The Heartland Institute

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently announced the health insurance premium rate increases proposed for five states by Trustmark Life Insurance Company were “unreasonable.” The rate increases for the states of Alabama, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Virginia, and Wyoming were 13 percent. HHS contends an independent ...

As Idaho’s 2013 legislative session got underway in January, the state’s overwhelmingly Republican legislature struggled with ideological divisions over how to proceed with implementation of President Obama’s health care law. Given the GOP divide, the future of Idaho’s health insurance exchange may rest with the state’s minority ...

As states across the nation wrangle with the challenge of choosing whether to comply with President Obama’s health care law, legislators, governors, and advisory boards are making key decisions with major ramifications in advance of the verdict from the Supreme Court expected in the spring of 2012. Michigan Haggles Over Timing ...

Early in 2011, Oregon lawmakers passed legislation mandating the state’s Medicaid system be reorganized to use coordinated care organizations to provide health care services to recipients. State policymakers tout this transformation of the Medicaid system as a way to save money and improve care, but it’s unclear whether that will ...

In a situation which may soon be emulated across the country, Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in California are being told they cannot keep their plans even if they like them. The decision by Anthem Blue Cross to stop offering its popular Medicare Advantage Freedom Blue RPPO means 113,000 Medicare beneficiaries in California ...

Some New York Medicaid recipients are scheduled to begin receiving health care services through new “health homes” beginning January 1, 2012. The program is intended to provide better quality care while saving the state millions of dollars, but the state still hasn’t let counties know much about how the new system will work ...

The latest unintended consequence of President Obama’s health care law could be a lower marriage rate, according to the staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committee recently released a study claiming a marriage penalty within Obama’s law could lead to fewer marriages once the law is implemented ...

A small but important entitlement within President Obama’s health care law has been rescinded by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. But Capitol Hill Democrats are opposing efforts to repeal the relevant language entirely. On October 14, Secretary Sebelius announced HHS would end implementation of the CLASS Act ...

While governors of most states are deciding whether to implement or resist President Obama’s health care law, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer is looking to do something completely different: bringing a Canadian-style single-payer system on his state. The details of the Democrat Schweitzer’s plan are not clear, and he has not submitted ...

With President Obama’s health care law mandating states expand their Medicaid programs dramatically by 2014, a Cato Institute forum in early October examined the government program’s effects on those enrolled in it—particularly whether the expansion is a wise use of taxpayer dollars and whether it actually produces beneficial health ...

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe has reversed plans to seek a federal health insurance exchange grant after encountering strong opposition from Republicans in the state legislature. Although the Democrat Beebe’s late-September decision could be viewed as a nod toward bipartisanship, some legislators characterize it as a political ploy to ...