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Taking a harder line on health care, the Trump administration joined a coalition of Republican-led states Wednesday in asking a federal appeals court to entirely overturn former President Barack Obama's signature health care law — a decision that could leave millions uninsured. Congress rendered the Affordable Care Act completely unconstitutional in 2017 by eliminating an unpopular tax penalty for not having insurance, the administration and GOP states told the court. The "Obamacare" opponents hope to persuade the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to uphold U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor's ruling late last year striking down...

"We know what works,” then-President Barack Obama said at the Global Center for Health Innovation in 2015. “We know what we have to do. We’ve just got to put aside the stale and outmoded debates. Reject failed policies. Embrace the policies that we know work. Embrace the promise of the future.” What Obama claimed with such overweening confidence was that a few technical changes might fix most of the problems with healthcare delivery. But he and his allies pushing Obamacare were just plain wrong. His technocratic arguments that the 2010 law could bend the cost curve downward have been refuted...

Sen. Susan Collins is now pushing for twice the amount of money she originally requested in an Obamacare bill she's co-sponsoring in order to win her vote on the tax overhaul measure, The Hill reports. The Maine Republican is co-sponsoring a bill with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, that would provide states with $10 billion over two years to establish reinsurance programs to lower premiums or high-risk pools. They had originally requested $4.5 billion in the bill, the report said. "This plan will provide $5 billion annually for two years in seed money for states to establish invisible high-risk pools or...

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama may not be running for anything these days, but his signature health care law was a big winner in Tuesday’s elections, as voters rebelled against Republican lawmakers who have blocked Obamacare's Medicaid expansion. Democrats are hopeful their victories are a harbinger of further gains as they look to capitalize on the law's rising popularity in polls — and repeal legislation's deep unpopularity — with more ballot initiatives, legislative efforts and campaign messages. In Maine, voters passed a ballot initiative that would expand Medicaid to an estimated 70,000 residents by a margin of 18 points, 59-to-41, doing...

A federal judge on Wednesday denied an attempt by the state of California to force the Trump administration to pay billions of dollars to insurance companies to subsidize health plans for low-income Americans. California and 17 other states sued the Trump administration, arguing that its decision to end the payments was unlawful. As part of the lawsuit, the states sought an emergency temporary restraining order from the U.S. District Court. Attorneys for the states failed to convince U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria that there would be immediate harm to consumers if the payments are not reinstated. “It appears that because...

PHILADELPHIA - Tom Westerman voted for Donald Trump in last year’s election but says he might not do so again after the president cut off billions of dollars in Obamacare subsidies to health insurance companies. Westerman’s change of heart reflects mounting fears among middle-class Democrats and Republicans that their health insurance costs will soar as Trump weakens former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, which extended insurance to more than 20 million Americans. “It seems like he is trying to hurt the middle class,” said Westerman, who is retired from a manufacturing company in Pennsylvania, a state that Trump won....

President Trump on Tuesday appeared to signal support for a bipartisan deal to help stabilize ObamaCare. Trump called the proposal “a short-term solution so that we don’t have this very dangerous little period” for insurance companies. The president spoke minutes after Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced he and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) reached an agreement to aid insurers. “They are working together and I know very much what they’re doing,” Trump said. Their proposal would extend key ObamaCare payments to insurers for two years and offer states greater flexibility to waive the law's rules. Trump announced last week he would...

The Internal Revenue Service was involved in a $5 million push to pressure Americans to buy Obamacare coverage, according to documents obtained from the watchdog group Judicial Watch. Under former president Obama, the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House's Behavioral Sciences Team created a $5 million program to target and pressure those who refused Obamacare and either decided to pay a penalty instead or were exempt from being forced to purchase coverage. "Attached are drafts of the letters that IRS will send to selected taxpayers who paid a penalty for failure to have coverage or who...

State regulators have approved the largest health insurance premium increase in the four-year history of New Mexico’s subsidized exchange, Superintendent of Insurance John Franchini said Wednesday. About 55,000 New Mexico residents sign up each year for federally subsidized insurance through the state’s exchange, known as beWellnm. Average premium increases for 2018 will range from 36 percent to 41 percent for midlevel insurance coverage, according to an analysis by the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance. The full range of premium increases runs from 17 percent to just over 49 percent. “This is the largest increase in the last four years,”...

The Senate Thursday approved on a largely party line vote a budget bill that would repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood, two top priorities of Republicans who control the chamber. By voting to nullify Obamacare -- the signature domestic accomplishment of the Obama administration -- GOP congressional leaders fulfilled a longtime pledge to voters and rank-and-file members to get a repeal to President Barack Obama's desk, even though he will veto it. While the House and Senate have voted scores of times to repeal portions of Obamacare, this was the first time they are using a special tool known as...

With most Republicans backing the Graham/Cassidy healthcare bill, there is at least one Republican senator who's still vocal in his opposition. His name? Senator Rand Paul. Unlike his colleagues, who don't take their promises to American voters seriously, Senator Paul continues to call for the complete and total repeal of ObamaCare, the horrendous health care bill pushed through Congress by former President Obama and his Democratic allies. I was thinking this all sounds familiar...amnesty?#GrahamCassidyِ: Amnesty for Obamacare. — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 19, 2017 "No one wants to repeal ObamaCare more than I do," the senator from Kentucky writes...

Number of uninsured expected to rise due to higher premiums! Next year, average benchmark premiums for Obamacare plans are expected to rise 15 percent more than they did this year, according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office. "In 2018, the agencies project, the average benchmark premium will be roughly 15 percent higher than it was in 2017, largely because of short-term market uncertainty—in particular, insurers' uncertainty about whether federal funding for certain subsidies that are currently available will continue to be provided," the budget office explains. Additionally, premiums for benchmark plans are expected to rise an average of 5...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday applauded Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) new legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare through block grants. President Trump released a statement on Wednesday cheering the Graham and Cassidy bill to replace Obamacare. Graham and Cassidy, along with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Dean Heller (R-NV), and former Sen. Rick Santorum, unveiled their legislation on Wednesday – otherwise known as Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ). The legislation would repeal Obamacare’s individual and employer mandate, Obamacare’s medical device tax, and deliver health care dollars to the states so that they can design a health care system that...

With the shot clock about to expire, Republicans on Capitol Hill may have the ball in their hands again for another chance at what was supposed to be an easy lay-up. Yesterday, Sen. John McCain — who stuck a stake through the heart of the previous ObamaCare repeal effort — announced that he would endorse the only vehicle left remaining. McCain even said that he’d put aside his distaste for operating outside regular order to vote for the Lindsey Graham-Bill Cassidy version of repeal-and-replace: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that he supports a newer version of an ObamaCare...

In one of the biggest 2018 premium hikes sought to date, Iowa’s only ObamaCare insurer is looking for a 57 percent rate increase – that’s 13 percent more than they asked for just two months earlier. It’s a troubling trend that’s been spreading across the country as jittery insurers stay stuck in a holding pattern waiting on Congress and the Trump administration to decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act. President Trump has at different times encouraged lawmakers to let ObamaCare implode, pushed his party to repeal and replace the bill, admonished his own party for failing to do...

Rep. Jim Jordan said Friday that he’s pushing a clean Obamacare repeal bill in the House in an end-run move around leadership. “It’s the same exact legislation we passed 18 months ago — we all voted for, the Senate voted for. We want to bring this to the floor. Our leadership won’t do that. So the only way to go around them is to start what’s called a discharge petition,” Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican and a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said on Fox News. Mr. Jordan said he plans to begin gathering signatures for the petition Friday, and...

Subsidizing Failure: For seven years Republicans have solemnly promised to abolish the financially crumbling ObamaCare law. But now that they have struck out, many in the GOP are working behind closed doors to bail out the very program they say they hate. If they moderate wing of the party prevails and rescues the ObamaCare entitlement, the law will be permanently enshrined into the federal budget only to eat up more tax dollars year after year. What is worse, the deal the Republican surrender caucus is negotiating does almost nothing to actually roll back ObamaCare, provide consumers with more choices, or...

Anthem just announced it will back out of Nevada's Obamacare exchange for 2018. A major insurance provider just announced it will back out of Nevada's Obamacare exchange for 2018. Anthem said in a statement Monday it was leaving Nevada's exchange because "planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage." The company had previously backed out of 14 rural counties in the Silver...

Director of insurance says to stabilize the market and reduce rates, Congress should repeal and replace Obamacare! Health care insurers in Idaho have requested premium rate hikes as high as 81 percent for next year, according to the state's Department of Insurance. The five insurers serving the individual market in Idaho are Blue Cross of Idaho Health Service, Mountain Health Co-Op, PacificSource Health Plans, Regence BlueShield of Idaho, and SelectHealth. For all plans, insurers requested rates ranging from a low of 25 percent to a high of 51 percent for a combined average statewide rate increase of 38 percent. For...

Idaho's insurance regulator blasted the Trump administration's unwillingness to pay Obamacare insurers as the reason premiums couldrise by up to 38 percent next year. The state's Department of Insurance posted proposed rates for 2018 Monday. The state's six Obamacare insurers are calling for an average 38 percent rate hike, including a 50 percent increase for the silver plan, which is the most popular of Obamcare's three plan options. Idaho said the proposed increase for silver plans was because of "the potential refusal by the federal government to fund the cost share reduction mechanism." Insurers are required under law to lower...