Economist Russ Roberts recently explained one of the main themes of Friedrich Hayek’s 1944 book The Road to Serfdom: “When the state has the final say on the economy, the political opposition needs the permission of the state to act, speak and write. Economic control becomes political control.” One need not agree with all of Hayek’s conclusions to see how Obamacare is threatening political freedom.

via Obamacare Silences Health Insurers | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary.

A new Obama administration rule could drive out of the market the low-cost, high deductible plans that are supposed to be available under ObamaCare [HR 3590]. That would likely mean a sharp jump in taxpayer subsidies.

The problem stems in large part from contradictions in the hastily written health care overhaul.

Starting in 2012, ObamaCare requires insurers in the individual or small group (small business) market to spend at least 80% of premiums on medical costs, leaving 20% for salaries, advertising, fraud prevention, profit, etc. For large groups, this medical loss ratio (MLR) must be 85%.

Read the whole article: New HHS Regulation Will Endanger HSA, High-Deductible Plans, Make ObamaCare More Costly – Investors.com.

Via the Galen Institute.

Health plans across the country are leaving the small group and individual health insurance markets, forcing people to find other sources of coverage. In this paper, we provide examples of how millions of people in dozens of states already are being negatively impacted by the law — from New York to Colorado, Virginia to Florida, and Connecticut to Indiana.

The paper provides an overview of carriers leaving the market; the impact of Obama administration rules on the child-only health insurance market; the disruptions caused by rules governing health premium payouts and “grandfathering;” and the threats to the Medicare Advantage market. …

Some insurance carriers are leaving the market because of onerous state regulations, others are victims of a faltering economy, but the cascade has been accelerated by the rules that already have taken effect and the many more that are to come as a result of ObamaCare [HR 3590].

Read more: A Radical Restructuring of Health Insurance, by Grace-Marie Turner Galen Institute.

Minnesota Public Radio reports, “A loophole in the federal health care overhaul would allow many employers to game the system by dumping their sicker employees [into] public health insurance exchanges, according to two University of Minnesota law professors.” Such “targeted dumping” of sicker employees would cause Obamacare’s taxpayer-subsidized exchanges to cost more — potentially far more — than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has projected.

Read the whole article: Study: Under Obamacare, Employers Will Likely Engage in ‘Targeted Dumping’ of Employees | The Weekly Standard.

(Via FIRM)

In an oped for the Wall Street Journal, Cato director of health policy studies Michael F. Cannon and Case Western Reserve University professor of law Jonathan H. Adler expose “a major glitch that threatens [ObamaCare’s] basic functioning” and is “so problematic…the Obama administration is now brazenly trying to rewrite the law” through the IRS rulemaking process.

As a result of this glitch, “states that refuse to create an Exchange can block much of ObamaCare’s spending and practically force Congress to reopen the law for revisions.” In such states, employers could challenge the proposed IRS rule and in so doing could block ObamaCare’s employer mandate.

“In addition, under the Congressional Review Act, a simple (filibuster-proof) majority vote in each chamber of Congress could send to President Obama’s desk a resolution blocking this IRS rule. Even if Mr. Obama vetoed the resolution (taking personal responsibility for this assault on the rule of law), a future president could still rescind the rule.”

Read the whole article.

1. “Congress will have same health care as the rest of us.”
In 2014, Americans will have access to the same health care choices as Members of Congress.  Individuals will be able to purchase insurance through Affordable Insurance Exchanges … Members of Congress will also get their coverage through the exchanges.

Progress Now and the CCHI waste no time in making inaccurate statements.  Here they conflate health care with health insurance.  Insurance companies don’t perform surgeries. Surgeons do.

Further, does anyone really think that given how politically controlled medical care and insurance are in this country, that “Congress will have same health care as the rest of us”? Please.  When people enrolled in Medicaid (which Obamacare expands) and Medicare cannot find a doctor, members of Congress will be able to pull strings to get the care they need. In countries with single-payer medicine, which President Obama wants, the rich still get better care.

To make matters worse, “the rest of us” won’t even have the same health plan choices as congress. As the New York Times reported in July, 2011:

Trumpeting the advent of the exchanges, the administration said Monday that they would “give Americans the same insurance choices as members of Congress.” However … health officials acknowledged that this claim was not necessarily correct. …

Under the law, members of Congress must generally get their coverage through an exchange. But a small business could legally choose a level of coverage lower than those offered to federal employees, including members of Congress.

Under the rules, an employer may allow employees to choose any health plan at a given level of coverage. But an exchange may also allow an employer to limit its workers to one or two health plans — far fewer than the number available to members of Congress and other federal workers.

Worse yet, if government officials follow the letter of the Obamacare law, people in states that do not establish exchanges (see current status of exchanges in states, ND and LA are out.) will not be eligible for subsidized premiums in a federal exchange.

ObamaCare supporters are ignoring the federal government’s dire fiscal situation; ignoring the law’s impact on premiums, jobs, and access to health insurance; ignoring that a strikingly similar law has sent health care costs higher in Massachusetts; ignoring public opinion,

Read the whole article, with references: ObamaCare—The Way of the Dodo, Nov 11.

The health care reform law’s popularity hit an all-time low this month, largely driven by Democrats’ eroding confidence in the historic overhaul, according to a new pollreleased Friday.

Kaiser poll finds drop in support for health care reform law.

via SPN.

Read the article: Tax law could hinder quick Supreme Court decision on healthcare mandate

(via FIRM)

ALEC recently approved a Resolution Against PPACA Health Insurance Exchanges.  Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute nicely selected some excerpts of the resolution, including:

State-created PPACA exchanges put states in the position of ceding their resources and sovereignty to the service of the federal government, sacrificing their ability to flexibly serve their own citizens…

[A]s states continue to plan exchanges in preparation for PPACA implementation…it [becomes] less likely the PPACA will ultimately be declared unconstitutional…

[T]hese exchanges would be completely artificial devices offering insurance products regulated in their essential characteristics by the federal government, making exchanges anything but free markets [that instead] will continue to be subject to the arbitrary whims of the federal bureaucracy…

There is no penalty for a state in allowing the federal government to implement an exchange…

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT…it is not in the best interest of [a] state for any state official to participate in planning or establishing health insurance exchanges as provided for in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and…Congress [should] defund planning grants to states for the establishment of PPACA health insurance exchanges by the states.

Read Michael Cannon’s post on the resolution, and for more details, his testimony before the Missouri legislature.