Healthcare Finance News | Election 2012

With Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney frequently reasserting his plans to sign an Executive Order to grant all 50 states waivers that essentially serve as get-out-of-health-insurance-exchange-free cards, if he's elected, the future of HIX appears troubled.

SCOTUS wraps healthcare law hearings

March 29, 2012 |

On the third and final day of the healthcare law hearings at the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, the major question the battling attorneys took up was whether Congress would have enacted the health reform law without the part that may be found to be unconstitutional.

Supreme Court health law hearings begin

March 26, 2012 |

The Supreme Court justices listened to arguments Monday about whether or not they have jurisdiction in the lawsuit brought by 26 states led by Florida against the federal government over the constitutionality of the health reform law.

Supreme Court decision on ACA will affect politics, markets

March 26, 2012 |

The ruling promises to produce historic change and uncertainty in how healthcare will be delivered and paid for in the future.

IPAB repeal carries the House

March 23, 2012 |

Chris Anderson

With seven Democrats crossing the aisle, the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill to repeal a key component of the Affordable Care Act, the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

House set to vote on IPAB repeal

March 22, 2012 |

Chris Anderson

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote today on whether to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), an independent panel called for in the Affordable Care Act established to keep Medicare costs in check, if Congress doesn't have the political will to do it themselves.

Illinois turns to coordinated care in Medicaid program

March 21, 2012 |

President Barack Obama's home state of Illinois, and the same state that elected a Democratic governor in 2010 who promised to raise taxes to fix the budget, sent a moderate message to the Republican Party with a strong win by Mitt Romney in the March 20 GOP primary.

Latest Ryan budget proposal contains third iteration of Medicare overhaul

March 21, 2012 |

Chris Anderson

Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget proposal for fiscal year 2013 would seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act and again contains a major overhaul of Medicare via competition and premium support.

What impact could a Republican president actually have on the ACA?

March 19, 2012 |

Diana Manos

The Republican presidential candidates are all calling for a repeal of the ACA, but it might not be so easy to make substantial changes to the health reform law.

May 3, 2012 |

Rene Letourneau

Why Romneycare still haunts Mitt

April 4, 2012 |

The candidates are still going at it. For frontrunner Mitt Romney, the biggest challenge of the Republican presidential primaries seems to be the direct similarities between his own Massachusetts healthcare law, and the Affordable Care Act, spearheaded by President Obama.

January 30, 2012 |

Tom Sullivan

Politicians commonly obscure facts about healthcare reform as they battle through election campaigns. Government Health IT Editor Tom Sullivan takes a close look at how these distortions affect Americans' views on reform.

How the repeal of ACA could affect the uninsured

May 9, 2012 |

A decay in access to medical services for American adults could continue even if President Obama is re-elected in November, according to a recent Health Affairs study.

Bachmann: 'Obama is a healthcare dictator'

April 19, 2012 |

President Obama has outlined a plan to do away with Medicare completely, according to Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) who appeared on NBC's Meet the Press on April 15. Bachmann didn't back up the claim with specifics, but in previous statements she has claimed to have heard Obama mutter under his breath on this subject at an off-the-record White House meeting.

Wanted: A youth party to tackle healthcare

April 10, 2012 |

Older people are much more likely to vote. So it’s really no wonder that spending priorities in this country are biased toward the old, or that the biggest – and completely unfunded – spending boost for the old in the form of the Medicare Part D drug benefit occurred under the notionally conservative George W. Bush and a Republican Congress.

Why Romneycare still haunts Mitt

April 4, 2012 |

Repeal and do what exactly?

April 3, 2012 |

Republican Senators Alexander, Johanns, Hoeven and Risch – all of whom have been state governors – unleash an attack on ObamaCare from the perspective of state budgets and argue that the law should be repealed (assuming it’s not declared unconstitutional of course).

#HITsm chat: How ACA hearing will affect ACOs

March 30, 2012 |

In Friday's healthcare IT social media chat, sponsored by HL7 Standards, the question was proposed: If part or all of the ACA is struck down, what happens to ACOs? Here is a Twitter recap of the chatter.

Does GOP actually want Obama to decrease health care costs?

March 23, 2012 |

USA Today reports on a Republican National Committee advertisement that lambastes President Obama for not cutting health care costs.

Health insurance mandate: $1M hospital bills show why it's needed

March 16, 2012 |

Mitt Romney is catching grief for a newly discovered interview where he defends the individual mandate in terms of personal responsibility, and cites the government or private payers picking up the tab for an uninsured person’s hospital care as “socialism.” Whether or not he still stands by that argument, there’s good logic to it.

Santorum stones Romney on health care, but lives in a glass house

March 13, 2012 |

No surprise, Rick Santorum is attacking Mitt Romney’s record on health care. He’s going after Romney for instituting the prototype for “Obamacare” in Massachusetts.

Super Tuesday did not cull the pack of GOP candidates

March 7, 2012 |

Tom Sullivan

Each of the four Republican presidential candidates can claim if not victory, then at least gained momentum, from the Super Tuesday primaries that spanned 10 states – while at the congressional level, one long-time health reform proponent met defeat.

Romney's eligibility age baby steps could be enough for Social Security but not Medicare

March 1, 2012 |

Mitt Romney has the right idea in his proposal to gradually raise the Medicare eligibility age. Too bad he’s afraid to start the process rolling for another 10 years.

How Obama's budget will affect Medicare beneficiaries

February 17, 2012 |