The Big, Bad, Scary Wolf that is Obamacare is coming after the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. At least that's what our insurance provider wants us to think. In a letter sent to the office a couple of weeks ago, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield plays the Obamacare fear card, and then, somewhat astonishingly,…
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Attorney General Patrick Morrisey misinformed business leaders and elected officials this week at the WV Chamber of Commerce's Annual Business Summit when he said: "We know that if you look around to all the states West Virginia touches, we have the highest combined individual and corporate tax rate." There are several problems with this statement.…
Last year, using projections from the Energy Information Agency's Annual Energy Outlook report, we showed that coal production in Central Appalachia was heading for a steep decline, with or without new environmental regulations. This year's report tells the same story. Under the EIA's baseline model, Central Appalachian coal production is projected to decline from 186.4…
BREAKING NEWS: Health care costs are slowing down! Now to be clear, health care costs are not going down, they're just growing less quickly than before. Putting it like that doesn't make it sound all that promising but the truth is that it is actually a pretty big deal and caught most everyone flat-footed. It's…
Want to be healthier and live longer? Then you might want to move to Aspen, Colorado, home of the healthiest county in the U.S. You'll also want to avoid our own McDowell County, one of the least healthy counties in the country. Every year, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at…
Hospitals serve a vital role in any community, providing life-saving care to the injured and ill while contributing significant dollars and hours to community service. For example, an article in yesterday's Charleston Daily Mail proclaims that the Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) "reports $115 million in area benefit" in 2012. These benefits included training classes…
This weekend's Charleston Gazette included another article lamenting the lost revenue from the alternative vehicle tax credit. When the tax credit was scaled back this past legislative session, it resulted in a rush of people claiming the credit before they become ineligible, pushing up its cost. Now, Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow thinks that the tax…
There was an interesting article this week in the Washington Post called "Inside the Obamacare Resistance." What's interesting about it (to me at least) is that it helped tie the loose ends of thought about a number of articles and interviews that I've come across lately from opponents of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It's…
Sometime this fall - probably in October - the federal government will reach its borrowing limit and we are likely to witness another fierce debate about federal debt and deficit spending. Often in these debates, pundits and others make the claim that since households have to balance their budgets, the federal government should do the…
Obamacare parties like it's 1989…the Republican Party, that is. You see, the premise of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is that everyone should have access to health care, and to accomplish this it requires 1) that insurers offer coverage to anyone regardless of health status and 2) everyone be required to have health…