In The News

Before the DOJ filed a lawsuit blocking the Aetna-Humana health insurance merger, the Aetna CEO sent a letter stating that, without the merger, it would drop out of the health insurance exchanges.

Insurers including Blue Cross, United Healthcare, Cigna, Humana — which last month said it will limit its participation to a handful of areas — have seen a gradual decline in stock prices, according to the Institute for Policy Innovation.

The major health insurers that are finally pulling back from Obamacare have seen a 15% to 20% decline in their stock prices since the middle of last year, while the one insurer that signaled last year it was getting out has climbed about 15%.

There's a provision in Obamacare that says if you cannot find an ACA-qualified policy for less than 8 percent of household income after taxpayer-provided subsidies, you’re exempt from the mandate to have coverage. If there are no Obamacare-qualified plans available to individuals in a given area, then those individuals can’t buy one for less than 8 percent of their income.

Aetna is planning to pull out of most of the public health insurance exchanges in 2017 and move from serving 778 counties to only 242 counties.

"About 7 million people are getting subsidies under the Affordable Care Act," said Merrill Matthews, Ph.D. "That certainly makes for a huge pool. But the structure of it is designed to fail.”

It would streamline the tax process and bring American businesses home. 

A number of health payers have been dropping out of the health insurance exchanges due to significant financial losses.

The Sixth Circuit Court’s rejection of the FCC's unconstitutional preemption of state laws regulating municipal broadband projects is a win for constitutional federalism and taxpayers. 

Merrill Matthews said the decision provides some much-needed clarity. “The Texas Supreme Court’s ruling in Coyote Lake is helpful because it provided some clarity in water rights, which in Western states are extremely important. The decision also reaffirms the role of contracts in an efficiently working economy.”