The Heartland Institute

As states begin implementing provisions of the federal health care law, many, such as Montana, are still debating whether to expand their Medicaid programs in order to receive a larger federal subsidy. If Montana expands its Medicaid program to individuals at 100 to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, the federal government ...

Younger Americans not only take on relatively more credit card debt than their elders, they are also paying it off at a slower rate, according to a first-of-its-kind study. The findings suggest younger generations may continue to add credit card debt into their 70s and die still owing money on their cards. “If what we found ...

So that Medicaid expansion – it’s very tempting, isn’t it? All those Medicaid dollars just sitting there, free of charge from the federal coffers … and you get to claim you’ve expanded coverage for hundreds of thousands of people in an instant, at no cost to the state. It all sounds too good to be true. That’s because ...

Problem In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as Obamacare, states must now decide whether to expand their Medicaid programs by accepting a larger federal subsidy. As passed, PPACA required states to expand their Medicaid eligibility to all individuals ...

Illinois has not paid what it owes its five pensions systems, and it’s unlikely lawmakers will want to pay any more than they have to in the future. “One-hundred-percent funding is impossible,” said state Sen. Pam Althoff (R-Crystal Lake). “As much as anyone would like to fully fund the pension systems, it is just not practical ...

President Barack Obama in his second inauguration address called for new action to “respond to the threat of climate change,” saying “none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.” Imposing still more “global warming” restrictions on the U.S. economy makes about as much ...

Ronald Reagan once said, “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” If he were alive today, Reagan would probably be pleasantly surprised to discover not all federal enterprises are immortal—among them the recently terminated Transaction Account Guarantee (TAG) program. Created as ...

Common Core State Standards for K-12 schools were adopted without debate by every state but Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia in 2010, part of the price of getting federal dollars under the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” program. Now educators, parents, and policymakers are taking a closer look at what they agreed ...

Joy Pullman, Research Fellow of Education Policy at the Heartland Institute, discusses an Indiana Senate hearing on the common core. ...

House Bill 1003 would lift a spending cap on Indiana’s voucher program and ditch a requirement that students attend public school for a year before becoming eligible. Although the program currently pays up to 90 percent of a high school student’s tuition, it limits the voucher to $4,500 for those in grades two through eight ...