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Legislative News

May 15, 2012

OBAMA VS. ROMNEY ON HEALTH INSURANCE.

The Massachusetts health reform law and the federal health reform law might share a lot of similarities, but when it comes to the campaign trail, Mitt Romney and President Obama are far apart on health insurance policy. So far, Romney’s health care agenda isn’t an affirmative one. He seeks to destroy more than to create, with proposals that seem to be warmed-over GOP pitches to loosen controls on insurers and unfetter the free market. In contrast, Obama’s health reform law puts the federal government squarely in control of the private health insurance industry, regulating everything from how much money insurance companies can spend on overhead to the menu of benefits that they must include in certain plans.

CROCODILE TEARS FOR EMPLOYER-SPONSORED HEALTH PLANS.

House Republicans are trying to whip up concerns that big employers are poised to drop their employee health insurance plans and transfer workers to federal or state health insurance exchanges in 2014, opting to pay federal fines instead of ever-increasing health insurance premiums. The problem with that tactic? Republicans aren’t exactly defenders of the employer-based health insurance system.