Free Republic

While Obamacare’s proponents continue to insist that the program presents no threat to Americans’ healthcare, new comments from Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber demonstrate that Obamacare was designed to do just that. Gruber stated: You get a law which said healthy people are going to pay in, it made explicit that healthy people pay and sick people get money, it would not have passed…Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage and basically, you know, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically, that was really, really critical to get this thing to pass. In other words,...

With Obamacare open enrollment about to begin anew, rumors of trouble in Healthcare Paradise run rampant. Enrollment has dropped to 30% below Congressional Budget Office estimates; fully 1 million of the 8.1 million people who originally signed up for Obamacare dropped out. But Obamacare’s shoddy implementation doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of its great evil. Obamacare architect quite correctly attributed the passage of Obamcare to “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” – because it turns out that Obamacare will ration care, and that the most well-respected bodies in terms of health rationing have already...

There is a famous thought experiment called the trolley problem, and it goes like this: A runaway trolley is headed toward five people bound on the tracks. You are standing before the switch that could divert it onto another track, where it would kill only one person. Do you pull the switch? The trolley problem is the most flattering possible way to think about the conservative movement’s fanatical commitment to repealing Obamacare. If they pull the switch and repeal Obamacare, or if they persuade five Republican Supreme Court justices to cripple it, they will spare America from the evils of...

The death by intentional dehydration of Nancy Fitzmaurice, a 12 year-old child with significant disabilities in the UK, is clearly a case of euthanasia by dehydration and not a case of withdrawing medical treatment. I have a relative who lives with a very similar condition to Nancy, a condition that developed in a similar manner. The British case, that became known when an article was published in the Daily Mirror on October 25, 2014, is based on a decision by Justice Eleanor King in August, to approve the withdrawal of hydration and nutrition from Nancy. This case set a terrible and dangerous...

The Supreme Court followed up the landslide election on Tuesday with its own shocker: it announced that it will hear the Burwell case, which challenges the Obama administration’s extension of insurance subsidies in states that do not have health-care exchanges. I think the chances are high that the administration will lose. Because:

In its first year, Obamacare hiked health insurance premiums by up to 78 percent, according to a new analysis comparing insurance costs before and after Obamacare. HealthPocket, a nonpartisan health insurance research company, analyzed government data on individual health insurance premiums in the 2013 market before Obamacare reforms and 2014′s Obamacare exchanges, and the results are in: Average premiums are higher for all ages– far above the norm for annual increases. Young customers have been hurt the worst by Obamacare– a big potential problem for the Obama administration, which failed to attract enough young and healthy customers during the first...

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review whether the insurance subsidies through President Obama's healthcare law are illegal in 36 states, because the text of Obamacare limited subsidies to those states that set up their own exchanges. Here are six potential outcomes if the Supreme Court rules against the Department of Health and Human Services and declares such subsidies illegal. 1. Uncertainty keeps repeal flame alive The Supreme Court is coming at a time when there's an internal debate among Republicans about how the new Senate majority should approach the prospect of repealing Obamacare. Ever since the major...

Government advocacy for unlimited access to abortion has surged under Barack Obama’s administration, and at one point the National Right to Life Committee uncovered documents revealing the president was even more dedicated to abortion at any time for any reason than even the National Abortion Rights Action League. Now, the District of Columbia is proposing a Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment that would prohibit employers from “discriminating” for any reason over the issue of “reproductive health,” including abortion. It “is intended to force employers to provide health insurance for elective abortions regardless of the employers’ beliefs or convictions,” according to the...

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says she want to remain the top Democrat in the House, announcing she will run again for her leadership position.Her take on the massive pro-life election victory on Tuesday night is that Republicans won a victory because of “voter suppression.” The Washington Times has more: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked her fellow Democrats to keep her on as their leader in the new Congress next year, saying she still has unfinished goals she wants to accomplish. She said the chief message she took from Tuesday’s election, which saw Democrats eviscerated at all levels, is...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Liberal MSNBC contributor Jimmy Williams said the “old white people” in the South who vote Republican are “going to die someday” and hopefully usher in a new era of Democratic rule in the region. Host Krystal Ball, a former failed Democratic congressional candidate, asked Williams whether white Southerners should just be written off by the party, but Williams said never, saying that since they are “for people” and Republicans aren’t, they would eventually win the day. “Mitt Romney only won South Carolina with 53 [percent], John McCain with 52,” he said. “That’s a changing South. Those old white people? They’re...

Lena Dunham has teamed up with rapper Lil Jon in this exclusive new music video for "Rock the Vote" in which she "turns out" for abortion rights and promotes other issues that will reportedly influence American millennials to vote this fall. "My name is Lil Lena and I'm turning out for reproductive rights," she confessed. "What's up? It's Lil Jon and I'm turning out for the legalization of marijuana," said the rapper. Sophia Bush, Natasha Lyonne, Glee's Darren Criss, and several other celebrities are featured "Rock the Vote" ambassadors. The midterm elections are just around the corner, and this star-studded...

Hello, everyone. I'm new to Free Republic and I'm looking forward to the discussions. There has been a good amount of coverage regarding Brittany Maynard's assisted suicide, and even more opinions thrown all over news websites and social media. After reading through a number of responses, I still didn't find the argument for the opposition of assisted suicide very clear. I understand that most Christians would be opposed to the act purely for religious reasons, but do those who oppose assisted suicide have any valid reasons without appealing to religious doctrine?

Not a day has gone by in the last few weeks without a mention of Ebola. Having made its way into North America, Ebola has become reached the top of the “to fear” list, making many worry that it will only be a matter of time before the disease dominates the continent. Effective vaccines and treatments for Ebola have yet to be discovered, though one may be hiding in plain sight: cannabis. Cannabinoids in marijuana have gained more and more of a reputation as a way to control and aid one’s immune systems, specifically with diseases that target a body’s...

It is becoming increasingly clear how important it is to liberals to try to insulate Obamacare from what is shaping up as another “shellacking.” Sure, a few months after House Democrats passed Obamacare (over unanimous Republican opposition), they lost more House seats (63) while also losing control of that chamber than they had since the 1800s. And, sure, President Obama’s approval rating in Gallup’s polling, which was 67 percent shortly after he took office, has been in the 40s for 18 of the 19 quarters since his Senate allies passed Obamacare (over unanimous GOP opposition) on Christmas Eve 2009. But...

A conference today at the University of Notre Dame will address “a pastoral strategy for parishes to be able to receive the gifts of self-identified gay Catholics,” while remaining faithful to Catholic teaching on marriage and sexuality—but some speakers’ perspectives on “gay identity” may fall short of true orthodoxy. “Gay in Christ: Dimensions of Fidelity” is co-sponsored by Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life (ICL) and the Gender Relations Center. ICL director Dr. John Cavadini poses the following question on the University’s website: “Can Church teaching support an ‘exchange of gifts,’ enabling a parish community to receive the gifts that such people bring...

A daunting reality looms for President Barack Obama's Democrats ahead of U.S. congressional elections on Tuesday: Voters from the Republican Party are much more fired up. Reuters/Ipsos polling data shows Republicans are more certain they will vote, and see their ballot as a way to voice disapproval of Obama's handling of the Ebola outbreak and his health insurance reform law. Obama's approval rating is just 38 percent, according to other Reuters/Ipsos polling data, and he is a lightning rod for Republicans. "If there's a unifying theme here, it's a lack of confidence in the administration's management," Campbell said. In the...

TOPEKA, Kan. — Four years ago, Joan Wagnon was a 70-year-old grandmother preparing to retire after decades of public service. A centrist Democrat long credited as blazing the way for women in politics in Kansas, she spent 12 years in the state Legislature and four years as mayor of Topeka — the first and only woman to hold the job. After eight years as state secretary of revenue, Wagnon was preparing to hang it up when "the massacre" happened. On Election Day 2010, Sam Brownback, a two-term, hard-line conservative U.S. senator and a 2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination,...

As expected, pro-abortion opponents of Amendment 1 continue to draw nearly all their support and funding from the abortion industry itself. Based on disclosures filed through October 25, the 'Vote No' campaign shows just 198 individual donors statewide contributing more than $100 each. In contrast, 16 abortion facilities in Tennessee and across the country contributed a total $3.5 million dollars of $4.0 million reported raised. Additionally, ACLU of Tennessee and New York contributed $200,000. $854,240 Planned Parenthood of Memphis $800,000 Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest $749,500 Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee $275,000 Planned Parenthood of Orange &...

Medicare is asking for public comment on whether it should pay doctors for counseling patients about their options for end-of-life care. Friday's announcement came in a voluminous regulation on physician payment. Spokesman Aaron Albright says it will "give the public ample opportunity to weigh in on the topic." Five years after a similar proposal triggered a political backlash against President Barack Obama's health care legislation, the administration is dipping its toe in the water.

The short-attention span generation has birthed the shiny-object election. The theme of the 2014 midterms — to whatever extent one is discernable — has been an explosion of one crisis after another, each of which demands an enormous amount of media attention before fading for the next one. From the Secret Service to ISIS, Ebola to immigration, mistreated veterans to Ferguson and race relations, candidates and the president have been forced to react to the controversy du jour. Strategists and experts say the result has been bad news for Democrats, who have had a tougher time underscoring their preferred campaign...