President Trump’s administration is going out on a shaky limb by refusing to defend the ACA in court.

The five include Jonathan Adler and Ilya Somin — two libertarian-minded professors at Case Western Reserve University and George Mason University who both argued the ACA’s individual mandate to buy insurance is unconstitutional when the Supreme Court considered that question back in 2012.

Kevin Walsh, a conservative who teaches law at the University of Richmond, has also signed on. While he agreed with the reasoning Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. used to uphold the mandate, he sided against ACA subsidies in the later King v. Burwell case. Walsh is known as a prominent expert on what’s known as “severability doctrine,” which outlines when a court must strike down a law because it has found one piece of it to be unconstitutional.  more

White House report uses fuzzy logic to tout ‘insurer profitability’ in Obamacare

The following article by by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website April 6, 2018:

The president misleadingly correlates insurance company’s rising stock prices to profits related to Obamacare, but they are not one in the same. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“Health insurer profitability in the individual market has risen due to substantial premium increases, government premium tax credits that pay for those premium increases, and the large, government-funded, Medicaid expansion. Since ACA implementation on January 1, 2014, health insurance stocks outperformed the S&P 500 by 106 percent.”
— executive summary, “The Profitability of Health Insurance Companies,” White House Council of Economic Advisers, March 2018

This fact check has been updated. Continue reading “White House report uses fuzzy logic to tout ‘insurer profitability’ in Obamacare”

How the ACA changed American incomes

The following article by Sam Baker was posted on the Axios website March 20, 2018:

The Affordable Care Act’s tax increases were concentrated among the wealthiest 1% of Americans, while its benefits were spread broadly among the poorest 40%, according to new data from the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO examined how the law affected household incomes in 2014, the first year many of its key provisions took effect. Continue reading “How the ACA changed American incomes”

How the ACA changed American incomes

The following article by Sam Baker was posted on the Axios website March 20, 2018:

The Affordable Care Act’s tax increases were concentrated among the wealthiest 1% of Americans, while its benefits were spread broadly among the poorest 40%, according to new data from the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO examined how the law affected household incomes in 2014, the first year many of its key provisions took effect.

Data: Congressional Budget Office; Chart: Chris Canipe/Axios

Continue reading “How the ACA changed American incomes”

Despite Trump attacks, Obamacare sign-ups hold steady, new numbers show

The following article by Noam N. Levey was posted on the Los Angeles Times website February 7, 2018:

Almost 12 million Americans signed up for 2018 health coverage through marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act, according to a new tally that indicates nationwide enrollment remained virtually unchanged from last year despite President Trump’s persistent attacks on the 2010 health law.

The new enrollment numbers — which include totals from California and other states that operate their own marketplaces, as well as states that rely on the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace — offer the most detailed picture to date of the insurance markets.

And they suggest surprising strength in many markets across the country, with consumers steadily signing up for health plans even as Trump and his Republican congressional allies derided the markets as crumbling and unaffordable. Continue reading “Despite Trump attacks, Obamacare sign-ups hold steady, new numbers show”

How Trump may end up expanding Medicaid, whether he means to or not

The following article by Jeff Stein was posted on the Washington Post website January 28, 2018:

The Trump administration is calling Medicaid work requirements a positive “incentive” for beneficiaries, but critics say they’re a harmful double standard. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Republican lawmakers in a half-dozen states are launching fresh efforts to expand Medicaid, the nation’s health insurance program for the poor, as party holdouts who had blocked the expansion say they’re now open to it because of Trump administration guidelines allowing states to impose new requirements that program recipients work to get benefits.

In Utah, a Republican legislator working with the GOP governor says he hopes to pass a Medicaid expansion plan with work requirements within the year. In Idaho, a conservative lawmaker who steadfastly opposed Medicaid expansion in the past says the new requirements make him more open to the idea. And in Wyoming, a Republican senator who previously opposed expansion — a key part of President Barack Obama’s health-care law — says he’s ready to take another look at fellow Republicans’ expansion efforts in his state. Continue reading “How Trump may end up expanding Medicaid, whether he means to or not”

Years of Attack Leave Obamacare a More Government-Focused Health Law

The following article by Robert Pear was posted on the New York Times website December 27, 2017:

Volunteers in the Maine People’s Alliance office before going door to door to urge voters to back Medicaid expansion in Bangor, Me., in October. Credit Sarah Rice for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Affordable Care Act was conceived as a mix of publicly funded health care and privately purchased insurance, but Republican attacks, culminating this month in the death of a mandate that most Americans have insurance, are shifting the balance, giving the government a larger role than Democrats ever anticipated.

And while President Trump insisted again on Tuesday that the health law was “essentially” being repealed, what remains of it appears relatively stable and increasingly government-funded.

In short, President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement is becoming more like what conservatives despise — government-run health care — thanks in part to Republican efforts that are raising premiums for people without government assistance and allowing them to skirt coverage. Continue reading “Years of Attack Leave Obamacare a More Government-Focused Health Law”