Rep. Brian Bilbray (CA) published a piece today on ObamaCare. Read an excerpt here: During the recent election, the American people spoke clearly, saying that their elected representatives had failed to focus on the most important issue facing them and their families: jobs. Instead of focusing on job creation to put back to the work the 14.8 mi [...]  More

Medica Insurance Company announced it would no longer sell “child-only” health insurance plans in Minnesota because of an ObamaCare mandate that permits parents to wait until their children are sick before they buy health insurance.      The Minnesota company’s announcement means that families in Minnesota cannot b [...]  More

Rep. Geoff Davis (KY) wrote a piece regarding the continued concern over specific aspects of ObamaCare, including worries for seniors. Read an excerpt of the piece on rhetoric v. reality: Rhetoric: “Don’t pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut.” (President Obama, 9/9/2009) Reality: President Obam [...]  More

Under ObamaCare, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs cannot be reimbursed tax-free from Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) or Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) without a prescription beginning January 1, 2011.   Special Interest Group for IIAS Standards (SIGIS) released this list of OTC medications that will require a prescription for a tax-free withdr [...]  More

On Wednesday, The Boston Globe reported that ObamaCare will cause 22,000 seniors in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire to lose their current Medicare Advantage health insurance plans.        Meanwhile, The Principal Financial Group announced Thursday that it will no longer sell healt [...]  More

The New York Post reports that a 62-year-old man in New York City received a 25 percent rate increase on the first day of ObamaCare’s mandates.   According to the story, ObamaCare mandates are forcing this New Yorker to pay $1,680 more a year for his health insurance.      For previous Flatlines, click here.  More

The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets are reporting that parents with sick children will have fewer health insurance choices under ObamaCare.   President Obama’s administration promotes this policy as “A New Day for American Consumers.”   ObamaCare’s mandate that healthy children can wait until they [...]  More

Yesterday, the Census Bureau indicated that 50.7 million Americans were uninsured in 2009, up from 46.3 million in 2008.  Specifically, the number of people with private health insurance dropped to 253.6 million from 255.1 million—the first year that the number of people with health insurance has decreased since 1987.      [...]  More

Today, President Obama admitted ObamaCare will increase health care costs.  When asked by a reporter about bending the health care cost curve, President Obama said this about ObamaCare:  “That's going to increase our costs. We knew that.”  In early March 2010 as he was trying to convince members of Congre [...]  More

In a new report, President Obama’s own actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has concluded that health care spending will increase 6.3 percent per year and total health care spending will hit $4.6 trillion by 2019.  The new numbers, as reported in today’s Wall Street Journal, are even higher than CMS&rsqu [...]  More

Self-employed Americans, early retirees, and small businesses are about to see huge rate increases—as much as 20 percent for some—because of ObamaCare.   Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that several ObamaCare mandates will increase prices and force hard-working Americans to send more of their take-home pay to large insu [...]  More

by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (FL) Throughout the healthcare debate, Democrats claimed that if you like your health care plan, you’d be able to keep that health care plan. But it’s more than evident that just a few months after enacting Obamacare, that is not the case. Millions of people will have no choice but to switch their health care pl [...]  More

Rep. Dave Camp (MI), ranking member of the House Republican Committee on Ways and Means, published this recent analysis regarding how seniors will be affected by ObamaCare. Seniors have been one of toughtest sells for the Obama Administration on the health care legislation passed earlier this year. It's easy to see why when you read that 1 in 5 se [...]  More

It's no wonder the White House is urging Democrats to focus on the economy instead of the recently passed and highly unpopular health care reform. Seniors are one of the toughest demographics to crack when it comes to ObamaCare -- and that's understandable. From a piece in Politico today: ...And a poll by the National Council on Aging found 45 per [...]  More

ObamaCare's tax increases have provided endless evaluation for the policy shop at the House Republican Conference. While GOP leadership has pledged to repeal the legislation, they haven't yet had that opportunity. One area ObamaCare taxes affect most is the small business community, a lifeblood of the American economy. Here are just few of the taxe [...]  More

Bypassing the normal Senate confirmation process, President Obama made a recess appointment of a health care rationing advocate to implement ObamaCare as the chief administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).   Dr. Donald Berwick has publicly supported health care rationing as the ultimate cost control mechanism.&n [...]  More

Tax on tanning costs $2.7 billion   ObamaCare’s first tax increase-a 10 percent tax-starts today. This $2.7 billion tax is the first of ObamaCare’s $569 billion tax increase.   The new tax adds 10 percent to the cost of tanning services businesses provide.  Some 30 million Americans visit a tanning salon at least once a [...]  More

White House Spin: Yes, You can Can Keep Your Health Plan White House Draft Regulations: Up to 69% of Employees May Lose Plans Draft regulations from the Obama administration indicate that up to 69 percent of employer-provided plans may be forced to change their health plans when ObamaCare’s mandates and requirements begin in 2014.   Ob [...]  More

Fewer Choices for Health Care Shoppers   Despite recent White House claims that “Yes, You Can Keep Your Health Plan,” ObamaCare has caused one insurance company to terminate all its policies and two others to leave the individual market.   nHealth in Richmond, Virginia, which sells HSA/high deductible to employers, will not s [...]  More

In a new report, President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concluded that 76 percent of children in the nine states studied by HHS did not get one or more of the required medical, vision, or hearing screenings. Officials say access to doctors is one of the leading reasons why children did not get their health care servi [...]  More

The University System of Georgia Board of Regents is considering dropping retiree health care coverage for future employees in an effort to control rising health care costs.     Health insurance for the employees, retirees, and dependents at Georgia’s 35 state colleges will cost $422 million in 2010.  ObamaCare will add [...]  More

Only 12 percent of small businesses would benefit from the ObamaCare tax credit   The Administration’s claim of a small business tax credit under ObamaCare was fraudulent.  What the president failed to tell everyone was pretty important information.  The credit drops off sharply once a company gets above 10 workers and $25,000 [...]  More

CMS says ObamaCare may jeopardize access for seniors   Just as the Obama Administration begins to implement ObamaCare, a large number of doctors are deciding to drop out of Medicare and not treat seniors.   In new data from the Houston Chronicle, more than 300 doctors have stopped seeing Medicare patients in Texas over the last two year [...]  More

Over the next ten years, ObamaCare will spend $2.5 bilion on comparative effectiveness research, which will research appropriate medical care for everyone in the United States. ObamaCare’s comparative effectiveness research board is modeled after the British Health System, where medical care is rationed.      President O [...]  More

ObamaCare included $5 billion for a temporary high risk pool program for two years.  Several states cited insufficient federal  funds and additional costs to their taxpayers as the reason they didn’t want to run the program.  As a result, HHS will run the program in 18 states.   In this Forbes article, a health care analy [...]  More

In a new study, actuaries have concluded that ObamaCare could cost Indiana taxpayers an additional $3.5 billion.   The bulk of the additional costs will come from Medicaid expansion.  ObamaCare expands Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of federal poverty level. Since the mid-‘90s, Tennessee has had an expanded Medicaid program, [...]  More

CMS says some Pay-fors may not materialize In a new analysis of ObamaCare, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has concluded that ObamaCare will cost at least $115 billion more than it originally estimated.     In addition, CBO can’t provide an estimate on an additional 52 line items because the legislation left it up to the [...]  More

 52 percent think ObamaCare is a bad bill; 54 percent want it repealed  “At long last, this is what health care reform is achieving.  This is what change looks like.” -- President Obama, May 8, 2010 Since ObamaCare was signed into on March 23, 2010, “this is what change looks like.”   Higher Costs:&nbs [...]  More

With national unemployment now at 9.9 percent, employers are considering whether to provide health insurance or pay a penalty and eliminate jobs under ObamaCare.   The medical device makers have already decided that they will eliminate jobs because of the new tax of medical devices.   Now, some of the nation’s largest employers are [...]  More

ObamaCare included a $20 billion job-killing tax increase on medical devices, and the medical device industry is already preparing to cut costs as a result of the tax increase, which doesn’t begin until January 1, 2013.   A recent survey of the Massachusetts Medical Industry Research Council found that about 90 percent of medical devic [...]  More

Fixing the “doc fix” is going to cost the taxpayers more money than previously estimated, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).   Democratic leaders had previously tried to pass the doc fix as part of ObamaCare.  However, they decided to take it out, so they wouldn’t have to pay for it si [...]  More

Citing additional costs to their taxpayers and more government bureaucracy, at least 17 states have decided not to participate in the temporary high risk pool program. Late Friday, Florida and Texas notified HHS that they would not participate.   Texas:  “…the state of Texas cannot today commit to operating the new high-risk [...]  More

Mississippi, Arizona, and Tennessee have each passed bills to prohibit insurance plans that cover elective abortions from participating in exchanges within their states. In Arizona, the governor has signed the bill into law.     In addition, more than two dozen states are considering legislation to prohibit abortion coverage under [...]  More

In previous issues of Flatlines, we reported how much money several large employers have had to pay already to fund ObamaCare. A new survey by Mercer, a worldwide consulting firm, reveals how many employers will be affected by ObamaCare’s coverage requirements.    ·        38% of employers [...]  More

“We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.” - Senator Barack Obama 10/4/08 Both CBO and CMS:  Higher Premiums Under ObamaCare   Despite President Obama’s pledge to reduce health insurance premiums “by as much as $2500,” both the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and Centers fo [...]  More

In a new analysis of ObamaCare, President Obama’s chief actuary warned that changes to the reimbursement rate for doctors and hospitals and Medicaid expansion may jeopardize access to care for seniors and low-income Medicaid dependents.   Medicare Changes Threaten Access to Care for Seniors: “Thus, providers for whom Medicare con [...]  More

“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”  -- President Obama, June 15, 2009 Despite President Obama’s pledge that all Americans would be able to keep their healt [...]  More

From the House Republican Committee on Ways and Means comes this report: "Obama Administration Report Confirms Democrat Health Law Increases Health Care Spending." Here are some of the ways in which those costs will increase: Health Care Costs Increase:  “national health expenditures under the health reform act would increase by a total [...]  More

“And it [the health reform plan] will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.” -- President Obama, September 10, 2009   The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new analysis of ObamaCare, confirming that our nation’s health care costs will increase rat [...]  More

In an earlier Flatline, we reported about the job-killing tax increases on some large employers, including Caterpillar, AT&T, Medtronic, Deere and Co., 3M, and Valero Energy.  Less than one month later, several other large employers are reporting how ObamaCare will impact them.   LOCKHEED MARTIN:  The company took an &ldq [...]  More

“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor.  Period.  If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period.   No one will take it away.   No matter what.”  - President Obama, June 15, 2009   Well, not really.   According to this story [...]  More

“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor.  Period.  If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period.   No one will take it away.   No matter what.”                        - [...]  More

Justice Breyer:  ObamaCare a “good candidate” for review by the Supreme Court of the United States As of today, 19 states – representing 41 percent of the population of the United States – have sued the federal government over ObamaCare. Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississi [...]  More

Family prices for the self-employed, small business workers, early retirees, and millions of others who buy their own policy will increase by $2,100 under ObamaCare.   Several states have lived under types of ObamaCare mandates – the requirements to buy insurance, guaranteed issue, and price controls through modified or pure community r [...]  More

In a new Rasmussen Reports poll, a majority of New Jersey residents want Congress to repeal ObamaCare.   In 2008, New Jersey supported President Obama with 57 percent of the vote, but now they aren’t buying what he is selling. The new Rasmussen Reports poll comes on the heels of yesterday’s Associated Press poll, which showed that [...]  More

Recently, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman suggested that the IRS would “reduce or confiscate” the tax refunds of those individuals who are uninsured under ObamaCare.    The uninsured penalty starts at $95 and quickly escalates to $2,085. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates taxes will increase more than $400 billion over [...]  More

Indiana University Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research: “Fifty-eight percent of Americans (96 percent of Republicans, 10 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of Independents) support repealing the health care reform legislation that was signed into law by President Barack Obama in March, according to a new national survey co [...]  More

$15.2 Billion Tax Increase on Out of Pocket Medical Expenses  Beginning January 1, 2013, ObamaCare limits the medical expense deduction, which will raise taxes by $15.2 billion over ten years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.  Under current law, if out-of-pocket medical expenses, including health insurance premiums and medic [...]  More

From Roll Call: Republican leaders return to Washington, D.C., this week hoping to capitalize on the negative public attitude toward the newly passed health care law, reprising the themes they used to attack the economic stimulus last year. The strategy is part of a broader GOP economic message to characterize the Democratic agenda as a series of [...]  More

An estimated 30 million families use pre-tax dollars in Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) to pay for routine medical care and other vital child care services.   Parents with special needs children use their pre-tax FSA dollars to pay for fees at special needs schools, transportation costs associated with their child's education, Braille books [...]  More

“I can make a firm pledge.  Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.  Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,” President Obama, September 12, 2008 Beginning January 1, 2013, ObamaCare imposes a 3.8% Medicare tax on une [...]  More

100% Tax Increase on HSA Withdrawals $1.4 Billion Tax Increase to Fund Government Takeover Not only does ObamaCare tax HSA withdrawals for over the counter health care items and first aid treatments, but it also hits families who use their HSAs for nonmedical early withdrawals.  Beginning January 1, 2011, families with HSAs will be subject to [...]  More

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates people who use their HSAs, FSAs, or HRAs to pay for over the counter drugs that aren’t prescribed by a doctor will pay an additional $5 billion in taxes. Open your medicine cabinet and your first-aid kit and take a look: - Baby aspirin - Children’s cough syrup - Band-Aids - Cold and chest re [...]  More

Attorneys General from Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington have sued the federal government over ObamaCare. Forcing people to buy health insurance -- a product they may or may not want with benefits they may or may not be able [...]  More

Since our initial ObamaCare Flatlines on Monday, several more U.S. employers have come out against President Obama’s government takeover of health care that will destroy American jobs and stifle our economy.  Our nation's hard-working employers are already experiencing the real-life impact of ObamaCare’s job-killing tax hikes and [...]  More

Polling data since the passage of the Democrats’ government takeover of health care shows what the American people really think about President Obama’s policies. 64%: USA Today/Gallup Poll: “USA Today/Gallup poll found 64 percent saying the law will cost the government too much. Also, the poll found that 65 percent said the law [...]  More

U.S. employers have warned that President Obama’s government takeover of health care would destroy American jobs and harm our economy.  President Obama’s health care law is not yet a week old, but already we’re seeing the real-life impact that ObamaCare’s job-killing tax hikes and health care costs are having on Americ [...]  More

All year long, U.S. employers have warned that President Obama’s government takeover of health care would destroy American jobs and harm our economy.  President Obama’s health care law is not yet a week old, but already we’re seeing the real-life impact that ObamaCare’s job-killing tax hikes and health care costs are h [...]  More