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House Republicans passed a bill they say will lower healthcare costs for a broad swath of Americans by roughly 11%. It's a victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has been managing deep divisions within the House GOP on the topic of healthcare as insurance premiums are set to spike across the country in a matter of weeks. One glaring issue that remains unresolved is Obamacare subsidies, which were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic but are set to expire at the end of this year. The legislation passed 216 to 211. Just one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted against...

Four moderate House Republicans are rebelling against Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to join his Democratic counterpart in forcing a vote on enhanced Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of this year. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., all joined a discharge petition by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on his push for a three-year extension of the subsidies. A discharge petition is a mechanism for overriding the will of House leaders to get a chamber-wide vote on specific legislation, provided it has support from a majority of lawmakers. In...

While members of the U.S. Senate continue to battle over whether to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies just days before they expire, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) is sharing some harsh truths. Johnson, in a post on X, recalled how Democrats sold the ACA to the American people as a form of relief that would lower their health care premium costs but instead has raised those premium costs 3 times faster than the the rate of inflation. The Speaker shared a chart showing how, since 2014, premium costs on the ACA exchange have risen twice as...

A few weeks ago, I gave the Republican Party some unsolicited advice about what they should do if they want to get back into the saddle and start winning elections again after this year’s string of off-season/special election losses. Essentially it boiled down to using power to fight the Democrats while giving your own client base the things that it wants. In other words, what people throughout history, in every era, in every type of political system from the most despotic to the most egalitarian, would recognise as basic political acumen. The Democrats, despite their complete disconnection from several basic...

House Republicans released legislation Friday aimed at lowering healthcare costs through expanded insurance options for small businesses and unprecedented transparency requirements for pharmacy benefit managers, setting up a crucial vote next week as enhanced Obamacare subsidies expire at year’s end.The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, introduced by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa-01), is the GOP's alternative to Democratic proposals as Democrats push to extend expiring ACA premium tax credits that help 22 million Americans purchase insurance.Speaker Mike Johnson announced the measure would receive a floor vote next week, though GOP leadership indicated moderate Republicans seeking subsidy extensions may...

...talks in Berlin this weekend involving White House envoy Steve Witkoff, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and... Democrat Congressman speaking of photos from the Jeffrey Epstein Estate depicting...sex acts... The US Treasury lifting sanctions on controversial Brazilian Supreme Court Justice... One person killed during a Ukrainian drone attack... Two new US government reports are out concerning the troubled V-22 Osprey... House Republicans introducing their version of Obamacare extension... A US special forces team raided a Chinese merchant vessel...headed for Iran... Trump says there is agreement between Thailand and Cambodia... International Criminal Court prosecutor ousted after his arrest warrants for Israeli... Germany...

A Republican-drafted proposal to set up health savings accounts for people who buy their health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace failed to advance on a largely party-line vote Thursday, The legislation, which needed 60 votes to advance, failed by a vote of 51 to 48. Every Democrat voted against it. Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) was the only Republican to vote “no.” Paul argued in a post on social platform X that funneling ACA subsidies into HSAs instead of to insurance companies “may be a slight improvement.” “But it’s still a vote for ObamaCare — something conservatives would...

One of the big fights coming this January is how to reform the failing Obamacare program, aka, the Unaffordable Care Act. Without massive COVID-era subsidies, users will pay a lot more in 2026. The program itself has so many problems, beginning with the fact that many well-off people qualify, and so much money goes to directly fund insurance companies, no questions asked. It is more than past time to just let this whole mess disappear. But many working people who don’t qualify for Medicaid need some options. Sen. Rand Paul has perhaps the simplest and most effective answer, one that...

Donald Trump is backing a GOP proposal depositing $1,500 checks into the health care accounts of millions of Americans. The legislation, which is being led by Republican Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, gives qualifying Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollees a $1,000 deposit for those aged 18 to 49, as well as recipients aged 50 to 64 for $1,500. While speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Tuesday, the president

As federal health care subsidies barrel toward expiration, a bipartisan group of 35 U.S. lawmakers is calling on leaders in the House and Senate to hold a vote on extending the benefits before the end of next week. The group includes Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Grand Junction Republican who has been pushing for a renewal of the subsidies, known as the enhanced premium tax credit. The subsidies, passed by Democrats in Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic, helped lower insurance premiums for plans purchased through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, but are now slated to expire on Dec. 31. Many Coloradans have...

For over a decade, Americans have been force-fed a medicine that was supposed to heal our healthcare system. Instead, like a treatment with devastating side effects, the Affordable Care Act has left millions of families sicker financially than before they took the first dose. The prescription label promised affordability, but the bill that arrives each month tells a different story. While Democrats held the government hostage during the longest shutdown in American history over their precious ObamaCare subsidies, working families continued hemorrhaging money to insurance companies. The enhanced subsidies that progressives fought to protect are set to expire at year’s...

Few people lie awake at night worried about the federal debt. So the Republicans' plan to allow "temporary" COVID-19-era enhanced subsidies for Obamacare to expire because of their exorbitant cost won't win many votes. It will save Uncle Sam money. A staggering 93% of premiums are currently paid directly by the federal government to the insurance companies, reports the Paragon Health Institute. But will it win votes in the coming midterm elections? No. Democrats are gloating that reducing the subsidies will mean higher costs for enrollees and an increase in the number of people who go without insurance. Sen. Chris...

Their record isn’t just spotty; it is downright awful. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 was designed to prevent “patient dumping” by hospitals of emergent patients without insurance. The unintended consequences of that law are hotly debated. What is not in controversy is the hospital lobby’s insistence that the law drives up their operating costs.That argument has done decades of service to protectionist policies that limit competition and protect prices.Then there is the Affordable Care Act. It was a compromise between advocates of “universal health care” and the “Third Way” or “New Democrats” who viewed big...

Earlier this year, when Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began reporting on massive amounts of fraud in our social programs, the Democrats scoffed at him. They ran before any camera they could find to claim breathlessly that Musk was going to take away Social Security and leave Grandma out in the cold.That's not true, of course. Musk and DOGE were trying to not only save America from fiscal ruin, but to make these programs sustainable for the people who actually need and paid into them — the American taxpayers.Democrats, on the other hand, seem to view those programs...

It starts with a call. A sore knee, a lingering cough, a changing mole - nothing urgent - but not quite ignorable. The receptionist is polite, but the first available appointment is three weeks away.For millions of Americans, health care begins with a wait. For many, walk-in clinics have replaced family medicine.“People have started to accept that,” Dr. Dorothy Serna, a primary care physician who left traditional practice for a concierge model, told The Epoch Times. “They think, ‘I can’t get my doctor, so I won’t even try. I’ll just go to urgent care. I’ll wait. I’ll Google it.’”Such scenarios...

After successfully holding strong in the face of a Democrat-led government shutdown over Obamacare, a cabal of House Republicans is now waiving the white flag on the issue.On Thursday, nearly three dozen Democrats and Republicans introduced a proposal to extend taxpayer-funded Obamacare subsidies. As Federalist Senior Contributor Christopher Jacobs has regularly reported in these pages, these Biden-era subsidies — which are set to expire at the end of this year — have been a complete and total disaster. Spearheaded by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Jen Kiggins, R-Va., the measure “would extend and reduce the tax credits in a two-step...

An analysis of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly known as Obamacare, has unveiled massive fraud that could be costing American taxpayers billions of dollars, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released on Dec. 3. Under the program, the federal government pays credits to health insurance companies, called advance premium tax credit (APTC), on behalf of eligible Obamacare participants to reduce their monthly premium payments. In plan year 2024, almost $124 billion in such credits is estimated to have been paid out to insurance companies, accounting for around 19.5 million enrollees. The GAO report...

Sen. Josh Hawley is pitching his colleagues — and President Donald Trump — on a new health care plan. The Missouri Republican’s proposal comes as his party is grappling separately over what its strategy on health care should be as the Senate stares down a floor vote next week onHawley believes his new bill, which would allow all tax payers to deduct up to $25,000 per person in medical expenses, would help offer Republicans an agenda to coalesce behind while boosting the GOP’s affordability message heading into an election year. The bill also allows out of pocket spending on premiums...

Glenn Medical Center in Willows closed Oct. 21 after losing “critical access” status for being 3 miles closer to the nearest hospital than rules require. The closure strips emergency care from a poor farming community, eliminates 150 jobs and puts rural residents at risk of preventable deaths. Many other California hospitals also face risks of closing because of federal healthcare cuts affecting cash-strapped rural healthcare systems. These are questions that elected officials and policymakers may soon be confronting in rural communities across California and the nation. Cuts to Medicaid funding and the Affordable Care Act are likely to roll down...

The ACA obscures the true costs of healthcare. The government shutdown revealed just how much.Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health insurance premiums have steadily increased, as has healthcare’s proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP). In employer-sponsored insurance, escalating premiums are the primary driver for stagnant take-home wages. The structure of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and employer-sponsored insurance conceal the true cost of healthcare. The recent government shutdown exposed this underlying flaw to public scrutiny. Should the premium tax credits lapse as expected, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) projects that premiums for Americans will increase...