Free Republic

And now, Ted Cruz has offered an alternative to Obamacare. And it’s, uh, better than a tattoo of Winston Churchill.Ted Cruz cares about people in need. Stop laughing. Okay, you can laugh a little. The Texas right-wing firebrand (by way of Calgary, Canada) unveiled his alternative to Obamacare on Tuesday. I guess we can call it "Cruzcare" or maybe even, "TeddyCare." You see, Cruz is apparently deeply concerned about the 7.5 million Americans in 36 states who might lose federal government subsidies now provided by Obamacare to buy health insurance in a few months. That very scenario could happen if...

Make insurance more affordable by ending Washington mandates and giving choice back to the states, individuals and families. Support Americans in purchasing the coverage of their choosing On Wednesday, March 4, the Supreme Court will hear the King v. Burwell case. It is likely to deliver a death blow to ObamaCare when the decision is announced in a few months. About the only good thing ObamaCare demonstrated is that the federal government should be kept from taking over sectors of the nation’s economy that are working just fine without it. Health care expert Edmund Haislmaier and legal expert, both of...

When he was seven years old, Max-Hervé George was given a magic ticket by his father. It lets him turn back the clock, to invest with perfect hindsight week after week, steadily accumulating a fortune. The ticket is a life insurance contract and Mr George, now 25, has fought for years in the French courts to preserve its magic. He could be a billionaire by the end of this decade and, by the end of the next, his contract would be worth more than the insurance company which stands behind it, Aviva France. There is no mystery to the financial...

This year, as many as 6 million taxpayers will learn that they now owe a "Shared Responsibility Payment" because they didn't have health insurance last year. How many will actually pay is anyone's guess.

Phony Numbers: The Obama administration says more than 11 million signed up for ObamaCare this year. Should anyone believe this number? Even if it's true, is it a sign of success? The answer to both is a resounding no.

**SNIP** Given that the authors of Obamacare had a very specific idea in mind for what constitutes affordable insurance, the American Health Policy Institute is out with a new study that asks a very interesting question: Does Obamacare meet its own standards for affordability? The answer is no. Here are a couple of the key findings from AHPI's study: Even now, under the Affordable Care Act’s own definition, over 105 million Americans will find plans in the ACA’s [Affordable Care Act's] public exchanges to be “unaffordable” when both premiums and deductibles are taken into account. Over 13 million employees with...

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.