Free Republic

What We See: This commercial isn’t for a car, but it’s about something you see in a lot of car ads these days: parallel parking without much driver input. We open on an unremarkable young woman talking to us from someplace in lower Manhattan. Over her shoulder we can see the Statue of Liberty, which—and it’s not by “accident”—looks a lot like the Liberty Mutual logo. The woman explains that although there are many things young people do well, parallel parking isn’t one of them. She then gives two options: “Either take the bus or get Liberty Mutual insurance,” because...

Greetings Freeper Friends, I hope that someone might be able to help me out or guide me to a source where I might find answers. A few years back, at the height of the economic turmoil, I had to do something drastic; I changed my career of some 20-plus years from a graphic designer and art director to a nurse's aide. It was a big move down the economic ladder. I did this because of the lack of the stability in my field; I could no longer recruit new clients and, when I did work for folks, I could not...

The number of Minnesotans struggling to pay their medical bills is rising sharply, despite an increase in the number of residents who have health insurance. In the past year, Minnesota’s main hospital and clinic groups filed nearly 9,000 lawsuits against people with large or long-standing medical debts — a sharp increase since 2005, according to a Star Tribune analysis of court records. Once a leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States, medical debt was widely expected to decline as more Americans got health insurance following federal health reform. Instead, shifts in the insurance market are pushing more people...

While focusing their resources and political energy on the NSA’s mass collection of metadata, privacy advocates have neglected the most dangerous institutionalized violations of the Fourth Amendment: administrative subpoenas. Now a United States District Court judge in Texas has ruled for the Drug Enforcement Agency that an administrative subpoena may be used to search medical records. It was inevitable, given the march towards illegally nullifying the Fourth Amendment through use of these judge-less bureaucrat warrants authorized by Congress. Administrative subpoenas are issued unilaterally by government agencies -- meaning without approval by neutral judges -- and without probable cause stated under...

“Population Health” is an Orwellian extension of UnitedHealth’s plan to profit at the expense of the real health of the people. In our opinion, the term Population Health is a blatant attempt, supported by Obamacare and the current administration, to unilaterally alter the way in which medicine is practiced in the United States. Population Health has been around for years but it’s still being defined today. Tom Sullivan, Executive Editor of HIMSS Media gives some clues in his post, “What exactly is ‘population health,’ anyway?” but confirms that “what has become eminently clear is that defining population health depends on...

Chasing bigger profits, the insurance cartel has now come full circle to embrace pseudoscience wholeheartedly. From deep inside the inner workings of the giant insurance companies comes the very antithesis of fact-based statistics and research: Value-Based Care. Though the concept has been brewing for more than a decade, it’s now hitting the mainstream as the darling for determining how medicine and money will be dispensed. This impressive sounding term essentially justifies the biggest rip-off of all time. Many doctors and physician assistants interviewed by TAMMM staff tell us they whiz through these forms, often putting blanket NOs for answers which...

The IRS reported this week that 6.6 million people paid the ObamaCare mandate penalty for not having insurance last year, which the administration says is 10% higher than they'd expected. This isn't exactly good news, given that the entire point of the mandate penalty tax is to encourage everyone to buy coverage. Even if it were, the number comes with two big caveats.

Where do you go after you've overseen the massively botched launch of the still unfinished ObamaCare website and were caught wildly exaggerating the number of people enrolled in ObamaCare plans? Why, you get a job as head of the insurance industry's top trade group, of course. Welcome to the revolving door — Washington, D.C., style.

In the aftermath of Obergefell v. Hodges, pastors and church members are experiencing a wave of anxiety over what many of them deem the “nightmare scenario”: lawsuits or government action designed to force them to perform or recognize same-sex marriages. While there are — so far — no meaningful judicial precedents that would permit such dramatic interference with churches’ core First Amendment rights, lawsuits challenging church liberties are inevitable. Indeed, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission has declared that prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity “sometimes” apply to churches and has stated that a “church...

The general liability form does not provide any coverage for this type of situation, since there is no bodily injury, property damage, personal injury, or advertising injury. If a church is concerned about the possibility of a suit, we do offer Miscellaneous Legal Defense Coverage. This is not liability coverage, but rather expense reimbursement for defense costs. There is no coverage for any judgments against an insured.

(CNSNews.com) – The Department of Health and Human Services’ most recent guidelines explaining the “preventive services” mandate under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—or Obamacare—says health insurance plans must provide co-pay-free pap smears and mammograms to “transgender men.” As defined by the federal Office of Personnel Management: “a person assigned the female sex at birth but who identifies as male is a transgender man.” The guidelines, written as a FAQ sheet, state: Q5: Can plans or issuers limit sex-specific recommended preventive services based on an individual's sex assigned at birth, gender identity or recorded gender? No. Whether a sex-specific...

Elephant Auto Insurance will add 1,173 jobs at its Henrico County headquarters and will invest $2 million to expand the operation. Governor Terry McAuliffe announced the expansion today in Cardiff, United Kingdom, where he met with officials from Elephant's parent company, U.K.-based Admiral Group PLD. Elephant which had 365 employees at its headquarters in March, was already in a growth mode. In January the company moved from a 32,000-square-foot office on Eastshore Drive in the Innsbrook Corporate Center to a 54,000-square-foot site in the Deep Run I office building at 9950 Mayland Drive.

Fiscal Responsibility: Now we learn that the Obama administration doesn't know whether billions in subsidies it paid out to insurers were appropriate. Yeah, this law is working just great.

In a new ad for the Affordable Care Act, a woman named Julie Adams explains how the ACA saved her life: “I’ll always remember how affordable health care saved my life,” said Julie Adams. “If Congress tries to take that away, I’ll remember that, too.” The Community Catalyst Action Fundwrote about the ad, saying that “Americans have not had enough opportunity to hear personal stories like Julie’s” and claiming that Julie was able to catch her cancer early because of the ACA. It went on to state that for 20 years before the enactment of the benefits of ACA she lived in fear getting sick and didn’t...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)House Democrat Rep. Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.) has introduced a bill that would require gun owners to carry liability insurance. The Firearm Risk Protection Act, unveiled Friday, would require gun buyers to have liability insurance coverage before being allowed to purchase a weapon, and would impose a fine of $10,000 if an owner is found not to have it. Service members and law enforcement officers, however, would be exempt from the requirement. “We require insurance to own a car, but no such requirement exists for guns," Maloney said in a statement. "The results are clear: car fatalities have declined by 25...

Health Reform: Looks like ObamaCare premiums will skyrocket for many next year. So what do Democrats propose? New insurance mandates that will drive premiums up even higher. Which one is the stupid party again?

In July of 2009, as the Obamacare debate was heating up, Gallup published a survey indicating that 83 percent of Americans wanted health care reform to make their health insurance more affordable. Now, more than five years after the President’s “signature domestic achievement” was passed, health insurance premiums are higher than ever. And it’s obvious that Obamacare is a major driver of the increase. The Wall Street Journal reports that insurers are proposing rate increases ranging from 25 to 51 percent for 2016. Why? “All of them cite high medical costs incurred by people newly enrolled under the Affordable Care....

While premium filings aren’t expected from the federal government until next month, a report from The Wall Street Journal released Thursday provides a snapshot of preliminary 2016 rate filings from health insurance market leaders in 11 states. The figures represent average increases in premiums proposed by the largest carriers in each state that has made requests public. A separate report from the Associated Press notes that the largest carrier in South Dakota has proposed a 42.9 percent increase in premiums in the individual market. Increases are subject to review by the states and will be finalized in the fall.

Despite fury from lawmakers the day before, Colorado’s health exchange board voted on Thursday to collect millions of additional dollars from all Colorado health insurance customers, even those who have nothing to do with the exchange. On top of that “broad market assessment,” the board also voted to more than double the user fees levied on people who buy insurance through Colorado’s exchange. .. The higher broad market fee is projected to allow Connect for Health Colorado to scoop up about about $20 million in 2016. It has been set at $1.25 per member per month on all health insurance...

In a news story titled “Nearly half of Obamacare exchanges are struggling over their future,” The Washington Post reports the following: Nearly half of the 17 insurance marketplaces set up by the states and the District under President Obama’s health law are struggling financially, presenting state officials with an unexpected and serious challenge five years after the passage of the landmark Affordable Care Act. Many of the online exchanges are wrestling with surging costs, especially for balky technology and expensive customer-call centers — and tepid enrollment numbers. To ease the fiscal distress, officials are considering raising fees on insurers, sharing...