Poll: Health care law support dips on budget woes
(13 April 2011)  WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid a budget debate that will affect the health care of virtually every family, a new poll finds support for President Barack Obama's overhaul at its lowest level since passage last year.

Lawton businessman says health care law mandates could hold down his workforce

(31 Mar 2011) The Oklahoman – A Lawton businessman said Wednesday that the new health care law will force him to make tough decisions about how many employees to have and whether he should offer them health insurance or opt for a penalty instead.

Chili's Feels Heat to Pare Costs

(28 Jan 2011) Wall Street Journal — Restaurants are scrambling in the face of sharply rising food prices and looming changes in the health-care law that will mandate expanded employee coverage.

Chili's Grill and Bar—which has almost 1,300 restaurants nationwide—is hoping to get ahead of the curve with a series of new efficiencies—from the elimination of bus boys to the addition of giant rib-smokers.

Did Obama administration stretch health care stat?

(28 Jan 2011) WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a striking statistic.

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.

Some healthcare waiver requests denied even as HHS approves 500 others

(27 Jan 2011) The Hill – While some 500 groups got waivers for a healthcare reform provision setting annual coverage requirements, about 50 requests for such exemptions were denied, the Department of Health and Human Services told The Hill Thursday.

House Republicans sharpen attack on health-care reform in two Hill hearings

(26 Jan 2011) Washington Post — Republicans on Wednesday used their new majority in the House of Representatives to hold the first of what they promise will be a steady drumbeat of congressional hearings to denounce the new health-care law.

Virginia health-care ruling strikes down key provision of Obama's plan

(13 Dec 2010) Washington Post — RICHMOND – A federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday that a key provision of the nation's sweeping health-care overhaul is unconstitutional, the most significant legal setback so far for President Obama's signature domestic initiative.

After Aetna, Pondering Health Care

(9 Dec 2010) New York Times — When tensions between the Obama administration and the nation's health insurers were at their highest earlier this year, Ronald A. Williams, the chief executive of Aetna, stood out as one of the few industry voices that still resonated within the White House.

Firms Feel Pain From Health Law

(13 Dec 2010) Wall Street Journal — Big employers faced with incorporating the first round of health-care changes next month are grappling with how to comply with the long list of new rules.

Many companies are hiring consultants to help sort though the mountain of new mandates, which include extending dependent coverage to children up to age 26, and may eventually result in covering more employees. Some are also considering changes to their plans—including pushing costs to workers.

Four in 10 Americans Believe Healthcare Law Goes Too Far

(12 Nov 2010) Gallup – PRINCETON, NJ — Americans are most likely to say the healthcare law passed earlier this year goes too far (42%), while 29% say it does not go far enough and 20% say it is about right. Those who believe the law goes too far tend to favor repealing it and passing a new bill as opposed to scaling back the existing bill or repealing the law and not passing new legislation in its place.

Bredesen wants Obama 'mea culpa'

(11 Nov 2010) Politico - CHICAGO – President Obama should come back to the health care bargaining table with a “mea culpa” if Democrats want to have a meaningful conversation about improving the future of health care, a key Democratic governor tells POLITICO.

The partisan way the health care overhaul was passed had “the seeds of its own destruction just built in,” Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said in an interview Wednesday.

Memorial Hospital cites Obama Health Care Reform on hospital layoffs

(1 Nov 2010)  WNDU -  With St. Joseph County’s unemployment rate still sitting above 10 percent, things could be getting worse thanks to cuts at Memorial Hospital. Those cuts began back in June and hospital leaders say there's no end in sight.

While hospital leaders admit the economy sparked this problem, it says the Obama Health Care Reform Act gave the hospital a one-two punch. While more people may soon get more health coverage, Obama’s plan cuts reimbursement dollars for hospitals at a time administrators say they could use them most.

If you roll up a chair and type your way to Memorial Hospital's web site, you can click your way through 45 active job openings. Pay the hospital a visit and you’ll see it’s still getting patients and paying for construction improvements. So why would it cut nearly fifty jobs in just five months?

ObamaCare and Voters

(30 Oct 2010) Wall Street Journal – Midterm elections amid a lousy economy are usually bad for the President's party, but it looks as if a neutron bomb may detonate on Democrats in 2010. And one of the major reasons that this year shifted from ordinary losses to potential catastrophe is ObamaCare. This election is a referendum on an entitlement the public never wanted and continues to hate, as evidence from around the country is showing.

Health Law Unpopular in Key House Districts

(28 Oct 2010) Wall Street Journal - A majority of likely voters in the most competitive House districts support repealing the Democrats' health overhaul, according to recent polling data.

The figures are one of the sharpest signals yet that Democrats are unlikely to translate their signature legislative achievement into success inside the voting booth. The health bill passed in March is particularly unpopular in the districts that matter most in the Republicans' effort to retake the House.

This Is the Easy Part?

(28 Oct 2010) National Journal  – The first stages of implementing the new health care law were supposed to be relatively straightforward. The “feel-good stuff,” as one analyst put it, was upfront. The bigger challenges would come later. In fact, the Obama administration’s carefully phased introduction is already meeting resistance.

Businesses are complaining about their new obligations, and the Health and Human Services Department may have to give way. With voters still doubtful about the law, according to polls, public opinion has so far failed to come around. Glitches now are the last thing that the government needs.

HHS Preps Year-End Push On Regulations

(28 Oct 2010) National Journal – Federal health officials are eyeing an early November release of a rule that dictates how profit margins for insurers are calculated, and plan to seed the final two months with regulations governing everything from provider payment to the creation of accountable-care organizations in an effort to wrap-up what has been a frantic year.

Vote could change direction of healthcare reform

(27 Oct 2010) Reuters – With most Americans ambivalent about President Barack Obama's signature healthcare overhaul or openly hostile to it, next Tuesday's elections could have a big impact on the reforms, experts said on Wednesday.

Major Republican gains could mean years of hold-ups on implementing the legislation — but if Democrats manage to prevail against the odds, they may reward their base with even more extensive reforms, Robert Blendon and John Benson of the Harvard School of Public Health said.

Health insurers help GOP after dalliance with Dems

(23 Oct 2010) The Associated Press – WASHINGTON (AP) — Health insurers flirted with Democrats, supported them with money and got what they wanted: a federal mandate that most Americans carry health care coverage. Now they're backing Republicans, hoping a GOP Congress will mean friendlier regulations.

ObamaCare's Incentive to Drop Insurance

(21 Oct 2010) Wall Street Journal – One of the principles of game theory is that you should view the game through your opponent's eyes, not just your own.

This past spring, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (President Obama's health reform) created a system of extensive federal subsidies for the purchase of health insurance through new organizations called "exchanges." The details of these subsidies were painstakingly worked out by members of my own political party to reflect their values: They decided who was to benefit from the subsidies and what was to be purchased with them. They paid a lot of attention to their own strategies, but what I believe they failed to consider properly were the possible strategies of others.

ObamaCare, for Some

(20 Oct 2010) Wall Street Journal – Well, well. In the clearest evidence so far that ObamaCare is harmful in practice and an election-year liability, the Obama Administration has decided not to enforce some of the law's "consumer protections." At least when the results are politically embarrassing.

Over the last several weeks the Health and Human Services Department has granted dozens of temporary waivers to certain ObamaCare mandates so that insurers and businesses won't drop or cancel coverage. The most conspicuous went to McDonald's to protect the "mini-med" plans for some 30,000 hourly workers from a rule that prohibits annual restrictions on benefits. Mini-med policies offer modest coverage at low premiums and other low-wage fast-food chains like Jack in the Box and Denny's have been granted waivers as well.

Republicans seek to frustrate health reform

(17 Oct 2010) Financial Times - It is no secret in Washington that Republicans' campaign pledge to "repeal and replace" the Obama administration's landmark healthcare law will be impossible to execute.

The promise to repeal the legislation is being touted in races across the country ahead of the midterm elections, attracting strong support among Republican and conservative voters. But most Republican lawmakers acknowledge that even if they had enough votes to repeal healthcare reform, which is unlikely, such a law would immediately be vetoed by Barack Obama, the president.

However, if Republicans win a majority in the House of Representatives in November, as many polls suggest, they will have other options to try to delay implementation of the healthcare law and chip away at controversial provisions.

White House defends waivers from new health law

(7 Oct 2010) The Associated Press - WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Thursday defended granting waivers to some employers from a key provision of the new health care law, saying it was the best way to keep people insured until the law fully takes effect.

At issue is a new requirement banning annual caps on benefits, which began phasing in last month. Many employers and insurers that offer low-cost, low-benefit insurance plans known as "mini-med" plans would not have been able to comply with the new requirement without raising monthly premiums to virtually unaffordable levels.

So the administration has granted 30 waivers to date exempting companies from the requirement for a year.

Democrats and the Health-Reform Albatross(30 Sep 2010) Wall Street Journal - 'Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Karl Rove, they're all warning you of the horrendous impact if you support this legislation," President Barack Obama said in March about his health reform, but "I am actually confident . . . that it will end up being the smart thing to do politically . . ."

Unfortunately for the president, it turns out ObamaCare is not the wind filling the sails of Democratic candidates and propelling them to victory. Rather it has become a reef on which many of their electoral hopes will founder.

Pollster.com reports health-care reform is less popular today than it was when it was passed in March. And it wasn't particularly popular back then.

Obamacare victims(30 Sep 2010) Boston Herald Editorial – Remember when President Barack Obama was going around the country assuring everyone that if they liked their health care plan they could keep their health care plan – even after the passage of so-called health reform legislation?

And remember how a lot of folks – this newspaper included – insisted that was a lie.

Well, to the 22,000 seniors in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine who are about to lose their Medicare Advantage plan purchased through Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, we take no particular delight in saying we told you so.

Nationally some 27 million seniors will likely be impacted by the changes forced on them by Obamacare. Administration officials had been at least candid enough to admit that at least $125 billion would be cut from the popular Medicare Advantage program through which seniors received such extra benefits as prescription drug coverage and eyeglasses. 

Key Vote Letter – 1099 Reporting Mandate (Johanns and Nelson Amdts)

(9 Sep 2010) U.S. Chamber – The Chamber strongly supports the Johanns amendment because it would fully repeal the 1099 reporting mandate in the recently enacted healthcare law…When America is counting on the small business community to generate jobs and grow the economy, lawmakers should not force companies to divert their precious time and resources to collect volumes of information and fill out mounds of new paperwork for the government.

…The Nelson amendment would make the 1099 reporting mandate even more complicated.  It would create additional burdens on small businesses to determine at what point they have exceeded the 25 employee threshold that triggers the full force of the mandate when hiring full-time, part-time, or seasonal employees.  The amendment would likely discourage job creation because the full cost of compliance must be accounted for when exceeding this threshold.

Gov't: Spending to rise under health care overhaul

(9 Sep 2010) AP – The nation's health care tab will go up _ not down _ as a result of President Barack Obama's sweeping overhaul. That's the conclusion of a government forecast released Thursday, which also finds the increase will be modest.

Seven Empty Promises About ObamaCare

(9 Sep 2010) Reason – Just weeks before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)—a.k.a ObamaCare—passed, President Barack Obama urged congressional Democrats to make a final push for the bill, and asked them to schedule a vote as quickly as they could. “From now until then, I will do everything in my power to make the case for reform,” he said. The bill passed, but the case didn’t take. Since Obama signed the bill into law, its unpopularity has, according to Pollster.com’s multi-poll aggregate, held steady, with roughly 48 percent of the public opposed. Liberal health care activists trying to sell the law and help its supporters in Congress have been forced to backtrack on their messaging—and in some cases, have found that their best strategy is to avoid mentioning the law at all. Now, the Obama administration and its allies are launching a multimillion dollar ad campaign intended to sell the public on the law’s virtues.

U.S. healthcare costs projected to continue to climb

(9 Sep 2010) LA Times – Pushed by a dramatic increase in the number of Americans who will get insurance under the new healthcare law, total U.S. medical spending will continue to gallop upward, consuming nearly 20% of the economy by 2019, according to a new government estimate.

Health Outlays Still Seen Rising

(9 Sep 2010) Wall Street Journal – The health-care overhaul enacted last spring won't significantly change national health spending over the next decade compared with projections before the law was passed, according to government figures set to be released Thursday. The report by federal number-crunchers casts fresh doubt on Democrats' argument that the health-care law would curb the sharp increase in costs over the long term, the second setback this week for one of the party's biggest legislative achievements. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that insurance companies have proposed rate increases ranging from 1% to 9% nationwide that they attribute specifically to new health-law coverage mandates.

Health Insurers Plan Hikes

(8 Sep 2010) Wall Street Journal – Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats' efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections. Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators. These and other insurers say Congress's landmark refashioning of U.S. health coverage, which passed in March after a brutal fight, is causing them to pass on more costs to consumers than Democrats predicted. The rate increases largely apply to policies for individuals and small businesses and don't include people covered by a big employer or Medicare.

Employers Sharply Raise Workers' Share of Health Costs

(3 Sep 2010) Wall Street Journal – Employers passed health-insurance costs onto employees at a sharply higher rate this year, and businesses' premiums grew more slowly than they have in a decade, according to an annual survey. The increased cost-shifting reflected an acceleration of a trend that has been on the rise for years.

U.S. employers push increase in cost of healthcare onto workers

(2 Sep 2010) LA Times – A new survey shows an average worker with a family plan pays nearly $4,000 a year, up 14% from 2009. Meanwhile, the average employer contribution to a family plan hasn't increased at all. As employers struggle with rising healthcare costs and a sour economy, U.S. workers for the first time in at least a decade are being asked to shoulder the entire increase in the cost of health benefits on their own.

Time to take action against portions of healthcare law

(1 Sep 2010) The Hill – With every passing day, another one of President Obama’s health care promises bites the dust. The more this $2.6 trillion health law is exposed for what it is – a massive big government expansion into people’s lives – the more clear it is that we need to repeal two of the central pillars holding up ObamaCare: the job-killing employer mandate and the unconstitutional, federal individual mandate.