President Obama has given his first estimate for how big the initial bailout for insurers will be under his signature health law: $5.5 billion. Democrats prefer the name “risk-corridor,” but the taxpayer-funded pool to keep private insurers afloat amid ObamaCare upheavals will surely sound to voters like a bailout. And based on prior experience, we can expect that number to be a low estimate. More from The Hill.
[Fox News: “President Obama's budget pushes Health and Human Services spending over $1 trillion for the first time, reflecting an aging population adding to the Medicare rolls, as well as expanded coverage for younger people through the new health law.]
They weren’t Sooners this time - Oklahoma, like many states, is falling far short of its ObamaCare targets. With 26 days to go before the March 31 deadline, Tulsa’s KTUL says just 24,000 Oklahomans have signed up – just 24,000 of the 575,000 enrollees needed to meet the state’s ObamaCare quote.
[A law so important, it can’t be enacted - From a new Power Play column: “As vulnerable Democrats press for another unilateral delay of a key provision of ObamaCare, surely many in the party have come to wonder if the law is really worth all of this trouble. If it’s not worth enacting, is it really worth losing the Senate over?”]
