The greatly misunderstood Chief Justice John Marshall
One of the most enduring myths in American constitutional history is that Chief Justice John Marshall was a judicial activist whose decisions are good precedent for the modern federal monster state. Marshall was the fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (third, if you don’t count John Rutledge, a recess appointment who was never […]
The 1798 “Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen:” Yet another “progessive” irrelevancy
As Tom Woods points out on his blog, advocates of Obamacare have dug up a 1798 federal statute that, they say, shows that the original understanding of the Constitution is broad enough to authorize federal health care programs. The statute authorized creation of federal hospitals for sailors. After I entered a brief response to his […]
Time Mag’s Constitutional Baby Babble
Several readers sent me for comment a lengthy cover article in Time Magazine by managing editor Richard Stengel. Stengel’s piece is one result of new public interest in our Constitution and in “first principles”—interest that has forced political liberals (Stengel has been a paid Democratic activist) to think about the document’s real meaning. Previously, of […]
Accountable Care Organizations: Soviet-style command & control medicine that strangles innovation & quality
Accountable Care Organizations “will become the medical equivalent of the state-run giant collective farms that failed to feed the USSR. Central planning will strangle innovation in American medicine just as it strangled the Eastern Bloc economies during the Cold War.”
Health care “reform” and “accountable care” vs. doctors’ autonomy
Under ObamaCare, doctors “lose their ability to practice medicine as they envisioned. The government will be making so many decisions about how doctors will be paid, what they will be paid, and what type of practice they can establish and operate.”
ObamaCare: replacing employer-based insurance w/ subsidized health plans
A new study by McKinsey suggests that as many as 78 million Americans could lose employer health coverage, and some will end up with tax-funded subsidies for politically defined health plans.
“Accountable Care Organization” Debacle Exposes Obamacare’s Fatal Conceit
Obama administration’s efforts to promote accountable care organizations (ACOs) in Medicare are failing because they are “premised on the fatal conceit that government experts can direct the market better than millions of consumers making their own decisions.”
White House: Buy Health Insurance or Be Poor
“[T]he government’s latest position that the [health control] law doesn’t really require people to buy health insurance at all. We have the option instead of earning less money. “
Stuck with Medicaid “coverage” but no health care? Can’t sue that state
“Most of the “newly covered” [Medicaid] patients won’t be able to find doctors … willing to treat them. … Those “newly covered” people will also have to abandon some of their legal rights.”
Politically-controlled exchanges & ACOs are about authoritarian control, not competition & accountability
“ObamaCare will force health plans to provide a nonnegotiable package of benefits, but will hold premiums at a level that will make it impossible to meet the full demand for that care. Instead, costs will be controlled by squeezing provider incomes and delaying access to care.”
Nursing homes seek waiver from ObamaCare health control bill
Nursing homes seeks waver from health control bill. “We do not have much ability to increase prices because we are so dependent on Medicaid and Medicare” for revenue, says president of American Health Care Association.
How health “reform” punishes ambition & increased earnings
More fallout from ObamaCare (HR 3590), reported by Daniel P. Kessler: Consider a wife in a family with $90,000 in income. If she were to earn an additional $3,700, her family would lose the insurance subsidy and be more than $10,000 poorer. In addition, she would also pay more in income and Social Security taxes. […]
