Obamacare is shrinking the individual health insurance market
New data from insurance company regulatory filings show that enrollment in the individual health insurance market declined significantly last year — by 10 percent, or 1.8 million people.
McClaughry: History shows what the individual insurance mandate could look like
Last Saturday the Vermont House and Senate finalized approval of a stupid and odious bill to impose a mandate on every Vermonter to buy overpriced state-approved Obamacare health insurance.
Critics say Vermont opioid tax idea is not going away
Marchand says there’s no silver bullet for cutting down on opioid addiction and death rates in Vermont. “Such a state tax would only harm patients who need the drugs without reducing addiction,” he said.
In order to lower drug prices, 3 areas the government should address
Government price controls and other price interventions distort the market. They also threaten patient access because the only way the government can enforce price controls is by denying patients access to a drug if the manufacturer won’t sell it at a low enough price. Such policies inhibit choice and access.
McClaughry: The real drug price problem
These battles never get to the root cause, not only of high pharmaceutical prices, but of the denial of the best possible health of all Americans. That root cause is the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendments to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Congressional liberals’ latest attempt to push Americans out of private health care
With the collapse of choice and competition in the Obamacare health insurance exchanges, combined with major premium and deductible increases, “progressives” in Congress are looking for new ways to expand the role of government in Americans’ health care.
Conservative leaders endorse ‘path forward’ for health reform in 2018
Dollars would flow not to insurance companies, but to the states through block grants that would replace Obamacare’s payments to insurers. With new flexibility, states could use the money to lower premiums and stabilize turbulent health insurance markets, among other things.
Senate amends bill for study committee on state-mandated health insurance penalty
The Vermont Senate on Tuesday voted to amend a bill which will create a summer study committee to examine potential penalties for not purchasing health insurance in Vermont.
Americans backing away from Obamacare
Roughly 400,000 fewer people signed up for Obamacare in 2018, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma announced Tuesday afternoon. That is a significant drop in enrollment from 2017, when 12.2 million Americans obtained coverage through the Obamacare state exchanges.
Mass shootings and Vermont’s mental health system
The vast majority of mental health patients are nonviolent, and often the most vulnerable in our society. If we can’t care for them in a timely fashion, what does that say about our chances of preemptively treating the unknown violent delusional nihilist desperate for his or her 15 minutes of fame?
McClaughry: Vermont health insurance coverage penalty latest Big Government assault weapon
Legislators are worried that without the threat of an Obamacare-type penalty, some of these young, healthy people will escape the state’s clutches. Hence the new mandate.