OVERNIGHT HEALTH: Uninsured rate falling

Approximately 9.3 million people have gained health insurance since ObamaCare went live in October, a new study finds.


The Rand Corp. analysis, which only polled people through mid-March — before the late surge of ObamaCare sign-ups — found that the uninsured rate fell from 20.5 percent to 15.8 percent in that time.



{mosads}This is in line with a Gallup survey released last week that showed the uninsured rate falling to 15.6 percent, the lowest it’s been since 2008.



Rand said that 14.5 million in total have gained new coverage since the launch, but 5.2 million of those were due to canceled policies that had to be replaced, leaving 9.3 million newly insured.


Jonathan Easley at The Hill reports.

Treasury: A Treasury official testified Tuesday that the department never analyzed whether it has the legal authority to delay the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate because officials concluded ahead of time that such a delay would harm individuals. At a Ways and Means Committee hearing, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) asked Deputy Assistant Secretary Kevin Iwry more than five times if department officials believed they had the authority to delay the individual mandate the way they did the employer mandate. “If we don’t believe it is appropriate to be delaying that provision, if we believe it is fair to individuals to keep that in place because it protects them … then we don’t reach the question whether we have legal authority,” Iwry said. Jonathan Easley at The Hill reports.

DOJ: Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) on Tuesday challenged Attorney General Eric Holder over the legality of the Obama administration’s decision to delay the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act. In a terse back and forth in front of the House Judiciary Committee, Chabot argued that because the implementation date for the employer mandate had been written specifically into the law, the executive branch had no authority to alter it. Jonathan Easley at The Hill reports.

Docs: The American Medical Association (AMA) won’t go to court to block the Obama administration’s planned release this week of previously undisclosed Medicare data. The AMA remains concerned about the privacy implications for physicians, an official with the organization told The Hill on Tuesday, but it won’t seek a legal injunction to stop the release. Jonathan Easley at The Hill reports.

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