Free Republic

I am very positive, and if Trump were not president, I'd be livid...I should not be surprised, but still I am. I have an Anthem $11,500 deductible policy for my family of 4. It is going up Jan 1 from $514 to $605, or roughly 20%. I am pissed, of course. I hope this thread drives good discussion. I believe under Trump in 2018 we'll see some improvement and competition...am I correct that the increases are due to profit shortfalls the obama-partnering healthcare execs are hedging and covering their losses? Ant thoughts out there from those more plugged in this...

The electorate isn’t buying the “Trump broke it” propaganda.For a year, the Democrats and the legacy media have waged a relentless propaganda campaign calculated to convince the public that Obamacare’s myriad failures — from skyrocketing premiums to stagnant enrollment — are the result of sabotage by President Trump and congressional Republicans. This headline from the Hill is typical: “Many states blame Trump, GOP for Obamacare premium increases.” It seems, however, that “the stupidity of the American voter” has been greatly exaggerated. A new survey shows that more than two-thirds of registered voters believe former President Obama and the Democrats are...

Conservatives have always advocated the idea of keeping the safety net intact, while reforming the big three entitlement programs: Medicare; Medicaid; and, Social Security. Reform is different from cutting programs. The left constantly accuses the right of advocating deep cuts to entitlement programs that benefit low income Americans. The correct position for conservatives is to advocate strong reform to attack waste, fraud and abuse without cutting essential services that people rely upon – especially the elderly. One plan that falls into the category of a “cut” and not a “reform” is a current plan to cut home health benefits provided...

The enigmatic independence of Switzerland is perhaps best demonstrated in the fact that its healthcare system manages to satisfy both free marketers and the statist-socialists in the country. It is a giant social safety net woven by individual responsibility and self-made wealth. Health insurance is almost entirely consumer-based, though there are strict cantonal regulations and some governing federal laws. Coverage is not created, provided or managed by the federal or by cantonal governments, but is sold and managed by private-sector insurance companies to individuals. It is not provided by employers, except in the case of large multinationals and then only...

Legal and scientific ethics seem to have become irrelevant, as anti-chemical agitators, regulators and trial lawyers team up on numerous lawsuits against Monsanto. They’re seeking tens of billions of dollars in jackpot justice, by claiming a chemical in the company’s popular weed killer RoundUp causes cancer.A key basis for the legal actions is a March 2015 International Agency for Research on Cancer ruling that glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen.” A previously little known agency in the World Health Organization (WHO), IARC has gained infamy in recent years – as critics slammed it for manipulating data and altering or deleting...

Politicians often insist government is the only way to increase access to health care. In fact, the opposite is true: For years,“certificate of need” laws at the state level have prevented much-needed medical facilities from being built across the country.

FOX Business @FoxBusiness #BreakingNews: @SpeakerRyan: Repeal & replace of Obamacare is off the table for 2017

Gather ’round, children, if you want to hear a scary story. Last time around, I pointed out that while everyone “knows” that there is a lot of waste in American health-care spending, we engage in widespread self-deception about the true magnitude of the problem. That half, approximately, of all U.S. health spending is wasted, is simultaneously scientifically uncontroversial, ignored by health-policy experts, and totally absent from public debate. But that’s not the worst part. In fact, it could be good news in a way: The magnitude of the problem suggests that there’s a lot of room for improvement; more important,...

The head of the World Health Organization on Sunday reversed his decision to name Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador, following widespread uproar. “Over the last few days, I have reflected on my appointment of H.E. President Robert Mugabe as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for (Non-communicable diseases) in Africa. As a result, I have decided to rescind the appointment,” the head of the UN agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a statement. […] Tedros had announced the appointment earlier this week during a speech in Uruguay, where he praised Zimbabwe as “a country that places universal health coverage and...

[I begin] with the story of a series of Socialist scholars conferences that Barack Obama attended when he lived in New York City between the years 1983 and 1985. And when I finally reconstructed what had gone on at these Socialist conferences that Barack Obama attended, I truly was amazed because what I saw was a kind of map of Barack Obama’s entire subsequent political career. It was at this Socialist conferences in New York in the mid-’80s that Barack Obama encountered the groups, the strategies, and the mentors who would guide him throughout his entire political career. [T]hese Socialist...

The IRS says it will not accept electronic tax returns that do not disclose whether the filer had health insurance coverage during the year. It also says it will suspend paper returns that do not have the disclosure. The IRS' move, which will bolster compliance with Affordable Care Act rules, comes as the Trump administration takes other steps to undercut the law. The IRS is warning tax professionals that it will block or suspend processing of 2017 income tax returns that do not comply with Obamacare rules requiring filers to disclose their health insurance status. The new move to tighten...

Free at last! Free at last! That's the message for millions who don't get health coverage at work and, until now, faced two dismal options: going without insurance or paying Obamacare's soaring premiums. Last week, President Donald Trump announced regulatory changes that will potentially allow consumers to choose coverage options costing half what Obamacare's cheapest bronze plans cost. Democrats are already accusing the president of kneecapping Obamacare, but in fact these changes will actually reduce the number of uninsured -- something Democrats claim is their goal. The Affordable Care Act requires everyone to buy the one-size-fits-all Washington-designed benefit package....

Bend, Ore.-based St. Charles Health System announced a series of actions Tuesday — including layoffs and pay cuts to the health system's executive leadership team — to compensate for an operating income deficit of up to $35 million during the coming year, according to NewsChannel-21. In an announcement to NewsChannel-21, St. Charles officials said the health system is "working to close a $25 [million] to $35 million gap in operating income for 2018." The gap, officials said, is the result of "flat to declining revenue[s], inflation on labor and medical supply expenses and reimbursement impacts due to decisions made by...

There’s are a lot of liberals frothing at the mouth over the Trump administration’s decision to end the unconstitutional subsidies to insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act last week. The subsidies were given to insurance companies to help offset costs from lower-income individuals concerning deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses. It's meant to prevent premium spikes. And the termination of this subsidy is not just a conservative view or action item, by the way. It’s the opinion of the courts, as the LA Times reported back in May of 2016–it’s unconstitutional: House Republicans won Round 2 in a potentially historic...

President Trump is throwing a bomb into the insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act, choosing to end critical payments to health insurers that help millions of lower-income Americans afford coverage. The decision follows an executive order on Thursday to allow alternative health plans that skirt the law’s requirements. The White House confirmed late Thursday that it would halt federal payments for cost-sharing reductions, although a statement did not specify when. According to two people briefed on the decision, the cutoff will be as of November. The subsidies total about $7 billion this year. Trump has threatened for months...

Legal eagle Jonathan Turley responds to Democrats that say President Trump's decision to reverse former President's order on Obamacare subsidies was unconstitutional. Turley said Obama's decision to order billions to fund subsidies would be analogous to Trump ordering money to build The Wall.

What the president is doing, it's violent. His actions are violent. He does violence to what we want to do in health care. He does violence to the national debt by what he is adding to it. He does violence to the world, in terms of nuclear proliferation and the environment and our standing in the world, with his frivolity. What we want him to do is to calm down, get used to the job he has, know that his words weigh a ton, and that he really should know what he's talking about when he says something. For instance,...

Shortly after my son was born, in late December 2015, he stopped breathing. Let me tell you: having the worst thing you could possibly imagine happen right after the most joyous, wonderful moment of your life is quite an emotional trip. It had already been a difficult pregnancy. My wife had developed gestational diabetes, which required weekly checkups where nurses could monitor our baby’s heartbeat for hours at a time, as well as regular consultations regarding her diet and caloric intake, so any potential harmful effects of the disease would be minimized. We also had to closely monitor her blood...

In an op-ed penned for Breitbart, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) explained that President Donald Trump's upcoming executive order--which would legalize the sale of health insurance across state lines--would come at zero cost for the taxpayer and would enable 28 million people "left behind" by Obamacare to purchase insurance cheaply. According to Paul, the executive order will create "Health Associations," which would allow people to create groups similar to large corporations in order to get lower premiums on their plans. Paul said that these Association Health Plans will "be among the biggest-free market reforms" of the healthcare industry in decades, and is...

The White House announced Thursday that President Trump is taking executive action on health care as Congress stalls on efforts to overhaul ObamaCare, calling for a plan that could let employers band together and offer coverage across state lines. An executive order Trump plans to sign Thursday morning aims to offer “alternatives” to ObamaCare plans and increase competition to bring down costs. “The time has come to give Americans the freedom to purchase health insurance across state lines, which will create a truly competitive national marketplace that will bring costs way down and provide far better care,” Trump said in...