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Obama: Healthcare reform deficit neutralPublished: June 15, 2009 at 5:06 PM CHICAGO, June 15 (UPI) -- The $1 trillion, 10-year price tag for reforming the U.S. healthcare system is steep, but inaction will cost more, President Obama told physicians Monday. Obama touted his vision of healthcare reform before the American Medical Association's annual meeting in Chicago, saying providing affordable healthcare for all Americans "will come at a cost" but only in the short-run. "(Failing) to reform our healthcare system in a way that genuinely reduces cost growth will cost us trillions of dollars more in lost economic growth and lower...

Reid Again Prevents Vote on Obamacare RepealFriday, 03 Aug 2012 12:30 PM By Newsmax Wires Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yet again stymied a Republican attempt to vote on repealing the healthcare reform law Thursday evening. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed that the Senate vote on repeal of Obamacare soon after it returns from vacation in September, The Hill reports. “Let’s have a vote,” McConnell said on the floor. “Is Obamacare making things better or worse? Let’s show the American people what they want. It’s a vote they deserve.”

Colorado judge's order on ObamaCare restores faith to the systemBy Quin Hillyer Published July 30, 2012 FoxNews.com Faith just won a round in court. As President Obama’s mandated insurance coverage of sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs takes effect on August 1 for ordinary businesses, the Health and Human Services mandate’s ultimate survival suddenly appears blessedly jeopardized. Federal district Judge John J. Kane of Colorado on Friday issued a temporary injunction blocking the mandate from being applied to Hercules Industries, a family-owned manufacturer of air-conditioning products. **SNIP** Comparatively little attention, though, had been paid to the private businesses that also object...

Rep. Pelosi praises progress, warns against complacency in fighting AIDSBy Mike Lillis - 07/27/12 04:56 PM ET House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Friday urged a greater commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS. Speaking before the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., the California Democrat said recent successes in combating the disease are welcome but shouldn't lead the world's governments to curtail their search for a cure. "Where there is scientific opportunity, there is a moral obligation to fund it," Pelosi said. "Where there are people in need of drugs and care – and communities in need of prevention –...

US poverty on track to rise to highest since 1960sBy HOPE YEN | Associated Press – 18 mins ago WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net. Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections. **SNIP** Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. More discouraged workers...

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Section 1401 of the Affordable Care Act is, on the surface, just as exciting as it sounds. It outlines in excruciating detail the eligibility requirements for an American to receive a tax subsidy to assist in purchasing health insurance.That’s at first glance, at least. Two experts who recently scoured Section 1401 think they found something huge: a missing word that could undercut the Affordable Care Act’s promise of affordable health insurance.Case Western Reserve University’s Jonathan Adler and Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon argue in a new paper that any federally-established health insurance exchange does not have the authority to dole out health insurance subsidies....

Health law mandate isn’t ‘largest tax,’ despite GOP claimsBy Russell Berman - 07/08/12 03:00 PM ET To hear Republicans tell it, the individual mandate to buy health insurance that the Supreme Court has now declared to be a tax is the “largest tax in America’s history.” Yet even when considered as a revenue-raising tax, the mandate at the center of President Obama's signature legislation is not even the largest tax increase in the 2010 healthcare law, much less in the history of the republic. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the penalty, or tax, for not buying health insurance will...

In 2009, when Obama was pushing universal healthcare, he quickly realized that his dreams of a single-payer, government-run socialized system would never pass Congress. His other option was a “public option,” which most knew to be a Trojan Horse for single-payer, slowly eviscerating the private insurance industry. The “compromise” (if we can say Obama compromised with himself) was ObamaCare. The ObamaCare debate has been overshadowed by whether the Individual Mandate is constitutional (it is not, despite what Roberts and the gaggle of liberal justices state.) What has been lost in the conversation is the States’ Health Care Exchanges. We have...

Amid John Roberts' craven surrender to "the political branches" on Obamacare -- a bizarre capitulation, at that, since Roberts honored a statute that he hallucinated, but neither Congress nor the president authored nor authorized -- Americans should remember just how many rules, standards, and traditions had to be twisted or bulldozed in order for the [un]Affordable Care Act to become law. For Obamacare to be enacted in the first place required each of more than a dozen, highly unlikely or even suspect, occurrences or actions. It then took some serious constitutional hocus pocus for it to survive in court. Consider...

Like all practicing physicians (and medical correspondents), I was glued to the news last Thursday morning at 10 am ET when the US Supreme Court via some questionable fancy legal footwork allowed ObamaCare to survive. Like many of my medical brethren, I was deeply disappointed by the outcome. You, the patient, will have to get used to less access to real health care solutions, fewer approvals for the very latest, personalized, genetic-based cancer treatment or surgical technology that could save your life. ObamaCare will cause your premiums to soar. ObamaCare promises to increase your access to health care but it...

Dems target vulnerable GOP lawmakers over health law repeal voteBy Meghashyam Mali - 07/02/12 06:00 AM ET The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is launching a new campaign Monday targeting vulnerable GOP lawmakers on healthcare ahead of the House vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. "Democrats are on offense as we expose these House Republicans for standing up for insurance companies and congressional perks instead of protecting consumers," said DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.), in a statement announcing the drive. "For 18 months, Republicans have been on defense for protecting millionaires over Medicare and now they're planning another vote...

House to prohibit IRS from implementing healthcare lawBy Pete Kasperowicz - 07/02/12 01:25 PM ET The House as early as next week will pass legislation prohibiting the IRS from receiving any money from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the 2010 healthcare reform law. Passage of the financial services spending bill is especially timely in light of last week's Supreme Court ruling that penalties the government can impose under the law against people who refuse to buy health insurance can be seen as a tax, because it is enforced like a tax. That finding allowed the...

Today the Supreme Court struck down portions of Obamacare as unconstitutional --states cannot be "dragooned" into expanding their Medicaid programs according to the law’s dictates. However, a list of 50 particularly onerous or egregious provisions in Obamacare (with sections from the statute duly noted) reveals just how much of this bad law remains. By the most generous interpretation, the Court struck down only four of the 50 egregious policies, illustrating why Congress should immediately repeal the entire measure once and for all.  Among many other bad policies, the law:1.      Imposes $800 billion in tax increases, including no fewer than 12...

What say you to the king? He deemeth that thou shalt buy insurance, or face the wrath of a dictator scorn. You ready to stand on your feet? Or are you living on your knees?

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the individual insurance requirement at the heart of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Line Forms Outside SCOTUS for Obamacare DecisionBy Serena Marshall | ABC OTUS News – 2 hrs 43 mins ago With only 18 hours remaining until the Supreme Court rules on one of the most controversial issues facing the Justices-Obamacare-a small line has already formed outside the court. The line may only currently be four people long, but as time gains on the decision the line is expected to grow. During the healthcare debates the line to gain access began Friday before the Monday start of the three-day event. **SNIP** Brennaman, who a former nurse who teaches nursing, says she sat...

GOP promises to rid nation of healthcare lawBy Ian Swanson - 06/23/12 06:00 AM ET Republicans are using their weekly radio address to reiterate their promise to repeal President Obama’s healthcare law. The address is timed for this week’s decision by the Supreme Court, which is set to announce its ruling on the controversial law as early as Monday. The justices could uphold the law, they could throw it out, or they could throw out the mandate that consumers buy health insurance but leave the rest of the law standing. Many expect the ruling to at least go against the...

Covering all the bases ahead of a momentous Supreme Court ruling, the Obama administration plans to move ahead with major parts of the president's health care law if its most controversial provision does not survive, according to veteran Democrats closely involved with the legislation.

Report: Ginsburg sees ‘sharp disagreements’ as court rulings nearBy Ben Geman - 06/16/12 11:05 AM ET Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is predicting “sharp disagreements” on the high court as the justices are on the cusp of landmark rulings including the fate of President Obama’s healthcare law. “As one may expect, many of the most controversial cases remain pending,” she said in remarks Friday evening to the American Constitution Society, according to CNN. “So it is likely that the sharp disagreement rate will go up next week and the week after.” The high court is slated to rule in...