Free Republic

Paul Ryan’s "American Health Care Act" was modified Monday. Now the pig has rouge and eye shadow in addition to lipstick Speaker Paul Ryan’s proposed “American Health Care Act” (a.k.a. RINOcare) got a bit of a makeover on Monday. Now the pig has rouge and eye shadow in addition to lipstick. To be fair, some of the changes are good ones. Amendments that will be added to RINOcare on the floor of the House will; • prevent any more states from expanding Medicaid; • allow states to impose work requirements on non-disabled Medicaid recipients; • permit states to receive Medicaid...

“We have eight million people signed up through the exchanges. That doesn’t include the three million young people who are able to stay on their parents’ plan. It doesn’t include the million people who benefited from expansions to Medicaid. So if my math is correct, that’s 14 million right there. You have another five million people who signed up outside of the marketplaces but are part of the same insurance pool. So, we’ve got a sizable part of the U.S. population now that are in the first — for the first time in many cases in a position to enjoy...

The big question about Obamacare this year is whether enough people will enroll to make the controversial health-reform plan viable. Another important question has been overlooked, until now: Will people pay their premiums once they enroll? The unsettling answer appears to be maybe not. The New York Times has discovered that only about 80% of people purchasing health insurance through the federal online marketplace or a similar state-run exchange paid their first month’s premium. There’s no single source of such data, but the Times canvassed insurers participating in the program, such as Aetna (AET), Wellpoint (WLP), Humana (HUM) and Blue...

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it was delaying the deadline for people with pre-existing conditions to enroll in ObamaCare. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Tuesday that it was moving the deadline to March 15 from January 31, the originally scheduled end of the enrollment period. "As part of our continuing effort to help smooth consumers' transition into Marketplace coverage, we are allowing those covered by (the Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan) additional time to shop for new coverage while they receive the ongoing care and treatment they need," HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said in a statement.

The media continues to assure us that everything is fixed with Obamacare now that the website works slightly better, but Americans are experiencing new and different problems with Obama’s program. And they’re tweeting about it. Here are some I was able to find. No, you still can’t keep your doctor: David Prasad @earth2dave2 My old doctor's office is now telling my ACA insurance is not good enough. Now I have to find a new doctor that accepts Obamacare. 11:05 PM - 2 Jan 2014 Amber @oicStars I cannot take my child to the doctor cuz I have high deductible & no money. They require...

It seems Nancy Pelosi was wrong when she said "we have to pass" ObamaCare to "find out what's in it." No one may ever know because the White House keeps treating the Affordable Care Act's text as a mere suggestion subject to day-to-day revision. Its latest political retrofit is the most brazen: President Obama is partly suspending the individual mandate. The White House argued at the Supreme Court that the insurance-purchase mandate was not only constitutional but essential to the law's success, while refusing Republican demands to delay or repeal it...

The Health and Human Services Department announced late Friday that Nevada had secured a statewide waiver from certain implementation requirements of the Obama administration’s health care law, because forcing them through, the department found, “may lead to the destabilization of the individual market.” Nevada’s Insurance Division had appealed to the feds to reduce the federal requirement that health plans serving people who buy insurance on their own must spend at least 80 percent of the money they collect on medical expenses. Under the national rule, companies that don’t spend that percentage of revenue on medical costs have to cut policyholders...

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., one of the most outspoken supporters of President Obama’s landmark health care overhaul just one year ago, is reportedly now looking into how a health law waiver might work for his constituents in the Big Apple.

Passage of the health-care bill will be, for the administration, a catastrophic victory. If it is voted through in time for the State of the Union Address, as President Obama hopes, half the chamber will rise to their feet and cheer. They will be cheering their own demise. If health care does not pass, it will also be a disaster, but only for the administration, not the country. Critics will say, "You didn't even waste our time successfully." What a blunder this thing has been, win or lose, what a miscalculation on the part of the president. The administration misjudged...

President Barack Obama this week has been laying the foundation for Senate Democrats to use a controversial budget maneuver to pass healthcare reform. By offering Republicans olive branches during his address to Congress on Wednesday, Obama has set up a win-win situation. If GOP lawmakers embrace compromise, a healthcare bill would pass Congress easily. But the more likely scenario is that Republicans will continue to oppose Obama’s plan, and the president later this fall will be able to note he tried to strike a deal with the GOP but could not. That will set up a Democratic argument that Senate...