Showing archive for: “Insurance”
Why Premium Subsidies and the “Employer Mandate” Won’t Solve the ACA’s Adverse Selection Problem
A couple of weeks ago, I argued that the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act will ultimately doom the Act to failure. The problem, I argued, is that the ACA’s guaranteed issue and community rating provisions create a perverse incentive for young, healthy people not to buy insurance until they ... Why Premium Subsidies and the “Employer Mandate” Won’t Solve the ACA’s Adverse Selection Problem
Why Roberts’ Tax Reasoning Ultimately Damns the Affordable Care Act (But Not in a Good Way)
There’s great irony in Chief Justice Roberts’ reasoning in the recent Affordable Care Act ruling. In reading the ACA to impose a tax for failure to carry health insurance, thereby assuring the Act’s constitutionality, Justice Roberts also doomed the Act to failure. Let me explain. As the government repeatedly stressed, the individual mandate (now interpreted as a disjunctive order either to carry health insurance ... Why Roberts’ Tax Reasoning Ultimately Damns the Affordable Care Act (But Not in a Good Way)
WSJ Mistake on Holding of Health Care Ruling
Here’s a Letter to the Editor I sent to the Wall Street Journal today: Dear Editor: Today’s front page article, “GOP’s New Health-Law Front,” states that the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act ruling “circumvented the issue of whether the law was proper under Congress’s constitutional right to regulate commerce among the states.” That is incorrect. ... WSJ Mistake on Holding of Health Care Ruling
Broken Tax Promises
Remember this? How about this?: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You were against the individual mandate… PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes. STEPHANOPOULOS: …during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax? OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, George. Here — here’s what’s happening. You ... Broken Tax Promises
SCOTUS Grants Certiorari in Phoebe Putney
From Bloomberg: The U.S. Supreme Court said it will decide whether states can block antitrust scrutiny of hospital mergers such as Phoebe Putney Health System Inc.’s acquisition of Palmyra Park Hospital in Georgia. The justices today said they will hear the Federal Trade Commission’s appeal of a U.S. appellate court ruling that the proposed purchase of HCA Inc.-owned ... SCOTUS Grants Certiorari in Phoebe Putney
AALS Call for Papers “Insurance and Consumer Protection Law”
Call for Papers AALS Section on Insurance Law “Insurance and Consumer Protection” 2013 AALS Annual Meeting January 4-7, 2013 New Orleans, Louisiana The AALS Section on Insurance Law will hold a program on Insurance and Consumer Protection during the AALS 2013 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. The program is scheduled for Sunday, January 6, 2013, from 10:30 ... AALS Call for Papers “Insurance and Consumer Protection Law”
Taxing Regulatory Failure
Last month, the IRS and the US Treasury Department issued proposed rules to implement a new tax on health insurance providers and self-insured groups. The tax is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and will be used to help fund the new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which will conduct research ... Taxing Regulatory Failure
The Law and Economics of Any Willing Provider Laws
While I’m posting about health care regulation, I’d like to point TOTM readers to a short article with Jonathan Klick (University of Pennsylvania) summarizing the economics and empirical evidence surrounding “Any Willing Provider”(AWP) laws for the Washington Legal Foundation. We write: This analysis evaluates the antitrust law ramifications of proposals requiring pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”) ... The Law and Economics of Any Willing Provider Laws
Some Links
Are Rich People More (Or Less) Ethical? The Tacocopter (HT: MR) McCarran-Ferguson Repeal Update Etch-A-Sketch Stimulus
Holtz-Eakin & Smith on The Economics of ObamaCare
Douglas Holtz-Eakin and my former George Mason colleague and Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith are in the WSJ today discussing the economic wisdom and constitutionality of ObamaCare. From the WSJ: The Obama administration defends the mandate on the ground that a person’s decision to not buy health insurance affects commerce by materially increasing the costs of ... Holtz-Eakin & Smith on The Economics of ObamaCare
Is Dental Care a Preventive Measure Health Insurers Must Cover? Let’s Hope Not.
I recently heard an ominous NPR story on the rise in trips to the emergency room by people seeking dental treatment. In 2009 alone, Tennessee’s emergency rooms had more than 55,000 dental-related visits — five times as many as for burns. Florida’s emergency rooms experienced over 115,000 ER visits for dental matters in 2010. Charges for those visits totaled $88 million. This ... Is Dental Care a Preventive Measure Health Insurers Must Cover? Let’s Hope Not.
The Magical World of Mandates
It seems President Obama has discovered a magical cure for his contraception controversy: simply force insurance companies to provide free coverage for contraceptive services, but only for women who work for organizations that qualify for exemption from the original mandate that requires contraceptive coverage be part of any respectable (i.e., Obama-approved) health plan. Never mind ... The Magical World of Mandates
