"Physicians are tired of government meddling, as if we do not know how to care for patients. We love our profession and love to see and help patients get well. We do not love the exploding paperwork burden and the constant intrusion of the government inserting its will between our patients and us."
"Today, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that, 'Trustmark Life Insurance Company has proposed unreasonable health insurance premium increases in five states—Alabama, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wyoming. The excessive rate hikes would affect nearly 10,000 residents across these five states.'... This rate increase action by HHS is just political grandstanding as the Obama administration tries to sell a still unpopular law. But it is dangerous grandstanding."
"Another ObamaCare provision is falling on its face, but this is one that hardly anyone even knew existed. Part of the law called for the creation of “Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans” (CO-OPs). The law originally appropriated $6 billion to set up these plans in all 50 states. It created an entirely new section of the Internal Revenue Code (Sect 501-C-29) to allow this new type of member-operated organization to be tax-exempt. They were intended to be sort of like the “public option” the Democrats wanted to compete with private insurance plans."
"Will the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) improve the performance of the U.S. health care system? The quality of the major interim final regulations issued under the ACA in 2010 gives three main reasons for pessimism on this score."
"Starting in 2012, the government will charge a new fee to your health insurance plan for research to find out which drugs, medical procedures, tests and treatments work best. But what will Americans do with the answers? The goal of the research, part of a little-known provision of President Obama's health-care law, is to answer such basic questions as whether that new prescription drug advertised on TV really works better than an old generic costing much less. But in the politically charged environment surrounding health care, the idea of medical effectiveness research is eyed with suspicion. The insurance fee could be branded a tax and drawn into the vortex of election-year politics."
"The Goldwater Institute’s lawsuit challenges IPAB’s very existence as an unlawful delegation of congressional power. Although most of the legal challenges to Obamacare have focused on the individual mandate to purchase government-prescribed health insurance, IPAB is no less central to the overall regulatory scheme. Many members of Congress voted for Obamacare only when convinced of the dubious premise that the law would constrain health-care costs. If IPAB is removed, the flimsy cost-containment rationale will disappear as well."
"Beginning September 1, 2011, health insurers must submit requests to state or federal reviewers if they wish to increase insurance rates by 10 percent or more. This “rate review” process is required by Section 2794 of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA), which was added to Section 1003 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Pub. L. 111-148... The goal of this mandate is to reduce health care costs by addressing the asymmetry of information in the health insurance market between consumers, providers and industry actors. However, despite the stated goals of the mandate, it fails to ultimately address the underlying issues accelerating health care costs."
"Yesterday, I interviewed U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, about the near complete absence of market signals in health care in the U.S., the future of medical innovation under the Affordable Care Act, and how providers - finally - might be coming around to the view that a market-based, patient-centered health care system is the only thing that will save them from gradual strangulation under IPAB's price control regime."
"Under President Obama’s health care plan, the United States Preventive Services Task Force now wields great power to decide which health services (like mammograms) doctors should provide, yet it has few checks on its sweeping authority. Its mandates are likely to raise health insurance costs and premiums, while reducing the number of covered preventive services. To improve accountability for an agency that is both out of date with the medical community and out of touch with the public, Congress should closely monitor the impact new mandates have on patient care."
"'Who is in charge: the government or the patient?' U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan asked during a memorable speech about health care last month at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. For most of us, the answer is clear. The patient, in consultation with his or her doctor, should be in charge. But the new health care law's attempt to contain out-of-control costs would give the government that role."
