The new health care law encourages state politicians to increase their interference with health insurance premiums, an underreported aspect of Obamacare with consequences for patients and health plans alike.

Obamacare distributes federal grants that encourage states' insurance departments to increase their power to dictate insurance premiums. States are responding by considering new laws to increase those powers, but there is no evidence that such measures reduce the growth of premiums below those in states where insurance departments wield no such power. More seriously, the future wave of political interference threatens the solvency of health plans.

Earlier this month, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that it may ask the Food and Drug Administration to allow it to market the cholesterol-lowering statin Lipitor over the counter after its patent expires in November.

The FDA has not yet signaled whether it would approve Pfizer’s proposal. And some doctors have reacted coolly to the possibility of an OTC version of Lipitor.

(San Francisco) The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a nationally recognized free-market think tank located in San Francisco, has named Christine Hughes as its new Vice President. Ms. Hughes had formerly served on the Board of Directors at the Pacific Research Institute from 2005-2011 as a member of the Executive Committee and Vice Chair of the Development Committee.

Offering up what appeared to be a campaign speech, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa addressed the Sacramento Press Club today, repeatedly blasting the Tea Party and Republicans, and even went after California’s Proposition 13 with a vengeance.

What was interesting is that Villaraigosa spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the state’s minority party, and the grass roots Tea Party movement.

It’s time to add yet another study to the growing list of research showing that ObamaCare isn’t delivering on its grand promises.

In the July issue of the journal Health Affairs, Medicare’s actuaries released new estimates of the rate of growth of national health costs. Surprise, surprise — they’re projected to increase over the next decade.

One of the most remarkable outcomes of ObamaCare is how the stock market has treated commercial health plans, which have rallied significantly.

In the two years between the 2008 and 2010 elections, the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payors' Index rallied 26% (annualized), vs. only 9% for the S&P 500.