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Issues :: State Initiatives

Missed Hit by Mitt
Grace-Marie Turner

National Review Online: Critical Condition, 05/12/11  


Former governor Mitt Romney may very well have hoped he could put health care behind him with his major speech in Ann Arbor, but judging from the results so far of the National Review Online poll, it’s clear he still has a lot of work to do: By a margin of about seven to one, readers said they thought the speech hurt him. It’s hard to hate Obamacare and love Romneycare. For example, Romney continued to defend the individual mandate — the most despised part of Obamacare — as right for Massachusetts but wrong for the country.   Read more...

Gov. Deal inks out-of-state insurance option
Dave Williams

Atlanta Business Chronicle, 05/13/11

Georgia’s sole proprietors and self-employed will be able to buy out-of-state health insurance polices under legislation signed Friday by Gov. Nathan Deal. Business groups supported the bill as an affordable health insurance alternative for small business owners.  Read more...

State Health Insurance Exchanges Will Impose Federal Control
Twila Brase

Citizens' Council for Health Freedom, 05/11


All State-established American Health Benefit Exchanges are federal Exchanges that must comply with the requirements of the federal health care reform law of 2010 (“Obamacare”). State-established Exchanges may not write rules that conflict with or prevent implementation of federal rules issued by HHS under the law. The Exchange will expand goverment dependency using tax credits and expanded Medicaid enrollment. To compel compliance, credits are available only if State establishes Exchange.  Read more...

RomneyCare could be radioactive for GOP
<em>Philip Klein</em>

<em>The Examiner, 04/13/11</em>

Throughout the health care debate and in recent months, Obama and his surrogates have noted the similarities between his plan and Romney's. On Tuesday's anniversary, Democrats posted a mocking video thanking Romney for health care reform. The only thing that's preventing this strategy from gaining more traction is that Romney is just one Republican among many.  <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/04/romneycare-could-be-radioactive-gop" target="blank">Read more...</a>

Book Review: How to dismantle Obamacare
Sally Pipes

The Washington Times, 4/13/11


“ObamaCare is wrong for families, wrong for patients, wrong for business, and wrong for our children’s futures.” That’s the thesis, laid out on the first page of the must-read “Why ObamaCare is Wrong for America,” a powerful book co-written by four battle-tested veterans of Washington’s health policy battles. There is no doubt that those concerned with less government involvement in our health care system lost the 2009 and 2010 health care battle, a discouraging episode in which facts seemed not to matter and wishful thinking and power politics prevailed. Yet this is not a bitter tale, and there are no sour grapes. It’s a positive book driven by the insight that nothing is ever final in politics and just as President Obama and his band of congressional Democrats could run roughshod over public opinion and force the unpopular plan through a compliant Congress, so too can committed individuals, armed with facts and logic, reverse this disastrous piece of legislation - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It won’t be easy, but then nothing worthwhile ever is. Read more...

A New Vision for Medicaid: Deploying the FLEX Strategy to Strengthen the Social Safety Net
Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Michael Ramlet

American Action Forum, 4/13/11


Medicaid is broken. The program fails to deliver consistent, quality care to the neediest Americans and at the same time is bankrupting states and the federal government. Without comprehensive reform, the program will increasingly strain budgets, suffer financial collapse and fail in its role in the nation’s social safety net. This paper lays out a new vision for Medicaid that strengthens the program through financial accountability, lean operations, ensured access and expanded state ownership (FLEX). Read more...

The $2 Million Patients
Jacob Gershman

The Wall Street Journal, 4/7/11


New York's state-run institutions for the mentally disabled are billing the Medicaid program nearly $2 million per patient a year—a rate that goes far beyond the cost of caring for the patients and is attracting the scrutiny of federal regulators. The state spends $700 million a year to house about 1,400 disabled people in the facilities. But it bills Medicaid more than three times that amount. By taking advantage of federal matching funds, the state pockets approximately $1 billion extra every year—and uses it to subsidize other areas of the budget. Read more...

State Health Care Flexibility: The Good, the Bad and the Broke
Merrill Matthews

Forbes: Right Directions, 4/6/11


Governors are demanding, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is promising, more state flexibility in implementing President Obama’s health care law. Real state flexibility could be a solution to many of our health care problems—at least for those who live in the right (i.e., red) states.  But the results would surely be a mixed bag: some good, some useless and some terrible. We would likely see the kind of red state-blue state segmentation in state health care reform that we currently see in taxes and regulations.  High tax and pro-regulation blue states seem to want even more government control over health care, including a single-payer health care system. Read more...

ObamaCare Real March Madness Champion Crowned: The Individual Mandate
Independent Women's Voice, 4/5/11


From 64 contenders, one champion has emerged with the right to be called the single worst part of ObamaCare. Thanks to your votes in the Independent Women's Voice Real March Madness bracket game at www.RealMarchMadness.org, the Individual Mandate has been determined to be the worst and most harmful part of ObamaCare. "It has been quite a run for the Individual Mandate," said IWV Policy Analyst Hadley Heath. "Not only is it manifestly unconstitutional, your votes in the Real March Madness bracket game have bestowed upon it the terrible title of the single worst part of this nightmare health care law." Read more...

ObamaCare: Still a Clear and Present Danger
Grace-Marie Turner

Real Clear Markets, 4/4/11


If only it were actually were true! According to a recent the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, nearly half of Americans believe that ObamaCare either has been repealed or aren't sure. Just over half correctly understand that this government takeover of health care continues unabated. It's not surprising that people are confused. The House voted to repeal the law in January by a large margin, and headlines across the country read, "House votes to Repeal ObamaCare." People have read other headlines that say, "Court declares ObamaCare unconstitutional." And they have read news reports about numerous efforts in the House of Representatives to defund the law. Read more...