Tag Archives: Affordable Care Act

If the Individual Mandate is Struck Down, What’s Next?

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The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.

In Sunday’s edition of the New York Times, blogger Maggie Mahar responded briefly to the question, “What would the future hold if the Supreme Court strikes down the most controversial part of the health care law, the individual mandate?” We asked Mahar to elaborate on the question in this post.

Betting the individual mandate will be upheld

Ezekiel Emanuel says he has been betting on how the Supreme Court will decide the case challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

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Can states thwart Affordable Care Act by refusing to build state health insurance exchanges?

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The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) calls on the states to create health insurance exchanges – marketplaces where individuals and small businesses can shop for and compare health insurance plans. Beginning in 2014, insurers peddling policies on an exchange will have to meet the ACA’s standards by covering “essential benefits,” capping out-of-pocket expenses for individuals, and offering more transparent information about costs and benefits.

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Despite health reform, age rating will still deliver stiff insurance premiums for many older Americans

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The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.

When she thinks about health insurance, 60-year old Nancy Peterson fights panic. “You think that this could never happen to you. I’ve always had insurance; I’ve always had a good job.”

But not long ago, her job was eliminated. Now, she doesn’t know how she is going to afford insurance when the COBRA policy that extends her former employer’s group insurance expires next year.

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Health Reform: A Huge Victory for Women

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The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.

Women pay dearly for being women

The male body has long been considered the “standard” for health care coverage. Having a woman’s body is seen as an expensive anomaly, and women pay dearly for being different.

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How did the challenge to the Affordable Care Act ever make it to the U.S. Supreme Court?

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The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.

In 2009, when someone asked Nancy Pelosi a question implying that health reform legislation might be unconstitutional, she replied: “Are you serious?”

Pelosi wasn’t alone. At the outset, many legal scholars considered the challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) both “implausible” and “frivolous.”

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Will the Supreme Court strike down health reform? “No way,” says health policy blogger, author Maggie Mahar

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The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.

Today, the Supreme Court begins to hear three days of oral arguments on the legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care reform legislation brought by 26 states and one business organization (The National Federation of Independent Business). The case raises three issues:

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“Premium Support” Is Just Another Way To Privatize Medicare

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Note: This post comes from my new blog reforminghealth.org I have left The Century Foundation and can be reached at nfreund2@gmail.com

Out of the rubble of the failed budget deficit negotiations, it seems a new movement is afoot to transform Medicare into a “premium support” program with the goal of moving more seniors and the disabled into the private insurance market.

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You Heard It Here First: Medicare Spending Slows

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Sunday, a New York Times editorial confirmed that “Since January 2010 the growth in Medicare spending has actually slowed to an annual rate of about 4 percent, less than half the annual rate for the previous decade. No one is quite sure why, but one theory holds that hospitals are scrambling to squeeze a lot of fat out of the system even before the health care reforms pressure them to do it.”

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On Tour Now: The Balancing Act at the Center of Reform

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After writing about “Essential Health Benefits” for HealthBeat, I wrote a shorter post for Time.com (the online version of Time magazine), updating what I had written here. 

This month, the public will have a chance to weigh in how they think “essential” should be defined.  See below for a link to places, times, and dates where “listening sessions” will be held in cities across the nation, as well as information on how to register. Time is of the essence. Insurers are calling for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to spell out the essential benefits that must be included in all policies sold to individuals and small employers by the end of December. 

This Time.com post appeared Tuesday. Below, the first half of the post (You can read the full piece on Time.com’s  “Moneyland”)  

At the end of the excerpt below, I comment on how both tax credits and the state-based Purchasing Exchanges will make insurance more affordable for small employers and individuals who are buying their own policies.      

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“Essential Benefits” that Insurers Must Offer Under Health Care Reform

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Will Universal Coverage Mean “Medicaid for All”?

Often, I refer to the health care reform bill that President Obama signed into law in March of 2010 as “the Affordable Care Act” or ACA.  Friday,  as I read the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) report on the “Essential Health Benefits” (EHB) that private insurers will be required to cover under reform, I resolved never to make that mistake again.

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