News coverage, opinion and information on health care reform and health care policy including the Affordable Care Act.
By Tom Howell Jr. - The Washington Times
Obamacare's web exchanges are still "vulnerable to fraud," according to a watchdog report Monday that says government investigators were able to get taxpayer-subsidized coverage for fake enrollees despite a brand-new safeguard against chicanery on the law's insurance exchanges. Published September 12, 2016
Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence on Thursday said "even the truth happens" sometimes with Bill and Hillary Clinton, in the wake of former President Clinton's calling the health care system under Obamacare the "craziest thing in the world" earlier this week.
Medicare spending on opioids is skyrocketing, but the agency's investigations into misuse have plummeted in the last couple of years, congressional investigators revealed Monday, suggesting that a lack of federal controls could inadvertently be feeding the prescription drug abuse epidemic.
President Obama's spokesman said politely as he could Tuesday that he doesn't know what in the world former President Bill Clinton was talking about in criticizing Obamacare.
The Obama administration failed to follow its own health care law by directing funds to insurers instead of taxpayers, nonpartisan government investigators said Thursday, chalking up a win for GOP critics and denting the White House's ability to satisfy insurers who are losing money under the overhaul.
The administration wants to use the IRS to hawk Obamacare, drawing fire from Republicans, who fear President Obama is turning the tax agency into part of his political operation by enlisting it in the health care effort.
The White House issued a veto threat Tuesday against a House measure that addresses the failure of about two-thirds of the co-op insurers under the Affordable Care Act by exempting people who lost their coverage.
A new study that examines some major health care proposals from the presidential candidates finds that Donald Trump would cause about 20 million to lose coverage while Hillary Clinton would provide coverage for an additional 9 million people.
Rejected during the 2009 Obamacare debate as too controversial and unnecessary, the public option -- in which the government offers insurance that competes directly with private and nonprofit plans -- has been resurrected this year by Democrats who say it's the only way to rescue President Obama's struggling health care law.
California Democrats are testing the bounds of Obamacare's "innovation" waiver, pushing to bypass the 2010 law's ban on illegal immigrants' participation by letting them purchase insurance on the state's health care exchange.
The Obama administration and its Democratic allies defended the 2010 health law's struggles Wednesday as the natural growing pains of an ambitious program, saying it remains a net plus compared to the pre-Obamacare era.
Four million more Americans held health insurance in 2015 than in 2014, according to Census report Tuesday that found 29 million people were still not covered and that Hispanics lagged behind other race or ethnic groups in getting covered, despite widespread gains attributed to Obamacare.
President Obama on Monday thanked insurers who will offer coverage on Obamacare's insurance exchanges next year despite challenges that have caused companies like Aetna and UnitedHealth Group to largely withdraw from the program.
Americans are more likely to say Obamacare is a burden than a net benefit, according to a new poll that finds nearly three in 10 people think the health overhaul has hurt them and their family.
The nation's uninsured rate has fallen to its lowest point on record, the administration announced Wednesday, taking a victory lap on Obamacare just as the issue is heating up for voters.
President Obama objected Thursday to a new governing board to oversee health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs, saying it would undermine the VA Secretary's authority and make it harder for the scandal-ridden agency "to implement transformative change."
Nearly a third of the country could have just a single company offering plans on their Obamacare exchange next year, according to an analysis this week that says the exodus of big players such as UnitedHealth and Aetna is denting the health law.
If Democrats assumed Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders would fall in line after losing the presidential nomination, they were sadly mistaken.
Aetna warned the Justice Department that it would start to bail on Obamacare if the administration blocked its proposed merger with another insurer, Humana, and then followed through on its threat, prompting President Obama's allies to accuse the company of using its customers as a bargaining chip.
Aetna was supposed to be one of Obamacare's success stories -- one of the nation's biggest and best-known insurers sticking with the health insurance program even as others dropped out last year.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pounced Tuesday on Obamacare's latest setback, saying Aetna's decision to withdraw from nearly a dozen states is a sign that the law is "imploding" and should be repealed.
In a major blow to Obamacare, one of America's largest health insurers said it was pulling out of most of the markets in which it was participating, citing huge losses in the past quarter.
Even progressives are turning against Obamacare as health care costs and premiums skyrocket.
More than two thirds of Obamacare's health co-op's have failed, yet Democrats who pushed the experiment during the 2010 health care debate are refusing to cede ground to corporate plans, saying the best Plan B is the "public option" that many of them wanted in the first place.
President Obama urged Congress on Monday to both preserve and build on his health care legacy, saying insurance remains out of reach for millions despite the lofty goals of his signature domestic achievement.
Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party continued tacking left over the weekend and offering olive branches to Sen. Bernard Sanders on health care, reforms to the nation's drug laws, minimum wage and other key issues — though they also handed him a stinging defeat on trade.
The Obama administration ignored its own advice and forged ahead with Obamacare payments to insurers without permission from Congress, House Republicans said Thursday in a scathing report that says the White House dismissed the Constitution's separation of powers and swiped $7 billion from taxpayers.
The Justice Department formally signaled Wednesday it will appeal a May ruling that said the administration is unlawfully reimbursing insurers under Obamacare.
A federal appeals court seemed sympathetic to West Virginia's complaints about Obamacare but tossed out the state's challenge in a ruling Friday that leaves President Obama with a free hand to alter enforcement of the law.
A federal appeals court seemed sympathetic to West Virginia's complaints about Obamacare, but tossed out the state's challenge in a ruling Friday that leaves President Obama with a free hand to alter enforcement of the law.
Obamacare lost 1.6 million customers on its web-based exchanges between the end of open enrollment and March 31, the administration said Thursday in a snapshot of how many customers held on to coverage after the law's third round of signups.
President Obama's pick to lead the federal personnel office won't get a vote until the Congress cancels its special access to Obamacare health plans, Sen. David Vitter said Wednesday in a rebuke of his colleagues from the chamber floor.
House Republicans launched an uphill bid Wednesday to redo national health care reform amid withering criticism from the White House and Democrats, who said the GOP's long-awaited plan lacks details and that Obamacare already insures millions of people.
The White House slammed the House Republicans' proposal Wednesday to replace Obamacare, saying it skimped on details that the GOP knows will be unpopular with Americans and that's why Speaker Paul Ryan won't put it to a vote.
Obamacare premiums are projected to rise an average of 10 percent next year, according to a study of benchmark plans in more than a dozen cities, suggesting that the health care law's troubles will stretch well beyond President Obama's tenure.
More than 92,000 Coloradans will lose their Obamacare health care coverage in 2017 as four leading insurance companies scale back or eliminate their plans while others propose rate hikes of as much as 40 percent.
House Republicans accused the Obama administration Tuesday of stonewalling their investigation into whether the government is funding an obscure Obamacare program without asking Congress for the money first.
Louisiana will enroll the first of thousands of newly eligible residents into Medicaid on Wednesday, marking a "tipping point" in President Obama's push to expand the government-run insurance program under his signature health care law.
A pair of Republican lawmakers touted a health care plan Monday that would let states opt out of Obamacare, rather than repealing it outright, and deploy a program that uses a uniform tax credit to help Americans get insured.
The Supreme Court declined to rule in a closely watched fight over Obamacare's birth control rules Monday and sent the dispute back to the lower courts, saying both sides should be able to reach a compromise that doesn't force religious nonprofits to be involved in contraceptive coverage that violates their beliefs.
The White House brushed aside a growing list of political and legal threats to its signature health care law on Friday, vowing to pass the torch to Obamacare's allies so that Americans can seek taxpayer-subsidized coverage for "generations" to come.
A federal judge dealt President Obama and his health care law a major blow Thursday, ruling in favor of House Republicans who said the administration broke the law and trod on Congress' fundamental powers by paying Obamacare insurers without permission from Capitol Hill.
A House panel said Tuesday that a top administration health official misled Congress last year by seeming to suggest that the government had already recaptured hundreds of millions of dollars from struggling state exchanges under Obamacare.
The Obama administration challenged health care groups, web developers and other innovators Monday to design a medical bill that patients can actually read and understand, saying a patchwork of content and jargon is overwhelming Americans who just want to know what they owe and why.
Insurers are preparing for Obamacare customers double-digit rate increases to be announced in coming months, handing Republicans a key talking point as they try to persuade voters to accept a repeal of the 2010 health care law.
The IRS mistakenly overpaid more than $8 million to HealthCare.gov customers and Obamacare users in California, and cheated tens of thousands of others out of nearly $2 million in 2015 because the government relied on incorrect information to figure their taxes, an audit revealed Tuesday.
A diverse coalition of seniors, health plans and private companies proposed a series of steps Monday to tamp down the cost of prescription drugs, from speeding the approval of generics to publicly reporting notable price hikes.
One of the nation's largest insurers said Tuesday that it will drastically cut its involvement in Obamacare's exchanges next year, while analysts expect other insurers to hike their rates to cover mounting losses from taking part in the health care law.
The nation's largest insurer could punch a hole through the middle of Obamacare if it pulls out of the health care exchanges, leaving more than 1 million Americans in an unhealthy marketplace with only a single option for insurance.
The administration shot down the Supreme Court's effort to forge a compromise on Obamacare's contraceptive mandate, saying Tuesday that the justices' alternative proposal would set up too many hurdles for the government and insurers.
New Obamacare customers are sicker and costlier than customers who bought insurance before President Obama's massive health overhaul, one of the country's top insurance companies said Wednesday, giving more ammunition to critics who say the law is broken.
The Supreme Court appears to be searching for a middle ground on the Obamacare contraceptive mandate, issuing an order Tuesday asking both the government and the religious charities challenging the rules to try to come up with options that can accommodate both sides.
Obamacare insurance premiums will leap 6 percent a year over the next decade, and companies will drop millions of employees from their health plans as insurers and employers calibrate their offerings for the new marketplace, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.
Catholic nuns and religious nonprofits that object to paying for employee contraceptives faced a deeply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday, as the liberal justices warned against allowing faith-based objections to stymie important government goals such as expanding access to women's health care.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Tuesday offered a full-throated defense of nuns who will challenge Obamacare's birth control rules before the Supreme Court this week, saying there is "no good reason" to force people who embody public service to violate their faith.
When faith-based charities come to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, they will once again be aiming their arguments squarely at Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, hoping to convince him that they deserve the same carve-out from Obamacare's birth control rules that actual houses of worship enjoy.
Obamacare customers in nearly two thirds of U.S. counties had three or fewer insurers to choose from in 2016, a GOP senator said Monday in an office report that argues President Obama oversold his signature law as a catalyst for competition.
The Obama administration awarded $94 million in Obamacare money Friday to health centers on the front lines of the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic, one day after Democrats complained that a Senate-passed bill to combat the crisis lacked necessary funding.
Obamacare's failed co-ops have not repaid a single dollar of the combined $1.2 billion they received in federal startup loans, Senate Republicans said Thursday in a report that argues taxpayers will never be made whole.
A woman from Pennsylvania who now identifies as a transgender man wants to have his uterus surgically removed, and he says Obamacare requires the state to pay for it.
The Obama administration says it might overhaul how it pays doctors and hospitals for drugs they administer under Medicare Part B, arguing the reforms are needed to put patients before dollars and cents.
Every year, Medicare physician payment rates spark a legislative fire drill. The complex formula for updating doctors' reimbursements, the sustainable growth rate formula, routinely threatens Medicare physicians with draconian payment cuts. Next year, the formula mandates a 21 percent pay cut.
Washington is primed for Medicare reform. If nothing is done, the trust fund that covers the hospital bills for nearly 50 million Americans will run out in less than two decades.
Deception abounds in Obamacare. A video of MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber, the "architect" of the Affordable Care Act, is all over the Internet, showing his admission that the entire measure was based on deceit, "written in a tortured way" to be deceptive so it could pass thanks to "the stupidity of the American voter."
When Zeke Emanuel writes a provocative, 5,000-plus-word polemic on why he — and by extension the rest of us — should hope to die at 75 in order to ease the burden on family, friends and society, it can't be written off as the ravings of a rogue intellectual.
Oregon may drop its glitch-laden Obamacare exchange and rely on the federally run HealthCare.gov website instead, according to a new report.
Dean Griffin liked the health insurance he purchased for himself and his wife three years ago and thought he'd be able to keep the plan even after the federal Affordable Care Act took effect.
The head of the agency in charge of the new health care law apologized Tuesday to people who've tried to use the flawed federal Obamacare website, but she said she still has faith that the site will be working for most Americans by the end of November.
The Obama administration waited until the last minute to test the main Obamacare website and refused to ask for a delay when hiccups arose, government contractors testified to Congress on Thursday as they tried to explain why the rollout of the insurance exchanges has been so rocky.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Monday put off Republican lawmakers who want to question her about the disastrous rollout of Obamacare this week, instead agreeing to testify about the program's computer problems next week.
Dr. Ben Carson didn't mince words: Obamacare is "the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery."
President Obama said in comments broadcast Tuesday, on the cusp of enrollment in Obamacare's exchanges, that of course there will be "glitches" in the implementation of the health reform — months of glitches, he added.
Senators from both parties linked arms to defy Sen. Ted Cruz, overcoming his attempt to filibuster the stopgap spending bill, which allowed Democrats to add back in full funding for Obamacare and power the bill through the chamber and sending it back to the House.
With new health insurance markets launching next week, the Obama administration is unveiling premiums and plan choices for 36 states where the federal government is taking the lead to cover uninsured residents.
President Obama has already signed 14 laws that amend, rescind or otherwise change parts of his health care law, and he's taken five independent steps to delay the Affordable Care Act on his own, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service, released Wednesday.
Coping with advanced cancer, Bev Veals was in the hospital for chemotherapy this summer when she got a call that her health plan was shutting down. Then, the substitute insurance she was offered wanted her to pay up to $3,125, on top of premiums.
Citing Obamacare, the United Parcel Service plans to remove 15,000 spouses from its health care plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere.
The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled $67 million in grants to more than 100 organizations tasked with helping Americans understand the new health care law and its potential benefits.
Tea party Republicans are girding for a fight with the White House — and members of their own party — over how to block President Obama's health care law, saying Congress must not miss the chance to use this year's funding bills to try to starve Obamacare to death.
The Obama administration launched its promotion of the new health care law in earnest Monday, revealing that it has asked the National Football League to advertise insurance options as it rolls out a glossy new website and a 24-hour call center to clear up confusion about the law.
The Ohio Department of Insurance predicts premiums in 2014 will rise by 88 percent, a direct result of President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Gallery: 40 Photos
The Supreme Court upheld the individual insurance requirement at the heart of President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul.
Gallery: 6 Photos
President Obama speaks about the Patient's Bill of Rights and health care reform in the backyard of a private residence in Falls Church, Va.
