Many commentators on the left predict that Mitt Romney, if elected President, could not repeal the Affordable Care Act. And that’s true as far as it goes, I suppose, not all of it could get shoehorned into a reconciliation bill; and a tight-knit group of 41 Democrats in the Senate could, under current rules, block [...]

While less prominent than the Ryan-Wyden plan yesterday, the Obama Administration took a step to actually implement its health reform product, by denying a waiver to the state of Florida on the medical loss ratio. Previously, the Administration approved waivers on the MLR for six states – Nevada, Iowa, Kentucky, Georgia, New Hampshire and Maine. [...]

The Government Accountability Office gave a fairly glowing report about the efect of the federal medical loss ratio, a policy inserted into the Affordable Care Act by Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) that forces insurance companies to spend 80-85% of their premiums (depending on the type of coverage) on medical treatment, and to rebate customers if [...]

Perceptive readers will note that I’m not the biggest fan of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and his pursuit of what I consider to be wrong-headed education reform policies. But one thing he has always wanted to do is to fix the No Child Left Behind law so that a large percentage of the nation’s schools [...]

The Vermont State House wrapped up work on a bill that would bring universal health care to the state, approving the final version and sending it to Governor Peter Shumlin for his signature. Shumlin plans to sign the bill within the next two weeks. The vote today was 94-49. The legislation works within existing structures [...]

Jacob Hacker and Carl DeTorres created a chart for the New York Times today looking at the rollout of health care reform. They give a varying degree of grades to the major figures in the process, and conclude that, despite the partisan warfare, the law is rolling out decently enough. But I’m a bit surprised [...]