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A new study on the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University shows that the health care law penalizes Americans who work full-time, will reduce the number of full-time workers, and rewards those who work less. “The ACA’s employment taxes create strong incentives to work less,” the study, The Affordable Care Act and the New Economics of Part-Time Work, states. “The health subsidies’ structure will put millions in a position in which working part-time (29 hours or fewer, as defined by the ACA) will yield more disposable income than working their normal full-time...

Canada’s medical system was a point of contention during Sunday night’s U.S. presidential debate when Republican candidate Donald trump referred to it as ‘a catastrophe’ stating Canadians preferred to head to the U.S. for a big operation. While Trump’s declaration did not include specific numbers or cases, there are examples of Canadians, including Calgarians, pursuing care available within the privatized system of the United States.

Wednesday that the Affordable Care Act is “no longer affordable” for many, a stinging critique from a state leader who strongly embraced the law and proudly proclaimed health reform was working in Minnesota just a few years ago.... ....The state scrambled to stop all seven companies that sell insurance directly to consumers or through the state exchange, MNsure, from fleeing for 2017, but the state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, is still exiting. Health care insurance shoppers will see premium increases that range from 50 percent to 67 percent on their plans for next year.

Minnesota's Democratic governor said Wednesday that the Affordable Care Act is "no longer affordable," a stinging critique from a state leader who strongly embraced the law just a few years ago. Gov. Mark Dayton made the comments while addressing questions about Minnesota's fragile health insurance market, where individual plans are facing double-digit increases after all insurers threatened to exit the market entirely in 2017. They follow cost concerns and criticism nationwide, including President Bill Clinton saying last week that the law was "the craziest thing in the world" before he backtracked.

Fewer than half of physicians are aware of the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), and most of those who do know about it probably wish it would go away. Nevertheless, this law will determine how Medicare reimburses doctors, starting in 2019. ... CMS won’t release its final MACRA rule ... CMS recenty changed the timeline ...

The economist often referred to as the architect of Obamacare called Donald Trump's healthcare policy incoherent on Monday, firing back at the GOP nominee for criticizing him during Sunday night's debate. "My only comment is that last night showed the difference between a candidate with a strong and coherent health care agenda [Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton] and one with a garbage salad of right-wing talking points," Jonathan Gruber said in the Boston Business Journal. Gruber is an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who played a pivotal role in crafting the Affordable Care Act. He said several years...

<p>Bank of America has a recession warning that's downright 'scary'</p> <p>There's a chilling trend in the market, and it could wreak havoc on your portfolio, a top market watcher said.</p> <p>"We are seven years into a full-fledged, all out, central bankers doing everything they can to stimulate demand," Bank of America-Merrill Lynch's head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy Savita Subramanian recently warned on CNBC's " Fast Money ."</p>

Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economics professor and an architect of Massachusetts health reform and the Affordable Care Act, has been out of the spotlight for months. But Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump just dragged him back into it. During Sunday night’s debate, Trump brought up Gruber by name, saying that health care reform, colloquially called Obamacare, was a scam. “You know that, because Jonathan Gruber, the architect of Obamacare, was said — he said it was a great lie, it was a big lie,” Trump said. “President Obama said you keep your doctor, you keep your plan. The whole thing...

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says it's not fair game for Donald Trump to bring up Fmr. Pres. Bill Clinton's past indiscretions in tonight's debate against Sec. Hillary Clinton. When asked, she replied, "No, because you know why? Elections are about the future." Bill Clinton is "not on the ballot," Pelosi affirmed. The Democratic House leader also previewed Hillary Clinton's debate strategy tonight, saying "I think she will talk about the issues." Pelosi brushed off Bill Clinton's recent criticism of the Affordable Care Act, saying his comments were "not damaging at all." However, asked if she acknowledged the problem with premiums...

The House of Representatives has passed a bill to protect more than 800,000 former members of 17 failed Obamacare CO-OPs from having to pay a penalty for being uninsured when they file their 2016 tax returns. The CO-OP Consumer Protection Act (H.R.954), which passed last week on a 258-165 vote, would “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt from the individual mandate certain individuals who had coverage under a terminated qualified health plan funded by the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) program.” Some of the failed non-profit CO-OPs - which American Action Forum president Douglas Holtz-Eakin called...

When Bill Clinton recently criticized ObamaCare as “the craziest thing in the world,” it looked to everyone like he had given Donald Trump a stick to beat Hillary with at their second presidential debate this Sunday at Washington University in St. Louis. But as usual, the Big Dog was crazy like a fox. According to multiple sources both in the White House and the Clinton campaign, Bill was following a carefully crafted script that was poll tested and endorsed by his wife and Barack Obama. “Barack warned Hillary that she was going to have to confront an attack from Trump...

Every election cycle, pro-lifers are subjected to a seemingly endless parade of editorials and opinion pieces claiming that pro-life interests would be well served by electing a presidential candidate who supports legal abortion. This year has proven to be no exception. In August, Evangelical blogger Rachel Held Evans wrote a widely circulated article encouraging pro-lifers to vote for Hillary Clinton. This week in The Christian Post, Eric Sapp wrote a similar piece entitled “Hillary Clinton is the Best Choice for Voters Against Abortion.” The arguments made by these commentators are almost identical every election cycle. Furthermore, they have not aged...

During a debate Thursday at the National Conference Center, the audience openly laughed at Virginia Democratic congressional candidate LuAnn Bennett when she attempted to tout Obamacare’s affordability. “For the last 50 years, both parties have agreed that we have a health care crisis,” Bennett said. “By 2005, we had 47 million uninsured Americans, and health care costs had grown to 16 percent of our GDP. The Affordable Care Act has made health care more affordable [laughter] –and it’s created access,” she said.

Even as turmoil in insurance markets nationwide fuels renewed election-year attacks on the Affordable Care Act, California is emerging as a clear illustration of what the law can achieve. The state has recorded some of the nation’s most dramatic gains in health coverage since 2013 while building a competitive insurance marketplace that offers consumers enhanced protections from high medical bills.

The leading presidential candidates’ positions on health reform could not be farther apart. Donald Trump wants to repeal Obamacare it in its entirety. Hillary Clinton wants to expand it. If elected, she plans to prop up Obamacare with more taxpayer subsidies. The Obama Administration is already looking for ways to bail out insurers as they flee the federal and state marketplace. Clinton now wants to boost subsidies to low-income households as well. Expanding Obamacare. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the government pays all premiums in excess of 2 percent to 9.5 percent of income, based on a sliding scale....

You may recall Rich Weinstein from his outstanding expose of Jonathan Gruber, the architect of Obamacare. Weinstein found videos of Gruber mocking "the stupidity of the American voter" for allowing Obamacare to pass through Congress. “And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but, basically, that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass,” Gruber says of the Affordable Care Act in an academic lecture on Oct. 4, 2013... In another [video], Gruber discusses how a trick in wording hides a large tax that is passed onto consumers... “Because the American voter is too...

Tennessee is ground zero for ObamaCare’s nationwide implosion. Late last month the state insurance commissioner, Julie Mix McPeak, approved premium increases of up to 62% in a bid to save the exchange set up under the Affordable Care Act. “I would characterize the exchange market in Tennessee as very near collapse,” she said. Then last week BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee announced it would leave three of the state’s largest exchange markets—Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville. “We have experienced losses approaching $500 million over the course of three years on ACA plans,” the company said, “which is unsustainable.” As a result, more...

California’s health care exchange is requesting that it be allowed a waiver from ObamaCare regulations in order to allow illegal immigrants to buy insurance on the exchange – which would make California the first state to extend ObamaCare to illegal immigrants.

Republicans in Congress are plotting ways to block the Obama administration from paying insurance companies hundreds of millions of dollars as part of an ObamaCare program. GOP lawmakers say they are looking at “a dozen” options — including a possible provision in the year-end spending bill — to prevent the administration from using an obscure fund within the Treasury Department to pay out massive settlements to insurers. The insurance companies are suing over a shortfall in an ObamaCare program that they say is damaging their businesses. Settling the cases could help insurers deal with losses on the ObamaCare marketplaces, but...

Remember that time when South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson shouted "You Lie!" just after President Obama assured American's before a joint session of Congress that illegal immigrants would not be eligible for Obamacare? If not, we highly recommend you take a look: ----- Apparently California Governor Jerry Brown was not convinced by Obama's denials as he signed a bill back in June that allowed the state to apply for a federal waiver to open Covered California to illegal immigrants. And, lest you thought it was a bluff, Covered California’s Executive Director Peter Lee has just sent a letter (attached in...