Caesar Rodney Institute briefs the constitutionality of the health care individual mandate before the U.S. Supreme Court   On February 13, 2012, the Caesar Rodney Institute filed an amicus curiae or “friend of the court” brief with the U. S. Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in, Department of Health & Human Services, et. al., v. State of Florida, et. al.  As with our prior briefs

In 2012 the Supreme Court ruled on a series of cases, cumulatively decided as Florida, et al., v. Department of Health and Social Services and concluded that the ACA was a tax and thus was constitutional. At that time Obamacare supporters were very happy and Obamacare opponents were furious with the Supreme Court for twisting their logic like a pretzel to find the ACA constitutional as a “tax”.   Fast-forward three years later and another case is being heard in front of the S

The news is that the rollout of Obamacare is a disaster, and by any measure widely known it is just that, a screw-up. Do you remember Ali getting destroyed by Frasier in the first few rounds? The strategy became known as Rope-a-Dope. Ali won. We can learn from Ali and history. This "failure" of Obamacare is nothing of the sort. It is brilliant and successful.   One must judge the progress by the stated end goals. Barrack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi, as well as both Ra

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over the constitutionality of the PPACA, the patient protection and affordable care act.  This is President Barack Obama’s centerpiece legislation of his political career and in many ways defines his presidency. What this court battle is about has nothing to do with health care and everything to do with freedom and liberty.  In order to provide healthcare to less than 10% of the population our elected offici

With all the churning going on about President Obamas health care plan, I cant help but wonder if his plan had been in place in 2002, whether I would be alive today or not. Lest you think Im being unduly dramatic, you should know that seven years ago I had a malignant polyp removed from my colon. What was unusual was that I was in my forties, and the best practices indicate that a persons first colonoscopy occurs at age 50 - at the earliest.

Federal lawmakers are interested in changing the law that prohibits non-group/individual health insurance from being sold across state lines. For example, Representative John Shadeggs (R-AZ) and Senator Jim DeMints (R-SC) Health Care Choice Act (H.R. 2355 and S.1015) would amend current law to allow for interstate commerce in health insurance plans while preserving states primary responsibility for the regulation of health insurance.

This article was originally published as a "Delaware Voice" article in the News Journal on October 13, 2014. Delaware and the Christiana Care Health Systems feted Dr. Donald Berwick, former head of Medicare and Medicaid Services and a major author of the Affordable Care Act, last year and his "Triple Aim" of increased access to health care, increased quality of outcomes, and lower cost. Delaware is facing a "Triple Threat" of poor access to care, mediocre outcomes and excessi

As the "train wreck" of ACA unfolds, at every level we are facing disappointment.  We were promised that 700,000 Americans with pre-existing conditions would become insurable five years ago.  Approximately 1/10 of those actually became insured.  The predictable cost to the healthcare system averaged $1.4 million per year per person, close to $400 billion.  The insurance industry must factor in those losses to remain viable so the net effect has been to accelerate the hyperinf

A press release by State Reps. John Kowalko and Earl Jacques (“State Should Move to Single-Payer”, News Journal, 12/11/12) supporting a single-payer healthcare system for Delaware is intriguing, but it incorrectly assumes the economic world is stagnant. They think the insurance industry exists to extract profit from customers and does not add value to the healthcare delivery system. They think Delaware can simply appropriate this profit for which no service is delivered and s

The Affordable Care Act was passed with the intent of insuring 700,000 uninsured and functionally cost-prohibitively uninsurable patients because of pre-existing conditions. By the end of 2012, 78,000 were insured. The AP reported last week over 100,000 were insured via the program at the end of February, a highly unlikely number. In any case, a majority of targeted patients remain uninsured, perhaps more.           The ACA allocated $5 billion for the program to cover uninsu