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7/28/2010
Permalink ID:15534
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7/28/2010
Permalink ID:15529
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Study Shows Abortion Funding Rules Would Not Apply to High-Risk Pools
"Thirteen senators wrote a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Wednesday urging her to "act immediately" to bar states operating the high-risk pools from covering elective abortions."
7/28/2010
Permalink ID:15524
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New Health Official Faces Hostility in Senate
"...two weeks after taking office, Dr. Berwick is still struggling to tamp down a furor over past statements in which he discussed the rationing of health care and expressed affection for the British health care system. And he is finding his ability to do his job clouded by the circumstances of his appointment, with many Republicans in open revolt over President Obama’s decision to place him in the post without a Senate confirmation vote."
7/26/2010
Permalink ID:15503
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7/26/2010
Permalink ID:15502
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Republicans and the U.S. Chamber target new tax-reporting rule in health law
"Under the Democrats’ new healthcare reform bill, companies, nonprofits and government offices are required to file 1099 forms with the IRS when goods purchased from another business exceed $600 in a year. Under previous law, the reporting requirement pertained only to services exceeding that amount."
7/26/2010
Permalink ID:15501
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Axe falls on NHS services
"NHS bosses have drawn up secret plans for sweeping cuts to services, with restrictions on the most basic treatments for the sick and injured."
"Some of the most common operations — including hip replacements and cataract surgery — will be rationed as part of attempts to save billions of pounds, despite government promises that front-line services would be protected."
7/25/2010
Permalink ID:15484
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Reid to Netroots: "We're Going To Have a Public Option"
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, seeking to console liberal activists who were disappointed by the final version of the national health care law, assured them that there would eventually be a public option."
7/25/2010
Permalink ID:15477
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Repeal Now, or Face Permanent Taxpayer Bailout Later
"Proponents of Obamacare claim that it will simultaneously provide millions of Americans with health insurance and reduce the budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet Obamacare’s proclaimed budgetary discipline rests on unlikely assumptions and budget gimmicks—none worse than the CLASS Act, a national long-term-care insurance program. CLASS is essentially a Ponzi scheme that will run initial surpluses followed by massive deficits—virtually guaranteeing program bankruptcy or, more likely, massive taxpayer bailouts. The surest way to avoid this fate is to repeal the program—preferably before it enrolls participants on January 1, 2011. The Heritage Foundation’s Brian M. Riedl and Visiting Fellow James Capretta explain why repeal is the right action for Congress to take."
7/24/2010
Permalink ID:15467
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Some Insurers Stop Writing New Coverage for Kids
"The major types of coverage for children - employer plans and government programs - are not be affected by the disruption. But a subset of policies - those that cover children as individuals - may run into problems. Even so, insurers are not canceling children's coverage already issued, but refusing to write new policies."
7/24/2010
Permalink ID:15459
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The ‘Public Option’ Is Back
"The Congressional Budget Office scores the bill as reducing federal deficits by $53 billion by 2019. How? Paying doctors and hospitals less! Put that on a bumper sticker! The public option would use Medicare’s price and exchange controls to pay doctors and other health care providers 5 percent more than Medicare does. Except for prescription drugs: the public option would, ahem, “negotiate” those prices, meaning it would use a separate price-control scheme and pay less than Medicare does. (That means PhRMA probably won’t be bankrolling the public-option campaign the way it bankrolled the pro-ObamaCare campaign and is bankrolling the re-election bids of its congressional benefactors.) Providers, such as community hospitals, would take a huge pay cut if some of their privately-insured patients suddenly only paid Medicare plus 5 percent."
7/24/2010
Permalink ID:15444
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7/23/2010
Permalink ID:15438
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7/23/2010
Permalink ID:15437
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Side Effects: Obamacare Encouraging Insurers to Cut Corners
"One increasingly popular option: health plans covering services provided by a relatively small number of participating doctors and hospitals. These plans are most attractive to small employers, but The New York Times reports, “Large employers, as well, are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to cut costs."
7/23/2010
Permalink ID:15432
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Obama's Electronic Health Records Czar: HIV Status and Abortions Need Not be Included
" Dr. David Blumenthal, the Obama administration's National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said on Tuesday that patients can choose to omit procedures such as abortions and positive HIV tests from the electronic health records (EHR) that every American is supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the economic stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year."
7/22/2010
Permalink ID:15410
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Amendment Slipped Into Health Care Legislation Would Track, Tax Coin and Bullion Transactions
"Those already outraged by the president's health care legislation now have a new bone of contention -- a scarcely noticed tack-on provision to the law that puts gold coin buyers and sellers under closer government scrutiny."
7/21/2010
Permalink ID:15385
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7/21/2010
Permalink ID:15369
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Crist flip-flops on ObamaCare
"Well, why not? Why go through all the trouble to reinvent oneself and stop only halfway to becoming a Democrat? Four months ago, Charlie Crist wanted ObamaCare repealed, calling its impact “devastating."
7/20/2010
Permalink ID:15361
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7/20/2010
Permalink ID:15358
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White House Admits Obamacare’s Individual Mandate is a Tax
"Throughout his presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama promised the American people: “If you’re a family that’s making $250,000 a year or less, you will see no increase in your taxes.” After he became President, Barack Obama reiterated that pledge, promising the American people in his September 9th health care press conference: “The middle-class will realize greater security, not higher taxes.” But Obamacare does contain tax hikes. Tons of them. From taxes on tanning beds to taxes on employment and investments, Obamacare is a certified job-killing machine."
7/20/2010
Permalink ID:15350
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7/20/2010
Permalink ID:15347
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Obama Flip-Flops on the Individual Mandate (Again)
"The individual mandate has been a tricky issue for Barack Obama, leading him to make some impressive self-reversals."
7/20/2010
Permalink ID:15343
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7/20/2010
Permalink ID:15341
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Surprise: Obama sends Berwick nomination to Senate
"Obama’s effort to clear Berwick through the Senate on top of his recess appointment would grant his nominee the job indefinitely, as he would serve at “the pleasure of the president,” according to a White House aide."
7/19/2010
Permalink ID:15335
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Firms cancel health coverage
"The relentlessly rising cost of health insurance is prompting some small Massachusetts companies to drop coverage for their workers and encourage them to sign up for state-subsidized care instead, a trend that, some analysts say, could eventually weigh heavily on the state’s already-stressed budget."
7/18/2010
Permalink ID:15314
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WH: Individual mandate now a tax
"Never in this nation’s history has the commerce power been used to require a person who does nothing to engage in economic activity."
"But you can’t challenge a tax that way - so it’s a tax, now. Which means, by the way, that when the President promised not to raise taxes:"
7/18/2010
Permalink ID:15313
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8 more in Congress sign on for Obamacare repeal
"'Pulled out by the roots' plan now has support from 133."
7/18/2010
Permalink ID:15309
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Entitlements to claim 50 cents of every dollar
"Medicare, Medicaid costs forecast to skyrocket, then Obamacare kicks in."
7/18/2010
Permalink ID:15308
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The IRS's vast new ObamaCare powers - Lost in Taxation
"National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, who operates inside the IRS, highlighted the agency's new mission in her annual report to Congress last week. Look out below. She notes that the IRS is already "greatly taxed"—pun intended?—"by the additional role it is playing in delivering social benefits and programs to the American public," like tax credits for first-time homebuyers or purchasing electric cars. Yet with ObamaCare, the agency is now responsible for "the most extensive social benefit program the IRS has been asked to implement in recent history." And without "sufficient funding" it won't be able to discharge these new duties."
7/17/2010
Permalink ID:15302
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7/17/2010
Permalink ID:15297
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7/17/2010
Permalink ID:15290
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HHS: Obesity Rating for Every American Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records
"New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity."
7/15/2010
Permalink ID:15261
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Obama fiscal commission co-chair pans health bill’s impact on costs
“It didn’t do a lot to address cost factors in health care. So we’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Erskine Bowles, former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, speaking about the new health law, which was signed into law by Obama this past spring after a nearly year-long fight in Congress."
7/15/2010
Permalink ID:15256
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Berwick: Bigger Than Kagan
"Dr. Berwick's ideas on the design and purpose of the U.S. system of medicine aren't merely about "change." They would be revolutionary."
"One may agree with these views or not, but for the president to tell the American people they have to simply accept this through anything so flaccid as a recess appointment is beyond outrageous. It isn't acceptable."
7/15/2010
Permalink ID:15241
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GOP readies 'reform' of Obamacare
"California congressional Republicans are part of a strategic legislative challenge to roll back Obamacare. The effort no doubt will be fruitless this year, but it sets the stage for November electioneering, which could lead to substantive legal challenges in next year's new Congress if the GOP gains significantly, perhaps even winning control of one or both houses."
7/15/2010
Permalink ID:15236
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Anti-Abortion Groups Slam Administration Over Federal Funding for Pa. Health Plan
"Anti-abortion groups are claiming that millions of federal dollars are about to go into a Pennsylvania health care plan that would cover abortion, contrary to lawmakers' pledge to erect a virtual wall between such coverage and taxpayer funds."
7/15/2010
Permalink ID:15223
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Missouri 5th State to opt out of taxpayer-funded abortions
"Today, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon will allow SB 793 to become law without his signature, which will significantly enhance the state’s informed consent protections for pregnant women and make Missouri the fifth state to opt-out of the abortion mandate in the federal health care law."
7/14/2010
Permalink ID:15218
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7/14/2010
Permalink ID:15205
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7/13/2010
Permalink ID:15180
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7/13/2010
Permalink ID:15166
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Kagan and ObamaCare
"The Senate should press her to recuse herself from the state lawsuit."
7/12/2010
Permalink ID:15162
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IRS: We don’t have the resources to handle ObamaCare
" the waning days of the ObamaCare debate, Republicans warned repeatedly that the IRS would need thousands of new agents to enforce the new health-insurance mandate, and that the bill didn’t provide enough resources to fund them. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) estimated that it would take 15,000 new agents, while Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) said that the IRS would need at least $5 billion more than what Democrats allocated for the first ten years of the program. Now the IRS’ independent watchdog says Republicans were right, and that Congressional Democrats and the White House seriously underestimated enforcement costs:"
7/11/2010
Permalink ID:15127
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TAKE ACTION: 'A chance to repeal Obamacare – this term!'
"News that a discharge petition in the House of Representatives has gathered half the names necessary to force a vote repealing Obamacare has spurred an online petition campaign to rally the public to the cause."
7/11/2010
Permalink ID:15126
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