News
NationalJournal | Abortion Bill Would Hit Businesses - Report
Employers might lose major health insurance tax breaks in a sweeping bill that aims to prevent the use of federal dollars to pay for abortions, the nonpartisan Congressional tax committee told a House tax panel Wednesday.
NationalJournal | Pretty Soon We'll All Live Forever: U.S. Death Rates Continue Decline
The U.S. death rate has fallen again for the 10th straight year, the National Center for Health Statistics reported on Wednesday, and life expectancy has gone up to an average of 78.2 years for babies born in 2009.
Econ Comments
Heritage Foundation | Welfare Reform The Next Steps
A look at welfare reform's recent history.
RCM | Why Do Hospitals Want Higher Taxes?
Health care providers, led by hospitals and nursing home operators, are stepping forward to support taxes on their revenues. They are hoping states will take the tax money, use it to get Medicaid matching funds from the federal government, and then leave health care out of the fray when cutting state budgets.
Blogs
Heritage Foundation | Obamacare and the Fight to Preserve America’s Founding Principles
Since the passage of Obamacare, the federal government’s role in American citizens’ lives has grown significantly.
Cato@Liberty | Likely Voters Oppose ObamaCare by Nearly a 20-Point Margin
It has been a while since I generated a Pollster.com chart showing support/opposition to ObamaCare among only likely voters, so here goes.
Heritage Foundation | Medicaid Flexibility Still Missing from Wyden-Brown
Sen. Wyden contends that states could include Medicaid waivers in any submission to HHS under his bill. He is correct only in the narrow sense that they can continue to do that to a very limited degree now, as under the previous law and during the previous administration.
Reports
CBPP | Ryan-Rivlin Plan Would End Guaranteed Medicare, Shift Medicaid Costs To States And Beneficiaries
Under the Ryan-Rivlin proposal, Medicare beneficiaries would no longer have access to a guaranteed set of health benefits but would instead receive a voucher to be used to purchase private health insurance. Similarly, the federal government would no longer pay a specified share of states’ Medicaid costs but would pay each state only a fixed amount, or block grant.
Heritage Foundation | Secretary Sebelius Cannot Fix CLASS
While the Secretary now acknowledges that CLASS is fundamentally flawed, she has argued that the law grants her flexibility to make changes that ensure its solvency.
