Free Republic

Earlier this month we reported that California was in a bit of a quandary. They were bound and determined to have a single payer health plan for their citizens no matter what the Republicans wanted to do on the national level. And by golly, they got a plan put together in the state legislature and moved it out of committee, despite the fact that it was going to cost more than the total GDP of the state. Then it made it out onto the floor of the Assembly. As Leslie Eastman of Legal Insurrection tells us, the cold light of...

Progressives furious after California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon shelves bill, citing cost concernsVermont Sen. Bernie Sanders lashed out Saturday at California Democrats for shelving an ambitious single-payer bill, urging them to vote on the health-care legislation estimated to cost $400 billion per year. California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon announced Friday that Senate Bill 562 had been pulled indefinitely because it “does not address many serious issues,” including “financing, deliver of care, [and] cost controls.” Mr. Rendon left open the possibility that the measure could be reconsidered, noting that this is the first year of the two-year legislative session, but Mr....

On Friday’s Morning Joe, MSNBC panelist Donny Deutsch pushed the typical liberal “tax cuts for the rich� narrative as he slammed the Republican health care reform bill: "The other side of the aisle will call this as a redistribution of wealth. Obviously, parties are given to hyperbole, but the reality according to the Center [for] Tax Policy is that 90 percent of the benefits in this plan go to families making $700,000 a year or more, the one percent. That is a fiscal reality." He demanded of Senator Rand Paul (R-KY): "How do you explain that to some of the...

Physicians are influenced by marketing. That's no surprise. So are most consumers, as evidenced by television and radio commercials, billboards, pop up ads and targeted ads for drugs on your computer screen. Big Pharma markets not only to physicians, but also directly to consumers. In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Dr. Nicole Van Gronigen made the case that Big Pharma successfully influences physician prescribing behavior via marketing. Specifically, drug reps do with with free lunches provided by the pharmaceutical reps, or educational dinners at nice restaurants. She reported a JAMA study correlating industry-sponsored meals with increased promotion of branded medication...

Why not scrap the healthcare bill from the House and the one from the Senate? Pick a group of people from the medical field, insurance companies, and normal citizens and let them write the new healthcare bill. Make them post everything on a website that allows citizens' comments. After 6 months, put the bill to Congress. We citizens can write a much better bill than a bunch of Congress critters aides

Soon, all the politicians in Washington, D.C., will run down the Capitol steps, full of excitement about the beginning of summer recess. (I just couldn’t resist that visual.) Still, some lawmakers are calling for a reduction in Congress’ time off for the month of August so the needed legislative work can actually get done. It’s not as if they haven’t had time to work, but I believe our legislators have chosen to wait and see how the mainstream media and the progressive left might lead them. Budget reconciliation must be completed, and the American people deserve an Obamacare repeal-and-replace. Congress also needs...

The Democrats' comprehensive meltdown after their fifth straight election loss is a spectacle worth savoring. They're vacillating between denial and self-flagellation, between consuming depression and delusional optimism. Some are even blaming hacking for the loss. Don't let them fool you; they did not expect carpetbagger Jon Ossoff to lose to Karen Handel in the special election for Georgia's 6th Congressional District. If they had, they would not have poured unprecedented millions into the race. No one but gambling addicts intentionally waste that kind of money. For all the talk about President Donald Trump's being in trouble, the Democratic Party is...

The health-care proposal unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday came under immediate attack from conservative and centrist Republican senators as well as industry officials, casting the bill’s viability into doubt even as GOP leaders plan to bring it to a final vote next week. The 142-page bill, which McConnell (R-Ky.) released after weeks of drafting it in secrecy, drew swift criticism from hard-right senators who argued it does not go far enough in undoing Barack Obama’s signature health-care law — the Affordable Care Act. It also prompted an outcry from centrist senators and medical organizations worried that...

Before explaining I must state this is written with a servant’s heart. It is not my intention to debate the arguments or merit of legislation, only to point out the logical pathway if people hang tough, support President Trump and stay out of the traps laid by special interests (and their special-interest paid troll army). (snip) ♦Unions don’t want health insurance back in/on their liabilities. ♦U.S. CoC Multinational Corporations (Wall Street) don’t want the liability of worker health insurance back on their ledgers. ♦Big Pharma does not want limits to how much they can charge (profits) and they want a...

Here Comes The Stupid: Senate Health Care Proposal From the AP: When U.S. Senate Republicans unveil their plan to overhaul America's healthcare system, they will face a skeptical public that already does not buy the justification for an earlier version that passed the House of Representatives, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday. They're right to be "skeptical"; Obamacare did exactly nothing to address cost, which is where the real issue resides, and the House bill, as I analyzed, would actually make it worse (which is hard to believe, but true.) The Senate "attempt" will do the same. The...

Senate Republican leaders released a healthcare bill Thursday that overhauls Medicaid, scraps most of Obamacare's taxes and alters tax credits available to individuals to purchase health insurance. The Senate discussion draft unveiled Thursday is the chamber's response to the American Health Care Act, which passed the House last month. Like the House bill, the Senate version guts Obamacare's controversial individual and employer mandates.

The Obamacare repeal debate goes on.  We may have a U.S. Senate plan coming out in the next couple of weeks. Obamacare's implosion is also moving forward: "Iowa's Last Obamacare Insurer Asks For 43% Rate Increase For 2018"!  Wasn't this thing called the Affordable Care Act? The "single-payer" chorus is also singing 24/7.  They argue that a "single-payer" program would be good for all concerned or put us on the right side of history, as they love to say. Here is an idea.  Let California become our single-payer test case.  It is the only place in the U.S. where there are...

Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on Tuesday that Republicans would see a discussion draft of the healthcare reform legislation on Thursday. McConnell also declared that the press would get an opportunity to see the bill on Thursday. This addresses numerous concerns from the Democrat leadership that Republicans are keeping the bill secret. McConnell stated at a press conference today: “We’ve continued our discussions on the way forward on healthcare, as all of you know, because I’ve reported it weekly. For weeks now, we’ve been in intense discussions with all Republican senators, both in working groups that all members...

There are few things quite as expensive as “free health care.” And the nation’s most populous state may be about to find out the hard way. On June 1, the California Senate voted 23-14 in favor of a bill, the Healthy California Act (SB 562), to authorize the state to act as a “single payer” in place of insurance carriers in negotiating prices with doctors, hospitals and other providers. The measure covers all residents regardless of financial ability or immigration status. Annual costs may reach $400 billion – and that’s just for starters. As existing Medicare and Medicare funds will...

When the Republican-led Senate Rules Committee briefly flirted with the idea of restricting television interviews in the hallways of the Capitol last week, it became only the most obvious manifestation of how the party’s leaders were handling the development of a bill to overhaul Obamacare: out of the public eye. While that effort was quickly sidelined after some outcry, the Republican leadership in the Senate was otherwise unfazed in its push to craft a bill that would expose its members to as little negative public attention as possible. No repeat of the town hall meetings that drew angry constituents who yelled...

When it comes to the nation’s healthcare system, most citizens recognize the need to counter rising healthcare costs and control fixed costs such as spending on insurance premiums and prescription drugs. By reducing these burdens on consumers and taxpayers, the U.S. can lower costs for entitlement programs and reinvest or return money to taxpayers where it’s needed most. In an effort to identify areas for additional cost savings across the healthcare delivery network, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee recently held a hearing on how drug delivery systems affect consumer prices. Though only covering one aspect of the...

State health officials are investigating a puzzling outbreak of mumps in Latino communities in Boston, Chelsea, and Revere, and have advised health care providers to be alert for additional cases. The state Department of Public Health has recorded 12 mumps cases since the end of March. Previously in Massachusetts, mumps has been found chiefly among vaccinated college students and others connected to colleges and universities. But the dozen new cases involve people aged 20 to 41 with no known links to higher education.

Senators are seriously considering keeping in place some ObamaCare taxes for longer than the House-passed bill would as they seek to draft healthcare legislation that can pass their chamber with a simple majority. Republicans are looking to slowly phase out extra federal funds for Medicaid expansion, beef up the new tax credits for buying insurance and add money for opioid abuse treatment — but they’ll have to pay for it to ensure the bill passes muster. That’s because the Senate healthcare bill must save at least as much money as the House’s legislation...

News on Tuesday that on-camera interviews might be significantly curtailed within the Capitol is an on-the-nose manifestation of something that had otherwise not attracted a lot of attention: The Republican effort to replace Obamacare was being put together almost entirely outside of the public’s ability to see what was happening.

I'm technically disabled -- but not mentally disabled the way some of my foes on CNN seem to believe I am. No, my disability is hearing loss. In one ear I'm nearly deaf. I have to turn the TV up so loud the neighbors say they can hear it from their house next door. My friends complain that watching TV with me is like watching Garrett Morris on "Saturday Night Live" shout into the camera to provide news for the hard of hearing. There are some 30 million Americans like me suffering from severe to moderate hearing loss. Not being...