According to a new study from the Buckeye Institute, ObamaCare's expansion of Medicaid eligibility will bankrupt the state of Ohio. Presently, a household of four in Ohio pays approximately $2,000 annually to support the state's Medicaid program.  ObamaCare, the nation's new healthcare law, will significantly increase the burden on Ohio taxpayers.

The full report, entitled Crushing Weight: National Health Care Law Threatens to Make Medicaid an Unsustainable Burden for Ohioans can be downloaded here.

Welcome to the American Healthcare Education Coalition (AHEC) website.  We hope you will find the information on this website informative and helpful.

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The Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report last month detailing the large amount of money contained in ObamaCare to fund implementation over the next ten years.  To those who read ObamaCare before it passed none of these individual spending provisions should come as a surprise.  The noteworthy aspect of the CRS document is that it aggregates these spending provisions, putting them into a concise document which details a vast amount of spending.

This is another problem with ObamaCare, it puts nearly $100 billion of spending to implement ObamaCare on autopilot and makes the job of Congress to conduct oversight regarding implementation harder.  Now that spending is already in motion, it will be harder for Congress to cut spending or withhold spending to gain leverage over the leviathan that is HHS.

AHEC has compiled a brief list of the amount and description of the Appropriations (the page numbers correlate to the hyperlink for ObamaCare contained above):

Section 1002 (page 139) – Consumer Assistance (Grants)
First FY, $30,000,000
Subsequent years, such sums as may be necessary

Section 1003 (page 140) – Federal Takeover of Premium Reviews (Grants)
$250,000,000

Section 1005 (HCERA) – Reform Fund
$1,000,000,000

Section 1101 (page 143) – Administrative Costs of High Risk Pools
$5,000,000,000

Section 1102 (Page 145) – Coverage for Early Retirees
$5,000,000,000

Section 1311 (page 173) – Health Benefits Plans
Blank Check – “amount necessary” to carry out this section

Section 1322 (page 188) – Grants to Create Non-Profit Insurers
$6,000,000,000

Section 1323 (page 195) – Community Health Insurance Option
Such sums as requested by the Secretary
$1,000,000,000

Section 2405 (page 305) – Expansion of A/D Resource Centers
$50,000,000 ($10,000,000 x 5FY)

Section 2701 (page 318) – Adult Health Quality Measures
$300,000,000 ($60,000,000 x 5FY)

Section 2707 (page 327) – Medicaid Psychiatric Demonstration Project
$75,000,000

Section 2801 (page 328) - MACPAC
$11,000,000

Section 2951 (page 343) – Home Visiting Programs
$1,500,000,000

Section 2953 (page 352) – Personal Responsibility Education
$375,000,000 ($75,000,000 x 5)

Section 2954 (page 352) - Education
$250,000,000

Section 3013 (page 384) – Quality Measure Development
$375,000,000 ($75,000,000 x 5)

Section 3014 (page 387) – Quality Measurement
Up to $100,000,000

Section 3021 (page 394) – CMS Innovation
$5,000,000
$10,000,000,000

Section 3024 (page 408) – Demonstration Project
$30,000,000

Section 3026 (page 415) – Transition Program
$500,000,000

Section 3027 (page ____) – Demonstration Project
$1,600,000

Section 3306 (page 470) – Assistance for Low-Income Programs
$300,000,000

Section 3403 (page 506) – Board
$150,000,000 ($15M adjusted annually for inflation)

Section 4002 (page 541) – Prevention Fund
$5,000,000,000

Section 4101 (page 547) – School Based Health Centers
$200,000,000 ($50M x 5)

Section 4108 (page 564) – Incentives to Prevent Chronic Diseases n Medicaid
$100,000,000

Section 4202 (page 570) – Wellness
$50,000,000 transfer

Section 4204 (page 473) – Immunization
$1,000,000

Section 4306 (page 587) – Child Obesity Programs
$125,000,000

Section 5210 (page 615) – Ready Reserve Corps
$100,000,000

Section 5507 (page 668) – Demonstration Projects
$425,000,000 ($85M x 5)
$15,000,000

Section 5508 (page 672) – Teaching Capacity
$230,000,000

Section 5509 (page 675) – Grad Nurse Program
$200,000,000

Section 6201 (page 727) – Background Checks
$160,000,000

Section 6301 (page 728) – Research
(1) Amounts in a fund
(2) $1.26B + trust fund sources (see formula)
(3) Fund based appropriations

Section 6402 (page 761) – Program Integrity
$350,000,000

Section 8001 (page 842) – Class Act
Up to amount collected in a trust fund

Section 9023 (page 883) – Therapeutic Discovery Project
Such sums

Section 10203 (page 931) – Enrollment Prgrams
$40,570,000,000

Secs. 10211-10214 (page 931) – Pregnancy Assistance grants
$250,000,000

Section 10323 (page 959) – Medicare for Hazardous Exposure
$215,000,000

Section 10502 (page 1003) - Facility Construction
$100,000,000

Section 10503 (page 1004) – Community Health Center Fund
$1,500,000,000
$1,500,000,000

The House Ways and Means Committee today reports that 30,000 New Yorkers who work for an SEIU-affiliate are losing their coverage.  6,000 children will be completely without health insurance as a result of this dropped coverage.  Mitra Behroozi,the Executive Director of benefit and pension funds for the plan for 1199SEIU explained the change, noting that: "[N]ew federal health-care reform legislation requires plans with dependent coverage to expand that coverage up to age 26.  Our limited resources are already stretched as far as possible, and meeting this new requirement would be financially impossible."  In other words, the new requirement under ObamaCare that health insurance providers extend coverage to adult children of beneficiaries up to age 26 is the reason that 6,000 children in New York are without health insurance coverage.  Expect more of these types of unintended (but not unforeseen!) consequences of ObamaCare in the coming months.

Here is an article from Investor's Business Daily from several months ago that outlines many of the new powers that HHS Secretary Sebelius has been granted through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).

One strange item to note: ObamaCare gives the Health and Human Services Secretary several undefined powers.  In many instances, the new healthcare law gives the Secretary of HHS the power to create and define her new authorities.  

 

Here is an interesting article on A Line of Sight about ObamaCare's impact on seniors and the ensuing Medicare cuts.

Legislative Resources: ObamaCare Bill Text

The new law known as ObamaCare is comprised of two different bills that passed Congress:

(1)           H.R. 3590 – The “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” which became Public Law 111-148 when it was signed into law on March 23, 2010; and

(2)           H.R.  4872 – The Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which became Public Law 111-152 when it was signed into law on March 30, 2010.

Congressional Budget Office & Joint Tax Committee Resources

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) March 20, 2010 letter on H.R. 4872 & H.R. 3590 includes a detailed cost estimate of the new law.  Other CBO cost estimates can be found here.

The Joint Committee on Taxation (JTC) analyses regarding the new health care law including the following (each link below will download the document):

(1)           Technical Explanation Of The Revenue Provisions Of The “Reconciliation Act Of 2010,” As Amended, In Combination With The “Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act.” JCX-18-10 (March 21, 2010).

(2)           Estimated Revenue Effects Of The Amendment In The Nature Of A Substitute To H.R. 4872, The "Reconciliation Act Of 2010," As Amended, In Combination With The Revenue Effects Of H.R. 3590, The "Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act ('PPACA')," As Passed By The Senate, And Scheduled For Consideration By The House Committee On Rules On March 20, 2010.  JCX-17-10 (March 20, 2010).

(3)           Estimated Revenue Effects Of The Amendment In The Nature Of A Substitute To H.R. 4872, The “Reconciliation Act Of 2010,” In Combination With The Revenue Effects Of H.R. 3590, The “Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act (‘PPACA’),” As Passed By The Senate.  JCX-16-10 (March 18, 2010).

(4)           Estimated Revenue Effects Of The Manager’s Amendment To The Revenue Provisions Contained In The “Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act,” As Passed By The Senate On December 24, 2009.  JCX-10-10 (March 11, 2010).

(5)           Estimated Revenue Effects Of The Manager’s Amendment To The Revenue Provisions Contained In The “Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act.” JCX-61-09 (December 19, 2009).

ObamaCare could be the end of physician-owned hospitals, according to some experts.

As this Kaiser Health News article indicates, physician-owned hospitals in Texas, California, and Pennsylvania are under pressure because of ObamaCare.  The new healthcare law dictates that physician-owned hospitals must be certified by Medicare by December 31, 2010 in order to receive Medicare reimbursements in the future.  The hospital industry has long felt pressure from the physician-owned hospitals because they tend to be more cost-effective and more profitable than traditional hospitals.  Physician-owned hospitals therefore pose a serious threat to traditional hospitals' profits.

It turns out that ObamaCare will increase the cost of prescription name-brand drugs.  

On November 10, 2010, Rep. Paul Ryan received a letter from the Congressional Budget Office in response to his inquiry about the impact of ObamaCare's taxes on name-brand prescription drugs.

The letter concludes what conservatives have warned all along: taxing pharmaceutical companies and innovative drug companies will have the impact of driving up costs.  Furthermore, this letter details how seniors on Medicare will pick up some of the tab for these price increases.

Michael Tanner in The New York Post writes about what Republicans can and cannot do to fight ObamaCare.  Public opposition to ObamaCare remains high, as evidenced by the election results on November 2nd and the recent ballot initiatives that passed in Arizona, Oklahoma, and Missouri opposing the individual mandate.  (A similar ballot initiative narrowly lost in Colorado.)  

Even Democrats in the Senate are beginning to recognize the deleterious effects that ObamaCare will have.  North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad has said that ObamaCare's long-term healthcare provision is a "ticking time-bomb" and Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden has asked that his state be granted a waiver, exempting it from the individual mandate and other provisions.  Republicans would be wise to encourage other Democrats to go on the record, voicing their opposition to the impact that ObamaCare will have on their states. Furthermore, Republicans should allow any state that wants an ObamaCare waiver to have one.  These waivers that will enable states to opt out of the individual mandate are the key to dismantling ObamaCare.