Compiled and summarized for AAPS members by The Market Institute.
The Obama administration will push back the deadline for enrolling in health insurance by six weeks because of mismatched deadlines for penalities and not due to Healthcare.gov problems (Los Angeles Times).
Contractors testifying before the Energy & Commerce committee denied any culpability in the failures of Healthcare.gov. The blame rests on CMS, who tasked itself with being the full system integrator (CNN).
A new poll released this week shows that 6 in 10 voters think the Obamacare implementation is a “joke.” Only 31% believe that things are “going fine” (FOX News).
An analysis has shown that many rural areas of the country are only offered one or two insurance plans and that the lack of competition is is failing to lower prices for Americans that do not live in populated areas (New York Times).
During the legislating of the Affordable Care Act, the creation of nonprofit co-ops was mandated in the law. These co-ops would bring competition to the marketplace and ideally lower prices. Many co-ops are now in trouble and in danger of closing, and if that happens not only would it remove competition from the marketplace, taxpayers would be on the hook for $1 billion in defaulted loans (Washington Post).
Medicaid Directors in many states are actively concerned about the November 1st launch of a data transfer system from the federal government to the states that will ultimately place people into Medicaid. Some state officials say the system has barely been tested and there are worries the result will be all too reminsicenet of the failed Healthcare.gov launch this month (Politico).
