Free Republic

President Trump's executive order suspending immigration from seven countries will have a “detrimental effect” on the nation's graduate medical education and the health care system as a whole, two UPMC physicians wrote this week in a major medical journal. Drs. Ahmad Masri and Mourad Senussi, fellows in UPMC's cardiovascular fellowship training program, examined available data on doctors and students from some of the banned countries, publishing the results Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Trump's order bars U.S. entry of people from the Muslim-majority countries of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. “By doing these blanket...

Leaders for the health insurance industry, state insurance commissioners and brokers warned Wednesday that more health plans almost certainly will defect from Affordable Care Act marketplaces unless Congress and the Trump administration provide some concrete assurances within the next two months. Unless the government promises to continue subsidies and other features of the law for at least another year, some states probably will not have any insurers selling health plans to individuals buying coverage on their own for 2018, the witnesses warned at a Senate hearing. “I think we would lose more insurance companies,” said Marilyn Tavenner, president of America’s...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will go to battle next week in a debate over the future of ObamaCare. Sanders and Cruz, who both ran for their party's nomination in the 2016 presidential race, will square off in a debate airing on CNN next Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 9 p.m. The debate will be moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. The debate comes as Republicans in Congress craft a plan to repeal and replace former President Obama’s signature healthcare law. A promo for the debate aired during CNN's town hall with House Minority Leader...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KTyQYh6SBA

CNN anchor Jake Tapper and chief political correspondent Dana Bash will moderate a Town Hall Debate with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Texas Senator Ted Cruz on the future of Obamacare at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7. President Donald Trump has made repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act one of his top priorities while Congressional Democrats are opposed. Sanders, an opponent of repealing Obamacare, and Cruz, a supporter of the President’s healthcare agenda, will join Tapper and Bash to debate the fate of former President Barack Obama's signature legislation and the GOP’s approach to healthcare....

Judge Andrew Napolitano, writing in last week’s Washington Times, explained the meaning of Trump’s very first executive order – which was designed to destroy the teeth of Obamacare.

Washington President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Tuesday night, fulfilling his campaign promise to nominate a documented judicial conservative to the nation's justiceship. Gorsuch currently serves as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, considered a lion of the law and a hero of the political Right. Scalia died over a year ago, leaving a vacancy on the nine-judge court. But Republican Senate leadership refused to entertain then-president Barack Obama's choice for...

Trump's executive order: remove at least two previously implemented regulations for every new one.The order could have major ramifications for healthcare, one of the most regulated industries in the U.S. Providers and vendors face a myriad of rules drafted by numerous agencies and departments, including CMS, Health Resources and Services Administration, Food and Drug Administration and Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Dozens of regulations leveled against the healthcare industry every year include licensing requirements; quality and safety inspections; and standards to adhere to payment policies. . . major ones last year: a rule that mandated the medical...

Today, more than 100 million Americans depend on healthcare safety-net programs: Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But that safety net could be shredded if Dr. Tom Price - Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services - has his way. [Snip] There are many reasons to oppose these plans, but one of the most important is also the most overlooked: climate change. As physicians, we see our patients suffering as the planet warms. A 2014 survey by the National Medical Association found that a majority of African-American physicians - who often serve low-income communities and communities...

WASHINGTON — A woman impersonated the wife of a GOP lawmaker and snuck into the congressional Republican retreat in Philadelphia Thursday, the same day President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence appeared, retreat organizers told lawmakers late Saturday. The revelation came as the nonprofit Congressional Institute that organizes the retreat investigates how audio of the gathering leaked. In an email to GOP lawmakers, institute president Mark Strand did not directly say that the impersonator was the same person who leaked the audio, but that was the implication. “The Congressional Institute is continuing to investigate this breach in order to...

Talking about getting rid of Obamacare was easy — now Republicans are sweating over actually doing it. A recording of a meeting of Congressional Republicans reveals their doubts, concerns and worries over how to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and how to replace that health-care reform law, the Washington Post reported Friday. The recording underscored the fact that while Obamacare has been popular for many people, it also has led to insurance for millions of Americans whose loss of it would generate political fallout, the report said. "We'd better be sure that we're prepared to live with the market we've...

PHILADELPHIA — Republican lawmakers aired sharp concerns about their party’s quick push to repeal the Affordable Care Act inside a closed-door meeting Thursday, according to a recording of the session obtained by The Washington Post. The recording reveals a GOP that appears to be filled with doubts about how to make good on a long-standing promise to get rid of Obamacare without explicit guidance from President Trump or his administration.

The Trump administration says it is pulling back advertising to promote HealthCare.gov as open enrollment draws to a close for this year. The Health and Human Services Department said in a statement Thursday that the government has withdrawn about $5 million in ads as part of an effort to cut costs. The statement said HHS has already spent more than $60 million to promote sign-ups this year under former President Barack Obama's health care law. Former Obama officials immediately accused the new administration of "sabotage." Calling the decision "outrageous," former HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan said in a statement that the...

The Trump administration said Thursday night it is pulling back advertising to promote HealthCare.gov as open enrollment draws to a close for this year. The Health and Human Services Department said in a statement that the government has pulled back about $5 million in ads as part of an effort to cut costs. The statement said HHS has already spent more than $60 million to promote sign-ups this year under former President Barack Obama’s health care law. Former Obama officials immediately accused the new administration of “sabotage.” …

The Trump administration has reportedly killed media ads designed to encourage people to enroll in insurance coverage through the federal Obamacare marketplace before next Tuesday's open-enrollment deadline. The former CEO of that marketplace, HealthCare.gov, called the move an "outrageous decision" to "sabotage open enrollment" in Obamacare. The White House also has ended other outreach efforts to spur sign-ups on the HealthCare.gov marketplace, according to Politico, which broke the story Thursday.

More than 1,000 people came out for the “Queer Rager” dance party outside the Loews Philadelphia Hotel last night to protest President Donald Trump and the GOP retreat, which will occupy the hotel until Friday. The protest brought a steady throng of dancers and demonstrators who voiced their concerns about a wide range of issues surrounding Trump and GOP policy on the Affordable Care Act, LGBTQ issues, law enforcement, immigration, climate change and more. Philly is in the national spotlight right now – and protestors are showing up. The demonstrations will continue into today and likely grow in size, as...

Within four hours of becoming president of the United States, Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to limit immediately the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) in ways that are revolutionary. With the stroke of a pen, the president assaulted the heart of the law that was the domestic centerpiece of his predecessor’s administration. How did this happen? How can a U.S. president, who took an oath to enforce the laws faithfully, gut one of them merely because he disagrees with it? Here is the back story. When ObamaCare went through Congress in 2010, all...

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday introduced legislation to replace ObamaCare with, as he put it in a press release, “a health care plan grounded in broadly supported conservative reforms.” According to Paul (shown), the ObamaCare Replacement Act would both repeal the most onerous provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and provide Americans with greater flexibility in purchasing health insurance and care.“Getting government out of the American people’s way and putting them back in charge of their own health care decisions will deliver a strong, efficient system that doesn’t force them to empty out their pockets to cover their...

Because repealing Obamacare wasn’t complicated enough already, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has asked Congress to keep paying for the law’s expansion of Medicaid to working-age adults with no kids and no disabilities.Since Kasich is a Republican, his advocacy for the biggest part of Obamacare — roughly three-fourths of all Obamacare enrollees are on Medicaid, not “marketplace” plans — is a big hit with the legacy press. And like all policies the media love, Kasich’s Obamacare expansion is covered much the same way your parents would report on your first science project.Kasich says Obamacare expansion is a success, and that’s...

FULL TITLE: Rate of IUD insertions DID go up after the election: Huge data set reveals 19% increase in women getting coils since Trump's win in November The rate of women getting and requesting intrauterine devices (IUDs) has rocketed since Donald Trump was elected president, new data reveal. IUDs - a contraceptive device that can last up to 10 years - became a hot topic after the election. The interest was largely driven by fears Trump's healthcare reforms would limit access to contraception, or affect insurance funding that makes the Pill free. Now, a large data set has confirmed what...