03.31.2014

Obamacare News of the Day

PBS Newshour: Survey finds only 1 in 4 Americans support the new health care law

Despite a late surge in sign-ups, support for President Barack Obama’s health care law is languishing at its lowest level since passage of the landmark legislation four years ago, according to a new poll.
The Associated Press-GfK survey finds that 26 percent of Americans support the Affordable Care Act. Yet even fewer — 13 percent — think it will be completely repealed. A narrow majority expects the law to be further implemented with minor changes, or as passed.
[RELATED] Pew Research Center: Support for Obama, health care law has eroded among Hispanics
- Today, as many Hispanics approve as disapprove (47%-47%) of the new health care law. That’s down markedly compared with the 61% approval just six months ago.

AEI: How much does Obamacare rip off young adults? We ran the numbers. Here are the results

…the Federal government reports that 32% of on-exchange enrollees as of March 1st are under the age of 34. And many of these are teenagers who are part of family policies, not the young yuppies that Obamacare is fervently targeting. Earlier estimates showed only 20% of enrollees were between the ages 18 and 34.
Someone, for example, earning $25K annually in Arizona will pay $2,424 in total monthly premiums for Obamacare (10% of their annual income) and still be stuck with a $4,000 deductible and a $5,200 cap on their out of pocket costs. The same person in Illinois will pay $3,576 in annual premiums, and in low cost Texas $2,460.
What about the same 30 year old who now earns $30,000 annually – the average salary for a pre-school teacher according to census data? In Arizona, their annual cost for carrying the Obamacare plan runs $2,772 and their deductible is $5,000. In Illinois, the same person will spend $4,092 for the same health plan, and also have a $5,000 deductible before their full health coverage kicks in.
Even someone earning $20K a year (the average salary for a full-time cashier) and eligible for Obamacare’s rich “cost sharing subsidies” is still going to find coverage pricey. In Pennsylvania, which was the lowest cost of the four states, the annual premium will run $1,620 for a plan that still leaves them with a $600 deductible. In Illinois, that same plan will cost $2,868 annually with the same $600 deductible. Premiums alone will eat up a whopping 14% of their annual income.

Reuters: Obamacare website stalls briefly ahead of enrollment deadline

The website for people to enroll in U.S. private health insurance faced some delays early Monday morning, just hours before the deadline for the first year of enrollment under the healthcare law. The HealthCare.gov technology team has begun bringing the site back on line gradually after it found a software bug during their monitoring of the site and fixed it during the regular maintenance window, representatives for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

Bloomberg Businessweek: How Windfall Earnings Can Spoil Your Obamacare Subsidy

It doesn’t matter when your income comes in—whether it’s January or December. The advance premium tax credits (the formal name for the subsidies you mention) are based on modified adjusted gross income for the year as a whole. As I’ve explained before, if your income changes substantially during the year—either up or down—you should notify the exchange you’re participating in and ask for an adjustment of your subsidy. That way you’ll avoid a nasty surprise come tax time.
[in this story's example of a self-employed family of four making $45k who realizes an involuntary capital gain raising their AGI to $115k]… however, you wouldn’t have the opportunity to notify your health-care exchange about the additional income because it would come in at the last minute. That would mean you wouldn’t have the opportunity to adjust the subsidy—and yes, you would probably have to pay some or all of your subsidy back at tax time in 2015.

Wall Street Journal: Is ObamaCare a Law?

Liberals keep dismissing challenges to ObamaCare, political and legal, so it's no surprise they mostly ignored last week's oral argument at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that could send another case to the Supreme Court. Coming in the week the White House wheeled out its 38th rewrite of the law, Halbig v. Sebelius is even more important for the contours of executive power and the rule of law.
The case asks whether the Affordable Care Act, which limits insurance subsidies to "an Exchange established by the State," also authorizes subsidies for the 36 exchanges established by the federal government. The courts tend to give the executive branch deference in interpreting ambiguous statutes, but here the Administration is asking the court to declare that the statute unambiguously means the opposite of what the plain language says.
The Administration's real argument in Halbig is that interpreting the law as written would be politically bad so an accurate, faithful interpretation of the statute is out of the question. Judges aren't supposed to lean on laws to produce partisan outcomes.
The "difference" it makes how Americans can access subsidies is between the faithful execution of the laws and anything-goes political and legal improvisation. As Chief Justice John Roberts famously wrote upholding the insurance purchase mandate, "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices." It is also not their job to protect politicians from the consequences of their policy choices.

USA Today: Health care spending growth hits 10-year high

Expenses for health care rose at a 5.6% annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said last week. The jump triggered a sharp upward revision in the government's estimate of consumer spending overall and accounted for nearly a quarter of the economy's 2.6% annualized growth in the last three months of 2013.
Driving the increase was an $8 billion rise in hospital revenue — more than the previous four quarters combined, according to the Census Bureau and Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS economist Omair Sharif says the increase in hospitals' income was puzzling because the number of inpatient days dipped 1% during the fourth quarter.
[RELATED] Dan Diamond, Twitter: How hospital mergers have skyrocketed since ACA's passage
- Over the last four years, there has been a surge in the number of hospital mergers. In 2012, the number of deals was more than twice what it was in 2009 – and each of those deals may involve multiple hospitals.

Senator Coburn in USA Today: Obamacare cuts choices, not costs

Of these enrollees, as many as 89% were previously insured. Helping 5 million Americans re-enroll in insurance is no great achievement, particularly when many of those customers were forced to give up plans they liked.
Obamacare is proving, yet again, the axiom that the best way to make something expensive is for government to make it affordable. Meanwhile, for millions of patients, Obamacare itself has become a pre-existing condition. Patients have been left with fewer choices and limited access to the best hospitals and care.