Free Republic

See this Freerepublic.com thread for more information: Obamacare Implosion Now? Since Obama (Illegally) Siphoned GSE Dividends To Prop Up ... From this article (sourced from ZeroHedge.com), the Trump Administration has until May 22nd to appeal the decision to cut funding (Republican House forced this in 2014). From the other article: In fact, House Republicans actually sued the Obama Administration in 2014 over the fact that the subsidies to insurers weren't appropriated by congress and won, which the Obama administration appealed. As Zerohedge and the Atlanta Journal Constitution pointed out last week, the Trump administration has until May 22nd to decide...

".@RepDaveBrat: New health care plan in GOP pipeline "the same fundamental bill" as one that faltered last month https://t.co/kK1lWALm5T" — New Day (@NewDay) April 21, 2017 A revised GOP healthcare bill is the 'same fundamental bill' as the first one, but it contains some significant amendments and lawmakers will likely approve it, Rep. Dave Brat said Friday. "[Republicans] like to rely on free markets as much as we can," the Virginia Republican told CNN's "New Day" anchor Chris Cuomo. "This is still a federal government structure. I'm not totally happy with that outcome." The plan "at least cracks the door...

The GOP’s first shot at fixing Obamacare was an absolute dumpster fire. Paul Ryan never bothered to get conservatives involved and it cost him big time. He couldn’t even get his Obamacare lite bill to the floor for a vote. Now, it looks like Mike Pence got involved in the negotiations and an agreement was made. "#BREAKING Sources tell me @mike_pence, @SpeakerRyan, @RepMarkMeadows and @RepTomMacArthur negotiated a possible amendment to the #AHCA." — Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbFBN) April 20, 2017 "#BREAKING The possible amendment is titled the "MacArthur Amendment" and sources tell me it could bring up to 15-20 new @freedomcaucus...

An amendment to the GOP's repeal plan would dole out $15 billion to insurers over nine years to help cover the costs of sick, expensive patients. Lawmakers say the new funds would bring down premiums for healthy people by subsidizing medical costs for people with especially high expenses. Under ObamaCare, insurers are required to charge everyone of the same age the same amount for premiums, regardless of their medical history or conditions. That means costs are spread out among healthy and sick people, and insurers would essential pass those costs on to healthy people. The $15 billion would help subsidize...

First, Humana pulled out of Obamacare for 2018. Then, Wellmark announced it was leaving. Which health insurer could be next? The failure of the GOP health care plan in Congress and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's next moves have left insurers skittish about participating in the Obamacare exchanges next year. Certainly, Obamacare was troubled before President Trump took office. But many experts, including the Congressional Budget Office, felt Obamacare was stable overall. Certainly, Obamacare was troubled before President Trump took office. Several major insurers scaled back their involvement on the exchanges, while others hiked premiums to cover their...

The Hidden Monopolies That Raise Drug Prices How pharmacy benefit managers morphed from processors to predators David Dayen March 28, 2017 Rob Frankil of Sellersville, Pennsylvania, followed his father into the family business after college. “My entire life,” he said, “I’ve been involved with managing and owning independent pharmacies.” He now owns two stores, a traditional community pharmacy and another that caters to long-term care facilities.Like any retail outlet, Frankil purchases inventory from a wholesale distributor and sells it to customers at a small markup. But unlike butchers or hardware store owners, pharmacists have no idea how much money they’ll...

After a stunning healthcare defeat last week, delivered at the hands of his own party no less, Trump took to twitter to predict the imminent 'explosion' of Obamacare. ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. Do not worry!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2017 The Democrats will make a deal with me on healthcare as soon as ObamaCare folds - not long. Do not worry, we are in very good shape!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2017  As it turns out, that 'explosion' could come...

For those keeping score at home, here’s a recap of where the Washington healthcare debacle currently stands: Obama and the Democrats inflict a massively overcomplicated system of healthcare regulations that raised insurance premiums on Americans, decreased insurance options, dictated doctors and coverage, and largely just sucked.Republicans saddled up the Obamacare nightmare and rode it to the electoral bank in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016, promising that once they had full control, they would repeal the beast.When given full control, the Republicans authored an absurd Obamacare-lite compromise bill that didn’t repeal the beast, but attempted to manicure it. It failed...

Approximately 6.5 million taxpayers paid $3 billion in Obamacare penalties for not having health insurance in 2016, according to preliminary data from the Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen. Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate required that Americans purchase health care coverage or pay a penalty to the Internal Revenue Service. While the number of taxpayers paying the penalty has declined since 2014, the total amount in penalties paid to the IRS has increased since then. In 2014, individuals without insurance had to pay the greater penalty of either a flat fee of $95 or 1 percent...

President Trump predicted Friday that pressure on Democrats will compel them to work with Republicans to pass a healthcare reform package after Obamacare collapses. "When it explodes, they come to us and we make one beautiful deal," Trump told the Washington Post's Robert Costa in a phone interview shortly after House leadership pulled the American Health Care Act in the face of conservative opposition. Trump said he believed Republicans came within "five to 12 votes" of passing the AHCA. They needed 216 votes to send the legislation to the Senate.

For strategic reasons, I have signed onto liberal newsletter eblasts, so that I can know what the enemy is doing in my state. After Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the American Health Care Act (ACHA), every Democratic lawmaker, candidate, and special interest group exulted in their victory: “Your calls made the difference!” “We did it!” “You saved health care.” Uh … no. Because Obamacare remains intact, healthcare remains in morbid free-fall. Doctors are still quitting the medical field, with premiums rising, health insurance exchanges failing, and hospitals closing. Democrats did themselves no favors in fighting against reforms. Obamacare is still an...

Whether you are cheering the principled holdout for a better bill or lamenting the circular firing squad led by the Freedom Caucus, the fact is that the first attempt to put a bill through the House to repeal and replace ObamaCare has landed short. Something of a civil war has broken out among various camps of The Party That Finally Has to Govern. Conservative critics called the American Health Care Act "RyanCare" when they were polite, "Obamacare Lite", "Obamacare 2.0" and other names not fit to print when they are feeling less so. Why the hysteria? With Republicans firmly in...

Friday during a news conference, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) offered remarks on his decision not to proceed ahead with a vote on the American Health Care Act, which would have according to Ryan began the process of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also know as Obamacare. During the question and answer session, Ryan was asked about the prospect of another stab at repealing and replacing Obamacare, to which he said, “We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.” Partial transcript as follows:

We voted you in, gave you the majority in the House, the majority in Senate, delivered the presidency and soon the judiciary. You have been given a mandate to repeal ObamaCare in every election cycle since 2010. Do your job! Do not betray us! No more excuses! Screw the democrats and their unconstitutional socialist entitlement schemes! We did not vote you in to deliver ObamaCare-lite! Repeal every word of this unconstitutional boondoggle!! No more government entitlements!! The constitution clearly reserves health care to the states and the people. Feds stay OUT!! Do the job you were elected to do! Repeal...

Health Reform: Seven years after vowing to repeal ObamaCare, Republicans have labored to produce plan that replaces ObamaCare with …. ObamaCare. The plan released Monday — called the American Health Care Act — has some good parts. It repeals ObamaCare's multitude of largely hidden but no less destructive taxes on health insurance plans, medical devices, flexible spending accounts and so on. It gets rid of ObamaCare's individual mandate and the job-killing employer mandate. It expands the amount of money that can be contributed to Health Savings Accounts, the one health reform that has actually worked to lower costs. It's age-based,...

Republican leadership's plans for the Obamacare repeal were recently leaked, though "repeal" is perhaps too strong a word. "Tweaks" more accurately describes the work of Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and other House Republicans. It does not go back to ground zero, where this disaster began. Instead, the plan is to go for "Obamacare Lite." It's simply a different version of Obamacare — a Republican version of Obamacare. It's how President Obama himself might have done it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said, "The best interest of the country would be achieved by pulling out Obamacare, root...

Health Reform: The need for an overhaul of ObamaCare just got more acute, as a new survey shows that satisfaction rates among those enrolled in ObamaCare plans has taken a steep nose-dive this year amid premium hikes and reduced choices. The new coverage of ObamaCare these days has been all about protests against repeal and the alleged increase in public support for the law. But a survey of actual ObamaCare customers released this week paints an entirely different picture. It found that just 22% of the 44,200 ObamaCare enrollees polled rate their health plan as good to excellent. That's down...

A former economic advisor to President Trump’s campaign says someone else should replace Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) if he can’t get an ObamaCare replacement through Congress. “Paul Ryan isn’t doing his job,” Betsy McCaughey, a former Republican lieutenant governor of New York, told radio host John Catsimatidis in an interview broadcast Sunday on AM 970 in New York. “If he can’t do his job as Speaker, to hold these Republicans together and get a repeal and replace bill through, somebody else should be Speaker.” McCaughey said “ObamaCare is in a death spiral,” but accused Ryan of wanting "ObamaCare light" and...

A majority of online and social media defenders of Obamacare are professionals who are "paid to post," according to a digital expert. "Sixty percent of all the posts were made from 100 profiles, posting between the hours of 9 and 5 Pacific Time," said Michael Brown. "They were paid to post." His shocking analysis was revealed on this weekend's Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, broadcast on Sinclair stations and streamed live Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Her upcoming show focuses on information wars and Brown was describing what happened when he had a problem with Obamacare and complained online. Brown said...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi slammed a leaked draft plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, saying it cuts coverage and amounts to a tax break for the wealthy. "While Republicans hide from their constituents, they are moving down an increasingly cruel path to raise taxes on middle-class families and dismantle Americans' right to affordable health care," she said Friday. Pelosi's statement comes a few hours after leaked draft legislation was released by Politico Friday. The draft, dated Feb. 10, would cut Obamacare's mandates and taxes and pay for a replacement by capping tax breaks on employer-sponsored health plans. "The latest...