Free Republic

Earlier this year, the Obama administration boasted that well over 11 million people had signed up for an ObamaCare plan by the end of the second open enrollment period.

Back in 2009, when Congress was debating the Affordable Care Act, many liberal Democrats felt it did not go far enough — that it should be even more sweeping, even more expansive, even more costly. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, one of the Senate's most liberal Democrats and a veteran of many legislative battles, urged his colleagues on the Left to go ahead and pass the bill. "The key to this is that this modest home, we can put additions onto it in the future," Harkin told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in December 2009. "But if we don't have the starter home, we're...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Supreme Court ruling due in a few weeks could wipe out health insurance for millions of people covered by President Barack Obama's health care law. But it's Republicans — not White House officials — who have been talking about damage control. [snip] BAD TIMING [snip] HOUSE OF CARDS [snip] STICKER SHOCK FOR SELF-PAY CUSTOMERS [snip] REPUBLICANS TO THE RESCUE? [snip]

On the whole, the Affordable Care Act is working pretty well, getting more people insured and increasing the quality of insurance overall. But on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported an alarming development: Health insurers on many state exchanges are looking to boost their premiums a ridiculous amount in 2016. New Mexico's leading provider, for instance, is seeking a 51.6 percent hike, while Maryland's is seeking a 30.4 percent hike. (Insurers in other states, like Vermont and Indiana, are asking for minimal increases.) Libertarian and conservative outlets are, predictably, citing the rate hike as yet another Obamacare catastrophe. But it's...

Proposals set the stage for debate over federal health law’s impact. Major insurers in some states are proposing hefty rate boosts for plans sold under the federal health law, setting the stage for an intense debate this summer over the law’s impact. In New Mexico, market leader Health Care Service Corp. is asking for an average jump of 51.6% in premiums for 2016. The biggest insurer in Tennessee, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, has requested an average 36.3% increase. In Maryland, market leader CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield wants to raise rates 30.4% across its products. Moda Health, the largest insurer on the...

A number of states are quietly considering merging their healthcare exchanges under ObamaCare amid big questions about their cost and viability. Many of the 13 state-run ObamaCare exchanges are worried about how they’ll survive once federal dollars supporting them run dry next year. Others are contemplating creating multi-state exchanges as a contingency plan for a looming Supreme Court ruling expected next month that could prevent people from getting subsidies to buy ObamaCare on the federal exchange. The idea is still only in the infancy stage. It’s unclear whether a California-Oregon or New York-Connecticut health exchange is on the horizon. But...

As Alice in Wonderland might say, a curious tax just got curiouser. The burden to states could mount to $13 billion in less than a decade. ... It works like this: State governments pay insurers for the tax. The insurers then pay the tax to the federal government. The federal government then reimburses part of the cost to the states. It may sound absurd, but it's not amusing to state governments, which wind up losing 54 cents for every dollar of the insurance tax. State taxpayers end up the biggest losers, without any added benefit to their state's low-income Medicaid...

Despite fury from lawmakers the day before, Colorado’s health exchange board voted on Thursday to collect millions of additional dollars from all Colorado health insurance customers, even those who have nothing to do with the exchange. On top of that “broad market assessment,” the board also voted to more than double the user fees levied on people who buy insurance through Colorado’s exchange. .. The higher broad market fee is projected to allow Connect for Health Colorado to scoop up about about $20 million in 2016. It has been set at $1.25 per member per month on all health insurance...

One in three Americans with private health insurance has been hit with a surprise medical bill, according to a new survey by Consumers Union. The study of 2,200 individuals also found consumers overall are confused when it comes to how to fight a surprise bill. Among the surprises: bills that were for higher amounts than customer’s expected, bills for out-of-network services that customers believed were in-network, and bills from doctors they did not expect would send them a bill. Betsy Imholz of Consumers Union says few people who receive surprise bills ever file a complaint with a state agency. “Nobody...

I can’t wait to get my next A1C test done (who says that?! but it’s true). I am now two-plus months into my use of new inhaled insulin Afrezza, and frankly I’m blown away by how well it performs (ooh, pun!) I’ve been hesitant to be too much of a cheerleader for Afrezza, because I thought maybe I was experiencing beginner’s luck – the thrill of any shiny new diabetes treatment can wear off pretty quickly – and given how controversial this drug is, I didn’t want to stir the pot unnecessarily. But sorry Naysayers, Afrezza is the bomb. At...

Remember the hundreds of thousands of new jobs certain to erupt by 2010 thanks to $1 trillion in extra Obama administration spending? Remember how resident Obama vowed swift justice to the murderers of four helpless Americans in Benghazi? Remember how you can keep your doctor and health insurance under ObamaCare? Remember how Obama promised to halt Iran's development of nuclear weapons because they would launch a nuclear arms race in the world's most volatile region and allow Iran to attempt its avowed erasure of Israel? Well, folks, your favorite incumbent president is morphing again right before your disbelieving eyes. Here's...

The IRS may be the ogre of government but when it comes to enforcing its rules on Obamacare, it's positively puppyish. Millions of people who don't have insurance are having the penalty waived. They are going to trust that your coverage meets Obamacare mandates without checking.  Now, if you fail to mark your return indicating that you have insurance, why that's perfectly alright with the IRS. Washington Examiner: The Internal Revenue Service told the Washington Examiner it will not penalize anyone who has insurance but neglected to check the box. However, a taxpayer may be asked by the agency if they have...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: There continues to be some... well, not just curiosity, some confusion as well about Ted Cruz and his decision to sign up for Obamacare. There's another option. There's some options that he has here, and I want to run through these. Now, all of this would have been academic had his wife not quit. Well, she didn't quit. She took an unpaid leave of absence from Goldman Sachs. If she had stayed there while he ran the campaign, this would not even be an issue. But they made a determination that a campaign is a family endeavor,...

The Obama administration announced Friday that 80,000 corrected tax forms for people on plans through ObamaCare have still not gone out. It's unclear how many people will be affected by the delay, but the administration said people who have not received the corrected forms do not have to wait to file their taxes and will not have to pay any additional tax due to the effort. The issues stem from the announcement last month that 800,000 people on insurance plans through ObamaCare received incorrect tax information. At the time, the administration said forms with corrected information would be sent out...

Most hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City have confirmed that they have sufficient facilities so that their in-patients are no longer sharing a bed with two to three other patients, according to Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the Health Department of Ho Chi Minh City. However, two central hospitals, the Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopaedics and the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, have not met this condition. Each hospital currently has 140-180 in-patients over their 100 single bed capacity. The announcement was made during a meeting yesterday between Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien and officials from the HCMC...

There’s no shortage of dire predictions about what would happen if the Supreme Court strikes down the system for awarding subsidies to people seeking insurance under the 2010 health care law. Millions more could be added to the ranks of the uninsured, the cost of coverage could rise dramatically and insurance markets could be thrown into chaos, or at least temporary instability. For all those hypotheticals, though, the only thing that’s certain is the country will be more divided than ever over President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, with many states forced to quickly decide what new steps, if any,...

Vermont on Thursday became the third state to add an extra ObamaCare sign-up period through the end of tax season, adding pressure on federal health officials to take the same approach. While the official ObamaCare deadline passed on Sunday, about a quarter of all state exchanges have added a grace period to accommodate the millions of uninsured people who will be forced to pay a penalty for the first time this tax season. "It would be awful for a Vermont family to have to pay a fee of several hundred dollars or more, and then have to pay 100 percent...

Pressure is building on the Obama administration to give uninsured people a second chance to sign up for ObamaCare before they are slapped with a fine. People without insurance in 2015 will pay a fine of $325 or 2 percent of their income, whichever is greater, during next year’s tax season. Democrats and several advocacy groups argue that people without insurance don’t realize they’re in danger of taking a significant economic hit. “Millions upon millions of people are unaware about these penalties,” Ron Pollack, the executive director of the nonprofit group Families USA, said in a briefing Wednesday. This year’s...

The penalty for not having health insurance this year is more than doubling. Coloradans have until February 15 ,2015, to shop for plans through the Connect for Health Colorado market place. Under the Affordable Care Act individuals are required to either have health insurance or pay a penalty at tax time. That penalty is either a flat rate or two percent of family income. This year, that rate is $325 per adult, $162 per child and up to $975 per family. Compared to last year the fine for an adult was only $95 and up to $285 per family.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There's less than two weeks to go for all of us to have some form of health insurance, or be penalized by the government. That means there's a last minute push in communities like Minneapolis's Cedar Riverside Neighborhood to sign people up. Every immigrant community has its own unique barriers, but in the Somali community, advocates are racing against both time and culture. Timadde Aden is a typical case. He's never had health insurance, but enrolled for medical assistance today through MNsure at the Somali Health Solutions office in Minneapolis. One of the employees at that office, Hodan Guled, says,...