Free Republic

Another insurer is leaving Florida, where homeowners are paying more than ever for insurance, despite the state’s attempt to shore up the wobbling market. Tuesday, Farmers Insurance informed the state it was dropping home, auto and umbrella policies across Florida, potentially affecting tens of thousands of people. It’s the fourth company to leave the Florida market in the last year — most citing rising risks from hurricanes. Farmers, a large company with a national presence, also has reduced new business in California, citing extreme weather and wild fire threats. “This business decision was necessary to effectively manage risk exposure,” the...

Friday night is a great night to go out with friends, drink, eat, play around, and generally goof off. It’s decidedly not a night that most Americans pay attention to the news. The government knows this, which is why they usually announce really bad news on Friday night. Such was the case this past Friday evening when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a shocking 14.5% increase in Medicare premiums for seniors. It’s OK, though, says the government. Social Security has increased its payments to seniors by 5.7%, so everything is going to be alright. Is it? Bideninflation...

CVS Health Corp said on Tuesday it would return to selling individual health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare, saying the market had stabilized. Large health insurers such as UnitedHealth and CVS Health’s Aetna unit exited ACA exchanges in 2017 and 2018, due to years of mounting losses, and uncertainty as Republicans took aim at former U.S. President Barack Obama’s signature law. “We’ve been studying the individual market for a while. Some of the remedies have been put in place. Clearly there’s a big market,” CVS Health’s recently-appointed Chief Executive Officer Karen Lynch said...

Thanks to President Donald Trump’s slashes to the federal government’s Obamacare advertising budget and his administration’s “sabotage” of Obamacare, hundreds of thousands of clueless people have been left in the dark and aren’t enrolling in Obamacare—at least, that’s what countless reporters and pundits would have you believe. However, the truth is this issue is far more complex that what many on the Left suggest.There’s no doubt that 2019 Obamacare enrollment has dropped compared to enrollment figures from one year ago. The Associated Press reports enrollment in the federal Obamacare exchange—the health insurance exchange used by 39 states—has fallen by nearly 20...

A proposal to repeal Obamacare entitlements and replace them with grants to states would reduce premiums for individual coverage by as much as 32 percent, according to an analysis by the Center for Health and Economy.The Health Care Choices Proposal also would modestly reduce the deficit, increase the number of people with private health insurance, and cut Medicaid spending, according to Center for Health and Economy.The proposal, the product of national and state think tanks, policy analysts, and others in the conservative community, embarks on a new path to empower consumers and return authority to the states to provide people...

RUSH: How many of you have gone out and tried to buy health insurance lately? Have you been surprised by any of it? Well, I’m asking you out there because there is stunning news — beta 9 just dropped if you want to go — you’ve got it, okay. There’s a story here Investor’s Business Daily. Well, Investors. It used to be Investor’s Business Daily, but they have modernized.“Media Ignore Record Low Increase In Obamacare Premiums.” Anybody want to guess why? I wonder if any of you who have tried to buy health insurance lately have been shocked at how...

Imagine if you were poor and you got Medicaid, heavily subsidized by the taxpayer, but you had to pay between $1 and $15 a month in premiums. Wouldn't that be confusing? For many people, it is so confusing that they don't understand how to pay and end up being kicked off Medicaid. [Snip] Critics of the plan point to Indiana, which dropped about 25,000 adults from its Medicaid program from 2015 through 2017 for failing to pay premiums there. Some also find the new work requirements some states have imposed troubling ...

Nearly 30,000 people in Switzerland are on a “blacklist” because they don’t pay their health insurance premiums, according to Swiss media. Blacklists have only been permitted as an option since 2012 and only nine cantons have chosen to introduce them, the Aargauer Zeitung reported on Wednesday. The lists include people who do not pay their premiums or fall behind in their payments. […] Those blacklisted will no longer receive cover for medical bills apart from in an emergency. […] Swiss basic health insurance (LaMal) is compulsory for everyone in Switzerland. Individuals can choose from one of over 60 private insurers...

“The losses incurred by carriers since the beginning of the Affordable Care Act are unsustainable, and premium increases that are the result of that are also unsustainable...it’s critical that folks in D.C. put aside their political differences and fix this thing. Otherwise, it will implode.” Maryland's insurance commissioner

There is a near ubiquitous misunderstanding of the function of a deductible in insurance, and it is crippling our national debate on health care. A lot of people in positions of power don’t even know what insurance actually is in the first place, and the fear of the big deductible is a major element of this general confusion. Do not fear the big D. Embrace it. Now why do I advocate for large deductibles? Easy, and it’s not because I’m some fat cat insurance CEO -- because I’m not. For years, I have criticized the abuse of large deductibles in...

Obamacare, the left’s grand attempt to create a national government-run health care system, has failed. They promised lower health insurance premiums, but delivered higher ones. They promised more choice and competition, but delivered less. They promised continuity and better access to care, but delivered disruption and dislocation. Despite promises that people could keep their plans and doctors, thousands of Americans were forced into more expensive insurance with higher deductibles and plans that didn’t include their doctors. After spending billions in tax dollars, Obamacare managed to increase the number of people with health insurance by much less than predicted—with over 80...

Arizona will be hit the hardest whenObamacare premiums go up next year. The Department of Health and Human Services revealed Monday that premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, and that about 1 in 5 consumers will have plans only from a single insurer to pick from, after major national carriers such as UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna scaled back their roles. However, in Arizona, unsubsidized premiums for a hypothetical 27-year-old buying a benchmark “second-lowest cost silver plan” will jump by 116 percent,...

ObamaCare has had a disastrous effect on the health insurance market in this country, and it takes a hell of a lot of nerve for this guy to stand there and say it couldn't possibly have anything to do with him Sure, it’s classic Obama deflection. He could probably smear dog crap on the bottom of your shoe and somehow make the case that it was all because of Republicans. He is that brazen. But it’s also a classic case of something Obama shares with many other liberals - the utter failure to understand that when the government messes around...

Before March 2010, health care reform was already a divisive political issue. People chose sides for very personal reasons, which made it a difficult topic to discuss using an indoor voice.

When Obamacare’s fourth open enrollment period begins on November 1, many customers will face fewer insurance options and much higher prices. “Only the sick people sign up. And that’s why the premiums are going up, up, up,” said Obamacare critic Betsy McCaughey, who is the former Lt. Gov. of New York. Premiums will go up by double digits, she predicted — “20 percent for the biggest plans in New York, 40 percent in Tennessee, and somewhere in between around the country.” …

Double-digit Obamacare premium hikes projected in 2017 may bode in Donald Trump’s favor, as several swing states are being impacted by double-digit increases under the law and consumers are expected to see the hikes around Nov. 1 — one week before heading to the polls. Trump has promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, but Hillary Clinton has vowed to make the Obamacare exchanges work. Some say the way she would do that is through raising taxes.

If you look up unaffordable in a dictionary, it should be right there under Obamacare. Premium hikes are coming for those on these health insurance plans. We all knew this was going to come down like a hammer. Guy has been tediously documenting how those on these plans are about to hit the inevitable iceberg, where hikes are expected to soar into the double-digits. It’s become so bad that Americans are now opting to pay the penalty and remain uninsured because it’s the better economical choice. Now, those double-digit hikes are going to hit those on low-cost plans under the law...

Americans in markets across the country could be looking at double-digit premium hikes under ObamaCare next year, according to a new study that’s already fueling election-year finger-pointing. The Kaiser Family Foundation report found premiums for popular low-cost plans under the health care law are projected to increase an average 11 percent in 2017. Among the sharpest projected increases are: 26 percent in Portland, Ore.; 21 percent in the District of Columbia; and 16 percent in New York City. The study focused on the two least-expensive — and very popular — “silver” policies. It specifically examined the impact of rising premiums...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Premiums for popular low-cost medical plans under the federal health care law are expected to go up an average of 11 percent next year, said a study that reinforced reports of sharp increases around the country in election season. For consumers, the impact will depend on whether they get government subsidies for their premiums, as well as on their own willingness to switch plans to keep the increases more manageable, said the analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

Plenty of Americans choose to reject ObamaCare to save themselves a boatload of money. Republicans in Congress believe the US budget should have that choice, and the CBO agrees with them that it would work, too. Their latest analysis of a bill that would repeal the major components of ObamaCare through the reconciliation process concludes that it would reduce federal deficit spending by $516 billion over the first ten years: Legislation to gut most of ObamaCare’s mandates and taxes, known as Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, would reduce the deficit by $516 billion over 10 years, according to the...