The individual mandate won’t save Obamacare – Health – AEI

For all the talk about the Affordable Care Act’s mandate to purchase insurance, you might think that the mandate is the linchpin of the entire law. It isn’t, at least from the standpoint of whether the insurance market will collapse without it. Even with the mandate, the ACA is likely to cause widespread and unnecessary disruption that will drive up the cost of insurance for the very people that the law is supposed to help.

via The individual mandate won’t save Obamacare – Health – AEI.

CBO | Effects of Eliminating the Individual Mandate to Obtain Health Insurance

Senior Advisor for Health and Human Resources Jessica Banthin’s Presentation at the RAND BGOV Event on the Individual Mandate

via CBO | Effects of Eliminating the Individual Mandate to Obtain Health Insurance.

Affordable Care Act a leap forward for women – Bakersfield.com

The Affordable Care Act has done more to expand womens access to health care than any other piece of legislation in more than 50 years. It allows women to make health care choices based solely on what is best. Without this law, women may not get the preventive care, early detection tests or cancer treatments that they need.

via Affordable Care Act a leap forward for women – Bakersfield.com.

Trends in Health Coverage for Part-Time Workers by Paul Fronstin :: SSRN

This paper reviews recent trends in coverage for workers by part-time status and firm size. It examines data from the Census Bureau’s most recent Current Population Survey, and is designed to provide a base line for measuring future trends once the 2014 health coverage mandate in PPACA takes effect. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) enacted March 23, 2010, requires that employers with 50 or more full-time workers failing to provide health coverage to full-time workers in 2014 will be required to pay a penalty. Most of these employers already offer coverage: In 2011, 93 percent of employers with 50-199 workers offered coverage and 99 percent of employers with 200 or more workers offered it. However, not all employers offer coverage to part-time workers: In 2011, 15 percent of employers with 3-199 workers offered coverage to part-time workers, and 42 percent of employers with 200 or more workers offered it to part-time workers. Since 1999, there has been no clear trend away from offering coverage to part-time workers either among small or large employers, but between 2009 and 2011 small employers offering health coverage to part-time workers declined from 30 percent to 15 percent. While many employers already offer health coverage, there are other provisions of the PPACA that are expected to increase the cost of coverage. As a result, there is concern that employers may respond by cutting back on health coverage for part-time workers or by increasing the proportion of part-time workers employed, the latter of which has already been seen recently. The recent recession has already resulted in an increased use of part-time workers, fewer employers are offering health coverage to part-time workers, and there has been a slight drop in the percentage of part-time workers with coverage from their own employer. While employers with under 50 workers are not subject to the penalty if they do not provide health coverage, they may also drop coverage for part-time workers as a way to compensate for any cost increases.

via Trends in Health Coverage for Part-Time Workers by Paul Fronstin :: SSRN.

CBO | CBO Releases Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act

In preparing the March 2012 baseline budget projections, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have updated estimates of the budgetary effects of the health insurance coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—the health care legislation enacted in March 2010.

via CBO | CBO Releases Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

A shiv to the military – Foreign and Defense Policy – AEI

A proposal unveiled at the Pentagon last week would herd our veterans and military personnel and their families into the imminent bureaucratic nightmare of ObamaCare.

Right now service personnel and veterans get their health insurance through the military’s plan, called Tricare. Its generous benefits and low premiums are part of the price we pay for attracting and keeping the best and brightest in an all-volunteer military — along with other benefits, like covering 100 percent of college tuition and full pension on retirement, regardless of age.

But now the Obama Pentagon is pushing to hike those Tricare premiums some 30 percent to 70 percent over the next year, and then more than doubling them again every five years thereafter. In some cases, service personnel who now pay $460 a year for health care will be looking at a bill six times that amount — with little or no salary increase to make up the difference.

via A shiv to the military – Foreign and Defense Policy – AEI.

Federal Loan to Boost New Cooperative Health Insurers – Philanthropy Today – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

Nonprofit health-care cooperatives in eight states will receive $638-million in federal loans to begin offering insurance to individuals and small businesses, according to the Associated Press.

The financing, announced by the Obama administration on Tuesday, arises from the federal health-insurance law mandating coverage for the uninsured by 2014. The consumer-run co-ops in Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Wisconsin will compete for customers in state-run insurance exchanges, with an aim of keeping pressure on private firms to hold down prices.

via Federal Loan to Boost New Cooperative Health Insurers – Philanthropy Today – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas.

Health Reform, Health Insurance, and Selection: Estimating Selection into Health Insurance Using the Massachusetts Health Reform

We implement an empirical test for selection into health insurance using changes in coverage induced by the introduction of mandated health insurance in Massachusetts. Our test examines changes in the cost of the newly insured relative to those who were insured prior to the reform. We find that counties with larger increases in insurance coverage over the reform period face the smallest increase in average hospital costs for the insured population, consistent with adverse selection into insurance before the reform. Additional results, incorporating cross-state variation and data on health measures, provide further evidence for adverse selection.

via Health Reform, Health Insurance, and Selection: Estimating Selection into Health Insurance Using the Massachusetts Health Reform.

Variation in Public Opinion on the Future of Employment-Based Health Benefits: Findings From the 2011 Health Confidence Survey by Paul Fronstin :: SSRN

This paper examines current public opinion surrounding the future of employment-based health coverage and how it varies by demographics, health status, and selected questions on satisfaction with health care and ratings of the health care system in the United States. The public is in large part confident that employers and unions will continue to offer health coverage following enactment of the federal health reform law. In 2011, 57 percent of individuals with employment-based coverage were extremely or very confident that their employer or union would continue to offer health coverage. However, they are not confident that they could afford to purchase coverage on their own even if they were given the money by plan sponsors. In 2011, 20 percent were extremely or very confident that they could afford to purchase coverage. When it comes to picking a health plan, the majority of the population is very or somewhat confident in their ability to compare different plan options and choose the best plan, while nearly 1 in 5 are extremely confident or not confident that they could compare different plans and choose the best plan. Individuals who are most confident in the future availability of employment-based health benefits and in their ability to afford and choose the best plan are those who are more educated, have higher income, are more satisfied with their health coverage, and rate the U.S. health care system higher. Despite the low confidence levels that they could afford to purchase coverage, very few individuals reported that they are not likely to purchase coverage if employers and unions stopped offering it. The data come from the EBRI/MGA 2011 Health Confidence Survey (HCS), which examines a broad spectrum of health care issues, including Americans’ satisfaction with health care today, their confidence in the future of the health care system and the Medicare program, and their attitudes toward health care reform.

via Variation in Public Opinion on the Future of Employment-Based Health Benefits: Findings From the 2011 Health Confidence Survey by Paul Fronstin :: SSRN.

A Radical Restructuring of Health Insurance Millions to lose the health coverage they have now

In this paper, we provide:

• an overview of carriers leaving the private • health insurance 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.

From http://www.galen.org/fileuploads/RadicalRestructuring.pdf