One component of the PPACA (aka Obamacare) provides for the creation of health insurance exchanges in each state in which consumers may purchase health insurance. The PPACA’s supporters anticipated that every state would create its own exchange, and the law provides for tax credits and subsidies for the purchase of qualifying health insurance plans in […]
Archive | Health Care
The Other Beneficiaries of ObamaCare
Whether or not you believe the PPACA has been or will be good for the American people, it has certainly been good for the lobbyists and legislative staffers who wrote it, as Tim Carney explains. Glenn Greenwald comments further: This is precisely the behavior which, quite rationally, makes the citizenry so jaded about Washington. It’s […]
The Uniformity Clause – Another ObamaCare Challenge?
In NFIB v. Sebelius the Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate penalty as a constitutional exercise of the federal taxing power. Although little of the briefing (and even less of the oral argument) considered the question, the Court concluded the penalty did not constitute a “direct tax.” This conclusion was necessary to sustain the penalty […]
Georgia Fact-Check Fail
The election may be over, but the work of “fact-checkers” continues. Last week, Politifact-Georgia waded into the debate over whether states should create health insurance exchanges with a fact check of my occasional co-author Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute. Specifically, Politifact evaluated the claim, made in this article, that: operating an Obamacare exchange would […]
Judicial Minimalism, the Mandate, and Mr. Roberts
In July, I suggested that Chief Justice Roberts’ decision to uphold the individual mandate as a tax in NFIB v. Sebelius was largely consistent with the overall judicial approach he’s demonstrated since joining the Court. I have expanded this argument into an essay that will be included as a chapter in the forthcoming book The […]
Michael Greve on the Proper Meaning of “Proper” in the Necessary and Proper Clause
By Ilya Somin on November 5, 2012 8:00 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper
At the Law and Liberty Blog, my George Mason colleague Michael Greve has posted an insightful commentary on my forthcoming article analyzing the proper meaning of “proper.” Michael agrees with my conclusion that the individual health insurance mandate was improper, but takes issue with some of my reasoning: My colleague Ilya Somin has penned a […]
ObamaCare Encourages Shift to Part-Time Workers
Today’s WSJ reports: Several restaurants, hotels and retailers have started or are preparing to limit schedules of hourly workers to below 30 hours a week. That is the threshold at which large employers in 2014 would have to offer workers a minimum level of insurance or pay a penalty starting at $2,000 for each worker. […]
Free Market Alternatives to the ACA
Back in December, I criticized the false dichotomy set up by those who claim that the only available alternative to the Obama health care plan is some form of socialized medicine. In this recent essay, University of Chicago economist John Cochrane gives an excellent summary of free market alternatives to the ACA that can cut […]
My Forthcoming Article on the Individual Mandate and the Meaning of “Proper” in the Necessary and Proper Clause
By Ilya Somin on October 29, 2012 1:40 pm in Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper
My forthcoming book chapter, “The Individual Mandate and the Proper Meaning of ‘Proper,’” is now available on SSRN. It is forthcoming in The Health Care Cases, edited by Gillian Metzger, Trevor Morrison, and Nathaniel Persily, eds. (Oxford University Press). The book is a collection of essays on NFIB v. Sebelius, the case where the Court […]
Repeating “That Is a Fact” Does Not Make It So
Near the end of Thursday night’s vice-presidential debate, Vice President Joe Biden said the following: With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic Social Services, Georgetown Hospital, Mercy — any hospital — none has to either refer contraception. None has […]
Dogs that Didn’t Bark in Tonight’s Presidential Debate
By Ilya Somin on October 3, 2012 11:22 pm in Elections, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Obama, Political Ignorance
In addition to Willow, there were two major dogs that didn’t bark during tonight’s presidential debate. First, even though the debate was supposed to focus on domestic policy, neither the moderator nor the candidates ever focused on some of the most important domestic issues on which the president can have a big impact: issues such […]
Upcoming Appearances at the University of Minnesota and the University of Tulsa
For those who may be interested, I am going to be speaking at the University of Minnesota Law School and the University of Tulsa this week. On Wednesday at 12:15 PM, I will be debating University of Minnesota Professor Fred Morrison about the Supreme Court’s health care decision at the University of Minnesota Law School, […]
Oklahoma Challenges IRS Rule on Tax Credits in Federal Exchanges
Oklahoma Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt today filed an amended complaint in the state’s lawsuit against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that, among other things, challenges the legality of an IRS rule that would authorize tax credits for the purchase of health insurance in federally run exchanges, and thereby expose Oklahoma employers to […]
CBO: Six Million People to Pay Individual Mandate Penalty Tax in 2016
The Congressional Budget Office has just released new estimates of the number of people who will be subject to the individual mandate penalty tax for failing to obtain qualifying health insurance in 2016. According to CBO’s new analysis, the penalty tax will be paid by six million people. The penalty tax will generate an estimated […]
Could Individuals Have Standing to Challenge IRS Rule Creating Tax Credits in Federal Exchanges?
The PPACA provides for tax credits and subsidies to help eligible taxpayers purchase health insurance in state-run health insurance exchanges. Although the text of the statute only provides for the issuance of credits in exchanges “established by a state,” the IRS has issued a regulation providing for the issuance of tax credits and subsidies in […]