Free Republic

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is advancing federal regulations that require federally funded organizations caring for illegal alien minors who are in the United States without their parents (Unaccompanied Children or UC) and who may have been sexually abused access to “emergency contraception” services. “Emergency contraception” includes abortion-inducing drugs. These care providers currently include Catholic and other faith-based organizations that oppose abortion, according to the Center for Family and Human Rights or C-FAM, a Catholic advocacy group. The Interim Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 24,...

Last week, the White House took to Twitter for purposes of publicizing its latest Obamacare enrollment blarney. Far more informative than the tweet’s fictitious sign-up numbers was the schmaltzy video to which it was linked. Staged in the Oval Office, this one-act farce features a simpering HHS Secretary briefing our Thespian in Chief, who then delivers the following soliloquy: “The Affordable Care Act is working. It’s working better than we anticipated. It’s certainly working a lot better than many of the critics talked about early on.” In Obama’s 27-word script, “working” appears three times. The President doth protest too much,...

In an effort to sign up as many consumers as possible for insurance under the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare), the Obama administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to partner with churches and other faith-based groups, even publishing sample church bulletin inserts, flyers, and scripts for announcements, as well as "talking points." These materials are part of the "Second Sunday & Faith Weekend of Action Toolkit," which is available on the website of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).From the beginning, HHS has sought to develop partnerships with faith-based organizations to promote the Obamacare. This "toolkit" has been available since 2013. However, the details...

“Obamacare’s shoddy implementation doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of its great evil,” reported Breitbart late last year, referring to the healthcare rationing that is insidiously hidden within the pages of the evasive law. Perhaps the most alarming criterion of healthcare rationing found in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the plan’s death panel language.Democrats vehemently denied that death panels would play a role in the ACA, but the law itself states that doctors will be paid to have discussions with patients about living wills, advance directives, and end-of-life options.Killing patients whose perceived utility is declining is not exclusively...

In his march towards total government control of American lives, President Barack Obama strikes at Medicare Advantage, or Medicare Part D, in his new budget released Feb. 2 for fiscal year 2016. “The Budget proposes to give the Secretary of HHS the authority to negotiate drug prices for biologics and high-cost drugs in Medicare Part D to help ensure access to and affordability of these treatments,” according to “Investing in America's Future,” the White House's FY 2016 budget narrative. “This proposal is one of a range of potential solutions to address these growing costs, and the administration looks forward to...

The House vote next week to repeal ObamaCare in full will include a critical difference this time: instructions for committees to develop a GOP healthcare reform alternative. The announcement came as part of a February memo from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to Republicans outlining the next month's agenda. Absent from the list are contentious bills on abortion and immigration. [Read the memo below.] Next week's ObamaCare vote will be the fourth stand-alone, full-scale repeal vote in the last four years. The vote will serve as an opportunity for the new House GOP freshmen who pledged to repeal the...

Seven months after federal officials fired CGI Federal for its botched work on Obamacare website Healthcare.gov, the IRS awarded the same company a $4.5 million IT contract for its new Obamacare tax program. CGI is a $10.5 billion Montreal-based company that has forever been etched into the public’s mind as the company behind the bungled Obamacare main website. After facing a year of embarrassing failures, federal officials finally pulled the plug on the company and terminated CGI’s contract in January 2014. Yet on Aug. 11, seven months later, IRS officials signed a new contract with CGI to provide “critical functions”...

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell promoted Obamacare “in the spirit of Dr. King” on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, during a breakfast hosted by Al Sharpton. “African-Americans have the lowest life expectancy of any other race in this country,” Ms. Burwell said in a speech to the National Action Network, The Hill reported. But “thanks to the Affordable Care Act,” she said, “7.8 million African-Americans with private insurance now have access to expanded preventative services with no cost sharing.” Ms. Burwell’s speech comes as HHS ramps up its efforts to insure people ahead of next month’s

Politifact was right to name President Obama’s “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” proclamation as its 2013 “Lie of the Year.” Yet, they missed out on another whopper of a fib a few years earlier in 2009. At the Heritage Foundation’s Conservative Policy Summit in Washington, DC on Tuesday, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a pro-life warrior who has been involved in the movement for 42 years, exposed President Obama’s misleading statement about his signature legislation: “On Sept 9, 2009 in a joint session of Congress, Obama said in his health care reform, under our plan, no...

KALAMAZOO, MI -- Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan is closing its Battle Creek clinic, citing "increasing competition and declining patient demand" as a result of the Affordable Care Act. The last day of operation will be Jan. 31. Spokeswoman Desiree Cooper said the need for Planned Parenthood's health-care services has declined because of the ACA, which has greatly improved access to subsidized contraceptives and women's health-care services. The ACA requires insurances plan to provide women with an annual physical and contraceptives without a deductible or co-pay. That means women who formerly were reliant on Planned Parenthood for services and...

Helping America's poor, aged and sick is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' reason for being, but hundreds of its top officials are traveling in style and luxury at taxpayer expense. Records obtained by the Washington Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act show that HHS executives spent $31 million taking 7,000 first class and business class flights between 2009 and 2013, including 253 trips for which a one-way ticket cost more than $15,000. Half the records listed the price of a coach ticket for comparison. For that portion alone, the upgrade boosted the cost by almost $14...

Obamacare is easily on track to beat the administration's enrollment targets, with more than 6 million people already signed up for coverage. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said Tuesday that 6.4 million people have either selected new plans or automatically renewed their coverage. The 6.4 million people who selected plans through the federally run exchanges include about 1.9 million new customers. The rest are current customers who either automatically renewed their coverage or shopped for a new plan. People who automatically renew their policies are at risk for some of the biggest out-of-pocket premium increases anywhere in...

Yesterday’s vote by the Council of the District of Columbia to approve a bill banning even religious organizations from discriminating against employees for their “reproductive health” practices—including abortion—likely violates the Constitution and federal law, warned the D.C. mayor and attorney general weeks before the final vote. The Council’s disregard for Mayor Vincent Gray’s “significant legal concerns” increases the possibility that he may veto the legislation, which also may be halted by Congress if it can get President Obama’s signature on the repeal. “Today’s approval of this draconian bill confirms the D.C. Council’s intentional persecution of religious educators and other employers...

Yesterday, the Council of the District of Columbia passed a bill that could force employers in the nation’s capital to cover elective abortions in their health plans and require even pro-life organizations to hire individuals who oppose their views on abortion. The bill will now go to Mayor Vincent Gray for approval. This latest attempt to violate the freedom of individuals in the District should spur Congress to better protect the conscience rights for all Americans. The “Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act,” specifically prohibits employers from discriminating in “compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment” on the basis of an individual’s...

oday, the Council of the District of Columbia will consider a bill that could force employers in the nation’s capital to cover elective abortions in their health plans and require even pro-life organizations to hire individuals who oppose their views on abortion. This latest attempt to violate the freedom of individuals in the District should spur Congress to better protect the conscience rights for all Americans. The “Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act,” would specifically prohibit employers from discriminating in “compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment” on the basis of an individual’s “reproductive health decision making” – including the “termination of...

he scariest words uttered during Jonathan Gruber’s recent appearance before the House Oversight Committee were “positive selection.” They were read aloud by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, from a 1997 paper the professor co-authored concerning abortion. The opus in question made the Congressman uneasy because of the following passage: “By 1993 all cohorts under the age 19 were born under legalized abortion and we estimate steady state savings of $1.6 billion per year from positive selection.” Rep. Massie asked the professor what was meant by “positive selection.” This question was evidently not anticipated in Gruber’s pre-testimony coaching, so he became evasive....

Protesters against President Obama's HHS mandate requiring religious institutions provide contraception and abortion related services through health insurance hold signs outside City Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 23, 2012. Although a federal funding bill the House passed on Thursday includes language urging the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure Obamacare's federal health exchange provides consumers with transparency on which plans include a separate elective abortion surcharge, pro-life advocates are skeptical that HHS will actually listen to Congress. Pro-lifers in the House sought to include in the CRomnibus appropriations bill, which would keep the federal government funded through next...

EXCERPT Gruber was hired by the Department of Health and Human Services for a one-year contract to provide “technical assistance in evaluating options for national healthcare reform,” as a Feb. 25, 2009, federal job posting indicates. The posting said he was uniquely qualified for the position not only because of his expertise in health economics but his “proprietary statistically sophisticated micro-simulation model” that could determine the impact of changes in health care policy. Gruber’s consultancy work wasn’t made public until it was reported in early January 2010. Fox News then reported that Gruber was paid almost $400,000 for the contract,...

After grabbing a Slurpee and hot dog, 7-Eleven patrons may pick up some government-sponsored healthcare messages, too. The Administration just announced a partnership that allows them to promote ObamaCare on sales receipts. Building on partnerships with shopping malls and other hot spots for the young and uninsured, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a partnership with PayNearMe, an electronic payment processing system that allows businesses to process cash payments for those who don’t have access to banks. 7-Eleven is one such store that will now allow PayNearMe receipts to include a plug for healthcare.gov at the bottom of...

Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, who recently questioned ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber about a paper he wrote which discussed how the government had saved billions of dollars by targeting abortion to the poor, is calling the paper creepy and based in eugenics. Thomas Massie Gruber Nemesis In a December 9, 2014 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, about enrollment issues with the Affordable Care Act, Jonathan Gruber, a former consultant and adviser during the lawÂ’s creation, apologized for comments he made in which he called voters stupid and said the controversial law was passed because voters did not...