Kaiser survey finds workers are paying more out of pocket: As premiums for employer coverage continue to go up, “one of the other major trends in the survey is the rapid movement toward plans with high deductibles, with or without some sort of savings account from which people can pay health expenses,” a Kaiser survey of employer premiums found. “More than half of all workers in businesses with fewer than 200 workers are now in health plans with deductibles of more than $1,000. And more workers are in plans with a $1,000 deductible and some sort of savings account than are enrolled in an HMO.” [Julie Rovner]
Senate Republicans blame health law for premium increases: “The Senate Republican Policy Committee calculated, average family premiums have increased by $2,213 so far under the administration.” [Healthwatch]
Former Justice Sevens argues that health reform is constitutional: “Retired Justice John Paul Stevens said a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving medical marijuana provides legal support for President Barack Obama’s health-care law. Stevens, now 91 and more than a year into retirement, said in an interview in Washington this week that he is skeptical about contentions that Congress lacked authority to pass the health-care measure, which requires Americans to either buy insurance or pay a penalty.” [Businessweek]
Why the administration is taking health reform to SCOTUS: “Delaying a ruling until 2013 came with a big risk: a Republican administration could be in power, and arguing the case. It’s pretty hard to see a President Rick Perry or Mitt Romney asking his attorney general to defend the health reform law given that both have pledged to overturn the legislation.” [Sarah Kliff]
Report claims health law will hurt franchises: “The International Franchise Association, a lobbying group that has long expressed concerns about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, released a study this month claiming that franchise businesses will be discouraged from growing and hiring in 2014, when new health-care mandates are scheduled to kick in.” [WSJ]
House GOP probes Planned Parenthood: “A Republican-led House panel has asked the Planned Parenthood Federation of America to hand over more than a decade’s worth of documents in a probe of whether the organization improperly spends public money on abortions.” [Washington Post]
Ohio Senate passes restrictive abortion bill for minors: “Under the bill, a judge considering whether to let a girl bypass the state’s parental consent requirement would have to ask if she understands the physical and emotional impacts of having an abortion. The judge also must ask the girl if she was coached on how to answer such questions.” [AP]
Florida anti-abortion measure redefines vehicle homicide: House Bill 137 amends state statutes to say that “vehicular homicide … is the killing of a human being, or the killing of an unborn child, by any injury to the mother, caused by the operation of a motor vehicle by another in a reckless manner likely to cause the death of, or great bodily harm to, another.” [Florida Independent]
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