Free Republic

For eight years, I have joined my colleagues in the fight to repeal and replace the train wreck that is Obamacare. This was the call heard around the nation for years, particularly leading up to President Trump's historic victory. We promised the American people that if they supported us, help would be on the way. As a conservative, I believe that the federal government should have a limited role in our personal lives, including health care. As a cancer patient, I knew the importance of getting this bill right and replacing Obamacare with a patient-centered solution that also ensures access...

Complete Headline: Obamacare Implosion Now? Since Obama Siphoned GSE Dividends To Prop Up, Can Trump Simply Halt 1st Qtr Sweep? Earlier this month, Harvard Ph.D. Jerome Corsi of InfoWars (@jerome_corsi) and a CPA "who worked for two years for a major U.S. accounting firm as an outside auditor for Freddie Mac," confirmed a 2012 scheme hatched by the Obama administration to funnel hundreds of billions in dividends from Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prop up the failing Obamacare program - by paying subsidies to insurers to remain in the system. [Snip] The conclusion reached by...

[Full title] MEADOWS: The Obamacare mandates, there are 12 of them. Mark Meadows says Freedom Caucus will go along with AHCA if it kills community rating and EHB regulations In the debate over repealing and replacing Obamacare, Republican leadership complains that conservatives have been moving the goal post. And Mark Meadows says they're right. "Well we have," the Freedom Caucus chairman admits with a sigh during a sit-down interview with the Washington Examiner. "We've moved it much closer. All they have to do is kick a little chip shot through the goal posts...." This comes after weeks of intense negotiation...

Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows laid out his conditions in an editorial board meeting at the Washington Examiner Thursday. The Affordable Health Care Act repealed the employer mandate and the individual mandate. That's two of Obamacare's 12 mandates, by Meadows' count. "The Freedom Caucus has asked for two [more] to be included in the repeal," Meadows said, "which would bring us to a total of four of the twelve Obamacare mandates. That's our ask: These Obamacare mandates repealed in exchange for Yes votes." The Essential Health Benefits and "Community Rating" are the two regulations the Freedom Caucus wants dead.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said he fears that President Trump will ally with Democrats if Republicans fail to come up another plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare. “What I worry about is that if we don’t do this, then he’ll just go work with Democrats to try and change ObamaCare and that’s not – that’s hardly a conservative thing,” Ryan told “CBS This Morning” in an interview that aired Thursday. The Wisconsin Republican said an alliance between Trump and House Democrats, who opposed the GOP’s American Health Care Act, would only dilute the measure. “I want a patient-centered system. I...

If you keep your eyes focused on Washington, D.C., you might think the great divide in America is partisan. I admit: I'm often guilty of doing just that, even though I live 1,500 miles outside the Beltway. But the more disturbing divide that is ripping the nation apart is a cultural one, complicated by economics and education. I grew up in a working-class family with a father who had a ninth-grade education and was often unemployed, and a mother who worked in restaurants and retail. I escaped that world thanks to education -- in part funded by federal grants, loans...

Though the Freedom Caucus is under assault from all sides, some of its members who have spoken to the media or made public statements are standing strong — insisting that they are willing to work with President Trump to keep the GOP’s promise to repeal Obamacare. The media has used the failure of the American Health Care Act — Republican leadership’s phony repeal bill — as an excuse to attack conservatives in Congress. The Tea Party members of the Freedom Caucus, who opposed the legislation on grounds that it would not improve the American health insurance market, have been...

MEMO FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: WHERE IS TRUMPCARE?Throughout the campaign you said that: 1. You were not a politician, you were a businessman skilled in negotiating. 2. Despite the claims of your critics you said that you were not a liar, that you would make good on all your promises. 3. You promised the country that you would repeal and replace Obamacare and repeatedly made the following statements to that effect: a. “We will immediately repeal and replace ObamaCare - and nobody can do that like me. We will save $'s and have much better healthcare!” b. “I’m going to work...

Mine is a two-step plan (and you don’t have to do the second step, so it’s really a one-step plan). STEP 1: Congress doesn’t repeal Obamacare! Instead, Congress passes a law, pursuant to its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce, that says: “In America, it shall be legal to sell health insurance on the free market. This law supersedes all other laws, taxes, mandates, coverage requirements, regulations or prohibitions, state or federal.”

President Trump’s appointment of former GOP congressman John Fleming, M.D., to newly created health technology post could portend ONC downsizing and MACRA changes. The new HHS healthcare technology top official's plans are still unknown, but signs point to possible changes to ONC that could weaken the agency's regulatory authority. The new HHS healthcare technology chief -- a longtime associate of HHS secretary, fellow physician and former GOP congressman Tom Price -- nonetheless also mentioned that ONC "may be reorganizing." Few in the capitol, other than his fans, want to comment publicly about what Fleming's ascension to the top HHS healthcare...

Bad move by Trump. Ryan and the globalist big government GOPe RINOs are the problem not the Freedom Caucus. Trump is supposed to be draining the swamp by now, not swimming in it. Put the interest of American citizens first! Freedom not socialism and tyranny!! Good grief! Dump Obamacare already! Should have been done on day one and we’d be way on down the road to draining the swamp by now! We the people have been demanding a full repeal for seven long years and that's the position Trump took with his original health care goal at the beginning of...

The Bill To Fix Health Care - Permanently Let's lay out the parameters for a bill, a fairly-modest update to my two previous missives on this point here and here (note the dates) and which can be easily turned into formal legislative language: All providers must post, in their offices and on a public web site without any requirement to sign in or otherwise identify oneself to access it, a full and complete price list which shall apply to every person. This instantly allows customers to compare pricing between providers for services and products in the medical realm. All customers...

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in an interview to be broadcast early Thursday said he does not want to work with Democrats on healthcare legislation, breaking with President Trump's recent comments. “I don’t want that to happen,” Ryan told Norah O’Donnell on "CBS This Morning." “I want a patient-centered system," he added. "I don’t want government running healthcare. The government shouldn’t tell you what you must do with your life, with your healthcare. We should give people choices.” Ryan added GOP infighting may drive Trump to partner with Democrats over members of his own party. "[If] the Republican Congress allows the...

When I first started becoming aware of how sleazy, parasitic and corrupt the U.S. economy was, I only had expertise in one industry, financial services. Coming to grips with the blatant criminality of the TBTF Wall Street banks and their enablers at the Federal Reserve and throughout the federal government, I thought this was the main issue that needed to be confronted. What I’ve learned in the years since is pretty much every industry in America is corrupt to the core, more focused on sucking money away from helpless citizens via rent-seeking schemes versus actually producing a product and adding...

Dr. Josh of Atlas MD says NO to ObamaCare. Working directly with his patients, and cutting out the insurance and government bureaucrats, lowers costs for the patients and increases the quality of care they receive.

After a stunning healthcare defeat last week, delivered at the hands of his own party no less, Trump took to twitter to predict the imminent 'explosion' of Obamacare. ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. Do not worry!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2017 The Democrats will make a deal with me on healthcare as soon as ObamaCare folds - not long. Do not worry, we are in very good shape!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2017  As it turns out, that 'explosion' could come...

Friday's decision to pull the House Republican health reform bill was not the end of health reform. In fact, it may have been the best step toward actually achieving real health care reform -- if congressional leaders learn from the experience. The Republican congressional leadership erred because they decided to repeal and replace ObamaCare within the traditions of the pre-Trump legislative swamp. By default, they accepted the fake scores of the Congressional Budget Office. By allowing the scores to exist, they let Democrats and the media quote "the non-partisan CBO" to their disadvantage. Leadership applied the absurd limitations of Senate...

When Mitt Romney selected Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate, people cheered. He was young, attractive, idealistic, and — doggone it! — he did P90x. Images of him lifting weights bounced across the internet. Surely this is what the GOP needed, they said. New blood. Youth. Strength. The fact that his losing bid against Barack Obama and Joe Biden was the high mark of his career says a great deal about his legacy. His lack of true leadership has grown more and more evident. During the last week, Speaker Ryan's stature managed to shrink in regard to Congress, and...

For those keeping score at home, here’s a recap of where the Washington healthcare debacle currently stands: Obama and the Democrats inflict a massively overcomplicated system of healthcare regulations that raised insurance premiums on Americans, decreased insurance options, dictated doctors and coverage, and largely just sucked.Republicans saddled up the Obamacare nightmare and rode it to the electoral bank in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016, promising that once they had full control, they would repeal the beast.When given full control, the Republicans authored an absurd Obamacare-lite compromise bill that didn’t repeal the beast, but attempted to manicure it. It failed...

The failed House Republican American Health Care Act (AHCA) was always a work in progress. The three-phased approach to reform health care called for passage of the AHCA to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) taxes and mandates; and slow the growth in Medicaid as (i.e. phase one). Phase two was the selective removal of Obamacare regulations by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Phase three was to be a forthcoming health care bill to revamp onerous insurance regulations. Passage of the AHCA (the Obamacare repeal bill) would have resulted in numerous benefits – getting rid of the individual...