While 12.5% of individuals under 65 are uninsured at a point in time, twice as many—one in four—are uninsured at some point over a 2-y period. Moreover, the risk of losing insurance remained virtually unchanged with the introduction of the landmark ACA. Risk of insurance loss is particularly high for those with health insurance through Medicaid or private exchanges; they have a 20% chance of losing coverage at some point over a 2-y period, compared to 8.5% for those with employer-provided coverage.
Category: Affordable Care Act
Study: Physician-Owed Hospitals Have Lower Prices, Boosts Competition
The Affordable Care Act, a misnomer if there ever was one, has been the law of the land for 13 years now. One of the many ill-thought-out provisions was one that banned further development of hospitals owned by physicians.
“The Affordable Care Act (ACA) imposed severe restrictions on physician-owned hospitals, such as prohibiting the development of new physician-owned hospitals and the expansion of existing ones,” Ge Bai, a professor of accounting and health policy at Johns Hopkins University and one of the coauthors of the study, said.
Health Sharing Ministries Popular with Many (but not all)
Health care sharing ministries have been around for years, and they fill a niche in a diverse insurance market shattered by Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has provisions that allow sharing ministries to coexist with Obamacare plans, which makes many consumers happy, but irritates some Obamacare advocates. It’s been a year since I last wrote…
Welfare and Workfare Reform Under President Clinton
New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg predicted American cities would resemble the streets of Calcutta, with “children begging for food and 8- and 9-year-old prostitutes.” California Rep. Nancy Pelosi said that the bill would devastate children and was “a dishonor to the God that made them.” California Rep. Maxine Waters labeled the bill “shameful.”
John Lewis of Georgia alluded to Nazi Germany by asserting of his colleagues: “They are coming for the children . . . coming for the poor, coming for the sick, the elderly and disabled.”
Eventually President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, which proved these objections wrong.