California Will Be Spared the Obamacare Apocalypse
No sticker shock here—just affordable insurance premiums
Predictions of an Obamacare apocalypse seem a little less credible today, thanks to California.On Thursday, officials in that state offered the first detailed glimpse of what consumers buying health benefits on their own can expect to pay next year. And from the looks of things, these consumers will be getting a pretty good deal. READ MORE >>
Building a Better Disaster-Funding System
A tornado puts Oklahoma's Republican senators to the test
Lots of people have been expecting Monday’s devastating tornado in Oklahoma to provoke yet another congressional debate over disaster funding. It may not happen, at least right away: It depends on how expensive the relief and rebuilding effort gets, and how quickly. But the issue of how to pay for disaster relief remains very contentious—and is already forcing Oklahoma’s two Republican senators to reckon with their own views on the virtues of austerity. READ MORE >>
Weaseling Out of Obamacare
Nursing homes, fast-food restaurants think up ways to shirk employer responsibility
Have nursing homes, fast-food restaurants, and other low-wage industries found a way to wriggle out of some Obamacare requirements? Maybe. READ MORE >>
The IRS Scandal Has Nothing to Do With Obamacare
But that's not stopping laughable attempts to link them
The debate over the IRS scandal officially became ludicrous on Thursday, when Republicans decided to use it as a cudgel for bashing Obamacare. READ MORE >>
Childcare in the U.S. is frequently mediocre, sometimes awful, and very occasionally deadly. If you read my recent article, “The Hell of American Day Care,” then you know all about this—and you have some sense of why such conditions prevail. Among the reasons: States have primary responsibility for childcare. And many states do a lousy job. READ MORE >>
Conservatives are talking about the implementation of Obamacare in the same thoughtful way they talked about its enactment—that is, as an impending apocalypse. READ MORE >>
What Oregon Really Told Us About Medicaid
A reason to rethink health care, not rethink Obamacare
More than a week after some very smart health economists released findings from a study of Medicaid in Oregon, policy experts, politicians, and pundits are still arguing over exactly what the study showed—and how, if at all, it should change what we think about making health insurance more available to the poor. READ MORE >>
Democrats are Freaking Out about Obamacare. Good.
Questions about implementation are no sign of distress: They mean Congress is doing its job.
Democrats are worried about the implementation of Obamacare. And their angst is making news. Today Jackie Calmes of the New York Times reports that Democrats have been peppering the White House with questions—and demanding the administration start putting out more information, so that the law’s critics don’t soak up all of the oxygen on the airwaves. READ MORE >>
The New Study that Republicans Who Reject Medicaid Must Read
A report indicates just how important it can be in improving poor people's lives
A major new study on Medicaid just became public. I know—nothing excites readers more than the phrase “major new study on Medicaid.” Bear with me. This study is already getting a lot of attention: Conservatives and libertarians are citing it as evidence that expanding Medicaid is wrong. That has me wondering: Did they read read the same study that I did? READ MORE >>
Obamacare's New Paperwork Is Simpler than Private Insurers'
A reason to hope that implementation won't go as badly as people fear
The "chaos" of Obamacare just got a little less chaotic. On Tuesday morning, the Obama Administration released its new insurance application, for use on the new health insurance marketplaces. The marketplaces are for people without employer-sponsored coverage, and the idea has always been to make the application process as simple as possible. READ MORE >>
