Federal programs rarely come in under budget. Consider Medicare, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. In 1967, lawmakers projected that annual spending in the program would reach $12 billion in 1990.The actual tab that year? A cool $110 billion. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office says that ObamaCare will buck the trend. […]
Read MoreJustice Antonin Scalia provided the most memorable bon mot from last week’s oral arguments in King v. Burwell — the latest and most important Supreme Court challenge to Obamacare since 2012. “How can the federal government establish a state exchange?” he asked Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. “That’s gobbledygook.” Scalia’s question strikes at the […]
Read MoreLast year set a high-water mark for pharmaceutical innovation. And some of the most promising new drugs will treat major diseases, including diabetes, lung cancer, Hepatitis C, and leukemia. Unfortunately, Congress is considering legislation that could halt this progress. The misnamed “Medical Innovation Act,” sponsored by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), will burden drug makers with hefty new fees. By reducing […]
Read MoreFederal officials recently reported that health spending inched up 3.6 percent in 2013. That’s the lowest annual rate of growth in decades — and the fourth time in the past five years that health inflation has been under 4 percent. The Obama administration was quick to take credit. “The recent slow growth in the cost […]
Read MoreOne in 2 Americans now opposes Obamacare. It’s not hard to see why. Premiums will increase this year by an average of 7.5 percent for the law’s midlevel “silver” plans. More than half of Obamacare’s nonprofit insurance co-ops have failed, forcing 740,000 people to find new, often more expensive insurance. Almost 8 million people have […]
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