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Issues :: Uninsured

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...

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According to a recent the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, nearly half of Americans believe that ObamaCare either has been repealed or aren't sure.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...

How Medicaid Harms the Poor: A Counter-Rebuttal, Part III
Avik Roy

Forbes: The Apothecary, 2/11/11


In Part I of this three-part series on Medicaid’s poor clinical outcomes, I summarized the debate so far (that is to say, as of March 8, 2011; since then, there have been some interesting additional thoughts on the topic from Scott Gottlieb at the Wall Street Journal and Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic). In Part II, I reviewed the discussion section of the UVa surgical outcomes study in its entirety, so as to rebut those who believe I have “misrepresented” the study, and also to rebut those who argue that the UVa authors aren’t familiar with the concept of selection bias. Read more...

‘Hoist with His Own Petard’ — The Individual Mandate Blows Up ObamaCare
Thomas P. Miller

The American, 2/2/11


At the heart of Monday’s sweeping ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, which declared the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, is this irony: The court used the too-clever-by-half legal arguments of the Obama administration’s lawyers not just to undermine their desperate defense of the law’s mandate on individuals to purchase health insurance, but to overturn the entire law. Read more...

Contentious Clause at Heart of Health-Law Challenges
Ashby Jones

The Wall Street Journal, 2/1/11


The Commerce Clause, which has been at the heart of court challenges to the health-care overhaul's individual mandate, is among the most contentious components of the U.S. Constitution. On its face, the clause gives Congress the power to regulate commerce "with foreign Nations" and "among the several States." Through the decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has tended to define "commerce" broadly, which some critics feel has given the federal government too much power at the expense of the states. Read more...

How Democrats Learned to Love the Health Insurance Mandate
Merrill Matthews

Forbes: Right Directions, 2/1/11


Federal Judge Roger Vinson has ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka, ObamaCare) is unconstitutional, clearly posing a threat to the Democrats’ effort to radically reform the U.S. health care system. The key provision that led 26 states—plus others in separate suits—to challenge the law is the health insurance mandate that requires people to have health coverage or pay a fine Read more...

Did Obama Administration Stretch Health Care Stat?
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

The Associated Press, 1/28/2011


Without President Barack Obama's health care law, as many as 129 million Americans — half of those under age 65 — could be denied coverage or charged more because of a pre-existing medical condition. The new estimate by the Health and Human Services Department is more than twice as high as a figure that supporters of the law were using last year. It just might need an asterisk. Most of those millions of people are covered by health insurance at work and don't face any immediate risk of being denied care for their pre-existing medical problems. And as a rule, those who take a new job and sign up in their employer's health plan are already protected by a 1990s law.Read more...

Victims of Health Care Reform
John Goodman

National Center for Policy Analysis, 1/24/2011


Who will be hurt the most by the health reform legislation Congress passed last year? Answer: The most vulnerable segments of society: the poor, the elderly and the disabled. That’s right. Virtually everyone in Congress who is left-of-center voted for a law that will significantly decrease access to care for the people they claim to care most about. Why isn’t anyone writing about this? Read more...

The Great RomneyCare Denial
Jeff Jacoby

Boston Globe, 12/19/10

Q: WHEN it comes to a government overhaul of health care, what is the difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney? A: Obama was against an individual insurance mandate before he was for it. Romney was for the mandate before he was against it. Actually, that’s not quite accurate. The real difference is that Obama acknowledges reversing his position, while Romney seems to be trying to have it both ways. Read more...