Free Republic

A Michigan court ruled that the state branch of the powerful Service Employees International Union does not have to pay back tens of millions of dollars in dues taken from home health care workers who were forced into unionization. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled last week that the SEIU Healthcare Michigan does not have to pay back more than $34 million in dues collected from over 40,000 home health care workers. Many were forced into the union under state requirements that they join because they were taking care of sick family members at home.

NEW YORK (AP) - Health officials have confirmed a second U.S. case of a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East. The latest case is not an American - he is a resident of Saudi Arabia, visiting Florida, who is now in an Orlando hospital. Officials: 2nd US case of MERS reported

President Obama issued a directive today granting home health care workers the same protections of minimum wage and overtime that other workers get. Noting that home health care workers were classified in the same category as babysitters and therefore exempt from most labor rules, the president noted that many of these employees required government assistance just to make ends meet. "This means that many homecare workers are forced to rely

...What does this have to do with national health care policy? Well, Mr. Obama achieved his November victory with more than a little help from such "friends." These benefactors paid a lot to put him in the White House, and they weren't all motivated by a desire "make history." Among the most generous of Obama's supporters was another entity that has figured prominently in the Illinois culture of corruption -- the Service Employees International Union. According to CNSNews, the SEIU's political action committee made "more than $27 million in independent expenditures" in support of Obama's presidential campaign while its members...

New York has few budget-busters as big as Medicaid, the health-care program for the "poor" that now covers one-fifth of all state residents at costs that have grown by fully 80 percent over the past decade -- to a staggering $1 billion per week. Amazing, then, that the task force appointed by Gov. Cuomo to rewrite the Medicaid rules may have come up with a formula that will finally begin to bring the program under control. Consider: The plan cuts program spending by nearly $1 billion compared to the current fiscal year and some $2.5 billion from projected program growth...