Free Republic

Like cockroaches, the same bad ideas keep emerging from the Biden administration and its Democrat friends in Congress. We’ve created a crisis at the border by undoing the effective policies of the previous administration. We’ve driven up gas prices $1 a gallon – the ultimate regressive tax – by reverting to the petty and unwise policies of the Obama administration, which were designed to curb energy exploration. Now we’re back to demanding trillions to fight global warming despite the manifold and manifest failures of warmist climate modeling. Another bad idea that has returned to the stage is Democrats’ attempt to...

It was Obamacare-mania over the past few weeks. The Senate hearings over the nomination of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett were dominated by President Barack ObamaÂ’s signature domestic achievement. Now, itÂ’s not totally out of the left field as the Supreme Court will hear arguments that could gut the law a week after the election, but it goes to the whole notion that Democrats think the judiciary is a separate legislative wing. They wanted to hear what ACB thought about health care, abortion, and gun rights as if sheÂ’ll legislate from the bench. ThatÂ’s what left-wingers do. Right now, Joe Biden...

Your house should be your most expensive purchase, so the saying goes. Not these days. Today, health care costs make most mortgages look like loose change on the sidewalk. Your home or your vacation or your children’s future should be where your money goes—not to some plastic card in your wallet. Here’s how I threw away that expensive piece of plastic and kept my money for the things I want to spend it on. I opened my own medical practice five years ago, after resigning from my position as a physician at a hospital. Resigning meant I lost my health...

The burdensome costs of medical care, prescription drugs and health insurance have become dominant issues in the 2020 presidential campaign. But a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services shows the nation remains in a period of relatively slow growth in health spending. Health spending in the United States rose by 4.6 percent to $3.6 trillion in 2018 — accounting for 17.7 percent of the economy — compared to a growth rate of 4.2 percent in 2017. Federal officials said the slight acceleration was largely the result of reinstating a tax on health insurers that the Affordable...

Several years ago, I had a shoulder injury, and the doctor told me I might need surgery to fix the small tear in my rotator cuff. So, I asked, "Doctor, if I have this surgery, about how much will it cost?" He looked at me confusedly and said, "Steve, I've been doing these surgeries for 20 years, and you are the first patient to ever ask me what it costs!" Then he thought about it and laughed: "I don't know how much this will cost you." Wow. Health care is one of the most expensive items we buy each year,...

In December of 2015, Hillary Clinton admitted that Obamacare is turning America into a nation of part-time workers. Moreover, she said the law incentivizes people and businesses not to find full-time employment. The statement was spurred by a questioner at a town hall, who was asking why there is discrimination against part-time workers when it comes to paid family leave: QUESTIONER: “Hi, I just want to know why there is discrimination against the part-time workers when so many companies are going to part-time when it comes to FMLA [Family and Medical Leave Act]?” HILLARY CLINTON: “Well, that’s why they are...

Britain has "free" health care, which means it is run by the government and funded by taxpayers. Those on the left in the U.S. want to move to this model, which is often referred to as universal healthcare or single-payer since the government handles all the financing. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If health care doesn't cost anything, people are going to use more of it. They're not going to think prudently about which services they really need because they don't feel the immediate cost. Consequently, 131 out of the 138 hospital trusts in...

Most left-leaning health policy wonks assume everyone needs health coverage. I've never understood that. Insurance is a way to protect assets for people with assets to protect. Economists also sometimes describe health insurance as income protection in the event of an illness, since medical care costs money. Economist sometimes view health coverage as the ability to buy highly subsidized medical care in the event of an illness. Families' health risks, aversion to risk and family finances differ, so arguments that everyone needs the same type of protection against medical bills are not particularly convincing. To cloud the issue even further,...

One of the most significant struggles facing millions of Americans today is the growing cost of pharmaceuticals. According to U.S. News and World Report, U.S. drug spending is expected to exceed $300 billion in 2015, and many analysts project drug prices will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. In the wake of these price increases, a national, often politics-driven, conversation about the future of the pharmaceutical industry has once again reared its ugly head, spurred on by stories of seemingly outrageous drug price hikes. For instance, in September, Turing Pharmaceuticals announced it was raising the price of Daraprim, one...

I’m beginning to think that Obama doesn’t actually have any speech writers or talking-point authors… He’s just recycling the set of talking points he was handed in the first four years of his tenure. During a recent Q&A session at a campaign event in Princeton Indiana, the President trotted out the tried-and-failed talking points of 2012 to defend his signature healthcare law. According to the Free Beacon:“We are seeing almost a double-digit increase in health-care costs every year,” General Manager Mihir Paranjape said. “Do you think that trend is going to go down, and what can we do to control that...

The bill is coming due for ObamaCare and it’s a whopper. According to Medicare Care’s own actuaries U.S. health care spending is about to rocket. Federal meddling in what was once the finest and cost-effective health care system on the planet is nothing new. Back in the 1960s, many Americans paid for doctor and hospital services out of pocket or through modestly priced private insurance. Health care spending was about 6 percent of GDP. Enter President Johnson and Medicare. He bought millions of votes by giving seniors free health care that they never paid for through payroll taxes during their...

In End of Employer-Provided Healthcare: By 2020, S&P 500 Companies May Dump 90% of Workforce into Obamacare I noted that the New York Times, Yahoo!, McClatchy and other mainstream media outlets referred to a healthcare report without having the decency of providing a link. Sadly, this is the norm. Bloomberg, Reuters and countless others are guilty of the same practice on numerous occasions. Link to the Report Reader Julian managed to find a link to the report. Please consider The Affordable Care Act Could Shift Health Care Benefit Responsibility Away From Employers, Potentially Saving S&P 500 Companies $700 Billion by...

"...Increasingly, experts in health insurance are becoming concerned that many of these first-time buyers will be in for a shock when they get medical care next year and discover they're on the hook for most of the initial cost.... ...Hospitals are worried that those who rack up uncovered medical bills next year won't be able to pay them, perpetuating one of the problems the new health care system is supposed to solve..... ..."The real big surprise was how much out-of-pocket would be required for our family," said David Winebrenner, 46, a financial adviser in Lebanon, Ky., whose deductible topped $12,000...

So how much more is your health insurance going to cost you? That’s the question, really, as Obamacare begins taking effect and the stories pour in from around the country: how much your premiums are going up, not if they are. Rising costs are a fact of life, but the changes Americans are seeing as a result of the president’s signature law are putting the “shock” in “sticker shock.” I recently had lunch with a friend who said his perfectly healthy 28-year old son had just received a notice from Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Illinois that on Jan. 1, his...

If you think every American should know these facts about Obamacare, do your part to spread this column around and make it happen. 1) Millions of Americans are paying much more for health care because of Obamacare. Obama's new health care law has a lot of new requirements, restrictions, and red tape. That means the cost of plans is going up and the amount of competition in many states is going down. Because of this, the price of health care is soaring all across the country. Here are a couple of examples of how bad it is already getting. Cindy...

Leading freight carrier, United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) recently announced that the company is removing health coverage facility for 15,000 of its workers’ spouses in order to trim costs. However, spouses who do not work and or lack health benefits by their own employers would continue to receive the UPS health coverage along with their children. Further, the company’s decision to cut health care cost is only limited to its white collared employees and will not affect the 250,000 Teamsters union workers in various countries. UPS expects pension and health care expenses to increase this year from last year, resulting...

My boss today mentioned being very upset with the Prez because he thinks he caught him in an inconsistency. (OK, he said "lie".) This genetic democrat* was considering making a Security vote for Bush, because like Ed Koch, he feels the domestic stuff on which he would disagree gets trumped by the need to kick terrorist hindquarters.He heard a sound bite of the president disapprovingly quoting a figure for J F'n's health care proposals. He says the next day the campaign came out with a figure for Bush's own health care proposals, and it's "twice as big."*He's a democrat cuz...