Free Republic

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is allergic to the truth. She is the ruthless enforcer of Obamacare's Jenga tower of lies upon lies upon lies. Now that this fatally flawed government edifice is collapsing, you can expect Sebelius to do what she has done her entire career: blame, bully and pile on more lies. Three years ago, when insurers and other companies had the audacity to expose Obamacare's damage to their customers and workers, Sebelius brought out her brass knuckles. Remember? As I reported at the time, the White House coordinated a demonization campaign against Anthem...

The short version? Obamacare contains a partial bailout for insurers with losses greater than 3 percent in any of the first three years...

I can’t tell exactly when Maryland’s health benefit exchange posted its new numbers, but it appears to be no earlier than late this afternoon — perfect timing...

At an event on Monday to boost the Affordable Care Act after its glitch-rich rollout, President Obama asserted that his signature health care plan is a hit because "prices have come down." That's the administration's big lie: that Washington can mandate universal health care with beefed-up benefits and somehow the plan will save everyone money. I've been hearing from healthy Californians who were kicked off their private plans because of Obamacare and were informed they would have to pay much higher premiums on Affordable Care Act exchanges. It could be that his family's boon spells a financial hit for healthy...

Just as the Obama administration continues to reel from three major scandals, Republicans are zeroing in on yet one more — this one involving Obamacare as it nears implementation. GOP legislators are targeting Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the solicitations she made to some of the nation’s top insurance companies and other groups for donations to Enroll America, the nonprofit group charged with selling Obamacare to the public. “Our guys on the Hill think this is the fourth scandal,” Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak told Reuters this week. “It fits into that narrative Republicans are building not only about incompetence...

The White House official whom Bob Woodward charged had crosssed a line by saying he would "regret" printing his version of a set of Washington negotiations was Gene Sperling, the director of the White House Economic Council, a source familiar with the exchange told BuzzFeed Wednesday. The email from Sperling to Woodward, which Woodward read to Politico Wednesday, has transfixed Washington, with Republicans and some in the press charging that it embodies a White House lording it over a cowed press corps. Woodward, Politico reported, called the top official — identified to BuzzFeed as Sperling — to tell him that...

".... likely in concert with the White House — and to the chagrin of many HHS employees — Sebelius and other senior HHS officials decided that word could too easily get out about the firewall project. If it did, it would alert people to UnitedHealth Group’s having gained a potentially huge competitive advantage — a political concern for the White House on the cusp of the election, especially in light of the crony capitalism charges that have plagued this administration. Therefore, HHS, under Sebelius’s leadership, suspended work on the firewall and told United-Health Group not to alert the SEC to...

President Obama, in his drive for a national healthcare overhaul, strove to provide a new guarantee that all Americans, no matter where they lived, would have basic protection against sickness and disease, ending decades of variations among states. ..... < snip > Under the court's ruling, states will be free to decide not to cover all their poor residents through their Medicaid programs.That may mean liberal states that have embraced the healthcare law such as California, Massachusetts and Maryland will in 2014 effectively offer all their residents health coverage, a key goal of the law Obama signed two years ago....

Here’s a bold prediction for the new year. By 2020, the American health insurance industry will be extinct. Insurance companies will be replaced by accountable care organizations — groups of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers who come together to provide the full range of medical care for patients. Already, most insurance companies barely function as insurers. Most non-elderly Americans — or 60 percent of Americans with employer-provided health insurance — work for companies that are self-insured. In these cases it is the employer, not the insurance company, that assumes most of the risk of paying for the medical...

A tobacco user is not a good thing to be in this day and age. Tobacco users are not an acceptable group in 21st Century America. Not so much for what they do themselves, but what they do to others. No one likes second hand smoke, and most smokers wish they didn’t savor firsthand smoke. In fact I have yet to meet a smoker yet who gets up every morning and says “Thank you Lord for this addiction to a substance that will probably kill me in some slow, horrible manner!” If you’ve ever battled the Demon Nicotine, than you...

A huge pecan tree got blown over during Irene. And it fell on our house. Luckily no one was hurt. I can't seem to get a straight answer from the insurance company at this point as to exactly what they will cover. Looking at my policy, it only says they will pay up to $500 for tree "removal" if it is blown over during a storm. That's not much even for a small tree, and this tree is gigantic. However, there's going to have to be a large portion of this tree cut away before the damage can even be...

The New York Times Business section responded to the Florida court decision on ObamaCare not by addressing the issues but by tugging at the heartstrings: "With a court decision on Monday declaring the health care law unconstitutional and Republicans intent on repealing at least parts of it, thousands of Americans with major illnesses are facing the renewed prospect of losing their health insurance coverage. "'We've got to protect people from catastrophic health problems,' said Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA...Protecting people from facing these extremes is one of the main goals of the law, according to its proponents."...

Mercury Insurance Group, based in Los Angeles, confirmed today that 165 people were laid off in its claims division as well as some administrative staff. A company spokesman said some of the jobs were in Brea, but he could not immediately confirm how many.

Well, it has been more than a half year since ObamaCare was signed into law. Insurance premiums are increasing. And benefits are decreasing. Yes, insurance companies cannot refuse insurance to anyone for preconditions, but now we find that the rates they charge are not capped so those who have preconditions will pay exceedingly high rates for insurance. Yes, children must be covered until they are 26, but the insurance companies charge for it. The OMB revised its estimates so now ObamaCare will increase the deficit instead of decreasing it as advertised last winter. It is estimated that millions of people...

Obama and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd have claimed repeatedly that federal bailouts of big banks will not be allowed by Dodd's financial reform bill. President Obama said that suggestions the bill would continue bailouts are "not factually accurate." Yes, they are. The Dodd bill creates a roughly $50 billion Orderly Resolution Fund with assessments on large financial institutions. It would provide a government-financed alternative to bankruptcy. Even if the firm is dissolved, that is a bailout. The firm's debts are paid by taxpayers. But, you say, it's not a tax-funded bailout. Hold on. The bill also allows the...

The financial-regulatory bill now before the Senate is so filled with special-interest loopholes and exclusions that it makes the health-care "reform" bill, with its "Cornhusker Kickback" and "Louisiana Purchase," look like a model of rectitude. The Senate bill, sponsored by Democrat Chris Dodd, claims to subject all "too big to fail" institutions to greater federal supervision, but in fact it only mandates such regulation for bank-holding companies. Regulators would have to make a case-by-case decision on whether to apply it to other financial companies. That's no minor oversight, because insurance companies, like AIG, tend to have thrift charters rather than...

Now that health care reform in the shabby disguise of ObamaCare has been crammed through Congress, a peek at the president's precariously stacked dominoes confirms that sooner than you may suppose, there won't be any private companies selling health insurance in America. Consider: There are approximately 1,300 insurance companies in America today. Beginning January 1, 2011, these companies will be required to pay out 85% of all premiums collected as direct medical care, leaving 15% of corporate income to fund operations and yield any potential profit. The health care industry has a profit margin of about 3%. Most American businesses...

Nancy Pelosi: you lie! Chris Hayes didn't take to the floor of the House to call the Speaker out. But the Washington editor of The Nation did "totally agree" with Joe Scarborough when the Morning Joe host described as "a lie" Pelosi's claims that insurance companies hate ObamaCare. Added Hayes: "I think that's a completely disingenuous statement by Nancy Pelosi." The pair were reacting to a clip of Pelosi's interview yesterday with Diane Sawyer in which the Speaker said of House Minority Leader John Boehner that "some people will do anything for the insurance companies." Pelosi cast the bill as...

RUSH: Today, as we start the radio program, America is hanging by a thread. So we have to see what we can do with a thread. At the end of the day our freedom has been assaulted. This is the kind of change that people did not think they were going to get when they voted for Barack Obama. Freedom must win the day. Great to have you here. We'll be talking to you about all of this, 800-282-2882 is the number, the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com. You have to deal with reality here, and that means focusing on the future....

Liberals keep complaining that Republicans don't have a plan for reforming health care in America. I have a plan! It's a one-page bill creating a free market in health insurance. Let's all pause here for a moment so liberals can Google the term "free market." Nearly every problem with health care in this country – apart from trial lawyers and out-of-date magazines in doctors' waiting rooms – would be solved by my plan.