The Obama administration has delayed until 2015 the limits on out-of-pocket costs under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Under the law, out-of-pocket costs were not supposed to exceed $6,350 annually for an individual or $12,700 a year for a family. The delay was outlined on the Department of Labor’s Web site since February, but went unreported until this week.
The following statements from health care policy experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 312/731-9364.
“President Obama’s rule by waiver continues with the delay of the out-of-pocket cap, a much- touted aspect of Obama’s law. This follows the delay of the employer mandate; the delay of the Medicare cuts; the delay of certain eligibility checks; and multiple delays in the functionality of Obama’s exchanges. It is clear this law is not ready for prime time. Its launch will squander millions in taxpayer money trying to fix its many failings. At the very least, it should be delayed for a year in which the administration can finally try to make it live up to its promise.”
Benjamin Domenech
Research Fellow, The Heartland Institute
Managing Editor, Health Care News
[email protected]
703/509-1741
“Democrats have consistently obstructed consumer-directed health plans on the basis that people can’t afford high deductibles, despite health savings accounts to cover them. Those high deductibles kept the cost of premiums down. Now, with Obamacare, premiums are higher than ever, on top of the high out-of-pocket costs. Costs are up, freedom of choice is down – or absent. How is this supposed to help the non-rich, or anybody except crony capitalists and central planners?”
Jane M. Orient, M.D.
Executive Director
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
[email protected]
520/323-3110
“On a whole host of issues, from the GM bankruptcy to immigration law to the Defense of Marriage Act to enforcement of the nation’s drug laws, the Obama administration has shown its disdain for constitutional processes and the rule of law in a manner that in a prior world would have led to calls for his impeachment.
“That the president would undermine the very health care insurance law that he fought so hard to get through Congress is the most galling example of this disdain for Constitutional process and the rule of law – except for the offensive and distorted way by which the act was first misrepresented to the people, then rammed through Congress, and finally upheld by a divided Supreme Court as the ‘tax’ that the administration insisted it was not.
“Step by step, waiver by waiver, and delay by delay, Obamacare’s official name – the ‘Affordable Care Act’ – is being shown to be three lies in one.”
David L. Applegate
Policy Advisor, Legal Affairs
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
The Heartland Institute is a 29-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
