Free Republic

AMY MOSES and her circle of self-employed small-business owners were supporters of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act. They bought policies on the newly created New York State exchange. But when they called doctors and hospitals in Manhattan to schedule appointments, they were dismayed to be turned away again and again with a common refrain: “We don’t take Obamacare,” the umbrella epithet for the hundreds of plans offered through the president’s signature health legislation. “Anyone who is on these plans knows it’s a two-tiered system,” said Ms. Moses, describing the emotional sting of those words to a successful entrepreneur....

The Obama administration unveiled two broad initiatives Friday aimed at combating discrimination against transgender Americans in schools and health-care coverage, affirming the president’s goal of elevating transgender protections to one of the central civil rights issues of his presidency. The moves, both of which had been in the works for years, prompted an immediate backlash from conservatives who disparaged the measures as government overreach. […] Hours after directing public schools nationwide to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice, the administration issued a second directive prohibiting health insurers from denying transgender Americans coverage and services based on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkqn6wsrUfs

It seems that federal officials have worked overtime to undermine public trust. Benghazi, the IRS abuses, the “fast and furious” gun-running fiasco, the solar power boondoggles, and the seemingly endless implementation problems of the Affordable Care Act—all these scandals have common themes: arrogant and abusive bureaucracy, double dealing, lame excuses, and legal hairsplitting. The outrages listed above can be placed squarely at the doorstep of the White House. But one scandal is truly bipartisan: How key administration and congressional officials connived to create, under cover of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, special health insurance subsidies for members...

After raising its premiums for coverage on the Obamacare exchange by 36.3 percent for 2016, the state's dominant health insurer is heralding another increase of the "same order of magnitude" for 2017. BlueCross BlueShield claims it lost more than $150 million in 2015 when its rates were among the lowest in the land. But the 36.3 percent increase for 2016, the largest of any state, brings Tennessee rates to just about the national average. So how on Earth can costs be going up so exponentially to justify such a rate increase on the part of a nonprofit insurance company whose...

White House spokesman Josh Earnest taunted congressional Republicans Thursday in spite of a major court ruling against Obamacare, saying “they’ve been losing this fight for six years.” The Hill reports: In a major ruling, Judge Rosemary Collyer, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said the administration does not have the power to spend money on “cost sharing reduction payments” to insurers without an appropriation from Congress. Collyer’s decision doesn’t immediately go into effect, however, so that the administration can appeal it. A reporter asked Earnest at the outset of the briefing how “problematic” this was for the law overall....

A federal judge delivered a blow to the Obama administration and the president’s signature health care law Thursday in a lawsuit mounted by the House of Representatives. But the lawsuit’s future could be impacted further by November’s elections. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer sided with the House in a case challenging how the Obama administration has been funding payments to insurers through Obamacare’s cost-sharing subsidies. Collyer, appointed by President George W. Bush, is allowing the program to continue, pending an appeal from the Department of Justice.

Humana wasn't kidding when it hinted last week of big premium hikes for 2017 in those ObamaCare markets where it remains. This year, the nation's fifth-largest insurer offers the cheapest bronze and silver plans in Michigan's largest market, including Detroit. But Humana has filed for a 50% premium hike for its low-cost silver plan. Meanwhile, Humana wants a 38% premium increase for its lowest-cost bronze plan. So far only Oregon, where insurers are requesting an average 27% premium hike, and Virginia, where insurers want an 18% hike, are the only two states to make all rate filings available.

The shrinkage of employee retirement resources in the US has been well documented, as employers shift more risk onto their workers. Less so is the rate at which employers have been eliminating healthcare benefits for retirees. As the Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported, retiree health coverage is becoming an endangered species. "Employer-sponsored retiree health coverage once played a key role in supplementing Medicare," observe Tricia Neuman of the foundation. "Any way you slice it, this coverage is eroding." The chances of reversing this trend, plainly, are nil. But it's important to keep an eye on it, if only as a...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched a campaign against Catholic hospitals, charging that the health of patients-- especially women-- may be endangered by the US bishops' health-care directives. Noting that Catholic institutions account for one of every six hospital beds in the US, the ACLU remarks that Catholic institutions are generally forbidden to perform abortions and sterilizations or to euthanize patients: procedures that the ACLU defines as forms of "health care" Thus the ACLU report concludes that "health care" is not always available at US hospitals because of Catholic teachings. "When hospitals prevent doctors from providing care, the...

Insurers -- who might not be allowed the huge rate increases they need to stay solvent --- are looking to save money by eliminating so-called Bronze-level plans. Fierce Health Player reports on an Inside Health Policy (subscription only) warning from earlier this week: One problem, according to the article, is risk adjustment--as CMS data indicate bronze is the only metal level for which insurers of all sizes in the individual and group markets had to pay into the program. Federal officials are considering some changes to the risk adjustment program, which some say unfairly penalizes smaller insurers. Already, filings show...

Undocumented illegal aliens are having a documented effect on New York City's finances. New York's flailing left-wing mayor is proposing $2 billion for the city's hospitals as part of an $82 billion budget. A budget that the city can't afford. What's driving the costs? Illegal aliens and ObamaCare. Closer to home, de Blasio said the growth in tax revenue that has swelled city coffers is starting to slow — with projected growth of 3.6% in 2016 and 1.9% in 2017, compared to an average of 7% in the last five years.

It's still early days for the Affordable Care Act. But it may be dismaying to some consumers to learn that it appears 2017 may bring another year of big rate hikes. The first two states to release insurers' premium proposals for next year suggest that individual insurance premiums could rise by as much as one-third. In Oregon, the steepest requested rate hike is 32.3 percent. In Virginia, five of the biggest insurers are asking for increases of 9.4 percent to 37.1 percent for individual policies. The proposed rate hikes follow an average increase of 8 percent for 2016, and are...

In the face of losses in the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is looking for new ways to cut spending. Starting June 1, the Chicago-based health insurer will no longer accept credit cards as a form of payment for members who buy their own health insurance on or off the Illinois marketplace. The company began notifying customers of the change last month. Blue Cross will still accept other forms of payment, including debit cards. The new payment policy will not affect customers in the group or Medicare markets. In an email announcing the new...

Millions of poor Americans have signed up for no-cost health insurance that they could have gotten even without the passage of Obamacare. In recent years, the publicity of Obamacare has driven them to sign up in droves, so much so that economists and health policy wonks have dubbed the phenomenon the "woodwork effect," or the "welcome mat" population. This group turned out to be larger than anyone anticipated. A working paper released Monday finds that 43 percent of those who gained insurance in 2014 came out of the woodwork. According to MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, one of the authors...

The last thing Democrats want to contend with just a week before the 2016 presidential election is an outcry over double-digit insurance hikes as millions of Americans begin signing up for Obamacare. But that looks increasingly likely as health plans socked by Obamacare losses look to regain their financial footing by raising rates. Just a week after the nation’s largest insurer, UnitedHealth Group, pulled out of most Obamacare exchanges because it anticipates $650 million in losses this year, Aetna’s CEO said Thursday that his company expects to break even, but legislative fixes are needed to make the marketplace sustainable. “I...

Expect insurers to seek significant premium increases under President Barack Obama's health care law, in a wave of state-level requests rippling across the country ahead of the political conventions this summer. Insurers say the law's coverage has been a financial drain for many of them, and they're setting the stage for 2017 hikes that in some cases could reach well into the double digits. For example in Virginia, nine insurers returning to the HealthCare.gov marketplace are seeking average premium increases that range from 9.4 percent to 37.1 percent. The health law's nagging problems seem to center on lower-than-hoped-for enrollment, sicker-than-expected...

If you had to make a sudden visit to the emergency room, would you have enough money to pay for it without selling something or borrowing the funds from somewhere? Most Americans may not realize this, but this is something that the Federal Reserve has actually been tracking for several years now. And according to the Fed, an astounding 47 percent of all Americans could not come up with $400 to pay for an emergency room visit without borrowing it or selling something. Various surveys that I have talked about in the past have found that more than 60 percent...

Federal health officials refuse to give Congress hundreds of subpoenaed documents on Obamacare’s failed co-ops so that people will continue enrolling in the deeply troubled program, a congressional leader said Tuesday. Twelve of the 23 co-ops created in 2011 under Obamacare at a cost of $2.4 billion have failed, and another eight of the remaining 11 are likely to go under this year. But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) won’t hand over documents subpoenaed months ago by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz  82% , who chairs the House...

On Tuesday, the largest private health insurance provider in the U.S., United Healthcare, announced that it would be pulling its plans out of the ObamaCare exchanges in all but a few states. Among a continuing string of bad news for President’ Obama’s Affordable Care Act, this one should stand out as an indicator that the ACA’s collapse is accelerating. Conservatives need to be ready to explain why and to present solutions, because advocates for fully socialized medicine will be ready to turn the collapsing exchanges to their advantage. All of the deficiencies in Obamacare’s structure have been well documented. High...