Free Republic

I wonder if the perpetrators of this horrific set of actions ponder the price that will eventually be paid for their “insurance” policy. I doubt they care I am that guy. Yes, I am the individual who put together the Trump Campaign national advisory committee on national security and foreign policy. Yes, I am the one who recruited Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. Yes, I have given countless hours of testimony to a four-pack of investigations. And most important of all—not a single shred of evidence has presented itself that would indicate that anyone in the Trump campaign had anything...

A total of 29.3 million Americans (9.1%) were uninsured in 2017 -- not a big change from 2016, but down by 19.3 million from 2010, the year the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law, a government survey found. Among ethnic groups, Hispanic adults made up the large percentage of the uninsured, at 27.2%, followed by black at 14.1%, non-Hispanic whites at 8.5%, and Asians at 7.6%. All four of these groups had significant drops in their uninsured populations from 2013 through 2017, the survey found. Of those adults under age 65 with private health insurance, 3.7% were covered by plans...

All Erika Zak wants to do is play with her daughter on the playground. Take her to the zoo. Walk her to school. She's never been able to be the mother she longs to be. At 38, Erika is dying. Her battle to live began almost as soon as her daughter, Loïe, was born four years ago, when Erika was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic colon cancer that had spread to her liver. The cancer was removed from her colon and, her doctors say, she responded well to treatment. But a microwave ablation surgery last year to remove two tumors...

At 38, Erika is dying. Her battle to live began almost as soon as her daughter, Loïe, was born four years ago, when Erika was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic colon cancer that had spread to her liver... Weeks passed until the company reached a decision. Despite her plea, the answer was the same: Denied... “The opinion of the experienced Cleveland Clinic multidisciplinary liver transplant committee (is) that liver transplantation would prolong this young patient’s life substantially, and that there is NO other treatment alternative that could match this outcome at this point in time.”... It was their UHC rep...

Here’s a simple idea to help lower healthcare costs: Publish prices. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers in Colorado is pushing a bill to do precisely that. The Comprehensive Health Care Billing Transparency Act would allow Coloradans to see the true price of any health service they use—exams, procedures, prescriptions—before they undertake treatment. If passed, the legislation would mandate that hospitals and other facilities disclose the base fees they charge for specific services “before applying any discounts, rebates, or other charge adjustment mechanisms.” Every bill sent to a patient would need to include an itemized list, which would allow patients...

For the last two years, Richard and Linda Brown have been living in a shell of a home -- no insulation, drywall or flooring -- while trying to raise four kids. Their house in Louisiana was destroyed by floodwaters in 2016. At the time they didn't panic, because they had a flood insurance policy worth $168,000. To date, they've received less than half of that -- around $62,000. "We pay into this premium, and all I want is [it] just to be fair, and we weren't getting fair," Linda said. Two years later, they're living in a house that's still...

I have questions concerning short and long term disability, life insurance and employment. The questions will require a lot of set-up and will contain a lot of personal information. If you don't feel like reading to the end and providing your best guest as to serious answers, please don't feel pressured to stick around. I have cancer. Back in the fall of 2016, I was diagnosed with stage IV kidney cancer; by that time, the initial tumor was 14cm long, and 7cm in both height and width, and other tumors had spread to my femurs, pelvic bone and spine. During...

Policies on other breeds subsidize pit bull owners BLOOMINGTON, Illinois––State Farm, both the leading U.S. property-and-casualty insurance company and among the few that cover pit bulls, paid out a record $132 million in 2017 to settle dog attack claims. State Farm released this information in a prepared statement recognizing Dog Bite Prevention Week 2018, April 8-14. The State Farm payout appears to have been nearly twice as much as if . . .

Liberals are staunch promoters of mandatory, single-payer health-care insurance. Yet, they are firmly opposed to the Second Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms. This is complete hypocrisy. The first line of defense of your life is not health insurance. It is the right to keep and bear arms. Nothing quite protects the health and well-being of you and your loved ones like "packing heat." It is the first line of defense in insuring the health of you and your family. Health insurance is all well and good, but it won't stop a stark-raving lunatic from harming you...

Insurer Chubb Ltd on Friday said that it will stop underwriting a National Rifle Association-branded insurance policy for gun owners. Chubb gave notice three months ago of its plan to stop participating in the NRA insurance program, known as “NRA Carry Guard,”

If conservatives don’t coalesce behind a new repeal plan soon soon, they will find themselves bystanders as their Republican colleagues link arms with Democrats. ... a concoction of two bills. The first, championed by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D., Wash.), would appropriate cost-sharing-reduction payments to insurers. The second, sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins (R., Maine) and Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), would give insurers an additional $10 billion (and perhaps more) in federal cash.

Nine states are considering laws that would require their residents to purchase health insurance, the The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The proposals come less than two months after Republicans, as part of a sweeping tax code overhaul, voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) mandate requiring individuals to have health insurance.  Lawmakers in Maryland are considering a law requiring residents to buy health insurance. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia, are also considering similar proposals, according to the Journal report.  The ACA's individual mandate was implemented...

Amazon has just took a surprising turn into the healthcare industry, teaming up with investing hero Warren Buffet and New York-based bank JPMorgan Chase, the Washington Post reports.

<p>Idaho officials said they will begin allowing insurers to sell new plans that don't meet requirements set by the Affordable Care Act, a move that will test the limits of states' ability to carve out their own health-insurance rules.</p> <p>Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Insurance said it would allow insurers in the state to begin offering "state-based plans" to consumers. These products could leave out some of the benefits mandated by the ACA for individual coverage. Insurers would be able to consider enrollees' medical history in setting their premiums, a practice known as underwriting, which isn't authorized under the ACA. The new state-based plans could also include dollar limits on total benefit payouts, which the ACA banned.</p>

The federal tax cut signed into law last week eliminates the federal penalty for not having health insurance, starting in 2019. That's good news for those who've been buying Obamacare to avoid the penalty, and even better news for those who've actually been paying the penalty. But don't start celebrating yet. In New York, California, Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey and other deep blue strongholds, the insurance industry and left-wing activists are agitating to enact state penalties to replace the soon-to-be defunct federal one. Ouch! Six-and-a-half million filers paid the federal penalty last year, including approximately 400,000 right here in New...

As of Wednesday evening, as Nicholas Fondacaro at NewsBusters observed, the three broadcasting networks were not reporting the content of the most damning text messages exchanged between now-former Robert Mueller investigative team members Peter Strzok and his mistress Lisa Page. Meanwhile, coverage seen Wednesday evening at the Associated Press predictably treated the matter as a Republicans-attack dispute. Almost no one seems to be interested in hearing from what other veteran or former FBI officials think about the Mueller team's and Bureau leadership's conduct. One exception is Elizabeth MacDonald at the Fox Business network, who interviewed former FBI Assistant Director Jim...

Cara Pressman sobbed in the big red chair in her living room. The 15-year-old tried to absorb the devastating news relayed by her parents: that their insurance company, Aetna, denied her for a minimally invasive brain surgery that could end the seizures that have haunted her since she was 9 years old. “When my parents told me, I went kind of blank and started crying,” she said. “I cried for like an hour.” Her friends had been lined up to visit her in the hospital for the surgery three days away, on Monday, October 23. Between tears, she texted them...

The National Flood Insurance Program, designed to protect Americans from catastrophic floods, has failed in almost every way, encouraging people to buy and build in flood-prone areas while increasing the cost and magnitude of disasters. Congress' efforts to reform the program have failed just as thoroughly. Attempts to fix flood insurance have been derailed repeatedly by special interests, political expediency and powerful lobbies that have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into congressional campaigns, a three-month examination by the Houston Chronicle reveals. Banks, builders, insurers and real estate agents — supported by property owners and allies in Congress —have combined...

4 Hours Ago Pharmacy chain CVS will purchase insurance giant Aetna in a deal value at $69 billion, The Associated Press reported Sunday. The move will dramatically expand the drugstore juggernaut's health services; a historic amplification which could transform the health care industry. If approved by regulators, CVS' 9,700 locations could morph into health care centers, providing its consumers with primary care and other services and dramatically lowering the cost of health care. The unprecedented merging of retail and health care is likely to spark similar deals throughout the industry, experts said.

A Fresno State professor sued by students after interfering with their anti-abortion messages on campus says he did nothing wrong – and didn’t pay $17,000 in a settlement despite an announcement made by Alliance Defending Freedom on Thursday. “I admitted absolutely no wrongdoing, and I did not have to pay a dime,” public health professor Greg Thatcher said Friday. The costs were covered by his insurance company through the National Education Association, he said.