Free Republic

Just as cars can’t go anywhere without drivers and employees can’t work without bosses, health care doesn’t happen when there are no doctors around. And when an estimated 70 percent of the doctors in the nation’s deepest-blue state are rebelling against Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act is forcing a critical decision: America will have to junk Obamacare and go back to square one on health insurance reform, or trash the last vestige of private health care in this country by forcing doctors to do the government’s bidding. The rebellion among California physicians was detailed earlier this week by Washington Examiner...

In the latest in the Paper of Record’s recent series on their gradually creeping realization that There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: ObamaCare Edition, the NYT has a story out this morning that hones in on the Obama administration’s desire to tout premiums that sound as gloriously low as is humanly possible — even if that means deliberately obfuscating the ways in which insurance companies are now looking to make up the increased costs of the overhaul in other, less immediately obvious areas. The Obama administration will herald what appear to be “affordable” premiums available to so...

The real problem, as dozens of thoughtful commentators have concluded, is the law itself. Obamacare is a massive policy experiment that seeks to remake one-sixth of the U.S. economy – a body that’s so fantastically complex, with so many players and so many moving parts, that nobody can possibly understand how they all interact. ... Even Max Baucus, the Democratic Senate finance chairman, has warned that implementing a law so complicated could be a “train wreck.” Mr. Obama is in a tough spot. It’s not just that he looks incompetent – it’s that he looks deceitful. He told people they...

The rise of nonphysician providers will enable more team care. Skilled health aides will monitor patients at home and alert a doctor if certain medical parameters decline. Nurses will provide wound care to diabetic patients, adjust medications like blood thinners and provide the initial management of chemotherapy side effects for cancer patients. Pharmacists will provide more counseling and urgent care. Physicians will remain essential to the proper diagnosis and treatment of disease, but will be backed up by teams who will help manage the more routine features of chronic illness.

Former President Bill Clinton, who prodded President Obama last month to keep his promises on Obamacare, said Tuesday that the political damage for Democrats from the flawed law will be “minimal.” “I believe that if the computer problems are all fixed, and it’s up and running by — and healthy in the next several weeks, I think that the damage will be minimal,” Mr. Clinton told interviewer Jorge Ramos of Fusion. “It’s getting better. I think it’ll be fixed by — in the next few weeks. If it’s worked through, I think within four or five months people will be...

President Obama declared Tuesday that ObamaCare "is working" and that "we're not going back," as the White House looked to reboot its efforts to sell Americans on the president's signature healthcare law. Obama said that "poor execution" of the rollout of HealthCare.gov had "clouded" the benefits of the bill, but said he would not allow technical glitches to undermine a program that was providing financial security for many Americans. "If I've got to fight another three years to make sure this law works, that's what we'll do," Obama said. "We're not repealing it as long as I'm president," he added....

Obama administration officials, racing to beat a month-end deadline to fix the troubled federal insurance website, said Sunday there has been "dramatic progress" in patching HealthCare.gov but acknowledged "there is more work to be done" in improving the site and its underlying technology. An eight-page report released Sunday morning by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials offered a few details of progress in fixing the site, which crashed shortly after its launch Oct. 1.

As best as I can judge from monitoring Twitter for about 20 hours out of every 24, which is my habit these days, few of this country’s big-time journalists are keeping a close eye on the Obamacare crisis in the United States. We are all caught, like flies in a spiderweb, in the evolving stories of Rob Ford and the Senate multi-scandal. Both are news files quite unusual in Canada, delivering little bomblets of fresh weirdness for months on end and on a basis that could be characterized as “daily, gusting to hourly.” Or maybe these stories aren’t unusual; maybe...

The reason this furor will continue even if the website is fixed is that the public is learning that ObamaCare's insurance costs more in return for worse coverage. ObamaCare imposes to create a supposedly superior insurance product are resulting in an objectively inferior medical product. But government usually helps the less fortunate honestly by raising taxes to fund programs. In summer 2009, Senate Democrats put out such a bill, and the $1.6 trillion sticker shock led them to hide the transfers by forcing people to buy overpriced products.

Another stumble now, after recent revelations of policy cancellations and premium increases for some under the reforms known as Obamacare, would further weaken public trust in the administration's ability to implement the 2010 Affordable Care Act intended to help millions of uninsured Americans get coverage. Continued problems also would provide more ammunition for fierce attacks led by conservative Republicans seeking to dismantle a law they consider unworkable and the ultimate example of big government run amok. "This law has been an absolute disaster, leaving us to ask, 'What's next?' " the Ohio Republican said in a statement. "If the President...

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States expanding their Medicaid programs under the healthcare reform law to adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level may be surprised by their actual costs for the new enrollees, particularly when it comes to mental health services, according to a new study published in the Medicare & Medicaid Research Review. Researchers from Harvard University and the Urban Institute interviewed high-ranking Medicaid officials in six states that have expanded Medicaid since 2010, including California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, Washington and the District of Columbia. These were voluntary, early state expansions allowed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care...

Last week, President Obama's announcement offering to allow one-year extensions on health insurance policies that don't meet Affordable Care Act standards was a political volley in the face of relentless pressure, some observed. Health insurers "may choose" to continue coverage that would otherwise be terminated, a letter to state insurance commissioners declared. Your serve insurers. On Wednesday, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama lobbed it back. No, we don't choose to reinstate the policies set to be canceled. It had sent out 87,000 letters of cancellation with offers, for the majority, of an ACA-approved policy at a higher cost....

NEW YORK — New Yorkers buying a health plan on the state’s new insurance exchange should read the fine print if they’re interested in getting care at some of the city’s top hospitals. Not all are participating in the new plans created by the Affordable Care Act. As of this week, not one of the plans for sale on New York’s health benefit exchange would cover treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, one of the world’s largest and most respected cancer hospitals...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama blamed Republicans on Tuesday for contributing to the troubled rollout of his signature healthcare insurance plan and said it will be hard to "rebrand" Obamacare after his administration fixes a website used to sign up for the program. "We should have anticipated that that would create a rockier rollout," Obama told a Wall Street Journal conference."One of the problems we've had is one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure," Obama said.Obama said he thinks the website will be fixed on time for people to "catch up" and shop for insurance by key deadlines,...

President Obama told supporters Monday night that he needed their help battling against “a lot of misinformation” spread by political opponents about his signature healthcare legislation. Speaking on a virtual conference call hosted by Organizing for Action — the political group born from his reelection campaign — the president admitted that problems with the ObamaCare website had put a damper on early enrollment efforts. “The good news is it’s getting better every single week,” Obama said. “I am confident that by the end of this month it is going to be functioning for the vast majority of folks.” The president...

MASS. PASS: Massachusetts state Commissioner of Insurance Joseph Murphy has declined President Obama’s offer to allow so-called subpar insurance plans to be extended another year after millions nationwide faced cancellation of existing policies. The Bay State’s error-ridden Health Connector website hasn’t even successfully enrolled 1,000 applicants for health insurance as it marks the 50th day since it was launched — and if that pattern keeps up, it could soon be time to panic, said a health-care policy expert. “The Connector looks like they’re improving, but it’s still way behind where it needs to be,” said Joshua Archambault of the Pioneer...

In less than 7 weeks, President Obama’s signature legislation has lost a lot of momentum. Republicans are gleefully revitalized in their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) altogether. Likewise, Democrats are running for cover sensing a very different political landscape in 2014. That landscape is likely to see the President himself as (potentially) more of a liability than an asset. Others are more philosophical in their criticism saying President Obama has simply “lost his magic” (here). In a blistering sequence of events, Healthcare.gov had major difficulties getting airborne, millions of health plans were cancelled and in an attempt...

It was Hillary Clinton that originally coined the now- problematic “like your plan, keep your plan” talking point that Obama relied on during his fight to push Obamacare through Congress....a phrase that also helped him get reelected. Hillary's 2007 campaign website was unearthed by America Rising. America's Rising found written on the website under "HILLARYCARE"---Hillary’s American Health Choices Plan---the ruinous phrase: “if you have a plan you like, you keep it.” The 2016 Clinton camp has been distancing itself from Obamacare as the problems associated with his failing govt healthcare plan become more apparent to the American people. With 2016...