Healthcare

Still Spinning Healthcare Down, Although Up

By Justin Katz | April 24, 2010 |

This won’t be the first such report: … the [Health and Human Services Department] analysis [of the healthcare legislation] also found that the law falls short of the president’s twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years. That increase could get bigger, since Medicare cuts in the…

Bishop Tobin Won’t Let Catholicism Just Be a Brand

By Justin Katz | April 23, 2010 |

As much as it’s disappointing to see division among Catholic organizations, unity can’t be the core principle of any group that actually believes in anything. That is to say that I think Bishop Thomas Tobin got this one right: Following a statement issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops expressing regret that health care…

The Way to Government Ownership

By Justin Katz | April 16, 2010 |

Since I mentioned, earlier this morning, the government’s “overtaking of healthcare,” it’s relevant to point out an explanation offered in a recent National Review, in the magazine’s short-take “The Week” section (subscription required): American college-loan policy offers an illustration of how the government can absorb an activity incrementally, claiming to cherish the benefits the private…

The Nanny State Will Tax Your Skin

By Justin Katz | April 13, 2010 |

Fellow blogger and Providence Firefighter/EMT Michael Morse and his wife sent an op-ed to the Providence Journal objecting to an Obamacare tax on tanning salons: A small group will be the first to pay for national health-care reform, the first to put their hard-earned dollars into the system. Starting July 1, they will pay 10…

Can You Hear the Sly Taxation?

By Justin Katz | April 8, 2010 |

Here they go again: Bills have been introduced by Sen. William A. Walaska (D-Dist. 30, Warwick) to increase medical insurance coverage for hearing aids and to require insurance coverage for surgery and services associated with hearing aid implants. Without a doubt, hearing loss increases the difficulty of one’s life. So does poor eye sight and…

Perhaps Healthcare Will Be a Catalyst, at Least for a Permanent Alarm

By Justin Katz | April 7, 2010 |

Theodore Gatchel raises the operative question with regard to the reaction to the content and process of the new healthcare legislation: On the positive side, the process the Democrats have used to pass this legislation appears to have caused more Americans than ever to read the Constitution. The more they read it, the more they…

The Healthcare System Sinking In

By Justin Katz | April 6, 2010 |

It’s probably not really worth mentioning, but Joe Baker’s column in yesterday’s Newport Daily News is an astonishing bit of cheer leading for the policies of the Obama administration. Most of it has to do with the economy and how wonderfully the stimulus program worked. Perhaps it’s enough to note that he claims the recovery…

Media Message: Healthcare Simply Rosy

By Justin Katz | March 30, 2010 |

As Marc mentioned this morning, large companies have been assessing the direct cost of the Democrats’ healthcare plan to them (i.e., their employees and customers) in the billions of dollars, and Congress has responded by “fuming.” Those who read the from the mainstream media and left of there wouldn’t have heard much about it, though.…

Big Business v. Big Government on Healthcare

By Marc Comtois | March 30, 2010 |

Big Business learns that Big Government giveth and taketh away: On Capitol Hill and in the White House on Monday, Democrats were fuming over a series of announcements that started Friday from Fortune 500 firms saying their bottom lines will take huge negative hits because of changes in tax law mandated by Obamacare. That hit…

The Constitutionality Proof Is Worse than the Pudding

By Justin Katz | March 27, 2010 |

Ed Fitzpatrick’s column, yesterday, suggests that the healthcare law, including the individual mandate, is constitutional, but one needn’t be as far right as Anchor Rising to be very concerned about the reason: The Supreme Court has held that Congress “can tax for any legitimate reason, and certainly providing health care for all Americans is a…