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UPDATE - It looks like a deal has been reached, with Democrats sounding pretty darned happy about it. Paul Ryan also seems upbeat. But what, exactly, will this monster of a spending snowball include? Details are just beginning to emerge, but thus far it looks like Obamacare doesn't receive funding, and DACA has not been addressed -- but President Trump got at least some of his border security money: Philip Klein ✔ @philipaklein Ds and Rs finalizing $1.2 trillion spending deal -- No Obamacare funding or DACA, but has border security money, @susanferrechio reports https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/congressional-leaders-finalizing-12-trillion-spending-deal … 11:08 AM - Mar...

Multiple lawmakers left a meeting with House Republican leadership on Monday night, confirming that the House version of the omnibus spending bill will not include an Obamacare bailout package proposed by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Congress must pass the omnibus spending bill before midnight Friday or the government will shut down. The proposed bailout package would include Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction subsidies for three years and funding a federal reinsurance program for three years in exchange for increased flexibility for states through federal waivers. The program would also expand eligibility for Obamacare “copper” plans. The removal of...

Congressional Republicans unveiled legislation on Monday that would funnel billions of dollars to Obamacare markets, and hope the provision can be attached to the long-term government spending that's due Friday. The new bill would fund insurer payments known as cost-sharing reduction payments for three years, and offer $30 billion in reinsurance funds distributed evenly for three years...

A new study reveals that 21,904 Americans have died while withering away on Medicaid waiting lists in states that expanded the program under Obamacare. The victims were poor and disabled applicants herded to the back of the line to make room for able-bodied adults with incomes above the federal poverty level (FPL). Why would any state pursue such a cruel and unjust policy? Obamacare incentivizes expansion states to shift Medicaid’s focus to able-bodied adults by paying over 90 percent of their coverage costs, while paying less than 60 percent of the costs for covering the truly poor and disabled. The...

As more states consider expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, along comes another independent study showing increased government insurance for low-income Americans pays for itself. Take the state of Montana, which expanded Medicaid in 2016 to more than 90,000 people. A study out this month from the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research shows the expansion of Medicaid generates a half-trillion dollars a year in healthcare spending. Of that, 70%, or $350 million to $400 million, is “new money circulating in Montana’s economy.” Beginning this year, states gradually began to pick up some costs, but the...

The tax-reform provision repealing the penalty on those who refuse to participate in ObamaCare has freed millions of Americans to escape a system that exploits them. But while Americans can escape ObamaCare, they still can’t buy insurance in the individual market independent of ObamaCare because private insurers are prohibited from selling it. If this prohibition can be removed through the granting of state waivers by the Department of Health and Human Services, or by the passage of a new federal statute, ObamaCare will collapse into a high-risk insurance pool for the seriously ill rather than become a stepping stone to...

Ignore everything you have been told by the “news” media about Texas v. United States, the lawsuit recently filed by 20 states challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare. The Fourth Estate, in its all but official role as the public relations department of the Democratic Party, has generally downplayed the suit as yet another futile attempt by fanatical Republicans bent on destroying former President Obama’s “legacy.” Following their usual playbook for reporting constitutional challenges to the “Affordable Care Act” the media briefly sneered about its merits and then, to paraphrase David Burge, “covered the story with a pillow.” It is nonetheless...

Meet Ammar Campa-Najjar, a 2018 primary candidate for California’s 50th Congressional District: According to his website, he’s just your run-of-the-mill southern California Democrat. He’s a gun-grabber from the word go, utterly dedicated to a woman’s right to murder the fruit of her womb, and celebrates the full range of possible psycho-sexual unions, including, generously, the one likely to bear such fruit. He favors Medicare for all without a hint of how to pay for it, and he demands the total abolition of any meaningful border between California and the drug cartels. Oh, yes -- he happens to be the grandson...

HERE'S A HUGELY winning issue for President Donald Trump that would deal with a gross trading abuse and simultaneously advance his goal of reducing the prices of prescription drugs: Insist that foreign buyers of American pharmaceuticals--almost without exception government agencies--pay their fair share of the research and development costs of these medicines. Currently, Americans are subsidizing overseas users of our drugs. Here's how that works. The average price of successfully bringing a new medicine to market in the U.S. is about $2.4 billion. The entire approval process takes some 12 years before a drug receives its final green light. The...

In an ideal world, providers would be able to spend less time collecting quality data and more time actually improving the quality of care, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said here Thursday. "We need to ensure that in the quest for information on quality, we don't have providers, payers or others spend so much time accumulating data to improve reporting that they're not actually improving quality," Azar said during a press briefing with reporters at HHS headquarters. "Let's make sure it's the information that really matters; let's have the minimal necessary reporting burden to get the job...

Sen. Jeff Flake’s bill to enshrine the DACA program in law would also make the illegal immigrant “Dreamers” eligible for Obamacare — including perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to buy health plans, Congressional scorekeepers said this week. Mr. Flake, Arizona Republican, tried to power his bill through the Senate on Tuesday, but was blocked by another senator. His bill would offer those who qualified for the original DACA program a new, three-year legal status, which would include permission to work in the country legally, in exchange for $7 billion — or about three year’s worth of...

At least 21,000 needy people have died while waiting for Medicaid coverage, while 13 million able-bodied adults received Medicaid coverage in states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, an explosive new study revealed Tuesday. At least 247,295 people are currently on waiting lists to enroll in Medicaid. The study, published by the Foundation for Government Accountability, revealed that when Obamacare enabled states to vastly expand Medicaid, it resulted in mismanagement, depriving the most needy and rewarding the able-bodied. "This really is a tragedy. Medicaid was designed as a safety net for the truly needy....

Nancy Pelosi is about to lose some progressive friends after deciding to endorse Rep. Dan Lipinski in his re-election bid in Illinois's 3rd congressional district. Lipinski, you see, is one of the very few conservative Democrats left. He has a record of opposing abortion, gay rights and Obamacare. Asked at her weekly press conference Thursday if she supports him, Pelosi replied, "Yes, I do." It is an endorsement even the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has refused to offer. Other Democrats have gone one step further, endorsing his primary challenger, Marie Newman. “This is not a rubber-stamp party,” Pelosi told The...

A new poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals that nearly four in five Republicans oppose Obamacare. The Kaiser poll found that 78 percent of Republicans oppose Obamacare, while 83 percent of Democrats support the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Fifty-five percent of Americans say they support the 2010 healthcare law, while 48 percent of Americans oppose the ACA. The survey arose right after Republicans managed to repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Forty percent of those polled were unaware that the individual mandate was repealed. Twenty-two percent of voters suggested that the rising cost...

Court case: Chesteen v. U.S. (Bankr. E.D. La., No. 17-11472 Section “B” Chapter 13, 2/9/18)A U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana ruled that a taxpayer’s $695 shared responsibility payment under the ACA individual mandate is more properly characterized as a penalty, not a tax, and as such is not entitled to priority treatment under the Bankruptcy Code. Background. John D. Chesteen, Jr. filed for relief under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code on June 8, 2017. His amended priority claim was $5,100.10, based on amounts he owed the IRS for 2015 and 2016. After several amendments to...

Former President Barack Obama denied that his administration had any scandals that embarrassed him or his team. It is unclear why Obama clarified that there were no scandals “that embarrassed us.” “There were mistakes,” he admitted. “We’d screw up, but there wasn’t anything venal during eight years. I know that seems like a low bar, but you look at the presidency; that’s no small thing.” Conservatives remember the Obama years differently, citing the Fast and Furious scandal, the IRS scandal, wiretapping journalists, the terror attacks in Benghazi, delivering pallets of cash to Iran, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s...

Health insurance premiums in California are expected to rise nearly 18 percent in 2019 as a result of federal policy changes enacted by Congress and the Trump administration, according to an analysis released Monday by the Urban Institute left-leaning think tank.

A coalition of 20 U.S. states sued the federal government on Monday over Obamacare, claiming the law was no longer constitutional after the repeal last year of its requirement that people have health insurance or pay a fine. Led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, the lawsuit said that without the individual mandate, which was eliminated as part of the Republican tax law signed by President Donald Trump in December, Obamacare was unlawful. "The U.S. Supreme Court already admitted that an individual mandate without a tax penalty is unconstitutional," Paxton said in a statement....

After rightly rejecting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion for several years, Idaho officials have now concocted a new version of Obamacare expansion. While some supporters have rallied around the plan’s uniqueness, it’s important to examine exactly what distinguishes this expansion plan from the rest: It’s worse. First, the truly needy already qualify for Medicaid in Idaho. Supporters of Idaho’s Obamacare plan want the public to believe that this plan is essential to the survival of Idaho’s neediest residents. But the truly needy already qualify for Medicaid in the Gem State. Idaho’s Medicaid program already covers low-income kids, pregnant women, seniors, individuals with...

Norma Diaz and her husband, Joseph Garcia, have dedicated their careers to running a nonprofit health insurer that covers some of California’s neediest residents. For three decades, they have worked for a Medicaid managed-care plan, Community Health Group, serving nearly 300,000 poor and disabled patients in San Diego County under a state contract funded entirely by taxpayers. They’ve earned above-average ratings for patient care. And in the process, they’ve made millions of dollars. Together, Diaz and Garcia made $1.1 million in 2016 and received more than $5 million since 2012. Diaz’s compensation as CEO exceeded the pay of several peers...