Free Republic

Dr. James Beattie, a cardiologist who works at the East of England NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham, believes hospitals should let more elderly patients die and “quality of life” should be given more consideration.According to an article in the Daily Mail, Beattie said that society no longer accepts mortality and is much less familiar with death. ‘If a person is in hospital, particularly an elderly person with multiple co-morbidities, if they have a cardiac arrest it’s a sign they are in decline,’ he told Radio 4.‘It’s their act of dying and they should not be resuscitated, they should be allowed...

Former Democratic congressman Barney Frank has some tough words for President Barack Obama about his handling of Obamacare. "The rollout was so bad, and I was appalled -- I don't understand how the president could have sat there and not been checking on that on a weekly basis," Frank tells the Huffington Post in a recent interview. "But frankly, he should never have said as much as he did, that if you like your current health care plan, you can keep it. That wasn't true. And you shouldn't lie to people. And they just lied to people."

Many of you probably heard about the “Halbig” decision, in which a federal court struck a blow against Obamacare by ruling that the IRS was wrong to arbitrarily grant subsidies for health insurance policies purchased through a federal exchange. And why did the judges rule against the IRS? Well, for the simple reason that the Obamacare legislation specifically says that subsidies are only available for policies purchased through exchanges set up by state governments. My Cato colleague Michael Cannon explains: The PPACA authorizes the IRS to issue health-insurance tax credits only to taxpayers who purchase coverage “through an Exchange established...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg evolved this summer from a mere figure of authority into a liberal celebrity when she authored the dissenting opinion in the Hobby Lobby case. Ginsburg’s dissent, which has been ubiquitously dubbed “scathing” and/or “blistering” in the press, prompted the left to craft a cult of personality around her. Liberal outlets dubbed her “Notorious R.B.G.,” whiny folk artists converted her opinion into a terrible but nevertheless widely shared song, and The New Republic laughably dubbed Ginsburg “the most popular woman on the internet.” Take that, Kate Upton.All this hero worship was entirely unearned, but...

Apparently the phony “war on women” has made its way to the Supreme Court. Upset by the fact that a majority of the justices on the high court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby’s religious freedoms, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is now accusing them of being sexist.In a new interview with pro-abortion media icon Katie Couric, Ginsburg lashes out at her colleagues and claims they have a “blind spot” towards women because they decided that Hobby Lobby should not be forced to pay for drugs that cause abortions for their employees.Never mind that polls show a majority of women oppose the...

Lewis-Payton admitted VISN 16 must work on “trust issues” with veterans and providers. Some of these individuals accuse VISN 16 of systematically gaming medical-record filing deadlines and leaving veterans with massive debts. When providers sent required medical records by certified mail, VA employees shredded them without explanation, insisting they were incomplete after the 90 day filing deadline had expired. As a result of this practice, one Louisiana veteran owes more than $22,000 and is being pursued by a collection agency. Lewis-Payton has not replied to questions about this case. In other cases, VISN 16 reportedly cited absurd reasons for leaving...

In undercover tests of the new federal health insurance marketplace, government investigators have been able to procure health plans and federal subsidies for fake applicants with fictitious documents, according to findings that will be disclosed to lawmakers on Wednesday. The results of the inquiry by the Government Accountability Office are evidence of still-imperfect work by specialists intended to assist new insurance customers and government contractors hired to verify that coverage and subsidies are legitimate. The GAO also pointed to flaws that linger in the marketplace’s Web site, HealthCare.gov. According to testimony to be delivered before a House Ways and Means...

When the administration lost an Obamacare case in federal court Tuesday, the insurance companies lost as well... Subsidies were one of the many goodies Obamacare provided insurers. Obamacare also required individuals to buy insurance, compelled many business owners to insure employees, expanded Medicaid (which is often administered by private insurers) and supplied a bailout to struggling insurers in the form of “risk corridors.” The Halbig ruling is a triple threat to the insurers’ Obamacare favors. By stripping away tax credits, it reduces insurance companies transfers’ from the federal government. Halbig also reduces the impact of the law’s employer mandate and...

ALBANY, NY – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday he would form a new third party in the state centered around his late-term abortion expansion program. The formation of the Women’s Equality Party, which is designed to further the Democrats' national “war on women” campaign theme, was announced at a gala on Thursday.

The Obama administration on Friday backed down on restrictions of private insurance coverage for hospice drugs under Medicare, saying the regulations were preventing some terminally ill patients from having access to medicine. Under Medicare's Part A hospital program, hospices receive daily payments for each patient but are responsible for all drugs related to a patient's terminal illness. Medicare Part D covers only prescriptions and medications for curative conditions that are unrelated to a terminal illness.

Obamacare’s emphasis on cost-benefit has apparently granted permission for the medical technocrats to conjure all kinds of healthcare rationing schemes.And the Medical Establishment is apparently playing along. From, “The Cancer Death-Panel App,” by Robert Goldberg in the NY Post: The latest innovation in cancer care isn’t a medical breakthrough but an app to ration new drugs. It’ll measure care in terms of what it costs health plans, instead of what it means for patients’ lives.That it’s being developed under the auspices of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, the world’s leading oncology association, is a grim warning about...

In a recent Politico Magazine article titled, “Let’s Talk About Death Panels,” Harold Pollack urges reviving one of the most notorious proposals that did not make it into the Obama Health Car Law – “advance planning consultations.”During the debate over Obamacare’s enactment, there was considerable controversy over a provision in an early version under which health care providers would have been paid by Medicare to discuss with their patients whether they would want life-saving medical treatment.After former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin dubbed the planning sessions “death panels,” the provision was dropped from the law ultimately enacted.As Pollack...

Another day, another VA tragedy. An Albany nurse claims dying New York Veterans were denied painkillers. Instead they were given salt water mixtures. Valerie Riviello, a nurse at the Albany Stratton VA medical center, claims that fellow employees had reported to her that dying veterans were denied painkillers such as morphine to ease their pain. Instead, they were given salt water mixtures. Riviello told the Times Union: Among stories that nurse Valerie Riviello has heard from other employees at the Albany VA is one about dying patients who were supposed to receive morphine to alleviate pain, but instead got a...

CNN’s Van Jones went head to head Tuesday with Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann over the border crisis, saying the congresswoman crossed the line in scapegoating the surge of unaccompanied migrant children for crimes committed by other undocumented immigrants. “Are you scapegoating every one of these kids?” Jones asked Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, on CNN’s “Crossfire.” “Well, hold on a second. There are lines that can’t be crossed here. I’m sorry congresswoman, I’m sorry congresswoman. There are lines that can’t be crossed here.” Bachmann, who acknowledged that 57,000 children have crossed America’s southern border into the country in recent months, also...

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has struck down a 35-foot protest-free zone outside abortion clinics in Massachusetts. The justices were unanimous Thursday that extending a buffer zone 35 feet from clinic entrances violates the First Amendment rights of protesters. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Chief Justice John Roberts says authorities have less intrusive ways to deal with problems outside the clinics.

WALTHAM - U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, on Friday defended President Barack Obama’s decision to allow health insurers to issue plans for one more year that do not meet the standards set out by the Affordable Care Act, as a transitional move. “What the president’s done is said no one for a year, no insurance company, needs to cancel its coverage because of the Affordable Care Act,” Warren said, speaking to reporters after an Associated Industries of Massachusetts breakfast at the Westin Hotel in Waltham. “They’re trying to make the transition work. They’re trying to do everything they...

Amazing how many people think the Hobby Lobby decision was about forcing the company to provide birth control to it's employees. Hobby Lobby was ALREADY providing birth control coverage to it's employees. 16 different types of it, in fact. What can we draw from the fact that many of the people blathering about this case don't know that? The real issue in the Hobby Lobby case was whether the government could force private businesses/corporations into providing abortifacients. First of all, let's be clear: abortion/taking an abortifacient is not birth control. I don't care how many shrieking leftists say different. Birth...

Linda Rolain passed away at her Las Vegas home on Monday Her family had joined two lawsuits against the State of Nevada and the company that set up its troubled online software, Xerox She had tried to enroll in the state's health exchange in November and after numerous issues, finally paid in January for coverage to start in March But when she went to get treatment, there was no record of her name and she finally received an insurance card in May She underwent surgery in mid-May but struggled to recover Robert Rolain, who lost 60 pounds due to stress,...

A key former adviser behind President Obama's healthcare law said the traditional role of health insurers would be "dead" by 2025, predicting massive changes in the industry. "By 2025, insurance companies as we know them — taking in premiums and paying out — dead," Ezekiel Emanuel ... Emanuel, the older brother of former White House chief of staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has long argued that health insurers will shift away an employer-based system. By 2025.. ... Most Americans currently receive health insurance through their employers. ObamaCare includes an employer mandate, which requires companies with 50 or more...

The Veterans Affairs Department is apologizing to a Massachusetts woman for offering an appointment to her husband almost two years after he died. Suzanne Chase, of Acton, tells WBZ-TV her Vietnam veteran husband, Doug, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2011. …