Healthcare

Almost Like Another Ponzi Scheme

By Justin Katz | January 3, 2011 |

This doesn’t appear to be a sustainable system: Consider an average-wage, two-earner couple together earning $89,000 a year. Upon retiring in 2011, they would have paid $114,000 in Medicare payroll taxes during their careers. But they can expect to receive medical services – from prescriptions to hospital care – worth $355,000, or about three times…

So Rep Lally Favors an Increase in Health Insurance Premiums for Rhode Island?

By Monique Chartier | January 2, 2011 |

On Thursday, the Providence Journal printed an OpEd by Dr. Joseph Cambio of Urologic Specialists of New England and RI House Deputy Majority Whip Donald J. Lally (D, Narragansett & South Kingstown). We’ll stipulate for a moment the problem that they name because it sounds all too plausible. … Rhode Island health insurers reimburse the…

Federal Judge: Obamacare “Individual Mandate” = Unconstitutional

By Marc Comtois | December 13, 2010 |

A Federal Judge in Virginia has ruled that the individual mandate portion of President Obama’s health care reform law is unconstitutional. From a note on page 36 of the decision: If allowed to stand as a tax, the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision would be the only tax in U.S. history to be levied directly on…

An Insidious Mindset

By Justin Katz | December 11, 2010 |

So, the Providence Journal editorial board likes ObamaCare. What are you gonna do? A recent unsigned editorial, though, points toward a disturbing underlying premise: Let us start with one of the provisions most beefed about on the campaign trail but also most necessary — the requirement that everyone buy coverage. Forcing people to obtain insurance…

A Foreseeable Consequence for Health Insurance Consumers

By Justin Katz | December 2, 2010 |

Remember when those of us who opposed ObamaCare were insisting that the law would increase costs and result in fewer options and others, including members of the Service Employees International Union were getting downright violent in support of the law? We were right, and they were working to their own detriment: Late last month, the…

What Healthcare Poll Results Really Show

By Justin Katz | November 27, 2010 |

The Providence Journal’s headline: “Public split on health-care law.” The source, McClatchy Newspapers, states the implication more boldly: “New poll undercuts GOP claims of a midterm mandate.” A majority of Americans want the Congress to keep the new health care law or actually expand it, despite Republican claims that they have a mandate from the…

Intro: Federal Judge Rules that the Attorney Generals’ Suit Against the Federal Healthcare Law can Continue. What Do the Candidates for RI AG Think About This?

By Carroll Andrew Morse | October 19, 2010 |

Last Thursday, Judge Roger Vinson of the Federal District Court of Northern Florida ruled that the lawsuit challenging the new Federal healthcare law filed by 20 state Attorney Generals should be allowed to continue. His reasoning is very straightforward. The Federal Government’s power to act is limited by the Constitution…My review of the statute is…

Healthcare “Huh” for Today

By Justin Katz | October 11, 2010 |

The article’s a couple of weeks old, but it’s still worth noting a bit of writing that I don’t think Projo journalist Felice Freyer or her editors would have allowed into print if they weren’t fundamentally in favor of government healthcare: The increases will pay for the coverage of dependents through age 26 and preventive…

Congressional Timidity on ObamaCare – Or – We Certainly Won’t Remind You What We Did

By Monique Chartier | September 25, 2010 |

Further to Justin’s post, ABC’s The Note is hard pressed to find any congressperson expending precious campaign dollars to broadcast their “Yea” vote for ObamaCare. Six months after President Obama signed a sweeping health care measure into law, how many Democrats nation-wide are running TV ads touting their votes for the law? Answer: Zero Caveat:…

Reminders of What They Did

By Justin Katz | September 24, 2010 |

The Washington Examiner offers a useful reminder of some of the actions of ObamaCare: Six months ago, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rammed Obamacare down the throats of an unwilling American public. Half a year removed from the unprecedented legislative chicanery and backroom dealing that characterized the bill’s…