The revelation that the Obama Administration will delay the roll out of the “choice option” for small business until 2015 came as a huge surprise to many, including Joe Klein at Time, however anyone familiar with the Massachusetts experiment will feel a strong sense of déjà vu. In a 2010 paper I authored for the Heritage Foundation, I documented the delayed and failed effort by the Massachusetts public exchange (Connector) to offer real choice and savings to small businesses. My report suggested[...]

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/31/beware_of_mitt_say_bay_state_conservatives/singleton/ Mitt Romney’s Iowa surge coincides with a new Iowa TV spot in which he touts himself as a genuinely conservative businessman who will shrink and streamline the federal government. But some Massachusetts tax watchdogs and small government advocates who remember Romney’s days in the governor’s chair say: Iowa buyer beware. They note that Romney promised leaner government when he sat atop Beacon Hill from 2003 to [...]

While the Affordable Care Act might have taken its inspiration and ideas from the groundbreaking 2006 health care reform law in Massachusetts, the Bay State will not be exempt from some of the costs associated with the federal law.[...]

Pioneer is releasing a new brief estimating the impact of the so-called “Cadillac tax,” targeted at high cost insurance plans, contained in Obamacare. The report finds that given our high premiums, a majority of workers in Massachusetts will pay the tax in 2018. On a more micro level, the report examines the impact of the excise tax on a small business employee, a police officer, and a teacher. The future looks expensive! For the 10 years following the introduction of the tax: Busine[...]

Affordability/ Subsidy levels for Low-income: How much will individuals pay for health insurance and health care under the federal law? Under the ACA, low-income individuals will pay more. Urban report I don’t recall supporters of the federal law in the Commonwealth highlighting this difference before it passed Congress or leading up to the SCOTUS ruling. Drilling down to look at cost-sharing as well along with the range of premium payment ranges: Mass vs Fed Diff in costs State Law – Comm[...]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/09/obamacare-more-taxing-than-romneycare-two-laws-differences-debated/ President Obama’s camp chafes at the notion the health care law’s individual  insurance mandate packs the threat of a tax. One way Democrats have been  responding to to such criticisms is to point the finger at Mitt Romney and the  health care law he signed as governor of Massachusetts. “Let’s get down to the bottom line here: Mitt Romney is the ObamaCare daddy,&[...]

http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/spinning_the_supreme_courts_he.php?page=all In the days before and after the Supreme Court’s decision, spin doctors were hard at work peddling their experts, positions, and takes on what might happen, and then what did happen and what might happen next. This is all to be expected, but the scope and the volume of the spin was extraordinary. “I have never seen so many lawyers and experts ready to comment,” said Allan Ripp, whose company, Allan Ripp Public R[...]

http://www.eagletribune.com/opinion/x1483813422/Column-Supreme-Court-issues-another-head-scratching-decision In a nutshell (literally): In Kelo v. City of New London, five nutty justices ruled that government can take property from private owners who resist selling their homes and small businesses, and give it to private developers as part of a redevelopment plan that would achieve higher property tax revenues for the city. New London, Conn., paid some compensation to the owners, took the proper[...]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/07/01/court_approval_of_health_law_sets_national_stage_for_the_cost_limits_that_massachusetts_is_seeking/?page=3 Just as the health care overhaul in Massachusetts is widely accepted as the model for the national bill upheld as constitutional Thursday by the US Supreme Court, it is also seen by many as a model and a caution for the necessary sequel to much broader insurance coverage: cost control. Bringing almost everyone under the umbr[...]

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_20971016/hospital-leaders-see-little-impact-mass-from-high While much of the country held its breath as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Barack Obama’s health-care law was handed down Thursday, hospital leaders in Massachusetts said the ruling would have little impact here. Massachusetts Democrats praised the decision, while Republicans criticized it. The heart of the law — an individual insurance mandate requir[...]