Free Republic

Obamacare’s nuances have made several healthcare plans in Virginia obsolete, hence depriving nearly a quarter million Virginias of their heath coverage according to NBC Richmond. That adds to the already over 800,000 Virginians who’ve been forced away from their current plans and had to enroll under more expensive plans that are Obamacare-approved.

ObamaCare defenders keep insisting that the law is a huge success while public approval continues to deteriorate, even among Democrats and especially among the uninsured. It's supposed to be the GOP's worst nightmare — President Obama's health care takeover turns out to be a success, proving once and for all that small-government conservatives are delusional. ObamaCare has, we're told, signed up more than expected while avoiding terminal rate shocks. In fact, a new report suggests premiums for "benchmark" Silver plans will actually be lower in many states next year....

Obamacare, as its advocates increasingly point out, has succeeded in expanding the number of Americans with insurance. Even though this achievement came at enormous cost, still leaves millions of Americans uninsured, and dumped millions more into Medicaid, this is still one of the few “successes” that the health-care law can claim. However, health insurance and access to health care are not the same thing. And evidence is growing that Obamacare is likely to make it harder for us to see a doctor or otherwise obtain care. Of course, we already know that the limited network of physicians available through most...

<p>As heavy lobbying by the hospital industry intersects with immediate political considerations, a growing number of Republican governors are caving in to Medicaid expansion through President Obama’s healthcare law.</p> <p>In the process, they are imposing massive and unnecessary financial burdens on taxpayers.</p>

Planned Parenthood will receive more than half-a-million dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds to help sign people up for ObamaCare health insurance plans during a three month period in 2014-15. For the second year in a row, the Department of Health and Human Services will award two Planned Parenthood chapters in Iowa and Montana federal grants to act as “navigators” for those uninsured or otherwise unable to navigate the labyrinth of new insurance regulations ushered in by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Planned Parenthood of the Heartland will receive an “anticipated grant” of $218,940 (slightly more than its $214,427 grant last...

Congressional Republicans keep saying they oppose Obamacare. Yet they’re refusing to take the simplest and easiest action against it. The way the law is designed, insurance companies get taxpayer subsidies if they incur big losses on the exchanges. That guarantee has encouraged them to participate in the exchanges. It has also enabled them to charge lower premiums, since they do not have to cover their risks. Republicans could force supporters of Obamacare to defend these taxpayer subsidies by advancing legislation to stop them, as Senator Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Representative Tim Griffin (R., Ark.) have proposed. But their colleagues...

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell insisted Monday that Obamacare is “clearly working,” trying to move past the rocky rollout of President Obama's signature health law by insisting that her agency was not concerned with fighting “last year's battles.” Burwell in a speech at George Washington University said that the verdict was in on Obama's signature domestic initiative. “The Affordable Care Act is clearly working,” the HHS chief said. “Healthcare is more affordable for families, businesses and for our economy as [a] whole. Coverage and services are more widely available to more people. Doctors and hospitals are delivering...

The bill is coming due for ObamaCare and it’s a whopper. According to Medicare Care’s own actuaries U.S. health care spending is about to rocket. Federal meddling in what was once the finest and cost-effective health care system on the planet is nothing new. Back in the 1960s, many Americans paid for doctor and hospital services out of pocket or through modestly priced private insurance. Health care spending was about 6 percent of GDP. Enter President Johnson and Medicare. He bought millions of votes by giving seniors free health care that they never paid for through payroll taxes during their...

President Barack Obama’s top health adviser on Monday called for an end to partisan bickering over Obamacare, saying the public and businesses are sending a clear message to Washington that it is time to move on with implementing the law. “The Affordable Care Act is clearly working,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell told a university audience in remarks that unveiled a new administration message about the successes of the healthcare reform law just as the midterm election campaign debate about its future intensifies. “What I’ve been hearing over and over … (is) enough already with the back...

Consumers may soon find a surprise in their mailbox: a notice that their health plan is being canceled. Insurers are required to give policyholders 90 days notice if they’re discontinuing their plans. That means consumers whose plans will be cancelled this December should be receiving notices now. If your plan is being canceled, you have a number of options. By law, your insurer has to let you buy another of its plans if you want. You can also shop on the state health insurance marketplace for coverage, where many people qualify for subsidies that reduce the cost, or you can...

Fox News is reporting that employer-provided health care plans may be a thing of the past. Former Obama health adviser Zeke Emanuel predicted that Obamacare will replace 80 percent of employer-provided health plans will disappear in 10 years. “It’s going to actually be better for people. They’ll have more choice,” Emanuel said. “Most people who work for an employer and get their coverage through an employer do not have choice.” …

Ending a yearlong negotiation, the Obama administration on Thursday approved Gov. Corbett's alternative Medicaid expansion proposal, a step that could extend health-care benefits to roughly 600,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians. In what was described as a five-year demonstration project, Pennsylvania got the go-ahead to use federal money to pay private insurers to provide health care to uninsured individuals - many in low-wage jobs. The Obama administration praised Pennsylvania for joining other states that opted into the program under the Affordable Care Act. Corbett administration officials called the agreement a successful compromise.

NBC News - The price to remove a gall bladder or replace a hip has spiked more than 20 percent during the past five years, according to an analysis of data collected for NBC News. Surgery has bloomed into a $500 billion industry in the United States, where 80 to 100 million procedures are performed annually — a per-capita rate that's some 50 percent higher than in the European Union, said Dr. John Birkmeyer, a researcher and adjunct professor at the Dartmouth Institute and in the university's Community & Family Medicine program. The reason? Expensive yet safer technologies and hospital...

Years after former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was mocked for being concerned about "death panels," the federal government may reimburse Medicare doctors for end-of-life consultations that critics say would only encourage sick patients to reject costly treatments to prolong life. The New York Times reports that "Medicare may begin covering end-of-life discussions next year if it approves a recent request from the American Medical Association," which is "the country’s largest association of physicians and medical students" and creates "billing codes for medical services, codes used by doctors, hospitals and insurers." According to the Times, the group "recently created codes for...

On August 28, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service re-released the draft forms that will be used by employer, insurers, and exchanges for reporting Affordable Care Act tax information to individuals and to the IRS for 2014 and 2015, as well as the instructions for completing those forms.  The IRS also released in the Federal Register requests for public comments on three of those forms – the 1094-B, the 1094-C, and the 1095-C – under the Paperwork Reduction Act.  This post reports on these forms and instructions and on a guidance released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The tax forms had been...

If you got health coverage through President Barack Obama's law this year, you'll need a new form from your insurance exchange before you can file your tax return next spring. Some tax professionals are worried that federal and state insurance marketplaces won't be able to get those forms out in time. That could lead to delayed tax refunds for millions of consumers.

The Affordable Care Act cannot be broken down into sound bites. This holds true for both its most ardent supporters and its most fervent opponents. The law is simply too complex to be labeled either a total failure or a smashing success. But that doesn't mean it isn't trending in one of those two directions. Across the country, individuals and families are beginning to learn whether their insurance premiums will change for 2015—early estimates indicate an overall national increase of 7.5 percent, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis. That's what is expected despite the early promise that the ACA would lower...

More than 2,000 more Coloradans had their health insurance plans cancelled as a result of the Affordable Care Act, according to a letter from the state regulatory agency to state Senate Republicans.Following a dust-up earlier this year between Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall and the Division of Insurance, Republicans have requested regular updates on policies that are cancelled because they don’t conform to Obamacare or because companies are getting out of the individual insurance market.Udall disputed the original number of nearly a quarter million cancellations in the immediate wake of Obamacare’s rollout in late 2013, arguing that almost all of...

Supporters of President Obama’s health care law have been touting proposed insurance rates for 2015 — arguing that they aren’t as high as some of the dire warnings of the law’s critics.But it’s worth considering some additional context.Data complied by the Health Research Institute of PricewaterhouseCoopers from about 29 states plus the District of Columbia show that the average premium increase for insurance starting next year is currently 8.2 percent. But within that average, there’s a wide range.In Arizona, for instance, the average premium increase submitted was 11.2 percent, but rates ranged from a decrease of 23 percent to a...

"It is unjust when a patient is unable to access intensive care because ICU beds are occupied by patients who cannot benefit from such care. Our findings are particularly relevant in the U.S., but are also instructive elsewhere given universal concerns regarding providing treatments that are non-beneficial," the study states. "The ethic of 'first come, first served' is not only inefficient and wasteful, but it is contrary to medicine's responsibility to apply healthcare resources to best serve society. In the context of healthcare reform, which aims to more justly distribute medical care to the nation, opportunity cost is one more...