It’s no secret that passing health care reform was a balancing act from beginning to end. For President Obama, keeping the legislation alive meant making sure congressional Democrats stayed happy, along with for-profit …
On Tuesday, the highly respected, non-partisan Institute of Medicine released a report that is sure to draw fire from some critics of Democratic health reform. In a much-anticipated paper on which services should be classified as preventive medicine under the Affordable Care Act – and therefore be 100% covered by insurers – the IOM said …
On Tuesday, as congressional leaders and President Obama fought a public battle over cutting spending and increasing revenue, Rep. Paul Ryan was elsewhere, leading a discussion over an issue that just happens to be at the center …
Former Obama Administration budget director Peter Orszag has not exactly worked hard to maintain friendly ties with the White House since he left his post in the summer of 2010. First, he took a job writing columns for The New York Times, the first of which ran in September 2010 and suggested extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, …
Wednesday’s appeals court ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act was undoubtedly a win for the Obama Administration. The Sixth Circuit, based in Cincinnati, agreed with a previous district court ruling that the law’s individual mandate does not violate the Constitution. Challengers argued in this case, as they have in …
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals just upheld a district court decision ruling that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. One of the jurists on the three-judge panel was appointed by Jimmy Carter. The other two were appointed by Republican presidents – one by Ronald Reagan and one by George W. Bush – but the former included a …
Sen. Joe Lieberman has found an ally for the middle-of-the-road Medicare reform proposal he laid out a few weeks ago. On Tuesday, the independent Senator from Connecticut and conservative Republican Tom Coburn unveiled a tweaked version of Lieberman’s plan. They hope to build a coalition of support for the proposal, which they say …
As health care remains a top issue in the contest to win the 2012 GOP nomination for President, candidates are working hard to build their own narratives around the issue. Mitt Romney has decided not to back away from the universal health care reforms he championed in Massachusetts, but to emphasize the difference between a state-based …
(This post was update at 6:35 p.m.)
Yes, we’re back here again already, with at least one Republican claiming this week that Democratic health reform will kill seniors. Sigh.
The target of the GOP attack is the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a controversial group to be appointed by the president and charged with slowing the …
On the campaign trial – especially the presidential campaign trail – nuance rarely breaks through the fog of generalization. Mitt Romney is the frontrunner and a flip-flopper on the issues. Michele Bachmann is the Tea Party …
Nearly two weeks after the consulting firm McKinsey released a study claiming one-third of businesses would drop insurance benefits once health reform kicks in, the company has disclosed how they generated that figure. This disclosure is welcome news. Other studies have not predicted a mass disruptions of the employer-based health …
Last week, I expressed some skepticism about a study produced by McKinsey consultants claiming that 30% of employers will stop offering health insurance to their workers as a result of health reform. This high percentage is an outlier and so I was interested in how exactly McKinsey came up with this figure. The company wouldn’t say. …
Maybe Joe Lieberman was feeling left out of the current debt ceiling and budget fight. That might explain why the independent Ssenator from Connecticut has chosen this moment to offer a new plan to reform Medicare. Lieberman laid out his proposal in a recent Washington Post op-ed. The headline, “How Medicare Can Be Saved,” is a stretch …
