The ObamaCare exchanges have been riddled with glitches. I spent three hours last week trying to look at what’s available and couldn’t even create an account. It was not the “fast, completely scalable and secure” experience I was promised by the chief technology officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The administration has claimed these problems are related...
Federal officials are trumpeting the high “demand” that ObamaCare’s health insurance exchanges are experiencing, but their celebration is misguided. What’s the point of the ObamaCare health insurance exchanges if the end result is to dump the majority of Americans covered under ObamaCare into Medicaid? The truth is that more than three-quarters of the newly insured next year...
After months of requests, the public finally has a bit more information about what health insurance is going to cost under ObamaCare. And it is easy to see why federal and state officials dragged their feet in disclosing this information. For weeks, officials have been bandying a premium rate of $125 per month for a...
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...
Oct. 1 marks the first day of ObamaCare’s open enrollment period. Despite the fact that consumers are expected to start buying plans tomorrow, the state and federal government have been tight-lipped about what will be available on the ObamaCare health insurance exchange. The federal government has begun trickling out bits and pieces about the plans, but...
Executive Summary Illinois is in the midst of a decades long struggle to overcome numerous challenges ranging from corruption, high unemployment, underfunded pensions and high taxes. At a time when the state can’t afford any additional obstacles, recent data provide support to the claim that employers have been cutting employee hours to avoid the costliest...
Illinois is in the midst of a decades long struggle to overcome numerous challenges ranging from corruption, high unemployment, underfunded pensions and high taxes. At a time when the state can’t afford any additional obstacles, recent data provide support to the claim that employers have been cutting employee hours to avoid the costliest aspects of...
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...
Illinoisans have heard the pitches about how affordable health insurance will be under the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare. On Sept. 24, Gov. Pat Quinn was trumpeting the ObamaCare health insurance exchange in Illinois. Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is at it. Both have been cheering the least-expensive health insurance...
A Sept. 24 press release from Gov. Pat Quinn’s office announced with excitement that Illinois’ health insurance premiums under the state’s ObamaCare health insurance exchange would be lower than previous government estimates. This statement implies that Illinoisans won’t see their insurance premiums go up despite the massive health insurance expansion about to unfold under ObamaCare. But what...
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...
Only 7 percent of those who support the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare, believe it is OK that members of Congress and their staffs are exempt from one of the most burdensome ObamaCare rules. At issue is a fundamental question of fairness. Under ObamaCare, individuals purchasing insurance on the new ObamaCare health care exchanges...
Under ObamaCare, your social history — alcohol use, drug use and sexual history — will be included in your electronic medical record. In a recent column, Ph.D. historian and former Lt. Governor of New York Betsy McCaughey reveals that “The president’s ‘reforms’ aim to turn doctors into government agents, pressuring them financially to ask questions they...
Before ObamaCare became law, many labor unions – including the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LiUNA – supported it. But over the last several months, labor unions have become more and more alarmed over the actual effects of the law. Now Terry Sullivan, General President of LiUNA, has gone further than any other union leader...