Washington

ObamaCare: Politicians living by the same set of rules gaining support

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
05/06/2014
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has filed suit in federal court “to make Congress live by the letter of the health-care law it imposed on the rest of America.” He now has support from dozens of his Congressional colleagues, as well as a growing number of supporters across the country, to make congressmen participate...

CBO estimates minimum wage hike to cost 500,000 jobs

By Michael Lucci
02/19/2014
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, released an estimate Tuesday afternoon saying that the Obama administration’s proposed minimum wage hike would result in 500,000 fewer Americans being employed. The proposal, supported by Democrats in Washington, D.C., and Springfield alike, is to hike the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. Low-wage workers would see a...

ObamaCare’s bailout for health insurance companies

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
01/22/2014
A little-known, but important, provision in the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, is coming under increased scrutiny. The ACA, commonly known as ObamaCare, includes provisions to pay insurers for their financial losses in the ObamaCare exchanges. Known as “risk-corridor payments,” health insurance companies could receive up to 80 percent of the money they lose in...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act

Congress avoids the ObamaCare experience

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
11/22/2013
While millions of Americans across the country are figuring out what to do about their canceled health plans – despite being promised repeatedly by the president that they could keep them – those in Congress who have enrolled in ObamaCare have managed to avoid the unpleasantness. Under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, commonly known...

Taxpayers have spent $90K per potential Illinois ObamaCare enrollee

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
11/20/2013
The federal government has spent almost $155 million on Illinois’ state ObamaCare websites, according to government figures compiled by the Washington, D.C.-based Americans for Tax Reform. Just 1,370 Illinoisans added a plan to their shopping cart – a total that falls woefully short of the 17,000 enrollments federal officials had hoped for in the month...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, enrollment

Who counts as an ObamaCare enrollee?

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
11/12/2013
The federal government is expected to announce this week how many Illinoisans and Americans across the country have enrolled in the federal health care program known as ObamaCare. But instead of reporting on actual enrollments, media sources are predicting that the Obama administration will, instead, be reporting on the number of people who have put a health plan in their online shopping cart, but...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act

ObamaCare: Congressional membership has its privileges

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
10/31/2013
While millions across the country are losing their health plans –  despite repeatedly being promised by the president that they could keep them – Congress and the Obama administration have been playing fast and loose with the rules to ensure that many on Capitol Hill won’t lose theirs. Under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA,...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act

UPDATE—Judge allows suit challenging ObamaCare subsidies

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
10/22/2013
While the media and public are focused on the calamitous ObamaCare rollout and glitch-ridden health exchange websites, several court cases challenging the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, are working their way through the courts. Today, one of those cases could deal ObamaCare a severe legal blow. Judge Paul Friedman of the federal district court for...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, Halbig v. Sebelius, IRS: Internal Revenue Service, Judge Paul Friedman