Free Republic

No development in U.S. healthcare over the last three decades has imperiled us more than the idea that we benefit from physician oversight of life events and circumstances that are not inherently medical. At its most intrusive, this process, called medicalization, creates a clinical conundrum out of the mere act of living and posits medical solutions for things (such as how to live a healthier lifestyle) that frequently benefit more from individual concentration and perseverance than professional intervention. We are thus bearing witness to tortuous reformation of what it means to be a physician in America: a formerly independent and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Being uninsured in America will cost you more in 2015. It's the first year all taxpayers have to report to the Internal Revenue Service whether they had health insurance for the previous year, as required under President Barack Obama's law. Those who were uninsured face fines, unless they qualify for one of about 30 exemptions, most of which involve financial hardships. Dayna Dayson of Phoenix estimates that she'll have to pay the taxman $290 when she files her federal return. Dayson, who's in her early 30s, works in marketing and doesn't have a lot left over each...

HONOLULU (AP) - Warning from President Barack Obama to congressional Republicans: I have a veto pen and, come January, I won't be afraid to use it. Continue reading Since taking office in 2009, Obama has only vetoed legislation twice, both in fairly minor circumstances. But with Republicans set to take full control of Congress next year, Obama is losing his last bulwark against a barrage of bills he doesn't like: the Senate. "I haven't used the veto pen very often since I've been in office," Obama said in an NPR interview airing Monday. "Now, I suspect, there are going to...

The Affordable Care Act may become even more of a nightmare with Hillary Clinton in the White House, says Betsy McCaughey, chairwoman of the Committee to Reduce Infectious Deaths and former lieutenant-governor of New York. "Hillary could make it worse," McCaughey said Friday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV, referencing Clinton's attempt to launch a heathcare plan when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president. "Hillarycare back in November 1993, all 1,362 pages of it . . . was far more coercive than Obamacare." For example, said McCaughey, a medical doctor, Clinton's plan was far more rigid than President...

California's health exchange is violating the law by canceling private coverage for up to 95,000 people because they might qualify for Medi-Cal, the state's insurance commissioner says. At issue is health insurance for some of the poorest Californians whose incomes aren't high enough to even qualify for subsidized policies in the Covered California exchange. The state marketplace is notifying thousands of policyholders that their federal premium subsidies for Obamacare coverage will end Dec. 31 and their private health plan won't be renewed starting in January. Instead, these people will be put into Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for low-income residents....

New rules being proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will give that agency enormous new powers over consumers who use the healthcare.gov website to purchase their insurance. The proposed rules would allow CMS to automatically renew consumers' policies every year if they don't visit the website to do it themselves. Without any knowledge of an individual's health care situation, their financials, or anything else that might affect what kind of policy they may need, the government wll choose and force you to pay for a policy that they think works best for you.

Jeb Bush left the Florida governor’s office in January of 2007, after eight years of service. Three months later, he joined the board of a hospital company that had been pillaging government health programs and abusing patients, in Florida and around the country, for most of the years he sat in the governor’s office. Apart from a very generous compensation package, why did Bush sign on with such a tarnished company? And will whatever explanation he now offers hold up under the microscope of a presidential campaign? Tenet Healthcare Corp. is a national for-profit hospital company with a sordid history....

The shocking news Wednesday that Governor Peter Shumlin (D-VT) has abandoned plans to introduce his long promised single-payer health care system to the Vermont Legislature in 2015 was a huge victory for conservative new media. As observers on the ground in Vermont confirmed Thursday, Breitbart News led the way. “Governor Shumlin would not have reversed course without Breitbart News and Michael Patrick Leahy exposing the Gruber factor and bringing the story to front of the public discussion in Vermont,” Darcie Johnston of Vermonters for Health Care Freedom told Breitbart News on Thursday. “Breitbart News and Michael Patrick Leahy’s laser focus...

Jonathan Gruber felt little constraint in making the various statements that have been trumpeted by conservative media because most of what he said was completely unremarkable in health policy circles. Here are some of the health care truths that few people want to hear. Employer Benefits Are Not a Gift from Benevolent Bosses Every penny spent on your benefits is a penny taken out of your wages. The richer the benefits, the less money you take home every week. Companies think in terms of total compensation. A good accountant might be worth $78,000 a year to a company. The company...

Health Overhaul: Jonathan Gruber isn't the only one who got rich off ObamaCare. Several big government contractors are raking in megabucks to help the government take over the nation's health care system. Gruber made news when it came to light that the Obama administration had paid the stupid-American-calling MIT economist roughly $400,000 to help build ObamaCare, and several states paid him big bucks as well to build their exchanges. But this is just the tip of the ObamaCare bonanza. In the last fiscal year, Health and Human Services spent $21 billion on contracts with private firms. That's more than it...

<p>Few American voters feel their family is better off under ObamaCare, and a record number would repeal the law if they could.</p> <p>In addition, if comments by one of the health care law’s authors about lying to “stupid” Americans are true, over half of voters think President Obama or other administration officials are responsible for that deception.</p>

When a pro-life family in Connecticut found that their state Obamacare exchange only offered plans that included abortion coverage, they filed a lawsuit ... because they could not purchase a plan that did not require its participants to pay for the elective abortions of others. Last month, the Bracy Family dismissed its lawsuit after the addition of health plans to the exchange that will not require them to pay for abortions. We liked our insurance plan and wanted to keep it, but couldn’t because it was cancelled due to Obamacare,” Bracy told Breitbart News during an interview that included his...

<p>Former Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius is back, and she has figured out why the Affordable Care Act is so unpopular.</p> <p>No, it’s not the law’s imposition of new taxes on those who have health insurance, or the “fines” levied on individuals who are now forced to purchase insurance whether they want it or not. It’s not the limits the law places on access to preferred health care providers. It’s not the fact that millions in the individual market lost the plans with which they were happy with but did not comport with new ACA coverage standards, nor the fact that millions more are set to lose their policies when the law is eventually fully implemented. It’s not the law’s deleterious impact on the labor participation rate, which remains at its lowest point since the Carter administration.</p>

A Washington state Democrat said that Republicans dubbed the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare” so that they could symbolically destroy President Obama when they destroy the bill. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) said GOPs in Congress are just trying “more of the same game” in efforts to defund and dismantle Obamacare. “They’ve been trying to discredit it. Tear it apart. Tear it down, repeal it. Whatever you want to do. They’re trying to do it as long as they get rid of healthcare for the American people,” McDermott told MSNBC, branding Obamacare adviser Jonathan Gruber’s comments “careless remarks people make in situations.”...

Trey doing what he does best!

"Voters are stupid" economist Jonathan Gruber and Marilyn Tavenner face Issa and the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee today on C-SPAN 3. FOX News reports that Tavenner has asked that she be seated anywhere but next to Gruber. Apparently, Gruber is radioactive. Time will tell whether this affliction is covered under Obamacare.

The Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2015-2020 can be found at http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/health-it-strategic-planning. The period to comment on the Strategic Plan ends Feb. 6, 2015.

Infamous Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber told people not to read Obamacare, admitted he never knew how to control costs in the law and said he designed it by “throwing stuff at the wall” in one of his most characteristic public speeches. In between taking personal shots at conservatives, he actually thanked congressional Democrats for voting against their constituents.

The Jonathan Gruber show is coming to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with House Republicans set to grill the former ObamaCare adviser for his controversial remarks about the “stupidity” of voters who let the law pass. The hearing is likely to be a spectacle, with cable news networks planning heavy coverage, as Gruber takes the witness stand to answer questions about his ties to the Obama administration and his consulting work for the Health and Human Services Department. “Tomorrow is all about giving him the opportunity to say something stupid,” a Republican aide said. “It’s going to be a lot of...

LEXINGTON — Rural hospitals in Kentucky are facing some of the biggest challenges in their histories and some may be forced to close their doors state auditor Adam Edelen told the Kentucky Chamber on Monday. Edelen, who will be releasing an audit on the plight on the states rural hospitals in January, told members of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce who were attending their annual legislative preview conference, that the difficult economy and managed care are the primary drivers of the difficulty in rural health care. Generally, Medicare reimburses hospitals around 90 percent of cost while Medicaid reimbursement is around...