Health Care News Oct. 18-22

---

News
THURSDAY
Key health insurance group to weigh in on spending
A seven-month-long process for determining how much U.S. health insurers must spend on medical care comes to a head on Thursday, amid fresh concerns that the rules will lead companies to desert some small-group and other niche markets.

WEDNESDAY
U.S. Files Suit Against Michigan Blue Cross
The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan alleging the health insurer violated antitrust laws by forcing hospitals to charge higher rates to other insurers.
Conn. Insurance Increase Gets HHS' Attention
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday put Connecticut insurance officials on notice for allegedly failing to use federal grants to scrutinize a proposed insurance rate increase, but the state's insurance department says they have not received the money to begin enhanced review efforts.

TUESDAY
Select Democrats embrace health care law
After weeks of avoiding health care overhaul on the campaign trail, some Democrats are out bragging about the law in the final run-up to the mid-term elections.
Nixing — or 'fixing' — health law? Don't hold your breath
'Repeal' or 'reforming' health care bill would face legislative, policy hurdles
New rule could send some insurers packing
"Industry experts say more insurers will drop health care coverage or go out of business if they are forced to meet a Jan. 1 deadline that requires them to boost the money devoted to providing care.
Obesity costs U.S. $168 billion, study finds
Nearly 17% of U.S. medical costs can be blamed on obesity, according to new research that suggests the nation's weight problem may be having close to twice the impact on medical spending as previously estimated.

MONDAY
Poll: Support for health reform dips
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation October Tracking Poll out Monday morning, overall support for the law has dropped to 42 percent – down seven points in a month. The percentage of those saying they have an unfavorable view of the bill rose four points to 44 percent.
Democrats on health reform: Let us fix it
Nervous Democrats are grasping for a new message on their party’s health care reform bill: Give us another shot, and we’ll get it right this time.
Judge lets states' health care suit go forward
U.S. states can proceed with a lawsuit seeking to overturn President Barack Obama's landmark health care reform law, a Florida judge ruled Thursday.
Judge disses Dems' 'Alice in Wonderland' health defense
U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson allowed two major counts to proceed: the states’ challenge to the controversial requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance and a required expansion of the Medicaid program.

Economist Comments
FRIDAY
Obamacare's Unkeepable Promises
Utopian vision was a fraud from the beginning.

THURSDAY
What If the Courts Strike Down Health Care Reform?
A federal judge is hearing arguments that health care reform violates the constitution. In particular, states are challenging the requirement for individuals to buy health insurance. How key is this requirement for the entire law? How nervous should reformers be?
The Amazing Elastic Commerce Clause
The individual health insurance mandate tugs on an overstretched federal power.
A Better Way Than the VA?
If you listen to Democratic campaign ads in Colorado, Nevada, or Delaware, among other places, you will discover yet another perfidious plot by evil Republicans — they want to "privatize the VA." But is a government-run system really the only — or the best — way to provide that care?

WEDNESDAY
Putting the brakes on health insurers
Obama should forbid premium hikes until the companies comply with pricing provisions of the new federal law.
Enemies of Obamacare Should Curb Their Enthusiasm: Ann Woolner
A federal judge in Pensacola, Florida, gave enemies of the national health care reform law reason to rejoice last week when he d it looks sort of unconstitutional. "The ruling is a victory for the states, small businessess and the American People."
ObamaCare, for Some
Over the last several weeks the Health and Human Services Department has granted dozens of temporary waivers to certain ObamaCare mandates so that insurers and businesses won't drop or cancel coverage.

TUESDAY
Old Stealing from Young under Obama's 'Reforms'
The Congressional Budget Office projects a mid-century public debt of $123 trillion, largely driven by health care and retirement costs.
Feulner: From self-reliance to servitude
Are Americans, who have long prided themselves on their freedom and self-reliance, becoming more dependent on government, or less?
ObamaCare will clog system
The kind of insurance the new law mandates will, over the years, wear out the health care system in the same way that overuse in orthopedics wears out an elbow or knee joint. This won't be fun for doctors or, most important, for patients.

MONDAY
Saving & Goodman: Obama murdered Medicare
The health care reform law enacted in spring will have a devastating impact on elderly and disabled Medicare enrollees if its provisions are not substantially changed.
Killing Marcus Welby
The only way health plans can improve their profits is by cheapening the product that they provide, in other words, holding down the cost of the health coverage that they offer.
Lies, Damn Lies and the ObamaCare Sales Pitch
Can the White House effort to defend ObamaCare get any more frantic, not to say desperate?
Williams: Obamacare is killing recovery
The health care reform legislation is already causing a substantial increase in medical insurance premiums. We are also finding expensive provisions in this act that we did not know were there, including a hidden 3.8 percent tax on the sale of certain residential real estate and a burdensome Internal Revenue Service filing requirement on small businesses.
Editorial: In Obamacare Wonderland
Legal arguments for Obamacare's individ -ual mandate fail the "Alice in Wonder- land" test and the duck test. In two court challenges to the law in the past 11 days and a court hearing today on a third, the Obama administration's legal position is fading faster than the Cheshire Cat.
A Significant Victory In the Fight Against Obamacare
Americans who own and run their own small businesses understand better than anyone the importance of limited government for prosperity and liberty. So, when Congressional Democrats and the Obama administration decided that they had the power to force every American citizen to buy health insurance the National Federation of Independent Business moved quickly to oppose this unprecedented and profoundly unconstitutional claim of power.

Blogs
FRIDAY
Obamacare Hurts Low-Income Workers
With a struggling economy and stagnant unemployment rate, the last thing the United States needs is any public policy that will hurt job growth. Unfortunately, Obamacare’s new federally mandated, essential benefits package will diminish new job opportunities, especially for low-income workers.
Government Intervention in Health Care Increases Costs
Yesterday, the Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI) released its annual report on health insurance mandates in the states. They report that mandated benefits—i.e., medical procedures that states require insurance providers to cover—across the 50 states are on the rise, jumping from 2,133 in 2009 to 2,156 in 2010. But that’s just part of the story.

THURSDAY
Washington State Regulator Can’t Prevent ObamaCare from Destroying Child-Only Market
The child-only market is toast.
Anti-Obamacare Rulings a Trend or Just Coincidence?
I’m fond of saying that lawsuits don’t proceed at Internet speed — meaning that people are disappointed when I tell them that a new constitutional challenge to uphold property rights or free speech or individual liberty generally will take years to get through the courts, or that we’ll have to wait several months for a court to issue an opinion in some front-page case. But lately it does seem that developments from the ongoing legal challenges to Obamacare are coming faster and faster, as if the train has now left the station and, to badly mix metaphors, it’s snowballing to an eventual collision at the Supreme Court.

WEDNESDAY
Anti-Obamacare Rulings a Trend or Just Coincidence?
Lately it does seem that developments from the ongoing legal challenges to Obamacare are coming faster and faster, as if the train has now left the station and, to badly mix metaphors, it’s snowballing to an eventual collision at the Supreme Court.
A Less-Than-Rigorous ObamaCare Fact Check
Examining of some common criticisms of Obamacare.
What’s the Worst That Could Happen With The New Health Law?
The bottom line is that no one knows what the exact impact of health law will be once all of its provisions go into effect, which will take many years to occur and analyze. Americans need to be prepared for what they could face if it fails to meet up to CBO expectations.
HHS Waivers and the Three I’s of Obamacare
The whole law is bad policy. But even if one agrees with the policy, one can still recognize that the legislation itself was badly executed. The way for conservatives to drive Obamacare’s negatives even higher than they already are is by repeatedly reinforcing the theme that Obamacare is the product of three “I” words: ideology, ignorance, and incompetence.

TUESDAY
The Importance of Incentives
This is a standard insight of economics. People work harder when they have something to gain.
The $6-an-Hour Health Minimum Wage
Most people intuitively know that the worst thing government can do in the middle of the deepest recession in 70 years is enact policies that increase the expected cost of labor. Yet that is exactly what happened last spring, with the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

MONDAY
Obamacare Suffers Another Legal Blow
The deliberate consideration that these district courts are giving to these serious constitutional arguments indicates that the probability that the Supreme Court will ultimately strike down the individual mandate continues to increase.
How Government Micromanagement Could Discourage Access to Some Preventive Services
A recent letter from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reveals how Obamacare will erode patients’ access to certain preventive services.
New, Useful Tool to Keep Up with the Health Care Lawsuits
Obamacare is now being challenged by 20 different lawsuits with 21 different states as plaintiffs, but it is difficult to find all the different court documents and key arguments for the ongoing cases.Nearly three decades after the 1980s recession, those areas most damaged are still lagging behind.
A Legal Victory on the Road to Repeal
Yesterday, Roger Vinson, senior federal judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, characterized the Obama Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the constitutional challenge to Obamacare brought by 16 state attorneys general, four governors, two private citizens and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) as “not even a close call.”

Reports
FRIDAY
Will Regulation Thwart the Personalization of Medicine?
If the FDA imposes regulations that are needlessly broad or burdensome, the result could be higher costs, fewer new tests, and additional obstacles to developing safer and more personalized drug-delivery systems.

TUESDAY
Medical Innovation in Peril
The new health care law specifically targets reimbursement for new drugs and devices as a way to save money in programs like Medicare and Medicaid. These savings, in turn, are used to pay for new health coverage for the uninsured. But the legislation doesn’t take down drug and medical device prices directly. Rather, it creates a series of new agencies, boards, and authorities that separately will be empowered to construct new rules to impact how medical products are priced, as well as to restrict their use by defining when and if products are covered by insurance