Free Republic

Health insurance giant Anthem Inc. said late Wednesday that hackers had breached its computer system and the personal information of tens of millions of customers and employees was possibly at risk. [Snip] The data breach extended across all of Anthem's business, possibly affecting customers at large employers, individual policyholders and people enrolled in Medicaid managed-care plans. Anthem has more than 37 million members in California and 13 other states. But the company warned that it also had information in its database on other Blue Cross Blue Shield patients from all 50 states who had sought care in its coverage area.

(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,...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)An ad produced by the Department of Health and Human Services tells the story of Elena Miller-TerKuile, who is “pursuing her dream to farm” in Colorado thanks to Obamacare. “The Marketplace is probably the only reason I have health insurance right now,” the Columbia University grad says in the ad. She said, “It’s been my dream for a while to come back to the farm and work with my dad.” In a blog post at HHS Miller-TerKuile explains, “It was a hard dream to pursue without health insurance. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I was able to stay on...

Medical retainer agreements between physicians and patients will not be considered “insurance” in Michigan under a recently passed bill signed into law on Jan. 15 by Gov. Rick Snyder. The idea is to ensure that this innovative way for families to obtain routine medical services at lower costs will not be stifled by the extensive state regulatory structure currently imposed on conventional health insurance policies that cover expensive non-routine care. The rationale for this alternative is that while insurance coverage may be advisable for catastrophic illnesses and injuries, it makes less sense as a way to pay for routine primary...

Health Reform: The Congressional Budget Office now says ObamaCare will push 10 million off employer-based coverage, a tenfold increase from its initial projection. The "keep your plan" lie just gets bigger and bigger.

* Stunning figure comes from Congressional Budget Office report that revised cost estimates for the next 10 years * Government will spend $1.993 TRILLION over a decade and take in $643 BILLION in new taxes, penalties and fees related to Obamacare * The $1.35 trillion net cost will result in 'between 24 million and 27 million' fewer Americans being uninsured – a $50,000 price tag per person at best * The law will still leave 'between 29 million and 31 million' nonelderly Americans without medical insurance * Numbers assume Obamacare insurance exchange enrollment will double between now and 2025 It...

"A new survey released Thursday by Grand Valley State University is showing that since the Affordable Care Act was implemented, more small businesses are deciding not to offer health insurance to their employees."

It was a mere two months ago that Israeli cyber-security researchers hacked into a device that plugs into the diagnostic port of a car and determined they could remotely control the vehicle from anywhere in the world. At the time, the simulated attack seemed like the automotive version of a canary in a coal mine. If researchers could breach this one device, perhaps other aftermarket products that plug into diagnostic ports were also vulnerable? In short order, another cyber-security firm now reports finding serious flaws in a device used by more than 2 million motorists. Researchers at Florida-based Digital Bond...

Those Americans who didn’t get health insurance last year could be in for a rude awakening when the IRS asks them to fork over their Obamacare penalty — and it could be a lot more than the $95 many of them may be expecting. The Affordable Care Act requires those who didn’t have insurance last year and didn’t qualify for one of the exemptions to pay a tax penalty, which was widely cited as $95 the first year. But the $95 is actually a minimum, and middle- and upper-income families will actually end up paying 1 percent of their household...

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...