Health Law Waivers Draw Kudos, and Criticism–Waivers to the Health Care Reform law are becoming more prevalent, including one recently granted to the state of Maine.
Firms Feel Pain from Health Law–"Big employers faced with incorporating the first round of health-care changes next month are grappling with how to comply with the long list of new rules."
Dana Mattioli, WSJ
Health Care Law Ruled Unconstitutional–"A federal district judge in Virginia ruled on Monday that the keystone provision in the Obama health care law is unconstitutional, becoming the first court in the country to invalidate any part of the sprawling act and ensuring that appellate courts will receive contradictory opinions from below."
Kevin Sack, NY Times
Rules Eased for Some Health Plans–"Amid pressure from employers, the Obama administration on Monday loosened rules for bare-bones health-insurance policies. It marks one of the administration's biggest steps to peel back regulations that big business found onerous under the health-care overhaul."
Janet Adamy and Avery Johnson, WSJ
Health Insurance–Deficit Commission Draft Report "The release Wednesday of a draft proposal for reducing the federal deficit made clear how hard it will be to devise a sustainable plan that can win the necessary political support.
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, co-chairmen of President Obama's federal deficit commission, offered up a wide-ranging set of ideas that would bring $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade.
Their package touched every aspect of government, combining deep spending cuts with tax increases to eventually bring both expenditures and revenue to 21 percent of gross domestic product."
Tom Cohen, CNN
Health Insurance: N.Y. Faces $200 Billion in Retiree Health Costs – The cities, counties and authorities of New York have promised more than $200 billion worth of health benefits to their retirees while setting aside almost nothing, putting the public work force on a collision course with the taxpayers who are expected to foot the bill.
The Massachusetts Health–Care 'Train Wreck' –The Massachusetts state appeals board has reversed some of the price controls on the insurance industry that Gov. Deval Patrick imposed earlier this year. How will this play out not only in Massachusetts, but for U.S. Health Care as well.
Private Health Insurance Provisions in PPACA–The Congressional Research Service produces this report that summarizes key provisions in PPACA that affect private health insurance.
Estimated Financial Effects of the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act"–On April 22, Richard Foster, the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, submitted analysis regarding national health spending over the next 10 years.
Response to August 6 Review and Outlook Section Editorial–"Obamacare's Real Price Tag"–The Concerned Actuaries group response to the August 6th WSJ article on the real price tag of the Health Care Law. Their response includes several suggestions for increasing the public understanding of legislation such as this.
Consistently Framing The Design and Analysis of Health Care Proposals–Mark Litow and Bob Shapiro describe the current problems with our health care system, propose solutions and suggest ways to manage this going forward.
Health Care Reform: The Right and Wrong Ways–Dwight Bartlett, former Social Security Chief Actuary, describes the how the health care system has evolved, and what we need to be concerned with as the new system is shaped.