Obama doubles estimated cost of health exchanges to $4.4B

Budget estimates for states to participate in the Obamacare health insurance exchange have soared to $4.4 billion, the president’s proposal sent to Congress on Wednesday outlined.
The spending estimates are more than double what was initially predicted, Bloomberg reported. It comes as various administration officials — Health and Human Services head Kathleen Sebelius is the latest — have admitted the implementation of Obamacare has proven more complicated than expected.
Read the full article by Cheryl K Chumley at WashingtonTimes.com.

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Seniors should be very careful with options in Obamacare

Obamacare is stripping an estimated $716 billion from Medicare to pay for other parts of the program.
Read the full article by Ken Hambrick at ContraCostaTimes.com.

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Tens of Thousands Beat Deadline to Protest HHS Mandate

More than 85,000 parties have filed ahead of the deadline to respond to the federal government about the latest version of its mandate that forces employers to provide contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilization in their employee health-insurance plans.
Read the full article by Brian Fraga at NCRegister.com.

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Reflections of a Medical Ex-Practitioner

The glow of the personal relationship with patients is being extinguished.
"When I graduated from medical school in 1962, the profession of medicine was for many graduates an opportunity to provide care—as distinguished from, though aligned with, treatment—and to provide it to individuals, not to populations or governmentally specified groups. Young doctors hoped to establish an independent business, enjoy lifelong intellectual excitement as knowledge and therapies expanded, and have an income sufficient to live decently and support a family. There have always been some who entered medicine, as with any vocation, to maximize income. Yet most of us who came into the profession in the early 1960s had modest financial aspirations and substantial social commitment."
Read the full article by Ed Marsh at The Wall Street Journal.

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More Health care reform resources on the Obamacare page.

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The Hill: ObamaCare takes friendly fire

Delays in implementing popular pieces of ObamaCare are hurting it with Democrats.
Ahead of an election year in which Republicans promise to make healthcare an issue again, Democrats are criticizing the White House for delaying policies that could help build support for the unpopular law.
Read the full article by Sam Baker at The Hill.

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Beyond Obamacare

The president’s reelection, and the forthcoming implementation of Obamacare, do not mean that conservative opponents of the law should assume that it is set in stone and merely seek to tinker at its edges... Obamacare is unpopular, it is very poorly designed, it looks set to lead to rising costs and an insurance death spiral, its early provisions are not working out, and its fuller implementation next year seems increasingly likely to yield a train wreck.

Read the full article by Ramesh Ponnuru & Yuval Levin at National Review Online.

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More Health care reform resources on the Obamacare page.

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Fed Up With Obamacare, Doctors Increasingly Prefer Cash For Care

Nearly two-thirds of doctors say that they or their colleagues will retire earlier than planned over the next few years. Others are considering a departure from the current system of third-party payment. Instead, they’re exploring direct payment, with patients paying for care on their own.

Patients should welcome this development. Not only does the move toward direct payment have the potential to reduce health costs — it could also yield higher-quality care.

Read the full article by Sally Pipes at Forbes.com.

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More Health care reform resources on the Obamacare page.

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Obama plays games with Sequester cuts, Medicare

The total effect of sequestration on Medicare benefit spending is $100 billion from 2013 to 2023. Those cuts pale in comparison to the $716 billion in Medicare payment reductions required by Obamacare over the same time period. Included in these cuts is a payment reduction of $156 billion for Medicare Advantage plans.

Read the full article by Bob Moffit and Alyene Senger at The Heritage Foundation - Foundry

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More Health care reform resources on the Obamacare page.

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Small Businesses Won't Have Plan Choices Under Obamacare

Citing the challenges in establishing a new health insurance marketplace, the Obama administration is delaying a key provision of the Affordable Care Act designed to provide employees of small businesses affordable health coverage.

The New York Times reported Monday that in most states employers will not be able to provide workers with a choice of health plans as the law intended. Instead, they will be limited to a single plan.


Read the full article by Cyrus Afzali at Newsmax.com.

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Republican Doctors Caucus Marks Grim Milestone of Obamacare

FreedomWorks recently hosted a conference call for bloggers and reporters with the House Republican Doctors Caucus. The forum allowed caucus members to make statements regarding the third anniversary of the passage of Obamacare, and the murky future of this deeply flawed legislation. Bloggers and reporters were given the opportunity to ask questions of the caucus members, leading to a lively discussion on the future of health care under this onerous bill.

Read the full article at Freedom Works.

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Administration delays Obamacare small business provision

During the push for national health care, one of President Obama’s major selling points was that the legislation he supported would help small businesses struggling to provide health care to their employees.

Surprise! It's not quite working out as promised.

Read the full article by Philip Klein at The Washington Examiner

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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California’s ObamaCare Exchange Costs 56 Times More to Launch than Facebook

Launching California’s ObamaCare “Exchange” is so far costing taxpayers 56 times as much as it cost to launch Facebook, while its marketing budget is 8 times what Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) spent on her reelection bid (adjusted for inflation)

Read the full article by Michael F. Cannon at The Cato Institute

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More Health care reform resources on the Obamacare page.

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Dick Morris: Obamacare is just the begining

In a brief but very effective video commentary, Dick Morris lays out Obama's real plan to destroy free-market health insurance and completely take over with socialized medicine.

Watch it at www.DickMorris.com

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More Health care reform resources on the Obamacare page.

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Another brick falls off the Obamacare façade

A big political story this year is likely to be Democrats turning on their White House minders as the harmful and unpopular parts of the Affordable Care Act ramp up. On the heels of the recent 79-20 Senate uprising against the 2.3% medical device tax, now comes the surge of Democrats pleading on behalf of Medicare Advantage.

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal

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More Health care reform resources on the Obamacare page.

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A Hypocratic Oath for Obamacare

The president's promises about the ACA saving money and allowing you to keep your existing health plan are proving false, as many predicted.
The Department of Health and Human Services maintains the law will make health care more affordable and accessible. The Wall Street Journal, reminding readers of that claim, reported last week that health insurers are privately warning brokers: "Premiums for many individuals and small businesses could increase sharply next year."


Read the full article by Cal Thomas at FoxNews.com

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Thomas Sowell: 'Me Too' Republicans

Many ideas presented as "new" are just rehashes of old ideas that have been tried before -- and have failed before. So it is no surprise that the recent "Growth and Opportunity Project" report to the Republican National Committee is a classic example of what previous generations called "Me too" Republicanism.

Read the full article by Thomas Sowell at GOPUSA.com

People love Obamacare until they know what's in it

The Only Ones Who Misunderstand ObamaCare More than Its Detractors Are Its Supporters

If only more people knew about the good stuff in ObamaCare – you know, the subsidies to seniors and the provisions forcing insurers to cover the sick – more people would like it. But the polls showing public support for those provisions don’t ask respondents whether they think the benefits of those provisions are worth the costs. They only ask about the benefits. Since none of those provisions is a benefits-only proposition, those polls tell us essentially nothing.

Read the full article by Michael F. Cannon at unitedliberty.org

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Three years of Obamacare: $31 billion in regulation costs, 71.5 million hours in compliance

President Obama’s signature health-care law, which turned three over the weekend, has already accounted for $31.3 billion in regulatory costs and liabilities, as well as 71.5 million hours of paperwork, according to a study from the American Action Forum (AAF) released Monday.

Read the full article by Andrew Stiles at nationalreview.com

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Obamacare at three: Heading toward Failure?

The right can replace Obamacare if it fails. And thus far, it gives every indication of failing. It has contributed to growing premium costs. Its budget impacts have been revised only in a negative direction (indeed, the only positives have been from fewer states implementing the Medicaid expansion). It has already been stripped of one mathematically and actuarially unsound entitlement. Most Republican governors have no interest in helping implement a program they believe to be ill-thought from its inception, and even Democrats don’t want their fingerprints at the state level on exchanges and Medicaid expansions their systems can’t handle.

Read the full article by Ben Domenech at RealClearPolitics.com.

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More health reform information on the Obamacare page.

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Senate votes to remove a brick from Obamacare

Perhaps the best news in months about Obamacare is that just three months after it has started to go into effect, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to repeal the medical device tax, all $29 billion of it, with 33 Democrats joining 45 Republicans and 1 independent. Someone must have figured out that we need more innovation, more medical devices at lower prices, not fewer at higher, and that the tax was counterproductive if the goal of reform is to make health care more affordable. Duh. If the House will follow suit in equal proportions, there can be no veto.
This could be the turning point we opponents of socialized medicine have been waiting for, right on schedule. As the law becomes not some abstraction affecting other people, but a reality of destruction for millions of Americans, the blowback will increase. As this blog has long maintained, it's not too late to repeal Obamacare, even if we have to do it brick by brick.
See also:

• Huffington Post: Senate Democrats Vote To Repeal Obamacare Tax
• Wall Street Journal: Their own devices

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More Health care reform resources on the Obamacare page.

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