Just before the July 4 holiday, the Obama Administration announced that it had decided to delay enforcement of the PPACA’s employer mandate, despite the lack of clear legal authority for this move. I discussed some of the implications of this decision here. Last week, the CBO released its initial assessment of this decision. According to […]
Archive | Health Care
Lawmakers Upset with PPACA as It Applies to Them
Today’s NYT had an amusing story about how members of Congress and their staffs are concerned about a provision in the PPACA that requires them to obtain insurance through exchanges because, among other things, it will require a substantial increase in out-of-pocket costs. Under a wrinkle that dates back to enactment of the law, members […]
Hearing on IRS Health Insurance Tax Credit Rule
Tomorrow the Energy Policy, Health Care and Entitlements subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is holding a hearing on “Oversight of IRS’s Legal Basis for Expanding ObamaCare’s Taxes and Subsidies.” The issue is whether the IRS rule purporting to extend tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies for the purchase of qualifying health insurance […]
NY appellate court rules 5-0 against Bloomberg soda ban
By David Kopel on July 30, 2013 2:02 pm in "Bullying" Bans, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Executive Branch, Food and Drink, Growth of Government, Health Care, New Class, Paternalism, Separation of Powers
The First Department of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court has ruled 5-0 against NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s soda ban, in the case of In re New York Statewide Coalition of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, et al. v. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, et al. (The Hispanic […]
Unions Seek Changes to PPACA
The WSJ reports that the heads of three large labor unions are pushing Democrats in Congress to make changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Since last year, union leaders have complained that many of the law’s requirements will drive up costs for union-sponsored health-care plans that are managed jointly by unions and mostly […]
Liberty University v. Lew
On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided Liberty University v. Lew on remand from the Supreme Court after NFIB v. Sebelius. The headline is that the panel unanimously rejected Liberty University’s constitutional and statutory challenges to the individual and employer mandates. The court did not find Liberty University’s Commerce Clause […]
McConnell on the Obama Administration’s Decision to Delay the Employer Mandate
By Jonathan H. Adler on July 8, 2013 11:40 pm in Administrative Law, Health Care, Insurance Exchanges
In tomorrow’s WSJ, Stanford’s Michael McConnell has an op-ed discussing the constitutional implications of the Obama Administration’s decision to delay enforcement of the PPACA’s employer mandate. Article II, Section 3, of the Constitution states that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” This is a duty, not a discretionary power. While the […]
The Implications of Delaying the Employer Mandate
The Obama Administration’s decision to delay enforcement of the PPACA’s employer mandate could have far-reaching implications for PPACA implementation and the politics of health care reform. First, it’s important to recognize what the Administration’s decision does not do. Contrary to some suggestions, this decision does not affect the so-called “contraception mandate” that is currently the […]
ObamaCare Employer Mandate Delayed Until 2015
This afternoon the Obama Administration announced that it would delay implementation and enforcement of the requirement that employers provide health insurance for their employees until 2015. Bloomberg reports: Businesses won’t be penalized next year if they fail to provide workers health insurance after the Obama administration decided to delay a key requirement under its signature […]
The First Anniversary of the Obamacare Decision
By Ilya Somin on June 28, 2013 1:30 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Spending Clause, Taxing and Spending Clause
Today is the first anniversary of NFIB v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in the Obamacare case. It is still too soon for us to fully appreciate the long-term impact of the ruling. We are also still far from reaching any kind of consensus about the correctness of the Court’s decision. For the moment, […]
Hobby Lobby Wins Before En Banc Tenth Circuit
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, sitting en banc, breathed new life into Hobby Lobby’s religious freedom challenge to the so-called “contraception mandate.” Here is how Judge Tymkovich summarized the court’s holding in the opinion for the court: This case requires us to determine whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Free […]
Public Ignorance about Obamacare Revisited
By Ilya Somin on June 21, 2013 11:15 am in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Health Care, Insurance Exchanges, Obama, Political Ignorance
The recent Kaiser poll on health care linked by co-blogger Jonathan Adler reveals more evidence of public ignorance about Obamacare. Most notably, 45% of respondents say they have heard “nothing” about the health care reform law’s insurance exchanges, and 34% say they have heard “only a little.” This despite the fact that the exchanges are […]
What’s in a Name? (ObamaCare Edition)
From Wonkblog: According to the nonpartisan [Kaiser Family Foundation]’s June tracking poll, support for the health law among Democrats jumps dramatically when labeled “Obamacare,” vs. the plain old “health reform law” language some of us old school media types prefer. . . . According to the poll, overall favorability of the law jumps from 35 […]
Profile of Judge Ed Korman
By Nick Rosenkranz on June 16, 2013 11:05 pm in Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Health Care, Originalism, Politicizing Science
The New York Times has a nice profile of Judge Ed Korman, the judge who faced down HHS in the Plan B case. See Jonathan Adler’s posts, here, here, here, and here. Whatever one thinks of the merits, it takes great fortitude for a district judge to stand up to a recalcitrant administration. As for […]
Obama Administration Drops Plan B Appeal
Yesterday the Obama Administration announced it would drop its appeal of a district court ruling ordering the Food and Drug Administration to make Plan B contraception available over-the-counter to women and girls of all ages. According to the FDA, the pill will become available as soon as the manufacturer submits an application for OTC sales […]