No power

The FEHBlog's house has been without power since early Wednesday evening which has placed a damper on postings.

The House Ways and Means and Budget Committees had spirited hearings on the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday.  The AP reports that CMS Chief Actuary Richard Foster, a real straight shooter in the FEHBlog's view,

was asked by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., for a simple true-or-false response on two of the main assertions made by supporters of the law: that it will bring down unsustainable medical costs and will let people keep their current health insurance if they like it.On the costs issue, "I would say false, more so than true," Foster responded. As for people getting to keep their coverage, "not true in all cases."

On the heels of the Government's report on its efforts to fight health care fraud, AHIP released a report on insurer anti-fraud efforts which indicates that insurers place their focus on proactively prevention of fraudulent payments rather than recoupment of fraudulent payments. As discussed in Tuesday's post the federal government now is moving from a reactive to a proactive posture.

The Politico Pulse reported this morning that "Judge Roger Vinson [of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida] is likely to issue his ruling on the multi-state lawsuit against health care reform on Monday, his office tells PULSE. Twenty states (plus six that joined this month) and the NFIB are asking Vinson to strike down the individual mandate and the Medicaid expansion." Stay tuned and warm.