Our Health Policy Matters

The latest Obamacare navigator “compromise” may calm one small battle in Florida.  But it won’t end the war on Obamacare being waged by hypocritical public officials around the country. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Congressional effort to undermine the Obamacare navigation program in its entirety.  A House Committee has ordered nonprofits winning navigation grants to produce reams of material, and promises to punish those that have failed to comply.  Source: US Census Bureau Navigators will assist people in applying for public or private insurance to pay for their health care.   Navigators are not a new concept, created by Obamacare.  They are as old as Marco Rubio, and Obamacare is not the first federal initiative ever to fund them.  In fact, I implemented the policy of the Nixon Administration as a VISTA paralegal 35 years ago, navigating underinsured elders to the Medicaid program. So we know that navigators can be ...

The latest Obamacare navigator “compromise” may calm one small battle in Florida.  But it won’t end the war on Obamacare being waged by hypocritical public officials around the country. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Congressional effort to undermine the Obamacare navigation program in its entirety.  A House Committee has ordered nonprofits winning navigation grants to produce reams of material, and promises to punish those that have failed to comply.  Source: US Census Bureau Navigators will assist people in applying for public or private insurance to pay for their health care.   Navigators are not a new concept, created by Obamacare.  They are as old as Marco Rubio, and Obamacare is not the first federal initiative ever to fund them.  In fact, I implemented the policy of the Nixon Administration as a VISTA paralegal 35 years ago, navigating underinsured elders to the Medicaid program. So we know that navigators can be ...

“States’ rights” is as popular a rallying cry as ever as we enter the early stages of the 2012 election campaign.   To advocates of states’ rights, they are code words for state innovation and initiative, unhampered by the demands of a federal government.     In their minds, we are a United States of America.   To skeptics, we are a United States of America, and states’ rights are the code words of political leaders who want to run their states as fiefdoms and answer to no higher authority.   The new 2010 uninsured numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week make a compelling case against the states’ rights position. In the South, where the drum roll for states’ rights beats most loudly, 19% of all people were uninsured 2010 for the entire year .   This was more than in the West, where 18% were uninsured, the Midwest, where 13% were uninsured, and the Northeast, where only 12% were uninsured. Place clearly matters where health insurance i...

“States’ rights” is as popular a rallying cry as ever as we enter the early stages of the 2012 election campaign.   To advocates of states’ rights, they are code words for state innovation and initiative, unhampered by the demands of a federal government.     In their minds, we are a United States of America.   To skeptics, we are a United States of America, and states’ rights are the code words of political leaders who want to run their states as fiefdoms and answer to no higher authority.   The new 2010 uninsured numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week make a compelling case against the states’ rights position. In the South, where the drum roll for states’ rights beats most loudly, 19% of all people were uninsured 2010 for the entire year .   This was more than in the West, where 18% were uninsured, the Midwest, where 13% were uninsured, and the Northeast, where only 12% were uninsured. Place clearly matters where health insurance i...