President Obama tells us that “health care costs are growing at the slowest rate in 50 years.” He and members of his administration attribute that trend to the Affordable Care Act. But ObamaCare is just taking effect this year, while the slowdown has been underway over a decade. [See Figure I.]
Most people who earn the minimum wage or slightly more are the only earners in their households and, therefore, are poor, right? And so, if the federal government or state governments raise the minimum wage, that will be a nicely targeted way of helping poor people, right?
In January 2004, 250 million non-elderly Americans gained access in principle to health savings accounts (HSAs). Since then, individuals have been able to self-insure for some of their own medical needs and manage some of their own health care dollars.
Florida is moving aggressively to cover Medicaid enrollees in privately-administered managed care plans. The state should also continue to move enrollees to managed drug plans. Virtually all state Medicaid programs distribute some drugs on a fee-for-service (FFS) basis separately from any health plan.
Michigan is moving to cover Medicaid enrollees in privately-administered managed care plans. The state should also continue to move enrollees to managed drug plans. Virtually all state Medicaid programs distribute some drugs on a fee-for-service (FFS) basis separately from any health plan. Nearly half of the states carve out and administer drug benefits separately, distributing all Medicaid drugs this way.
Just as there are penalties in the tax code for couples who get married, financial penalties in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) also discourage couples from “tying …
The United States has financed several global initiatives to benefit the environment. One of these efforts is the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).[i] The GEF funds international projects to preserve biodiversity, prevent global warming, protect international waters, stop land degradation, save the ozone layer and remove persistent organic pollutants.[ii]
The number of people who lacked health coverage fell slightly to 48 million in 2012, from 48.6 million the year before, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Income & Poverty report.
Individuals and businesses in one country may transfer wealth to another country by investing in its business enterprises; this kind of wealth transfer is called foreign direct investment. Similarly, citizens of a given country may also put their money in another country’s banks, which will in turn make loans to individuals and enterprises; this activity is known as indirect foreign investment.
Most people assume that increased government spending aids the economy and that cuts in spending will hurt it. Even more fear that government spending cuts might push the economy into a recession. These notions are based on the Keynesian belief that the economy is driven by demand.
President Obama’s proposed 2014 budget includes a limit on the growth of tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Though Congress is unlikely to adopt his budget proposal, the idea of limiting retirement account accumulations could garner support among policymakers who favor wealth taxes.
In this age of low returns on certificates of deposit and jitters over the stock market, many investors wonder where to put their money. One option is corporate bonds. Corporations issue bonds to finance expansion or acquisition of other firms. According to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the value of U.S. corporate bonds was $1.36 trillion in 2012.
Internet sales accounted for a growing share of consumer spending over the last decade. Now smart phones and wireless networks provide an almost unlimited ability to shop and purchase goods electronically. Though consumers benefit from this technology, “brick-and-mortar” stores are losing market share to “remote” competitors.
In December 2010 President Obama traded Congress a two-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for a one-year, 2 percentage-point payroll tax holiday and additional unemployment benefits. The “Temporary Employee Payroll Tax Cut” reduced the employee portion of the Social Security payroll tax from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent on individual earnings up to the taxable maximum of $110,100.
On January 1, 2013, taxes will go up and federal spending will be cut as a result of an agreement last summer between House Republicans and President Obama. Under current law, increases in the top rate of nearly every major federal tax will go into effect on January 1 because the Bush tax cuts expire and tax increases to pay for ObamaCare go into effect.
Employment dropped dramatically in 2008 and 2009. The economic recovery (in gross domestic product) began in June 2009, but it has been an unusually slow recovery, with job growth even slower. As a result, jobs are the biggest issue facing the economy and policymakers.
Beginning in late 2007, the Federal Reserve eased monetary policy aggressively to deal with the emerging financial crisis and the recession that grew out of it. By the end of 2008, the federal funds rate — the interest rate targeted by Fed policy — had been reduced to a zero-to-quarter-percent range.
The unemployment numbers show that employers are still struggling to create jobs. Two distinctly different approaches to job creation have been proposed at the federal level. One piece of legislation, the Jumpstart Our Business Act (JOBS Act), was recently passed and signed into law.
In response to the 2008 financial collapse, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Dodd-Frank increased regulation of banks, stockbrokers, insurers and other financial institutions that are “too big — or interconnected — to fail” and that could require a government bailout to prevent a banking system collapse.
Our nation has gone to great lengths to protect people from private monopolies through the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts, the Justice Department’s antitrust unit, and public service commissions that regulate utilities in every state. All this effort is directed against the actions of privately owned companies that would like to raise their prices and increase their profits.
Traffic congestion is a growing problem in many metropolitan areas. Congestion increases travel time, air pollution, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and fuel use because cars cannot run efficiently. The number of hours Americans waste sitting in traffic more than quintupled between 1982 and 2005, according to the Texas Transportation Institute.
The number of people who lack health coverage fell to 48.6 million in 2011 — down slightly from 49.9 million the year before, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A bright spot in the new report is that about 407,000 fewer adults between the ages of 35 and 44 were uninsured in 2011.
Medicare spending has been growing faster than the economy for four decades. In 2010, Medicare required nearly $280 billion in general revenue transfers to meet its obligations. By 2020 the cash-flow deficit will reach $600 billion, absent policy changes.
The central theme of President Obama’s tax policy has been that ‘the rich’ do not pay their fair share of federal taxes, and the middle class pays more as a result. But a report issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in July 2012 shows this to be false.
One of the hottest new ideas in health care is the Accountable Care Organization (ACO). Similar to health maintenance organizations (HMOs), ACOs are designed to bring hospitals, physicians and insurers together to reduce health care costs by improving quality and reducing expenditures for unnecessary tests and procedures.