Free Republic

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way a lot of people live — and not necessarily for the better. All of this upheaval could cause you to make some very poor choices with regard to your healthcare, and that’s a good way to lose money and compromise your health at a time when you can’t afford to. With that in mind, here are three Medicare mistakes to avoid at all costs during the ongoing crisis.1. Not signing up on timeHealth coverage under Medicare begins at age 65, and you can enroll up to three months prior to the month...

The first step towards slowing the rising cost of health care is blocking all the scammers abusing the system. Unfortunately, Congress is reluctant because scammers masquerade as respectable job creators, who make campaign donations to protect their gravy train. Our health care system has high premiums due to high medical prices. This results in anemic employee raises because too many stakeholders are looting the health care store. The cost of these scams are mostly borne by workers enrolled in employee health plans. What are some of the frequent scams? Surprise medical bills are perpetuated by a few bad apples from...

Vilified, threatened with violence and in some cases suffering from burnout, dozens of state and local public health leaders around the U.S. have resigned or have been fired amid the coronavirus outbreak, a testament to how politically combustible masks, lockdowns and infection data have become. One of the latest departures came Sunday, when California’s public health director, Dr. Sonia Angell, was ousted following a technical glitch that caused a delay in reporting hundreds of thousands of virus test results — information used to make decisions about reopening businesses and schools. Last week, New York City’s health commissioner was replaced after...

Public policy is about choices. It’s about recognizing the differences between different policy decisions, and forecasting the difference in potential results from those decisions. For example: What's the difference between getting diagnosed with heart disease in March or April and getting a stent or a bypass done and living another 25 years... ...or not going in, because everyone's scared to go to the hospital because of COVID-19, and having a fatal heart attack in June or July? What's the difference between getting diagnosed with a stage 1 or 2 cancer in March and being able to cure it by surgery...

Since COVID-19 mask mandates and social distancing, my mother has lost much of her ability to navigate through the hearing world, decreasing her independence and confidence. My mother is a very independent and somewhat private person, and at 94 still lives in her own home, helps care for my father, and drives (cautiously). So I was surprised during my last visit when she asked me to go with her to her doctor. The doctor’s office had just started offering face-to-face appointments again and she hadn’t been feeling well. We wore our masks and sat in the socially distanced chairs in...

To understand just how normalized radical ideas are on college campuses, look at the curriculum for which students pay thousands and thousands of dollars. From their first steps on campus for orientation to walking across the stage on graduation day, students are usually bombarded with leftist propaganda. College campuses facilitate the perfect environment for indoctrination, providing a platform for radical professors to teach their opinion as fact. As a young woman in college, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to stand behind conservative values in the face of leftist campus culture.Conservative parents are in a catch-22. While still...

A new bill in Trenton has been passed and is headed for Governor Phil Murphy’s desk that includes a 2.5% tax on health insurance for everyone in New Jersey.  That money will be put in a health insurance affordability fund to provide health insurance for illegal aliens and to support the NJ FamilyCareAdvantage program. The bill requires entities to pay an annual assessment that is 2.5% of the entity’s net written premiums as defined by the bill. The bill requires the commissioner to calculate and issue to the health provider a certified assessment that is 2.5% of the entity’s net...

When lifesaving medicines run low, hospitals have to choose which patients get a scarce drug. Ethicists historically have recommended giving the drug to the patient most likely to benefit or using a lottery. Not any more. Pennsylvania hospitals are tilting the scale in favor of patients from “disadvantaged areas.” If you’re middle class, you’re toast. To “redress social injustices,” Pennsylvania is applying a “weighted lottery” statewide, to hike the odds that the scarce drug remdesivir for COVID-19 will be given to patients from poor neighborhoods. Remdesivir is a medicine that speeds recovery and increases survival chances by 62 percent, according...

Though the biggest hit of the evening was Louis-Dreyfus’ hit on herself, where she – according to a press pool manuscript tweeted by Washington Examiner’s Joe Gabriel Simonson – said something really stupid. Continuing with her environmental shtick, she opined that environmental issues are like a “great octopus” because its tentacles are found in every Democratic policy issue, like “racial justice,” “health care” and “social justice.” In the same way she also called environmentalism a “tree trunk.” The dumbest portion of that thought was when she concluded with the joke, “So it’s like an octopus and a tree and if...

During a campaign stop in Los Angeles, California, Joe Biden told reporters that the US should provide healthcare to people “regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented.”

Editor's Note: Jon Decker is the co-author of this piece. Last week, the AARP sent a letter to the Department of Labor requesting a delay of a Department of Labor proposal to align its rules for investment advisers with the SEC's "best interest" standard, to give investors more choices while protecting their retirement savings.It's no surprise that the AARP would seek to thwart one of President Trump's policy objectives. Instead of being a neutral advocate for seniors, the AARP routinely engages in far-left political advocacy.  Recall that when seniors were contacting the AARP 14-to-1 urging the group to oppose Obamacare,...

A Mississippi businessman pleaded guilty Thursday for his role in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud TRICARE, the health care benefit program serving U.S. military, veterans, and their respective family members, as well as private health care benefit programs, by paying kickbacks to practitioners and distributors for the prescribing and referring of fraudulent prescriptions for not medically necessary compounded medications that were ultimately dispensed by his pharmacies, as well as for his role in a scheme to launder the proceeds of the fraud scheme.Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Mike...

*sigh* OK. On Friday, 6/26, I underwent an upper GI endoscopic exam for my Hemo/oncology specialist, to check for varices, bleeders, portal hypertension, etc. After I came out of the fog, they unhooked all with wires, tubes, etc., and allowed me to dress. The endo doc came by and said, with the exception of some 'changes' due to GERD (which has been treated for years), nothing was amiss. In the midst of shaking the fuzz out of my ears, they mentioned that I'd have a follow-up for it. Here's where it gets good: They called me this afternoon to confirm...

This past May I turned 65 and HAD to go on Medicare. I'm curious about other people's experiences with it. I hate it, myself. Our primary insurance that was mr. mm's from work is now allegedly the secondary insurance, and our rates for that insurance went down, but I am getting nailed to the wall with prescription expenses. Some of the meds I am on for my Mast Cell Disorder are ridiculously expensive and even with the so-called co-pays, would bankrupt us because of the coverage gap. I have medicare Part B and D but I have no way of...

Free to Choose Medicine (FTCM) is a policy proposal that would lower the cost of pharmaceutical drugs while expediting approval of potentially life-saving treatments. In short, FTCM would relieve needless pain and suffering and save lives. So, why is the government anti-FTCM? FTCM allows health care choices to be made by patients and doctors, not the federal government. In the drug approval process, after Phase I safety testing, and at least one Phase II efficacy test, drugs that are awaiting approval in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug approval pipeline would be available to patients via a Free to...

Kentucky Governor to give 100% free health care to blacks, which whites will pay for. So where's the white privilege again? https://twitter.com/BradleyCongress/status/1270310756345675778 When someone favors one race over another, that's called racism. Insititutionalized racism is real, and it all comes from Democrats.

Nine pharmacists were charged in three separate indictments unsealed last week for their alleged participation in a $12.1 million health care fraud scheme executed in Detroit and southern Ohio.Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider of the Eastern District of Michigan, Special Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Chicago Region and Special Agent in Charge Steven M. D’Antuono of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office made the announcement.Auday Maki, 66, of Northville, Michigan, was charged with three...

I had a doctor's appointment today and due to the China Virus, I had a scheduled E-Visit. Meaning a video doctor appointment. I have had a couple of these over the last few months and had an app. that worked just fine, but today, my referred doctor refused an appointment with me because I would not install Zoom on my phone. I have had other appointments via video and no problems.

Erlanger Health System, facing financial woes because of the coronavirus, on Friday laid off 11 hospital officials. Sources said the list included Children's Hospital administrator Don Mueller as well as Mark Kimball, who headed Erlanger's hospital in Murphy, N.C. Erlanger officials said, "During the COVID-19 crisis, public safety net hospitals like Erlanger have experienced unprecedented challenges. Throughout this period of uncertainty, Erlanger has continued to provide exceptional care to all those seeking services at our hospitals, outpatient departments, physician offices and emergency rooms. Our workforce should take pride in how we have collectively responded to the COVID-19 crisis. "We do...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News in an exclusive comment on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s recent healthcare proposal would break down Americans’ healthcare barriers and expand healthcare options. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed a rule on Monday that would allow employers to craft health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) to subsidize their employees’ direct primary care (DPC) and health care sharing ministries (HCSMs). Paul, an ophthalmologist and a leader in healthcare reform, celebrated Trump’s proposal as a way to allow Americans to craft their plans to better suit their healthcare needs. “Having fought for years to break down barriers...