This morning, HHS released two rules that will allow many more employers to exclude contraception from the insurance plans they offer to their employees. The first expands an existing religious exemption; the second allows employers to exempt themselves by invoking a freestanding “moral objection.” As I explained when a draft of the rules first leaked, […]
The following is an op-ed that I was shopping around for publication prior to the demise of Graham-Cassidy. It’s obviously less urgent now, but I wanted to put it out there as a time-capsule in case the bill is revived. The op-ed relates to the penultimate version of the bill, not the one that finally […]
The revised bill was leaked last night and will apparently be unveiled today. The reporting has suggested that it’s worse than before. Not only is Graham-Cassidy now full of bribes and giveaways to lure hesitant senators, but it also makes it much easier for states to avoid the application of the ACA’s insurance regulations. That’s […]
Iowa has submitted a waiver proposal under section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act that, if granted, would radically reshape its individual insurance market; Oklahoma may soon do the same. Both states have been accused of relying on some magical numbers, and Iowa’s waiver appears to violate the ACA’s guardrails, which require states to assure […]
Back in November 2015, I criticized a proposed rule about wellness programs that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was then considering. The rule would have allowed employers to impose a financial penalty—up to 30 percent of annual premiums—on employees who declined to participate in a wellness program. The trouble was that the Americans with Disabilities […]
This afternoon, the D.C. Circuit granted a motion from a group of fifteen states, led by California, to intervene in the pending appeal in House v. Price. As I explained when the motion was filed, allowing the states to intervene will prevent the Trump administration from unilaterally dismissing its appeal in the case. That’s a […]
I’ve got a new op-ed under that headline in the L.A. Times. Here’s an excerpt: The private insurance market is much more vulnerable. And the biggest problem may not be what the Trump administration does. It may be what it doesn’t do. The exchanges depend on complicated information technology, and maintaining them requires competent day-to-day […]
At 10pm on Thursday, the Senate finally released a “repeal” bill—the Health Care Freedom Act—that may have the votes to pass. If you’ve been following the reporting, it’s mostly as expected. The bill repeals the individual mandate, delays the employer mandate until 2025, delays the implementation of the medical device tax until 2021, and defunds […]
This is the third post in a series on a proposed CMS rule that would eliminate an Obama-era ban on pre-dispute arbitration for nursing home residents. For the intro, see here. As I explored in my last post, the research suggests that malpractice law doesn’t much improve the quality of care in nursing homes. If that’s […]
This is the second post in a series on a proposed CMS rule that would eliminate an Obama-era ban on pre-dispute arbitration for nursing home residents. For the intro, see here. By penalizing injury-causing negligence, tort law is supposed to deter negligent conduct. That’s one of the reasons (but not the only one) that CMS […]
Emboldened by a string of aggressive Supreme Court decisions, businesses are increasingly turning to arbitration to shield themselves from civil litigation. Odds are, for example, that you’ve signed away your right to sue your cell phone carrier and cable company. Not that you noticed. You just clicked “yes” when asked if you’d read pages of […]
Together with Craig Garthwaite, a professor at Northwestern, I’ve got an op-ed in the New York Times on the consequences of the Republicans’ strategy to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. The health care industry consists of a dense network of public-private partnerships. Even programs widely viewed as “government” insurance, like Medicare and Medicaid, depend on […]
The central theme of the Republican campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act has been freedom: freedom from Obamacare’s onerous regulations, freedom from overpriced insurance and most of all, freedom from the tyrannical individual mandate. The Senate has now released its long-awaited alternative to Obama-era health reform. Although the Better Care Reconciliation Act is embattled, there’s still a decent […]
The Senate has now released the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, its answer to the House’s American Health Care Act. The bill is wildly unpopular and has already come under fire from Senate Republicans, either for being too mean or not mean enough. But some version of the BCRA may still get 50 votes […]
The Trump administration’s draft contraception rule would not only allow employers to drop contraception coverage for religious reasons. It would also allow employers who have moral objections to do the same. That gives rise to a puzzle. The lawsuits over the contraception mandate have focused on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which requires the […]