Free Republic

No Problem With Death Panels, Not Even a Smidgen Let’s take a stroll down “death panel” memory lane. Here are just a few excerpts for you to draw your own conclusions.My Facebook Post on August 7, 2009: “And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity...

Did you catch the story about those conservative Republican male chauvinist pig politicians in Florida who think that it was a waste of time to pass a bill which would make it a crime for a guy to secretly administer an abortion-inducing drug to a spouse or partner he impregnated? How utterly outrageous ... Wait a minute ... It was Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz who said that? C'mon, that's not possible. What? There's audio of her saying that on a Florida public radio station? Get outta here. If that were true, the press would be printing and...

Yesterday, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki declared himself “mad as hell” over the allegations of wait-list fraud in Phoenix, where 40 veterans passed away before accessing medical assistance while the office falsified records. Shinseki also pronounced himself saddened by the consequences of the VA’s failures, and pledged to get to the bottom of them — and allegations at five other offices that arose from other whistleblowers ... At nearly the same time as Shinseki testified yesterday, the Ocala News (Florida) reported that a seventh VA office in Gainesville had discovered a secret wait list that had 200 veterans waiting for medical...

Government run health care has come under increased scrutiny as America has learned of the bureaucratic decisions to let patients die rather than receive treatment. No, this story isn’t about Obamacare, although it does provide a pretty bleak look into the future as the death panels and cost based health decisions come flowing out of Health and Human Services cubicle farms. This preview is provided by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, a Department which runs the crumbling VA health system. CNN reports that at least 40 veterans died waiting to see a doctor at the Phoenix Veterans Health Care...

Consumers who purchased new health plans from Blue Shield of California have sued the insurer, claiming they were misled into thinking the insurance would cover their desired doctors and hospitals. In their complaint filed in California state court on Wednesday, San Francisco residents John Harrington and Alex Talon accused Blue Shield of misrepresenting that their plans, sold on California´s health exchange, would cover the full provider network advertised on the company´s website. They sued on behalf of a class of people who had purchased so-called "preferred provider organization" plans from the insurer only to realize that the doctor and hospital

<p>Employees at an ObamaCare processing center in Missouri with a contract worth $1.2 billion are reportedly getting paid to do nothing but sit at their computers.</p> <p>“Their goals are set to process two applications per month and some people are not even able to do that,” a whistleblower told KMOV-TV, referring to employees hired to process paper applications for ObamaCare enrollees.</p>

A belated response to the uproar after Rand Paul told an NYT reporter that the GOP’s voter-ID push was “offending people.” After reading this, I think the Guardian has his position right: “Rand Paul believes in voter ID laws. He just doesn’t think Republicans should talk about them so much.”Good enough? [T]his statement comes from Paul’s former chief of staff and current PAC director.“Senator Paul was having a larger discussion about criminal justice reform and restoration of voting rights, two issues he has been speaking about around the country and pushing for in state and federal legislation. “In the...

Up to 26% increase in health-plan rates proposed by insurers Proposed rate changes for 2015 individual health plans are all over the map, but most companies are keeping up with tradition by requesting increases in premiums. If approved, rate increases for 2015 individual health plans proposed by 12 insurance companies may affect most policyholders, whether they bought their plans through Washington Healthplanfinder’s online marketplace or in the outside market. Washington is one of the first states to see proposed rate changes for 2015 individual health-insurance plans. The proposed rate changes range from a decrease of 6.8 percent — from Molina...

Insurance Execs: Premiums Are Not Lowering Under ObamacareA group of top health insurance executives on Capitol Hill Wednesday stayed stock-still when asked whether they expected families they insure to experience a lowering of their premiums under Obamacare. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R., Va.) extended the question, and awkward silence ensued:

The Affordable Care Act means more and sicker patients are entering hospitals, and less comprehensive and timely health care. As the first enrollees in the Affordable Care Act begin seeking care at my hospital, I wonder how my practice as a Registered Nurse will change. We’re told the goal of the new law is to remodel healthcare in the United States into a system that promotes wellness and prevention, rather than just providing care to sick people. This seems like a great objective, but I worry that the switch may compromise the quality of the care our patients receive.

Via Facebook: Obamacare Rationing = "Death Panels"Take a look at this op-ed by a registered nurse discussing the strain Obamacare is putting on medical professionals as they scramble to accommodate an influx of new patients. This is one ingredient in the recipe for disaster that will lead to rationing. As I warned people from the very beginning, the danger of any government controlled or enforced health care law is rationing. Rationing happens when you increase the demand for a limited good or service (in this case health care, which is limited because we have a limited supply of health care...

“Thnx Mr. President!” That’s what former MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan had to say to President Obama in a tweet earlier today. He was saying it sarcastically. You know, like when you say “thanks a lot!” to someone who bumps into you in the hallway, causing you to spill your coffee all over your clothes. But Mr. Ratigan experienced something far worse than a coffee spill. His health insurance premiums are skyrocketing thanks to the hilariously named Affordable Care Act. What happened? Well, for starters, Ratigan had catastrophic health insurance coverage. That means that he sees himself as pretty healthy and...

Joni Ernst, a Republican Senate candidate in Iowa, was made in the Sarah Palin mold — her first TV ad focused on her experience castrating hogs. Perhaps high off the buzz and Palin endorsement that that ad generated, Ernst just released another TV spot that is beyond parody. The 30-second spot, titled "Shot," features Ernst at the shooting range, "unloading" on Obamacare. The narrator's lines sound like a Palin speech run through the shredder. As Ernst rides into the frame on a Harley, we hear, "Conservative Joni Ernst: Mom, Farm Girl, and a Lieutenant Colonel who carries more than just...

The latest USA Today/Pew survey shows Obamacare polling as poorly as it ever has: Views of ACA Little Changed. As other recent national polls have shown, including the April health care tracking survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the recent surge in signups for the new health care exchanges has had little impact on public opinion about the Affordable Care Act. In fact, the share disapproving of the law (55%) is as high as it ever has been in the four-year history of the law. Just 41% approve of the 2010 health care law.

On May 8th, oral arguments will take place in the D.C. Circuit Court Of Appeals concerning the unconstitutional manner in which the Affordable Care Act was assembled and placed before congress for passage. According to the Origination Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.” In 2009, the House passed a bill concerning proposed tax credits for members of the military who were first time home buyers. The Senate took that Bill, removed ALL of the...

I thought Mika was going to cry as she presented the bad news in this new poll that basically shows that people are fed up with Democrats:

Two years ago, when the Supreme Court declared Obamacare's penalty to be a tax, it doomed the healthcare reform act as an "unconstitutional violation of the origination clause," columnist George Will says. This Thursday, the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals, the nation's second-most important court, will hear arguments on whether the Affordable Care Act adheres to the Constitution's "origination clause," which declare that "all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills," Will writes in his column in The Washington Post Saturday. Will points...

A local mother is battling for her life with an unknown bone disease, and making matters worse, her insurance has just been ripped from under her. Aubry Domeikis is spending every moment trying to make memories with her 5-year-old son, not knowing if she will live to see tomorrow. "He said he was scared to be alone with me because what if he woke up and I was dead?" Domeikis told Action News tearfully. "It's terrifying, I'm scared." Domeikis needs a life-saving blood infusion every single day while her doctors try to figure out if the bone infection that's wracking...

From the American Meteorological SocietyA risk management framework improves health systems’ resilience to high-impact weatherWASHINGTON — April 29, 2014 – According to a new study by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Policy Program, a risk management framework can improve the resilience of healthcare facilities and services to high-impact weather such as tornadoes and hurricanes. The report is based on a recent AMS Policy Program workshop, A Prescription for the 21st Century: Improving Resilience to High-Impact Weather for Healthcare Facilities and Services, held in Washington, DC in October 2013.The purpose of the study was to explore methods for improving the resilience...

More data is backing Democratic arguments that ObamaCare enrollment figures exceeded expectations last month. The latest numbers from the Urban Institute find the late rush of enrollees put sign-ups well over its original projections. The nonpartisan research institute says while only 61 percent of projected ObamaCare enrollment was met by March 1, the numbers rocketed to 115 percent by April 19. However, it cautions the final numbers will likely change depending on several factors.