Free Republic

One of the primary health insurance companies in Nebraska and Iowa is folding, after federal grants and loans were cut off in mid-December. The lack of emergency loan money has put CoOpportunity Health Care on the ropes, according to the Iowa Insurance Commission. Policy holders are scrambling to switch to one of the only two remaining health insurance companies in Nebraska – Coventry or Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Rep. Dan Nordberg, the author of last year’s audit bill, had this to say in a statement: “With only a limited performance audit, the state auditor found Connect for Health Colorado committed numerous federal law violations, and nearly 40 percent of sampled contracts had problems totaling more than $32 million dollars. “Sadly, I am not surprised. I have had ongoing concerns about how Connect for Health Colorado was managing tax payers’ funds, which is why I pushed so hard last year to expand the auditor’s oversight of this organization. I hope Democrats will see the light and support my efforts...

More than half of the 2014-2015 enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act, best known as Obamacare, is in the books, and the enrollment figures on the surface look very encouraging. To be clear, Obamacare is about more than just enrollment figures. For one thing, in order for the health reform law to be successful, it'll need people that enroll to actually continue paying their premium. This is the only way that medical care costs get spread out over a greater swath of the public, which is needed to control medical care cost inflation. However, between April and mid-October,...

State Farm is still hiring even as it prepares to move its first set of employees into its new Richardson campus later this month. The nation’s largest auto and home insurer will hold a job fair on Jan. 15 in Richardson for several hundred full-time and part-time positions in claims, sales, customer service and information technology departments this year. The job fair will take place in three blocks of time: from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. It will be held at the North Dallas Hyatt Regency Hotel,...

Conservatives in the House and Senate achieved a small, but important victory when both chambers passed legislation this week reforming the federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. The bill protects taxpayers by limiting their potential exposure should the United States suffer another significant terrorist event similar to September 11th. The only path to getting government out of the terrorism insurance business is to develop a free market solution. Hensarling’s bill is the path to that market.The President should sign the TRIA legislation immediately. The sooner TRIA is renewed, the sooner taxpayers can get off the hook.

ObamaCare was supposed to keep the nation healthier by expanding access to insurance. Instead, it will keep the professional tax preparation industry healthy by making the tax code even more hopelessly complex. As health care analyst Bob Laszewski points out on his widely read blog, the IRS came out with a 21-page booklet explaining what ObamaCare will mean to tax filers this year. In addition, there's a 12-page publication with instructions on how to claim an exemption from the individual mandate (there are 19 options listed), along with instructions on how to calculate the "shared responsibility payment" for those irresponsible...

My youngest daughter just joined the ever-increasing number of Americans who have lost their health coverage due to Obamacare. She received a letter from her insurance carrier indicating that the individual policy with which she was eminently satisfied, and that she could more or less afford, would no longer be available after the end of the year. In its place, the insurer offered a plan whose premiums will be nearly double what she has been paying for the cancelled policy. Her monthly premium was $127. The premium for the replacement policy, if she can find no alternative, will be $243.

Another unintended - but not unexpected - consequence of Obamacare is being felt as the program enters its second year. More than 20 million Americans who work for small businesses with less than 50 employees are covered by employer insurance. The 50 employee number is significant because if you work for a small business with more than 50 workers, your employer is mandated to cover your health insurance. But with insurance rates rising, many small businesses of less than 50 employees are opting to drop their coverage and have workers purchase their insurance through the Obamacare website. Daily Signal:...

Can those of you who are using Christian Health Ministries rather than traditional health care insurance please explain how it works and if you are happy with it? Have you ever been hospitalized during the time you were covered and how did it work?

New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) decreed that insurers operating in his state must cover sex reassignment surgery. Up to now insurance has typically not covered this on the grounds that it is elective rather than the result of an unforeseen illness or injury. “The whole idea behind insurance is that it allows the buyer to protect himself against events that he cannot control,” said industry spokesman Barbara Arian. “No one opts to come down with a life-threatening disease or to be maimed in an accident. We can insure against these events because we and the insured both aim to...

Kevin McCarthy of Thousand Oaks, California, was surprised last spring, when he learned his family doctor of 14 years could not accept the Blue Shield insurance he'd purchased under Obamacare. He said he was "outraged" because when he was shopping for his policy, Blue Shield confirmed his doctor was covered. "We were duped," McCarthy said. "Hoodwinked is another good term." Here's what happened. Insurance companies -- to save money -- are quietly selling what are called "narrow networks." They sharply restrict the number of doctors and hospitals people can see. In some cases, people may be limited to 30 percent...

What would happen if the Supreme Court rules that ObamaCare doesn't allow subsidies through the federal exchange? There's plenty of speculation, ranging from no big deal to absolute, total catastrophe. An article published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine tries to answer the question with a little bit more precision. It's conclusion, however, is that disallowing those subsidies would be a devastating blow to ObamaCare.

This so-called insurance meant from the beginning not merely compulsory insurance it also meant compulsory membership in a unitary system controlled and enforced by the state. The concept of a social safety net is well accepted throughout the Western World. The idea that some provision should be made for those who through no fault of their own are unable to provide for themselves first appeared as a state policy in Germany in the 19th century as the Iron Chancellor, Bismarck, sought to co-opt the popular appeal of socialism and strengthen the newly founded German Imperial state. The idea struck a...

If you’re a New Yorker who is dissatisfied with the original set of chromosomes you were dealt at birth, good news is on the way. Historically, various types of reassignment surgeries involved in switching genders have been considered to be either cosmetic or optional by insurance companies and have generally not been covered. These procedures are not cheap, so they remained beyond the reach of a lot of people. But now, Governor Andrew Cuomo has sent a letter to insurers in the Empire State letting them know that they are going to have to start footing the bill. Now...

Lee Albertorio felt like a man trapped in a woman’s body. After serving in the Air Force, he began taking hormones, which deepened his voice and made his physique more masculine. He changed his passport to reflect that he was male, and last year he decided to have a mastectomy, known as top surgery. But his insurance company told him the operation was cosmetic and refused to cover it, he said Wednesday. Now Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is warning insurance companies that they will no longer be allowed to deny gender reassignment surgery or other treatment to change a person’s...

ST. PAUL — (AP) State legislators are working on ways to better identify Minnesota residents who drive without auto insurance. Motorists don't have to show proof of insurance when renewing a vehicle's registration. People who drive without insurance can lose their licenses and be fined about $300. The state has a law mandating insurance but doesn't have a meaningful verification system, said Sen. Susan Kent, who heads the uninsured motorist task force that is expected to come up with recommendations by Feb. 1. The committee has explored options ranging from increasing fines to seizing license plates of uninsured drivers. "There's...

I never got around to posting about my October trip to the hospital, I was out in four days, just another lung bug, and things were popping here on the forum and I just dug in.I had already fired the doctor who screwed up, almost fried my kidneys and caused a case of gout with too many diuretics. The insurance plan assigned a new doctor anyway so when I landed in the ER I gave his name. He never showed up, but the one I fired did. I told him to go away and 10 minutes later his sidekick showed...

I just got off the phone with Blue Cross. They informed me that my premium for Obamacare will be going from $84.00 to $204.00 per month starting January, 2015. The bill will be here just before Christmas. We are very low income and have not made any changes to warrant this increase. We cannot afford it. So if you have Obamacare, you might want to call and find out what your Christmas surprise will be.

Dear Blue Cross CEO: Just yesterday, I received your glossy brochure encouraging me to apply for Obamacare insurance through your company. No doubt this is because my husband lost his job recently, and we are now on COBRA. COBRA also tried to entice us to use Obamacare, saying we could have less costly insurance through the government exchanges. Your brochure went to great pains to tell me about the possibility of subsidies if our household income was below certain levels. Since my husband is now unemployed and I have been either mom or grandma-on-call for the past 30+ years, our...

Imagine a health reform plan that gives a boost to big insurance companies while leaving patients less able to pay their medical bills. Think progressives would cheer about it? They will if it's called ObamaCare.