Business, Economics, Health, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

ObamaCare

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…on the ropes?

The ACA, to put it gently, is already on shaky ground. Just last week, for example, the LA Times reported that UnitedHealth, the nation’s largest insurer, is dropping out of California’s individual market. Similarly, Blue Cross Blue Shield will not participate in the exchanges in Iowa and South Dakota in 2014. And the WSJ puts the delay of the employer mandate in its discouraging context. Along with the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated the Medicaid expansion (28 states haven’t yet agreed to expand) and the refusal by many states (over 30) to set up their own health exchanges, the delay is the third major challenge to the central goal of the law: expanding access to insurance.

“You’ve got three body blows toward expansion of coverage,” said Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, a research unit of Deloitte LLP. “It’s three punches in a row.”

Ultimately, this will be decided in sixteen months. Without RomneyCare to muddy the waters, it will be a much better issue for Republicans.

Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary

Elections Are Not Democracy

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Yes. “Elections are necessary but not sufficient for a democratic republic. You also need limits on state power, and civil society. Frankly, what’s most impressive to me is how resilient and robust Egyptian civil society has been in the face of the Muslim Brotherhood’s clear effort to establish an Iran-style theocracy.”

I’d also add that a republic (which per Franklin’s famous statement after the convention, we have, or at least had until the last few decades) is not a democracy, either.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!