Free Republic

Montana legislators were able to shut down Democratic Governor Steve Bullock's attempts to expand ObamaCare in Big Sky Country for two years. But in 2015, with the help of Ohio Governor John Kasich and some legislative trickery, Bullock and his pro-ObamaCare allies got their way. A small group of moderate Republicans joined with the Democrats to change the legislature's procedural rules and yanked the bill to the floor for a vote. The bill passed narrowly, making Montana the only state in 2015 to legislatively authorize ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion. (Alaska Governor Bill Walker unilaterally expanded Medicaid in 2015, despite a clear...

In June of last year I wrote that the future of ObamaCare would depend upon the outcome of a small number of under-reported lawsuits filed to prevent the IRS illegally re-writing the Affordable Care Act. At issue in the lawsuits: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides tax credits and subsidies for the purchase of health insurance through exchanges that are run by “a governmental agency or nonprofit entity that is established by a state.” (2) By mid 2013 however, 33 states had refused to build an ObamaCare Exchange so necessary to the functioning of the law. And although the ACA...

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The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 7 million Americans will enroll in the online exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act’s individual insurance mandate when the marketplaces open on October 1. But investors surveyed by Citigroup have a much lower forecast: 4 million. The expected problem is not unawareness of the law’s requirement that all Americans who can afford to buy healthcare insurance must do so, or confusion about how to sign up for coverage, or even distaste for the mandate; rather, the survey showed that investors are concerned that technical glitches will present obstacles to enrollment, Reuters reports....

Surprised by the recent waivers from the Obama administration on the Affordable Care Act? Get ready for more, writes Margot Sanger-Katz at National Journal, because the employer mandate is far from the only piece of ObamaCare that’s not ready for prime time. In fact, it might be easier to select the few components that might be ready for the implementation target date than to number those that won’t: If you’ve been reading all the Obamacare stories lately, you might get the impression that the administration has just realized it will not be able to implement the massive health reform as...

In a little more than 100 days, Obamacare health insurance exchanges in each state will open for enrollment. But a lot of Americans don't know that. That's why advocacy groups around the nation are stepping up their efforts to educate consumers about the options that could be available to them through Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, come October 1. Enroll America, a coalition of community organizations, health groups and businesses, is working with partners to hold more than 75 events in 27 states this weekend. The programs, which include door-to-door visits, talking to people at churches and...

A health insurance company headed by an old friend from Obama's days as a community organizer got a $340 million federal loan to establish Obamacare co-ops in New York, New Jersey and Oregon despite having a chronic record of consumer and regulatory complaints. The New York-based Freelancers Insurance Company has been rated the "worst" insurer for two straight years by state regulators, and data compiled by a national insurance association show an extremely high rate of consumer complaints. The firm was founded in 2008 by Sara Horowitz, who worked with Obama before his career in elective politics to launch Demos,...

This week, Michigan was awarded a $9.8 million federal Obamacare "exchange" grant. Previous CapCon articles have described how state cooperation and grant-seeking may further entrench Obamacare, making it harder to eventually invalidate or repeal. One article distilled this into bullet points from Cato analyst Michael Cannon, among them: Creating an exchange lends a veneer of legitimacy to the law. The Obama administration heralds the creation of each new exchange as proof that the law is gaining acceptance, and heralds states accepting the federal grants available under the law in the same manner. To create an exchange is to create a...