Free Republic

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) said in an interview Monday that he would personally kill an infant Adolf Hitler. “Hell yeah I would,” he told The Huffington Post when asked about killing the Nazi leader as a baby.

Congressional Democrats led by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are quietly working to repeal the "Cadillac tax," a 40 percent excise on certain expensive health-insurance policies enacted as part of the so-called Affordable Care Act, which grows less affordable by the minute. The Cadillac tax was never going to be long-lived. It was a lie from the beginning, a part of the great fiction that allowed Democrats to claim that Barack Obama's signature health-insurance initiative would add "not one dime" to the deficit, as the president repeatedly insisted. But the tax was and is bitterly opposed by important Democratic constituencies:...

With sickening suddenness, the second-largest insurer on New York's health care exchange is kaput at the end of the month - leaving 215,000 New Yorkers scrambling to secure new coverage. Among them are 250 patients at Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering who had selected Health Republic as the only plan on the exchange that included the renowned cancer center. In all, one in five New Yorkers who enrolled on the state's insurance exchange are affected - and all have until next Sunday to find a new health plan, or go without for all of December. With the clock ticking, Gov. Cuomo must...

And Republicans across the country should take note. According to all the polls leading up to last Tuesday’s gubernatorial election in Kentucky, Republican businessman Matt Bevin wasn’t supposed to have a chance. This was the same Matt Bevin who had launched a lamentably unsuccessful primary campaign last year against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and was treated by much of the press in the state (OK, technically the commonwealth) as a loose cannon who couldn’t be taken seriously. But Mr. Bevin pounded away at ObamaCare. And if you’re wondering why, since that’s ostensibly a national issue, you might recall that...

The just-started enrollment period for ObamaCare exchange plans in 2016 is likely to yield one of two dismal outcomes. In the first, enrollment soars as people sign up in droves for the cheapest plan available to avoid the individual mandate tax penalty, whose minimum bite will spike from $325 to $695. Although the law's strongest backers might celebrate this, it's not clear why: Millions of modest-income individuals who opt for bronze would get policies with deductibles as high as $6,850. Yet the Obama administration's own analysis reveals that among those still uninsured, 80% have less than $1,000 in savings. Thus,...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: "What we're talking about is no longer just a law, and it's certainly not the myths and scare tactics that the cynics have peddled our way for years. This is reality. This is health care in America. And the bottom line is, Americans like it. They're happy with their plans and their premiums.So join them. Give it a shot. ......"

Humana said it will discontinue several products offered on government-run exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, impacting about 100,000 individuals currently covered by the insurer's plans across the country. The move, disclosed this morning in the company's third-quarter earnings report, comes due to higher-than expected medical costs from sick newly insured patients covered under the health law. "Operating results for the company's individual commercial medical business continue to be challenged primarily due to the volatility related to the start of the healthcare exchange program created under the Affordable Care Act as well as the morbidity of membership served under this...

Some 250 patients receiving treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are facing a crisis because they signed up with the only ObamaCare insurer in New York that provides coverage at the world-renowned hospital - and the insurer is going bust. Now the patients either have to find new insurers and doctors or pay higher out-of-pocket costs for extended care at Sloan. State regulators are removing Health Republic Insurance of New York from the ObamaCare exchange as of Nov. 30 because the company is gushing red ink - losing more than $130 million in 18 months.

**SNIP** In addition to touting the opening of the enrollment period, Obama took on the law's critics in his weekly address. "What we're talking about is no longer just a law, and it's certainly not the myths and scare tactics that the cynics have peddled our way for years," Obama said. "This is healthcare in America. And the bottom line is, Americans like it."

When you head into the emergency room, you might assume that the doctors you see are hospital employees who accept the same insurance plans as their employer. But nearly two-thirds of hospitals now staff their ERs with freelance physicians who might not accept your insurance plan, meaning you’ll be on the hook for whatever your insurer doesn’t pay. ---SNIP-- As we’ve discussed before, "balance-billing" is the practice by which out-of-network doctors will bill patients for the balance that remains after the insurance companies pays out its contractually obligated amount to the hospital.

Many concerned Americans are following the battle in Congress to defund Planned Parenthood, spurred by videos released over the summer by the Center for Medical Progress allegedly showing the organization selling the pieces of aborted babies. However, even if the abortion organization loses its funding from the federal budget, many tax payers will still be supporting it with their hard-earned dollars. Because along with the money they get from the from the federal budget, Planned Parenthood receives money from Obamacare and from state coffers. A General Accounting Office Study requested by pro-life members of Congress and released at the end...

As open enrollment season on HealthCare.gov begins, President Obama is introducing a contest meant to motivate Americans to sign up for health insurance coverage through federal and state exchanges. "I want to see how many of your neighbors you can get signed up," the president said in a video released Saturday. "I'll come visit the city that enrolls the highest percentage of folks who aren't covered right now. That's a promise." Twenty major cities will participate in the Healthy Communities Challenge, competing to see the largest decrease for those without health insurance. A high percentage of the population in these...

The misbegotten mess known as the Patient Deflection and Unaffordable Care Act is really starting to collapse: Humana said it will discontinue several products offered on government-run exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, impacting about 100,000 individuals currently covered by the insurer's plans across the country. The move, disclosed this morning in the company's third-quarter earnings report, comes due to higher-than expected medical costs from sick newly insured patients covered under the health law."Operating results for the company's individual commercial medical business continue to be challenged primarily due to the volatility related to the start of the healthcare exchange...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - Republicans most trust Dr. Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee to handle the issue of abortion, according to a recent CNN poll. However, a series of statements from Carson's campaign, and from Dr. Carson himself, have led to questions about the clarity of his pro-life views about when life begins, how RU-486 works, and his views on experimenting with aborted fetal tissue, among other issues. On Tuesday, the Carson campaign defended his decision to refer women to abortionists if the child suffered from fetal deformities. "Referring it on does not mean he is advocating...

REBECCA KAPLAN August 11, 2015 Ben Carson Responds To Hillary Clinton On Abortion Neurosurgeon and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson clarified his stance on abortion Tuesday in the wake of an attack from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who criticized the entire GOP field for being offensive to women. "I spent my entire career as a pediatric neurosurgeon, frequently staying up all night, fighting, struggling to save the life of little babies, even operating on babies inside the womb. So I don't think it should be hard for anyone to understand that I am totally opposed to killing babies,"...

For the fourth time, Obamacare is going before the Supreme Court, this time to decide if forcing religious nonprofit groups to provide contraception against their beliefs is constitutional. Politico: The case represents yet another trip for the Affordable Care Act before the justices since the law's passage more than five years ago — and this one could represent another Obamacare-Supreme Court flash point in an election year. But unlike some of the earlier Obamacare challenges, a ruling against the administration would not cripple the legislation. The law's major provisions, such as the health insurance exchanges, the subsidies and Medicaid...

President Obama's weekly remarks Hi, everybody. For decades, too many working Americans went without the security of health insurance — and their financial well-being suffered because of it. We’ve begun to change that. As the Affordable Care Act has taken effect, we’ve covered 17.6 million Americans. Since 2010, the uninsured rate has decreased by 45%. And for the first time, more than 90% of Americans are covered.

The Obama administration is sending a new message to people on the Obamacare e-mail list. Sign up for health insurance by December 15 or face big fines. “Important,” the new email warns subscribers. “The penalty for not having health insurance is increasing. If you don’t sign up for coverage, you’ll risk having to pay $695 per person or more for the year.” Since the new enrollment period is in session, email messages from the Obamacare website have increased urging more people to sign up for coverage or face fines. When asked about the fines faced by Americans without insurance, White...

The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear lawsuits from religious nonprofits who say the government didn’t go far enough when it offered to carve them out of President Obama’s birth-control rules on employers. The justices agreed to take on seven cases brought by faith-based colleges and ministries from across the country, marking the fourth time that a skirmish over all or part of Obamacare has made it to the Supreme Court. It’s also the second time the justices have agreed to referee the so-called “contraception mandate,” an outgrowth of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 that requires employers to...

If you loathe Obamacare, you’re going to hate what the Democrats have planned next. Their imminent assault on health care will go far beyond the quasi-socialized medicine of Obamacare. Mrs. Clinton is, of course, the grandmother of socialized medicine. She was pushing for it more than 20 years ago, when Mr. Sanders was an obscure local Vermont pol. And yet, she’s struggling match Mr. Sanders on the issue. Another irony: A single-payer system was tried — and went down in spectacular flames — in Mr. Sanders’ home state. That, of course, is immaterial to committed leftists, for whom ideological purity...