Free Republic

Six weeks ago, this publication published “Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan…For Avoiding Your Health Care Questions.” That plan came to fruition last Friday, when Warren released a paper (and two accompanying analyses) claiming that she can fund her single-payer health care program without raising taxes on the middle class.Both her opponents in the Democratic presidential primary and conservative commentators immediately criticized Warren’s plan for the gimmicks and assumptions used to arrive at her estimate. Her paper claims she can reduce the 10-year cost of single payer—the amount of new federal revenues needed to fund the program, over and above...

Health insurance provider Colorado Access is going to cut Medicare coverage for the coming year. As a result of the move around 5,500 senior and disabled customers will have to look for alternatives. Chief operating officer of Colorado Access, Matt Case has said that the Denver-based nonprofit will also let go 83 employees who were a part of Colorado Access Medicare and its subsidiary Access Health Colorado. Besides this, extra 40 openings will remain unfilled. Case said that Colorado Access has also drawn down administrative expenses, cutting down the salaries of its executive teams. Case said, “While it's never easy...

<p>110,000 current and soon to be eligible retirees working for IBM woke up to an unpleasant surprise this morning, when the WSJ reported that as a result of soaring healthcare costs, the tech bellwether giant will be terminating its company-sponsored health plan and instead giving (soon to be former) beneficiaries a lump sum payment to buy coverage on a health-exchange: a move which the WSJ characterized as indicating that employers are unlikely to keep providing the once-common benefits as medical costs continue to rise. The reason why all IBM retirees will have to find alternative, third-party, retirement coverage upon hitting the Medicare eligible age of 65 is that "IBM said the growing cost of care makes its current plan unsustainable without big premium increases." And to avoid those premium increases, the costs will find a clearing price either in a private exchange (supposedly competitive, realistically monopolistic), or will end up commingled with other public healthcare funding. End result: IBM benefits, everyone else loses.</p>

At age 76 when you most need it, you are not eligible for cancer treatment see page 272 What Nancy Pelosi didn't want us to know until after the healthcare bill was passed. Remember she said, "pass it and then read it!!." Here it is! ______________________________ Obama Care Highlighted by Page Number THE CARE BILL HB 3200 JUDGE KITHIL IS THE 2ND OFFICIAL WHO HAS OUTLINED THESE PARTS OF THE CARE BILL. Judge Kithil of Marble Falls, TX - highlighted the most egregious pages of HB3200 Please read this........ especially the reference to pages 58 & 59 JUDGE KITHIL wrote:...

McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul. The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers' health plans as the law ripples through the real world. Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn't loosen a requirement for "mini-med" plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans.

New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity. The obesity-rating regulation states that every American's electronic health record must: “Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.” The law also requires that these electronic health records be available--with appropriate security measures--on a national...

Internal administration documents reveal that up to 51% of employers may have to relinquish their current health care coverage because of ObamaCare. Small firms will be even likelier to lose existing plans. The "midrange estimate is that 66% of small employer plans and 45% of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfathered status by the end of 2013," according to the document. In the worst-case scenario, 69% of employers — 80% of smaller firms — would lose

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Tuesday he was open to four new Republican proposals on health care legislation, in a gesture of bipartisanship meant to jump-start his stalled overhaul drive. Obama detailed the ideas, all of which were raised at a bipartisan health care summit last week, in a letter to congressional leaders. He also called for eliminating a special deal for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in Florida and other states that drew criticism at the summit from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The proposals Obama mentioned are: sending investigators disguised as patients to uncover fraud and waste; expanding medical malpractice...

WASHINGTON – What's all the fuss about? After all the noise over Democrats' push for a government insurance plan to compete with private carriers, coverage numbers are finally in: Two percent. That's the estimated share of Americans younger than 65 who'd sign up for the public option plan under the health care bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is steering toward House approval. The underwhelming statistic is raising questions about whether the government plan will be the iron-fisted competitor that private insurers warn will shut them down or a niche operator that becomes a haven for patients with health insurance...

Obama press conference Did President Obama make a good case for his health care plan at Wednesday night's press conference? Yes No I didn't watch

Is there a Democrat senator or staffer secretly opposed to the new health care bill introduced by the Senate? One has to wonder because the new Senate health bill is named, "Quality, Affordable Health Coverage for All Americans." The acronym for this bill is the absolutely hilarious QAHCAA. Yes, say it out loud and it is pronounced exactly the way you suspect as in "This health bill is a bunch of QAHCAA." Perhaps this bill was so named with complete classlessness as to how it would sound when spoken out loud. In any event, this has to be the absolute...

Just as I predicted, Team Obama is being forced to offer pretty much nothing but a Happy Face Feel Good health plan to Congress devoid of "public option" aka "single payer" aka "government run" aka "socialized medicine." Why? Not that they wouldn't love such an expensive program. It's just, as Barack Obama himself has said, they are OUT of money. Plus the Chinese who own a major portion of our debt read the riot act to Timothy Geithner when he was in Peking and ordered him NOT to make the dollar even more worthless by incurring even more wasteful...

Isn't bi-partisanship wonderful? Senate Republicans have a meeting scheduled today with various lobbyists to discuss different ways of funding health care in America. Yesterday the lobbyists were told by Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) top aids that if their clients attended the GOP meeting it would be considered a hostile act. HOSTILE ACT? North Korea testing an nuclear bomb is a hostile act, Iran's missile tests are hostile acts, Meeting with the minority party is an act of bi-partisanship. The threats of Chairman Baucus' staff shows once again that the Democratic party promises of reaching out across the aisle to...

President-elect Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the U.S. health care system would cost the federal government $75 billion but would provide health insurance for 95 percent of Americans, consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers said on Wednesday. This works out to about $2,500 per newly insured person, the firm said in a report. "The plan would increase to $1 trillion cumulatively by 2018 or approximately $130 billion per year," the report said. While the plan would extend health insurance to two-thirds of the 47 million people who currently lack it, the overhaul may worsen some problems, such as a shortage of primary care...

For a campaign that is offering a new kind of politics, it is unfortunate the Obama-Biden team has decided to sell its marquee policy proposal - a government-controlled health care plan - with the familiar Washington attacks that replace honest debate with scare tactics. Instead of telling voters what is new and positive about their plan, the Obama-Biden ticket is emphasizing the spurious charge that John McCain wants to tax people's health insurance....http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/americans_deserve_a_real_healt.html

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been engaged in a bitter back-and-forth over whose health plan covers more people. Former Sen. John Edwards has jumped in, saying his plan is the best of all... The argument concerns whether the government should require all Americans to get insurance. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Edwards would require people to get insurance...Mr. Obama would only require that children be insured. Other elements of their plans are similar, including subsidies to help lower-income and even middle-income families pay premiums, and various proposals to cut the cost of health care. The candidates say they would...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The prognosis for universal health care in California is grim this year, and experts say a failure could set back similar efforts nationwide for years to come. Unions, doctors and other powerful interests are arrayed against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $12 billion-a-year plan to make medical insurance mandatory. He has threatened to veto the Democrats' less ambitious alternative and take his plan to the ballot instead. A showdown could come as early as Thursday, when the Democrats plan to put Schwarzenegger's proposal to a vote in the state Assembly. The aim is to show how little support it...

Rudy Giuliani's Health Plan: 'Take Care of Yourself' Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday offered a consumer-oriented solution to the nation's health care woes that relies on giving individuals tax credits to purchase private insurance. Critical to Giuliani's plan is a $15,000 tax deduction for families to buy private health insurance, instead of getting insurance through employers. Any leftover funds could be rolled over year-to-year for medical expenses. Campaigning in this first primary state, Giuliani said his goal is to give individuals more control over their health care. The former New York mayor said as more people buy plans,...

The Legislature's lawyer has issued an opinion concluding that the new sources of revenue proposed in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious health care plan are taxes, rather than fees. The opinion could make it a lot more difficult to pass the plan. Any new tax requires approval from two-thirds of the Legislature, which would require Republican votes. Republicans have vowed to oppose any taxes. If the new revenue sources are deemed to be fees, they can be approved by a simple majority vote, which would allow passage with only votes from Democrats. As part of a plan to cover 6.5 million...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's health care plan was molded by a team of staffers as politically varied as California itself - a fact that could accelerate the ambitious proposal's journey from idea to reality. While Schwarzenegger faces plenty of opponents a month after unveiling the plan, their tone has been more conciliatory than confrontational. This, analysts say, is no accident. By stuffing his health advisory team with staffers who represent the often conflicting interests of employers, medical associations, insurers, unions and patient-advocacy groups, the governor has been able to pre-empt a lot of the criticism that could have doomed...