Free Republic

Word that ObamaCare premiums will soar 25 percent in the 39 states that operate off the federal healthcare.gov system is only the tip of the iceberg: The so-called Affordable Care Act is inflicting damage all across America's health-care sector - with no end in sight. Just as critics warned from the start. [Snip] Still ahead: Budget crises in the states that accepted temporary federal bribes to massively expand their Medicaid rolls. More premium hikes on the exchanges, as ever fewer healthy people sign up for coverage - prompting even lower enrollment, and more price hikes, in a sharp "death spiral."...

(CNN) — On November 1, the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces will open for their fourth open enrollment period. On Monday, Healthcare.gov, the federal marketplace serving 39 states, pulled back the curtains to allow consumers to window shop for 2017 plans. As it did so, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a report analyzing the premiums consumers will have to pay for 2017 marketplace coverage and the coverage choices they will have available. The HHS report documents what has already been widely reported -- that after two years of moderate premium increases (2% for 2015 and...

It's almost as if her principles . . . can be bought Just a reminder: You can’t believe a word that comes out of Hillary’s mouth. You knew that, of course. Just about everyone has known that for a very long time. What I still can’t quite work out is why anyone would pay serious money to hear her say something thaat they have to know isn’t worth the index cards it’s written on. How dumb would you have to be to do that? Pro tip: Don’t get sick. The health care industry is chock full of geniuses who actually...

Oct 24 (Reuters) - The average premium for benchmark 2017 Obamacare insurance plans sold on Healthcare.gov rose 25 percent compared with 2016, the U.S. government said on Monday, the biggest increase since the insurance first went on sale in 2013 for the following year. The average monthly premium for the benchmark plan is rising to $302 from $242 in 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services said. The agency attributed the large increase to insurers adjusting their premiums to reflect two years of cost data that became available.

Premiums will go up sharply next year under President Barack Obama’s health care law, and many consumers will be down to just one insurer, the administration confirmed Monday. That will stoke another “Obamacare” controversy days before a presidential election. Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Some states will see much bigger jumps, others less.

Obamacare premiums are skyrocketing out of sight. A jump of a mere 30% looks like a good deal compared to jumps of over 50% in six states, and 93% in New Mexico. Congratulations are in order for those living in a handful of states whose premiums only rose 20%.

President Barack Obama pushed today to renew focus on a so-called “public option” in the insurance marketplace -- a popular item among progressives, but one Obama publicly hedged against during negotiations leading to the passage of his signature health care law. In a speech in Miami, Obama said the public option would “give folks more options in those places where there’s just not enough insurers to compete.” But the president did not mention how during the 2009 negotiations over what’s now known as Obamacare the White House used the public option as a bargaining chip -- dropping it as a...

Recent news and leaks make it clear that a plot is afoot. A smoking gun has been found. Republicans are committing political malpractice by not making it clear they are the last line of defense. ObamaCare is imploding, as was widely predicted upon its passage by Republicans and a range of non-partisan experts. The ObamaCare meltdown is even worse than we thought. Bloomberg News recently: A growing number of people in Obamacare are finding out their health insurance plans will disappear from the program next year, forcing them to find new coverage even as options shrink and prices rise. At...

Health Care: President Obama once told the country that ObamaCare was a "great product." When open enrollment for ObamaCare begins on Nov. 1, millions of Americans will discover just how big a lie this was. Although the mainstream press has largely ignored it during this election in favor of wall-to-wall coverage of Donald Trump's alleged misdeeds, ObamaCare is absolutely coming unglued. When the exchanges open for business in two weeks, people looking for insurance there will find far fewer choices, sky-high premiums and lower-quality plans. A recent analysis by Bloomberg found that because insurance companies have bailed out of so...

Because of market turmoil and decisions by United Healthcare and Aetna to withdraw from Affordable Care Act exchanges in Pennsylvania for 2017, the remaining insurer in the Philadelphia area, Independence Blue Cross, has been granted bigger rate increase — 28 percent — than it requested in the spring, the state Insurance Department said Monday. Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller said additional companies beyond United and Aetna were considering ending their ACA individual-exchange businesses in Pennsylvania. If that happened, some counties might have been left without any offerings on the exchange, which is where individuals have to buy plans to qualify for...

As you read the following, keep in mind that this happened three weeks ago. The only reason I know about it is because Glenn Reynolds linked to it this morning.WXIA in Atlanta, Feb. 5: The FBI says a Georgia Tech graduate student was burned by a Molotov cocktail at his apartment in the 200 block of 10th Street, not far from Piedmont Park. Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones said Saamer Akhshabi suffered third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body. Lighter fluid and a charred pillow and mattress were found inside the apartment, along with the Molotov cocktail and several...

Main Points Emergency care is the safety net of the nation’s health care system, caring for everyone, regardless of ability to pay. [i] Emergency physicians provide the most uncompensated care for uninsured and underinsured patients of all physicians.[ii] America’s emergency departments are under severe stress, facing soaring demands. They are essential to every community and must have adequate resources. Having health insurance does not mean you have access to medical care... Q. How do undocumented immigrants in the U.S. who are uninsured affect emergency care? Most undocumented immigrants are unable to obtain health insurance and this means many are unable...

Significance Political beliefs have been shown to spill over into nonpolitical domains, such as consumer spending, choice of romantic partner, and job hiring. Our evidence suggests that political beliefs predict the professional decisions of primary care physicians. On politicized health issues, like marijuana and abortion, physicians' partisan identity is highly correlated with their treatment decisions. Because physicians regularly interact with patients on politically sensitive health issues and because the medical profession is increasingly politicized (e.g., state governments are regulating politicized aspects of medicine), it is necessary to understand how doctors’ own political worldviews may impact their actions in the medical...

Three days after calling health-care reform a debacle for the Republicans, David Frum was forced out of his job at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday. The ouster also came one day after a harsh Wall Street Journal editorial about the former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, which said that he "now makes his living as the media's go-to basher of fellow Republicans" and accused him of "peddling bad revisionist history." Frum made clear in a letter to AEI President Arthur Brooks that his departure after seven years at the conservative think tank was not voluntary. "I have had...

Wednesday that the Affordable Care Act is “no longer affordable” for many, a stinging critique from a state leader who strongly embraced the law and proudly proclaimed health reform was working in Minnesota just a few years ago.... ....The state scrambled to stop all seven companies that sell insurance directly to consumers or through the state exchange, MNsure, from fleeing for 2017, but the state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, is still exiting. Health care insurance shoppers will see premium increases that range from 50 percent to 67 percent on their plans for next year.

Fewer than half of physicians are aware of the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), and most of those who do know about it probably wish it would go away. Nevertheless, this law will determine how Medicare reimburses doctors, starting in 2019. ... CMS won’t release its final MACRA rule ... CMS recenty changed the timeline ...

<p>Bank of America has a recession warning that's downright 'scary'</p> <p>There's a chilling trend in the market, and it could wreak havoc on your portfolio, a top market watcher said.</p> <p>"We are seven years into a full-fledged, all out, central bankers doing everything they can to stimulate demand," Bank of America-Merrill Lynch's head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy Savita Subramanian recently warned on CNBC's " Fast Money ."</p>

Wednesday October 5, several patients of the University Hospital Antonio Patricio de Alcalá (Huapa) had to evacuate after a body exploded in the morgue after two days of decomposition. The incident was reportedly caused by faulty storage facilities. “It’s not the first time that a body exploded,” said one worked. “It has already occurred two times since the middle of September. We don’t use formaldehyde here, so the preparation of the bodies is in the hand of the funerary. There are no disinfectants or chlorine either.”

President Barack Obama’s signature health care law is failing and his administration will go to seemingly any length to prop it up. You know the famous quote from “Animal Farm” that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others?” This was George Orwell’s attempt to point out the hypocrisy that many politicians preach equality, but then give favors to only a few. Well, for the Obama administration, it turns out that the health insurance companies participating in Obamacare happen to be “more equal” than taxpayers—even to the point where the administration is willing to break the...

Dr. Hsiao has set up a lot of countries medical systems. He has spent his entire life studying health care. You can see the perverse economic incentives. A market system would have. 1- price competition 2- consumer sovereignty 3- free entry and exit of suppliers We currently have problems with 1- Insurance and adverse selection 2- Providers can induce demand One thing is clear, though: market competition engenders much higher transaction and administrative costs. Furthermore, genuine competition requires excess supply. Most people want a free market system. However, we have to be honest. There is real market failure. In healthcare,...