ObamaTax speedbump

Well, well, well:

"Late [Friday] afternoon, the Seventh Circuit granted an emergency injunction against the HHS mandate — preventing its enforcement against an Illinois business and its owners."

The business, Korte & Luitjohan Contractors of Highland, Illinois, is a "family-owned, full-service construction contractor." In this case, the court disagreed with the recent Hobby Lobby decision, and went ahead and stayed Ms Shecantbeserious from enforcing the mandate for birth control convenience items. This court's take is that the mandate itself is coercive, and in direct contravention of the First Amendment.

Interesting opinion. Hopefully, it's just the beginning.

Swiss Miss bliss [UPDATED]

As major proponents of consumer-driven health care, this post at Avik Roy's place is a treat:

"[Author Regina] Herzlinger describes the health care system of Switzerland as a case study in consumer-driven health care ... Switzerland, the only developed country with a long-standing consumer-driven health care system, provides broad evidence and important lessons about its efficacy ... in Switzerland, it is the consumers themselves who purchase their health insurance."

Gee, what a novel idea.

Seriously, read the whole thing.

ADDENDUM: While I do like Avik's analysis, and the discussion in the comments (definitely see the ones from folks currently living under the Swiss health care regime) is enlightening, I wonder about its usefulness. After all, the American people has reaffirmed its desire for socialized health care, which is now (becoming) the law of the land.

The (Young) Invincibles

A year ago:

"Seventeen million young Americans would lose promised access to health insurance if the Supreme Court strikes down [ObamneyCare©]"

Oh the irony - it burns. Today:

"WellPoint and competitors have made concerted, well-publicized efforts to sell health coverage to the "Young Invincibles" ... who are not quite sure why they should buy health coverage."

But they have to - it's the law!

Really? It's a surprise that young people, inherently rebellious in nature, might not be too keen on paying for something they believe they'll never need? Hunh. Here's a clue, DC:

"A senior fellow at the National Opinion Research Center ... talked about "Calculated Risk Takers" -- uninsured, employed individuals ages 18 to 34 who have incomes over 400 percent of the federal poverty level ... If large numbers of healthy young adults fail to buy coverage, that could expose them to huge medical bills when they do get sick, and it could deprive health plans of premium revenue from young, generally healthy adults who could help offset the claims that older, sicker enrollees file." [emphasis added]

Let's translate this, shall we:

"Healthy young people would prefer to keep their own money rather than pay for their sick neighbors' medical insurance and care."

Sounds about right.

As we noted yesterday, however, Golden State politicos are in a quandary about how to implement their ObamaTax Exchange; they need the "yutes" on-board (the yutes' money, that is):

"Calculated Risk Takers are by far the least likely to purchase a plan compared to other groups"

Ooops.

Okay, this really ticks me off....

But in a good way:

"Expressing Anger Can Add Two Years to Person's Lifespan ... found that exhibiting self-restraint and holding back negative emotions could have serious repercussions for a person's physical and mental well-being."

Jerks.

Cavalcade of Risk #173: Post-Mayan Apocalypse Edition‏

Risking the wrath of the Mayan Gods, Van Mayhall has outdone himself with a terrific collection of risk-related blogetry.

What makes Van's Cavs so delightful is that he's obviously read through the posts, and includes his own take on them.

Do stop by (and don't miss the great Mayan digs).

BTW: We still have some slots available for early Spring 2013 - just email us to claim yours.

Gold, the ObamaTax and Consequences

As in "The Golden State:"

"California officials are concerned that the federal government might scale back its share of the costs under [the ObamaTax] ... state officials fear that the Obama administration won't cover as much of the law's costs as initially planned."

What's so amusing about this is that the ObamaTax's official name includes the word "Affordable" yet California pols are only just now coming to understand that it is no such thing. They went ahead and (foolishly) set up their own Health Insurance Exchange, without fully realizing that the rules keep changing, and that they're going to be on the hook for implementing it.

As a direct result of how the ObamaTax is structured, "California is expecting a massive surge in its Medicaid rolls" which, of course, will be paid for (or not) by the state's citizenry.

As FoIB Patrick P (who tipped us to this story) puts it, "talk about a sure sign that the health care law is bad, even Moonbat Jerry Brown is worried!"

I'm thinking of a word...

The Taxman Cometh

All this talk of the fiscal cliff is enough to drive you crazy. While the idiots in DC that can't balance their checkbook continue playing the blame game, it seems falling off the cliff may be a good thing for states in financial crisis.

In an example of federal and state tax law interaction that gets little notice on Capitol Hill, 30 states next year could collect $3 billion more in estate taxes if Congress and President Barack Obama do not act soon, estimated the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

The reason? The federal estate tax would return with a vengeance and so would a federal credit system that shares a portion of it with the 30 states. They had been getting their cut of this tax revenue stream until the early 2000s. That was when the credit system for payment of state estate tax went away due to tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush.

CNBC

Not only is DC ready to rob from the rich, but so are several states.

Merry Christmas.

Watching figures

Thanks to FoIB Holly R, here's an interesting story about the confluence of medical tech and health care, with a dash of privacy and frugality thrown in:

"Those of us trying to lose some pounds after overindulging this holiday season can get help from a slew of smartphone apps that count steps climbed and calories burned ... technology lovers are testing homemade do-it-yourself devices on people eager to measure their mind and body."

Back in the day, pedometers were the go-to method for determining how far we'd walked on a given day, and (presumably) how many calories we'd burned by doing so. Now, their descendants are linked to GPS and other devices capable of tracking a slew of different metrics.

Which is all well and good, up to a point:

"[S]ome experts worry that the data collected could be used against users in the long run ... Two years ago, some users of a leading self-tracking brand, Fitbit, were logging their sexual activity as exercise and found the sex logs somehow popping up on Google searches."

Of course, anyone who still believes that we truly have any real privacy anymore (especially on-line) is sadly mistaken.

There's another facet to these new devices, as well:

"Chang raised $9 million for a new kind of tracker that he promises is "the world's first very accurate heart rate monitor on just a wrist watch — no chest strap, no other device" ... if the company turns a big profit ... it will be from selling the data aggregated on a smartphone app and analyzing it for you, the user."

After all, the raw data won't likely be of much help to most of us. But I can  foresee a metaphorical brick wall ahead: who, ultimately, will own that data?

Reason I ask is this:

"The small box inside Amanda Hubbard's chest beams all kinds of data about her faulty heart to the company that makes her defibrillator implant ... it apparently doesn't prohibit Medtronic from seeking to make a buck off that data."

It's possible, one supposes, that the User Agreements that come with the new apps will cover this, but how many of us actually read these?

Thought so.

Big Brother Takeover

Health insurance is changing. In case you have been under a rock for the last (almost) 3 years, what you thought you knew about insurance, and Obamacare, is most likely 100% wrong. 

The idea of a free market with increased competition to bring down prices is a lie. There will be no free market. Prices will rise, not fall. This is not Burger King. You can't have it your way.

Government has long elbowed its way into these free exchanges, setting rules and regulations for how buyers and sellers must act. Yet there comes a point when government’s prescriptions are so great, that they distort markets beyond recognition. The actors in the exchange are really just carrying out government’s dictates, not responding to the needs and desires of potential customers at all. 

The health care exchanges are meant for exactly such a bureaucratic takeover. Consider that states that establish an exchange will have to monitor what types of plans are bought and sold via the exchanges. While markets should have free entry and exit, states will be telling certain insurance companies that certain plans cannot participate in the so-called “marketplace.” This will shut out (usually smaller and less politically connected) companies from competing, and will limit the choices available to exchange participants. That’s exactly the opposite of a true market. 

Forbes

The government will decide what kind of coverage you need, and they will set the price. Carriers are just puppets manipulated by a power hungry government.

 Americans should be concerned as government gets into the business of controlling this flow of information. After all, what’s to stop bureaucrats and politicians from more strongly highlighting the benefits of health plans offered by, say, an insurance company who happens to be a political donor?

That's some scary stuff.

Rather than offering free entry and exit, voluntary exchange, perfect information, competition and choice, the exchanges will simply offer more bureaucratic jobs to monitor the redistribution of tax dollars in the health system. And as Americans instinctively know, bureaucracies tend to fail; markets succeed.

So true.

Boxing Day Roundup

Here in southwest Ohio, we're getting our White Christmas a day late. It's quite beautiful, if treacherous, and the added treat of thunder-and-lightning is a real joy.

In that spirit, then, here are some interesting (if disheartening) health- and health insurance-related tidbits:

■ First up, co-blogger Bob shares this news on the anticipated growing costs (both financial and otherwise) of treating folks with dementia over the next few years:

"The fiscal climate may be challenging, but the Alzheimer's Association is estimating that, unless the country finds some way to prevent Alzheimer's disease (AD), cure it or substantially improve treatments for disease, the condition will cost the United States alone about $20 trillion over the next 40 years"

■ And as if that's not scary enough, turns out that those great Electronic Health Records mandated by the ObamaTax aren't necessarily safe from prying eyes:

"Security researchers warn that intruders could exploit known gaps to steal patients’ records for use in identity theft schemes and even launch disruptive attacks that could shut down critical hospital systems." 

■ If you're one of those folks classified as "poor," you're about to get even poorer:

"[F]amilies earning as little as $19,000 will face a tax up to $2,085 if they don't buy health care under Obamacare by 2016 ...  A family of four will face the highest tax, a penalty of 8 percent to 10 percent." 

■ Finally, lest the rest of us think we've gotten off easy, here's a handy list of many of the new ObamaTaxes arriving in '14:

"Upper-income households. Starting Jan. 1, individuals making more than $200,000 per year, and couples making more than $250,000 will face a 0.9 percent Medicare tax increase on wages above those threshold amounts" [ed: lest you think these are "elites," remember that a great many of those in that bracket are business owners who may well have to scale back their companies - and your job]

And of course there's more at the link.

Happy Holidays!