The Heartland Institute

This likely represents the final edition of the Consumer Power Report prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Barack Obama’s health care law. As I’ve noted in the past, the likeliest outcome is a partial strikedown – one that eliminates the individual mandate as well as the attached requirements of community rating ...

Many hospitals and doctors offer cash discounts for medical bills for their patients, regardless of income. But there's a catch: The lowest price is usually available only if the patients don't use their health insurance. The savings are impressive in some states. A Long Beach hospital recently charged a patient $6,707 for ...

Several states have halted the creation of health insurance exchanges, awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the federal health care law. Meanwhile, others are finding they are too small to run an exchange successfully, regardless of the Court’s ruling. States with smaller populations can expect fewer individuals ...

The New Hampshire legislature has sent a ban on the implementation of the health insurance exchanges mandated under President Obama’s health care law to the desk of their governor. The New Hampshire House agreed to Senate changes to a bill blocking implementation of the exchanges, sending the legislation to Democratic Gov. John ...

In response to the Obama administration’s federal contraceptive mandate, 43 religious institutions have now filed 12 lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, claiming the mandate violates their religious liberties. The mandate, put in place by a provision in President Obama’s health care law, requires ...

When a member of Congress introduces legislation, the Constitution requires that legislative proposal to secure the approval of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the president (unless Congress overrides a presidential veto) before it can become law. In all cases, either chamber of Congress may block it. In 2010, the ...

The Ohio Department of Insurance has delayed creating the health insurance exchange mandated by President Obama’s health care law for so long, compliance is now likely impossible. Obama’s law requires the creation of state health insurance exchanges, which the federal government will attempt to implement in states that have not ...

The Georgia legislature drew headlines in 2011 when it became the first state to legally authorize citizens to purchase health insurance across state lines. But the attempt to allow interstate purchasing of insurance, long a principle of market-based reform proposals, has yet to pay off: not one insurer is currently offering ...

Many pundits on the left appear to believe the Republican Party’s solution for those with health problems who can’t get insurance is to tell them to drop dead. For instance, consider the argument of health care consultant Michael Millenson, who recently wrote, “[N]o Republican presidential candidate has ever presented a serious ...

One of the aspects of Obamacare the administration has seen fit to highlight repeatedly is the so-called “slacker mandate,” which allows individuals up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans. Analysis by the Commonwealth Fund has found the mandate to be particularly popular , with millions of young adults ...

Legislation declaring President Obama’s health care law null and void in the state of Missouri recently passed in the state’s House of Representatives. House Bill 1534, which has now moved to the Senate, passed the House 108-44. None of the nays were cast by Republicans. Cosponsored by Rep. Andrew Koenig (R-St. Louis), the ...

In accordance with standards set by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care (PPACA), the federal government has approved changes to Wisconsin’s state Medicaid program, BadgerCare. The federal government asked Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s administration to scale back its originally proposed changes due to an anticipated 60,000 ...

President Obama’s home state of Illinois has become the latest to step back from implementing a health insurance exchange, according to the legislator charged with leading the effort. “I’ve suspended the talks on the Illinois insurance exchange until the Supreme Court makes its decision, which we expect in June,” Rep. Frank ...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ban on large sodas and other sugary drinks is just the most recent, and most ridiculous, act by the self-appointed chief of food police for the nation, I write at the American Thinker: In the press conference announcing the move, Bloomberg rejected the idea that this would annoy people ...

Until the passage of President Obama’s health care law, Congress was the only entity allowed to change what Medicare paid physicians and other health care providers for treating Medicare patients. Now, unless the Supreme Court strikes down ObamaCare in its entirety in June, that power will be handed off to a group of unaccountable ...

Although Texas has long favored an abstinence-focused approach to sex education, under President Obama’s administration the focus and funding have shifted toward contraception-focused programs. Now, more than a quarter of the school districts in the state teach “abstinence-plus” lessons, according to a new study by the Texas Freedom ...

Faced with a massive funding shortfall for a sweeping Medicaid expansion, Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber successfully convinced President Obama’s administration to gamble on the state’s new, largely untested health care plan to the tune of nearly $2 billion in taxpayer funds. After an eleventh-hour meeting in Washington ...

A new report from the Commonwealth Fund shows more than half of insurance plans for individuals won’t survive Obamacare. The research was published in Health Affairs and conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago and Towers Watson. The fine folks at Stateline report: The study analyzed individual and group insurance ...

While the Supreme Court considers the fate of the federal health care law, some states are attempting to take more control over health care by engaging in interstate health care compacts. An interstate health care compact involves two or more states jointly deciding they want to select the health care system that is best ...

The next step in the conflict between President Obama’s administration and the state of Texas will take place in a U.S. appeals court, which will to determine the fate of a Texas Medicaid health program for women which could have wide-ranging ramifications for other states. Texas v. Planned Parenthood In April, Republican Gov ...