Health Care Reform, Affordable Care Act | featured news

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam announced Wednesday that he won't pursue expanding the state's Medicaid program to help cover the uninsured as part of the federal Affordable Care Act.

Medical claims costs — the biggest driver of health insurance premiums — will jump an average 32% for Americans' individual policies under the Affordable Care Act health care law, according to a study out Tuesday by the nation's leading group of financial risk analysts.

Health insurance companies are developing services, tools and communication strategies to attract and retain customers The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is changing the way insurers do business. A few years from now, you may see your health plan in a different light.

One way or another, Barack Obama, Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney all have supported the $700 billion in cuts to Medicare spending now in place under the Affordable Care Act. But you wouldn’t know that by listening to the current debate.

President Obama is now happy to call it "Obamacare." Once a term of derision used mostly by Republicans who have vowed to repeal the new health care law, Obama deployed it in both of his Colorado appearances on Wednesday. "The Affordable Care Act -- also known as Obamacare," Obama said to applause from backers at the University of Denver.

"I actually like the name," he added. "Because I do care -- that's why we fought so hard to make it happen."

House Republicans have now voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act 33 times. Every time they take this vote, it’s time they could be spending on other issues... But though they’ve found the time to vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act on 33 separate occasions, they have voted to replace the Affordable Care Act exactly … never.

Can the Internal Revenue Service police President Obama's health care mandate while simultaneously collecting all the taxes for running the federal government? The question is being renewed in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision upholding most of the 2010 Affordable Care Act as a tax issue rather than one of interstate commerce.

The tax, originally part of the Affordable Care Act, was set up to pay for an expansion in health programs to cover the uninsured in America, which studies have linked to over 45,000 deaths a year.

If we spent like the Netherlands, the United States would cut $705 billion in health care spending... And here’s some encouraging news: When you look at how the Dutch health care system works, it’s not actually a huge leap from how we’ll deliver care here in the United States when the big pieces of the Affordable Care Act come into effect.