The Heartland Institute

The latest polling on Obamacare is the worst it has ever been, with majorities of Americans saying they expect their family will be worse off under it and majorities saying it would be better to go back to the pre-Obamacare health care system. A Fox News poll found only 26 percent of voters say their health care situation ...

Hospitals across the nation are threatening that unless state lawmakers implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s—Obamacare—Medicaid expansion, the law’s new taxes and spending cuts will lead to layoffs and closures. There’s a dual irony here. First, hospitals put themselves in this position when they lobbied for ...

Beginning in 2014, the effects of a new Health Insurance Tax under President Obama’s health care law could result in the loss of jobs and employer-provided health insurance for many employees in small businesses above the fifty employee threshold. HIT is a federal tax on health insurance firms based on the policies they sell ...

Later this month, the House of Representatives could consider legislation regarding pediatric research. H.R. 1724 would require the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide a justification for any existing grants studying health economics, and would prohibit new grants until “a federal law has been enacted ...

While advocates of the Rhode Island Health Benefits Exchange are optimistic about its ability to substantially reduce the unacceptably high number of uninsured in the state (along with the Medicaid expansion), there is substantial reason to be concerned that it will not attract large numbers of individuals and families. As demonstrated ...

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has called out the Internal Revenue Service for “incompetence” for being past due in returning $115 million to the state. Hours later, Cuccinelli’s office announced that federal officials pledged to settle up. Cuccinelli on June 5 said the IRS went beyond “monumental incompetence” in delaying ...

Beyond its impact on states and the nation, President Obama’s health care law has effects on county governments as well, as Minnesota counties are currently discovering. Some county officials anticipate a 25 percent to 30 percent increase in workload as they ramp up to begin enrolling new and existing recipients of Medicaid ...

The current major health care debate in the states is whether or not to expand Medicaid. Expanding Medicaid under the inflexible federal regulations in place now would not be a good long-term decision for Georgia, but that doesn’t mean states shouldn’t propose a more effective alternative. The question should not be limited ...

Taxpayers will be on the hook for additional costs if Pennsylvania decides to expand Medicaid in accordance with the federal health care law, but those additional tax dollars will flow from the federal government, not from the state, for the first few years—provided the federal government doesn’t change the treatment of an ...

As the case against Obamacare continues to mount, states should be ready to act. Despite the President’s professions of confidence, recent concerns voiced by Members of Congress—added to lackluster support for and understanding of the law by the public—have further exposed Obamacare’s real and practical vulnerabilities. In preparation ...

Amidst all the other scandals capturing Washington’s attention at this moment, the forgotten one is also one of the most obviously egregious: Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s solicitation of donations from entities she holds enormous power over through the regulatory state. Alana Goodman reports: Health and ...

Republican legislators in Texas pushed for the expansion of Medicaid under President Obama’s health care law, despite the opposition of Republican Governor Rick Perry. But their attempts to expand the state’s Medicaid system were defeated before the conclusion of the legislative session. Rep. John Zerwas (R-Richmond) failed to ...

In the wake of the denial of a Medicaid waiver by President Barack Obama’s health care regulators, Oklahoma policymakers are considering pursuing market-oriented reforms of their Medicaid program, changes that have previously secured federal waivers for three other states from administrators in Washington. In each of those states ...

A new group of individuals and small businesses has filed suit to force the Internal Revenue Service to justify enforcement of President Obama’s health care law in states which declined to implement the law’s exchanges. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is joined by several parties represented ...

States across the country are currently debating whether to expand their Medicaid programs. Medicaid expansion is an expensive endeavor that studies show will not provide better health care. The current Medicaid system is already stretching states thin financially and causing difficulties providing cost-effective and efficient care ...

It’s official: We have another significant delay in the implementation of Obamacare. A few months back, the Obama administration took flak for initial plans to delay part of Obamacare’s small-business exchange. The idea, floated in regulations last month, wouldn’t put off the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP ...

In an attempt to find a middle ground between accepting the Medicaid expansion under President Barack Obama’s law and rejecting it, the Arkansas legislature passed a bill with the intent of using Medicaid dollars to allow recipients to purchase a form of private insurance. The proposal relies heavily on two assumptions: that ...

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is granting Massachusetts a unique two-year grace period before health plans are required to switch from their current rating factors to new federal rules as part of the President’s health care law. The decision came in response to Massachusetts officials ...

The Obama administration has denied Oklahoma’s request to extend Insure Oklahoma, a program of premium assistance benefitting the Sooner State’s working poor. Republican Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin encouraged President Obama “to keep his promises and reverse his decision to gut one of Oklahoma’s most successful health initiatives ...

In the wake of reports that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative and libertarian nonprofits for additional scrutiny based on their political views, some in Congress are pushing for restrictions on the agency in advance of its implementation of President Obama’s individual mandate. Republican Congressman Tom Price of ...