LAS VEGAS — The last time Obamacare was challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court, it barely survived.
Only because Chief Justice John Roberts creatively re-construed the law’s unconstitutional penalties as constitutional “taxes” was a 5-to-4 Court majority able to form and save the gargantuan law, officially known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA).
Even then, a key provision of the law — denying states federal Medicaid subsidies if they did not agree to expand that program — still went down, substantially complicating prospects for PPACA’s success.
Now another significant legal challenge is bearing down upon the law, and right at the heart of that court case are decisions made four years ago by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
LAS VEGAS — The Teachers Health Trust may not be going “belly-up” in 60-90 days, but if it doesn’t get a premium increase from the Clark County School District, it will “at some point” run out of revenue, says CEO Peter Alpert.
“Can I tell you when, exactly?” asks Alpert. “No. There’s lots of moving parts in this business. If we don’t receive [premium increases], will we be faced with some tough decisions? Yes.”
In a wide-ranging interview with Nevada Journal, Alpert discussed the trust’s financial health as well as its relationship with the Clark County Education ...
LAS VEGAS — Nevada restaurant owners — increasingly anxious about the future of their businesses under the Affordable Care Act — are echoing statements by national restaurant chains about the excessive costs the law will impose on them.
"I don't know what secret [the politicians] know, where they just assume we can write them a check," said Sam Facchini, owner of Metro Pizza in Las Vegas.
"We can't pay for this. Most of us [restaurant owners] operate on a thin margin and trying to stay in compliance [with the law] will make things much tighter."
The biggest concern restaurant owners have with the law — commonly referred to as “Obamacare” — is Section 1513, the Employer Mandate. Going into full effect in January 2014, it requires businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to provide federally "qualified" health insurance or pay penalties of up to $2,000 per employee.
Nevada Journal asked three local doctors about Obamacare and how it affects their practice. The interviews took place on Friday, September 14, 2012 at the Clark County Library, where the three doctors participated in a panel discussion about healthcare sponsored by the 60 Plus Association.
LAS VEGAS — Refugees from around the world come to Southern Nevada, often from countries with diseases not commonly seen in the native U.S.-born population.
How sound is the medical screening refugees receive? Are they getting adequate medical care?
According to the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, more than a thousand refugees annually relocate to Las Vegas with federal assistance. The top countries of origin, says ORR, are Cuba, Iraq, Eritrea, Bhutan and Ethiopia.
Because the refugees often come “from regions of the world with high rates of certain diseases,” notes the federal agency, “refugees face special health challenges.” They thus must first undergo medical screening overseas to ensure they are medically eligible for the U.S. Refugee Program. Then, after arriving in the U.S., they are directed to undergo more in-depth medical examination. ...
The Southern Nevada Health District, under contract to Catholic Charities since at least 2008, conducts the federally required medical screenings for the refugees — including their health histories and physical examinations.
The refugee medical screenings conducted by SNHD over the last five years, however, do not appear to conform to federal standards.
LAS VEGAS — Obamacare, the politicians of America and Nevada are discovering, is a realm of the “unknown unknowns.”
The phrase comes from a former U.S. secretary of defense who once publicly distinguished the “known unknowns“— the things we currently know we don't know — from the unknown unknowns: the things we currently are not even aware that we don't know.
Case in point: the long and growing list of questions the Obama administration appears incapable of answering today about its signature legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in the wake of the June 28 U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
Nevada's alleged control over state's Obamacare insurance exchange an illusion
Gov. Brian Sandoval has repeatedly explained his aggressive drive to implement Obamacare’s prescribed health-exchange system in Nevada by saying he wants the Silver State, not the federal government, to control the exchanges.
However the state legislation that Sandoval’s administration introduced and that he then signed in 2011 — Senate Bill 440 — gives the state of Nevada no control over the “Silver State Health Insurance Exchange” it established.
Instead, it — like the subsequent law, Chapter 695I of the Nevada Revised Statutes — simply promised to submissively do whatever the federal government directs.
LAS VEGAS — Gov. Brian Sandoval’s eagerness to implement an Obamacare health exchange in Nevada may well subject state employers to heavy federal penalties that other states’ employers won’t face.
That’s one implication of a gaping loophole in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) — popularly called “Obamacare” — now getting increasing attention in Congress and the U.S. business community.
It is also the subject of a Case Western Reserve University School of Law article released to the public Monday. ...
So what is the large hole in the legislation? It results from the decision by the drafters — embodied in multiple provisions throughout the text of the law — to make individuals eligible for a tax credit only if they buy their insurance through a state exchange, not a federal one.
LAS VEGAS — Gov. Brian Sandoval has repeatedly explained his aggressive drive to implement Obamacare’s prescribed health-exchange system in Nevada by saying he wants the Silver State, not the federal government, to control the exchanges.
However the state legislation that Sandoval’s administration introduced and that he then signed in 2011 — Senate Bill 440 — gives the state of Nevada no control over the “Silver State Health Insurance Exchange” it established.
Instead, it — like the subsequent law, Chapter 695I of the Nevada Revised Statutes — simply promised to submissively do whatever the federal government directs.
