Free Republic

Although the Trump administration and Congress have struggled to fully repeal Obamacare, while putting a good dent in the law by repealing the individual mandate through tax reform, officials are finding new ways to lower costs and expand coverage to consumers. On Thursday, the Department of Labor announced a new rule proposal that opens the door to allowing insurance companies to sell plans and coverage across state lines. From Insurance News Net:  In another move toward dismantling the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Labor announced a proposed rule to expand the offering of small business health plans, also known as...

Nearly 9 million people signed up for coverage through the federal ObamaCare exchanges, according to a top administration official. Last year, 9.2 million people signed up for coverage during an open enrollment period that was twice as long. Approximately 8.8 million people enrolled during the six week open enrollment period, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid administrator Seema Verma tweeted Thursday.

Indeed, the repeal of the Obamacare mandate is one of the great civil rights victories of our times. Obamacare violates our inalienable natural rights/property rights in critical ways. First, it compels you to purchase an insurance product you may not need or want in terms dictated by the government. In a free society, you would be free to negotiate the terms and coverages of the plans, deductables, price, etc. For example, an elderly couple doesn't need pregnancy benefits, infant annihilation coverage, or coverage for any minor children. When I was working, we had two health insurance choices---Self, or Self and...

Tax could potentially affect 156,000 Americans who could see premiums rise even furtherAn Obamacare tax that will be imposed in 2018 will raise premiums even further and is estimated to cost $270 billion over the next decade, according to a report commissioned by UnitedHealth Group. The report was commissioned to examine how a tax imposed by Obamacare would impact premiums. Under Obamacare, health insurers that offer coverage are required to pay a fee on health insurance premiums they earn, which is also considered a tax by the IRS. Congress imposed a moratorium on collecting these taxes in 2017, but that...

Cue the funeral bagpipes. My fourth health insurance plan is dead. Two weeks ago, my husband and I received yet another cancellation notice for our private, individual health insurance coverage. It's our fourth Obamacare-induced obituary in four years. Our first death notice, from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, arrived in the fall of 2013. The insurer informed us that because of "changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA)," our plan no longer met the federal government's requirements. Never mind our needs and desires as consumers who were quite satisfied with a high-deductible PPO...

WASHINGTON — Stymied in his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump is poised to issue an order that could ease some federal rules governing health insurance and make it easier for people to band together and buy coverage on their own, administration officials said Saturday. One official said the directive could move the president a step closer to one of his longstanding goals: allowing consumers to buy health insurance across state lines. Conservatives say that interstate sales could expand options for consumers, increase competition in the insurance market and perhaps lower costs. The order, which the administration...

RUSH: Donald Trump’s on the way to Indiana to give a speech about the tax cut plan. He stopped for a little miniature presser with the Drive-Bys out there. He said a couple of things. He said that they have the votes for the health care bill. They’ve got the votes but some senator’s in the hospital and can’t vote by the deadline, so they’re gonna wait until early 2018. Trump said he’s considering an executive order on associations which would allow coverage and buying of insurance across state lines, which will fix a lot of Obamacare. The insurance companies...

President Trump is preparing an executive order to allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines, a reform conservatives have long championed as a way to bring costs down and stir greater competition in the national marketplace. The executive action gives the White House a chance to follow through on at least one promise related to healthcare reform after Senate Republicans' second attempt to overhaul Obamacare failed this week. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul "I think there's going to be big news from the White House in the next week or two, something they can do on their own," Paul...

ABC’s self-described “eating pizza” expert, Jimmy Kimmel was at it again on Tuesday, admittedly politicizing his son’s medical condition to push for socialized medicine. This time he was targeting Republican Senator Bill Cassidy and Senate Republicans with disgusting charges of aiming to do cruel things with the lives and health care of Americans. In all, Kimmel’s description painted the GOP as villains in a straight-to-DVD Hollywood flop. “And this new bill actually does pass the Jimmy Kimmel Test, but a different Jimmy Kimmel Test,” he declared, noting that Cassidy wanted his bill to live up to Kimmel’s situation. “This one,...

The US government should allow insurers to sell Pretty Good Quality (PGQ), Medicare-like policies with the federal government generally paying the percentages listed in parentheses of a person's maximum silver plan subsidy amount as premium subsidies. The monthly basic drug coverage subsidy would be computed without adjusting for household income, so young, healthy and affluent people would want to buy drug coverage too. The monthly basic drug coverage subsidy amount for coverage on a US citizen might be: $1 for each year of age less 20% if no recombinant auto-immune drug is covered less 10% if no standard anti-HIV regimen...

Just weeks before the 2018 Obamacare open enrollment period is set to begin, Virginia's largest health insurer has pulled of the individual marketplace. Anthem is leaving the system, citing overwhelming costs and unstable markets. More from Forbes: “Today, planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating Individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage,” Anthem said in a statement Friday afternoon. “As a result, the continued uncertainty makes it difficult...

Anthem just announced it will back out of Nevada's Obamacare exchange for 2018. A major insurance provider just announced it will back out of Nevada's Obamacare exchange for 2018. Anthem said in a statement Monday it was leaving Nevada's exchange because "planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage." The company had previously backed out of 14 rural counties in the Silver...

There's nothing like the sight of Republicans and Democrats working together and scrambling to save big time government aid to super-rich corporations. Whether it's a bailout for major banks, tax credits for Big Oil, or big subsidies for large agriculture businesses, this kind of crony capitalism seems to anger almost everyone but nobody really does anything about it. Now, we're about to witness another scramble to provide our hard-earned taxpayer money into the pockets of an industry that's already raking in the big bucks. The Senate Health Committee is going to hold hearings in September to find ways to keep...

Trump is threatening to go after congressional health insurance and make them subject to their own legislation. Senator Chuck Schumer warned, “If the president refuses to make the cost-sharing reduction payments, every expert agrees that premiums will go up and health care will be more expensive for millions of Americans. The president ought to stop playing politics with people’s lives and health care, start leading and finally begin acting presidential. Once this is run through the Schumer Translation Device, or STD, which accurately decodes statements by the New York senator, we get the actual Schumer quote, “If the president refuses...

President Trump on Saturday threatened to end health care “bailouts” for insurers and lawmakers in Washington as he continues to push Congress to pass legislation repealing ObamaCare. “If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!” Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon.

The very premise of Obamacare was flawed, and in fact, it was never even designed to work for an extended period of time. But now that Congress has failed to do away with it, the president is going “Full-Tilt” in his plans to make the “No” voters pay. On Saturday, he Tweeted: If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon! At first, it may just seem reactionary, but this is a major threat that will hit the Democrats right where it hurts: in the demographics!...

Repealing Congress’ special exemption from Obamacare regularly polls at the 90+ percent level, and for good reason — the illegal ruling by OPM once again allowed Members of Congress (and their staffs) to live by a different set of rules than those they imposed on the rest of America. Worse, by exempting the legislative branch from the pernicious effects of this particular law, it allows Members and their staffs to avoid the personal pain (financial and health) imposed by the monstrosity they imposed on the rest of us, and, by doing so, delays its inevitable repeal. The good news is,...

Judicial Watch requested the Trump administration stop members of Congress and their staff from unlawfully purchasing, with taxpayer subsidies, health insurance through the District of Columbia’s small business exchange. ... Because the ACA limits the purchase of insurance on a small business exchange to employees of small businesses – and Congress is not a small business – the ACA unequivocally requires that certain members of Congress and congressional employees purchase insurance on an individual exchange created either by their state of residence (or by the District, if they are a D.C. resident) or by the federal government for that state....

RUSH: Here’s Barbara, Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s an honor. I’ve been a longtime listener, and we credit you for getting us through the Clinton years here in Arkansas. My husband is a doctor, and I’ve worked in his office in health insurance for years. And insurance companies — I don’t think people are aware of this — but they dictate the fees a doctor or a hospital can charge — RUSH: Oh, they know. They know. They have to go through the insurance company. They know it. CALLER:...

As we continue to debate the potential replacement of Obamacare and, in particular, the impact any pending changes may have on either Medicare or Medicaid, it’s important to recall some of the shortcomings of the existing system. This is particularly true when we look at the increased number of people who have been put on the Medicaid rolls under Obamacare. We can see some of the results rolling out on a smaller scale by looking at the state-run system in California, Medi-Cal. There’s an article out this week in the LA Times which covers the growing complaints of low...