On March 1, I was asked to participate on a panel at the American Enterprise Institute on the Affordable Care Act. The panel was covered live on C-SPAN, and below are my slightly edited remarks. The Affordable Care Act – Industry Benefits and Deficits Soar Here is the big takeaway: the ACA in 2024 is largely the law that the health care ...

Millions of ineligible enrollees have been removed from state Medicaid programs over the past year. Medicaid is a means-tested welfare program, so states must properly and regularly assess income to ensure that only people with low-income and who meet eligibility requirements are enrolled. As a result of a stoppage of regular eligibility ...

Over the next decade, total federal health-care expenditures will approach $35 trillion. On February 7, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published its Budget and Economic Outlook with a sobering topline projection: Federal debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), or the size of the American economy each year, will reach a ...

Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra sent letters on December 18 to Republican governors of nine states, pressuring them to take actions that would keep more people on Medicaid who are not eligible. Unfortunately, his letters relied on faulty data analysis by ignoring the main two reasons why states are removing ...

President Biden belatedly released his fiscal year 2024 budget this month, but his proposals do little to actually make the Medicare program sustainable for future generations. After weeks of back and forth with congressional Republicans, with each side accusing the other of supporting Medicare cuts, Biden's plan to shore up the problem relies ...

Years of mismanagement and broken policy priorities have taken a toll. Progressive health policy over the past decade has centered on expanding Medicaid. Unfortunately, this drive has undermined the original purpose of Medicaid and compromised the program's integrity. Improper payments have spiraled out of control even as the government ...

Americans are anxious about the economy and for good reason. Most workers' wages have not kept pace with inflation over the past 18 months. American families are being increasingly squeezed with over 70% of Americans reporting they have cut back on spending in the last six months. Employers are also facing headwinds with rising supply costs ...

The White House has abandoned longstanding regulatory process—again. What happens when you combine partisan politics with an unaccountable regulatory regime? You get the White House’s decision Tuesday to extend ObamaCare subsidies beyond what is legally permitted by tax law. The Biden administration’s new rule to remove what’s been cleverly ...

On October 7, the White House announced that it had concluded review of the so-called "family glitch fix" rule. As I have written numerous times, including in a comment letter to the Internal Revenue Service on the proposal, the proposed rule lacks legal basis and is poor public policy. In essence, this rule makes it easier for dependents ...

There is a way to reform Obamacare’s subsidy structure to enhance efficiency and consumer control, without increasing deficits. Obamacare is failing. Several studies have found that government health-insurance subsidies, including those at the heart of the Obamacare exchanges and Medicaid (which Obamacare dramatically expanded), produce ...

In early 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act–a massive fiscal package that has wasted enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars and caused inflation to soar to the highest levels in the past 40 years. One problematic provision was an expansion of Obamacare subsidies. The original subsidies were ill-designed, and ...

The new regulation is a clear violation of the law. President Obama visited the White House Tuesday to support his successor’s attempts to expand ObamaCare. The big news is that the Biden White House has succeeded in convincing the Internal Revenue Service to propose a rule that would illegally extend insurance subsidies to people who ...

The law has failed to fulfill numerous promises and expectations. Last week, many people put on rose-colored glasses to celebrate the twelfth anniversary of Obamacare. A reality check is needed. Higher government subsidies along with a tolerance for massive improper Medicaid payments on behalf of ineligible people have led to record enrollment ...

If the state’s big nonprofit health systems can’t find a way to control prices, legislators will. When most people hear the word “nonprofit” they think of a benevolent organization driven by a desire to serve the community. This is certainly true of the public’s perception of nonprofit hospitals, which—like charities and churches—don’t ...

On October 25, 2021, all 14 Republican members of the powerful U.S. Senate Committee on Finance sent a letter to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Chiquita Brooks-LaSure requesting information about Medicaid's large and growing improper-payment problem. In the letter, the senators wrote that having ...

Advice for congressional Democrats looking to trim the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package: Cut the $600 billion of subsidies to health-insurance companies. The news is full of stories about the "tough" choices that congressional Democrats must make to trim their massive $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. Here's an easy one – eliminate ...

Democrats plan a federal program to cover childless adults. Insurers will win big but health won’t. Among the many parts of the $3.5 trillion bill Democrats are moving through Congress is a federal Medicaid program to cover mainly childless adults. Medicaid now covers 1 in 4 Americans, but Congress may soon lock even more into an expensive ...

On Thursday, September 9, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (E&C) released the legislation that they intend to mark up starting on Monday, September 13th. The legislation is sweeping and touches many aspects of American life. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is hopeful that the House can pass this legislation, along with other ...

On July 9, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order designed to promote competition throughout the American economy. Most of the Biden administration's health-related proposals in this order either build on policies implemented by the Trump administration or are consistent with Trump administration direction. Republicans should work ...

Through the near-miraculous success of vaccines at ending the coronavirus pandemic, it's clear that medical innovation both saves and improves lives. Yet many leading congressional Democrats are pushing a deeply flawed bill that will harm patients by undermining the very innovation that delivered multiple safe and effective vaccines in ...

Last week, the Galen Institute released a short analysis I conducted explaining why an administrative fix to the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) so-called family glitch would be both illegal and harmful. Dania Palanker, with the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, criticized the analysis I conducted, saying it was not based on ...

A government report reveals serious problems with Medicaid’s integrity. Americans are conditioned to expect inefficiency and waste in government programs. We make jokes about long lines at the DMV and the Bridge to Nowhere as if slow-moving bureaucracy and fiscal profligacy are features of the system. But a recent report from the Centers ...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, was principally intended to improve health insurance markets for individuals and small businesses, lower health costs, and increase the number of people with insurance. It largely failed. Health insurance markets are only afloat because of massive federal subsidies and premiums and ...

While Congress debates issues related to the health and economic fallout of the coronavirus epidemic, it also should use this opportunity to enact several broader reforms that would help people now as well as improve families’ ability to obtain better and more affordable health care and coverage in the future. Congress should consider ...

President has an opportunity to lay out a second-term agenda that builds on his successes and expands choice. Joe Biden and Democrats have released their 2020 health care agenda, and President Trump has promised to release his own within two weeks. The Democrats will expand the role of the federal government, spend more on Obamacare and ...

As the recent two jobs reports show, the economy is much stronger than many thought it would be back in the spring. Over the past two months, the number of net new jobs is up by about 8 million. Yet, more than 18 million workers were collecting unemployment insurance benefits in late June, about 16 million more than during February. This ...

The Trump Administration’s rule expanding health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), specifically allowing employers to reimburse employee’s individual market premiums under certain conditions, is a significant step to empower American families with greater choice and control of their health insurance. These individual coverage HRAs (ICHRAs) ...

How a program for the poor pushes Americans into assisted living and harms the quality of care. A national tragedy began in March when Covid-19 killed 35 residents of Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash. Since then, more than 22,000 nursing-home residents have died in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Nearly half ...

The Democrats’ plan would have Washington cover all the health program’s costs for the states this year. The left’s new priority is to convince Congress to send hundreds of billions of additional dollars to states to help them weather the coronavirus storm. A leading Democratic proposal would funnel the money through Medicaid, with a ...

Lawmakers should correct incentives not to work, lest they slow the recovery after the economy reopens. The coronavirus has crushed the U.S. economy, and the legislative remedies Congress recently passed will make the recovery slower once it’s safe to return to work. No doubt lawmakers needed to act. Relief was likely most important for ...

At Wednesday’s news conference, President Trump and Vice-President Pence were asked about their plan to best protect the uninsured from financial ruin as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. They should have started their answer: “with short-term health insurance plans.” One company that offers short-term plans, Pivot Health, saw a 165% ...

We need to be smart about how we use public resources to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Two major crises are facing the country right now: 1) the negative health impact and associated deaths from the virus, and 2) the enormous economic impact of large numbers of businesses and schools shutting down. Congress needs to wisely allocate ...

Rather than merely spraying money at the states, Congress must target funding to those places that need it most. It is understandable that Congress and the Trump administration want to support state efforts to combat the coronavirus and to help with the downturn that inevitably will come as business slows. But House Democrats advocate ...

The share of recipients who aren’t eligible has grown sharply since the expansion began in 2014. Medicaid expansion was a key component of ObamaCare. In 2014 when the expansion started, the feds stopped doing audits of states’ Medicaid eligibility determinations. The Obama administration’s goal was to build public support for the new law ...

ObamaCare was supposed to improve the individual market. It made it worse. Most Democratic presidential candidates are supporting some version of Medicare for All, a radical proposal to put Washington in complete control of the health-care system. Joe Biden, however, promises to “protect and build on the Affordable Care Act,” the last ...

Far from proving that the administration has “sabotaged” Obamacare, new Census Bureau data provide compelling support for the president’s actions. The latest Census Bureau survey shows a sizable increase in the number of Americans without health insurance. The number of uninsured climbed from 25.6 million in 2017 to 27.5 million in 2018. Only ...

Despite what the critics say, President Donald J. Trump's healthcare policies will improve peoples' lives. A new analysis out this week from the Council of Economic Advisers shows large projected net benefits from the Trump Administration's actions to expand families' ability to purchase the healthcare that works best for them — to a value ...

Along with releasing end-of-the-year 2015 enrollment data for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges last Friday afternoon, the Department of Health and Human Services also released data for the 2016 open enrollment period. Just like the end-of-the year 2015 enrollment data, which I discussed on Monday, a close look at the 2016 open ...

When agencies release information on a Friday afternoon, it is generally because of unfavorable news they hope will lose potency over the weekend. On Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released 2015 end-of-the-year exchange enrollment data. After reviewing the numbers, it is understandable why HHS would want this release ...

With the results now in from the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) third open enrollment period, it’s getting increasingly difficult to sugarcoat the extremely low numbers of enrollees relative to original projections. The 12.7 million people who signed up for an exchange plan amounts to justhalf as many enrollees as was projectedby government ...

When the Affordable Care Act passed five years ago, government prognosticators and private research organizations projected between 21 million and 27 million exchange enrollees in 2016. But last month, the Obama administration announced that it had reduced that target to just 10 million enrollees.In 2010, the Urban Institute, a ...