Free Republic

Obamacare is a flea bitten dog that never would have been enacted without wholesale and deliberate falsehoods said over and over again by Barack Obama and every Democrat cheerleader. It never would have been enacted without legislative sleights-of-hand and backroom bribes offered to key Democrats. It never would have been enacted and Barack Obama would likely not have won a second term without the willing negligence of a toothless “watchdog press” who refused to independently investigate or report obvious lies. Now we will be bitten by this dog and indeed, as many as five million people who have lost insurance...

The last time John Nunnemacher had health insurance was 15 years ago, when his employer paid for his coverage. Since then, the freelance graphic artist hasn't been able to afford a policy. Luckily, he didn't get seriously ill or have a bad accident -- which could have left the San Jose man bankrupt. But as of New Year's Day, the 43-year-old Nunnemacher was once again insured. Nearly four years after Congress passed a controversial health care law, tens of thousands of Californians like Nunnemacher can now see a doctor without begging for charity care.

In 2013, the American people learned what whoppers the key promises of ObamaCare turned out to be. But the biggest whopper about the Affordable Care Act is yet to be exposed: the tightening grip the federal government will have over your doctor — even if you’re paying with private insurance. Section 1311(h)(1)(B) of the health law gives the secretary of Health and Human Services blanket authority to dictate how doctors treat patients. Not just patients in government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, but patients with private plans they pay for themselves. On Dec. 2, 2013, we learned from the Federal...

WBTV-NC: Lancaster County Firefighters Facing Millions In Extra Costs Due To ObamaCare (December 16, 2013)

Friend -- On January 1st, our nation turns a corner on health care -- and we're never going back. From here on, no American should have to go broke just because they get sick. You can't be dropped from your plan when you need it most. Pre-existing conditions will never prevent someone from getting coverage, and women can't be charged more than men for their plans. And for millions of Americans, affordable, quality coverage is finally within reach. I am so proud of that. And I have people like you to thank, truly. Fundamental change like this doesn't happen just...

The Obama Administration announced today that 1.1 million Americans have signed up for Obamacare so far. That number includes the number who have signed up for the taxpayer-funded Medicaid part of the plan. As of December 11, 2013– Over 800,000 Americans signed up for the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program. Over five million Americans have lost their health care plans so far. The Hill reported: More than 1.1 million people enrolled in ObamaCare before a December 24 deadline for consumers seeking healthcare plans that begin Jan. 1, the Obama administration said early Sunday. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn...

I’ve been working professionally in health policy since 1979 when I was hired to write the consumer contracts and other communications in plain English for the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in Maine. I neither knew nor cared anything about health care before that. Rewriting contracts turned out to be a pretty good way to learn a whole lot about the business very quickly, I went from there to the research department and then to government relations. Before I left the Blues I was heading the state relations department for the national association in Washington. Then I went on to...

Those signing up for private health care coverage on the ObamaCare exchanges may be in for an unpleasant surprise -- they'll have insurance, but they might have trouble getting the doctor to see them. Just as with Medicaid, analysts warn that if payments get too low, many doctors might start refusing to see patients. That will leave more and more patients jockeying to see fewer and fewer doctors. They emphasize, then, that having health insurance won't necessarily translate into access to health care.

Most consumers who have signed up – about 85% on average — are eligible for subsidies because they fall below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (about $90,000 in annual income for a family of four). And most of these folks are choosing silver plans. In California, just 47% of those who have signed up have received a private health plan. The rest were put on Medicaid. In Colorado, just 17% got private coverage, with the other 83% put on Medicaid. In Connecticut, 61% got private coverage, in Minnesota, 71%, Rhode Island 33%, and Washington State 11%.

Pajama Boy’s place in Internet infamy was secured as soon as the insufferable man-child was tweeted out by Organizing for America. The vision of the Obama Democrats, distilled to its essence, is of a direct relationship between the state and the individual without the mediating institutions of family, church and community that are an inherent check on government power. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote long ago of the infantilizing tendency of all-encompassing government. “It would be like the authority of a parent,” he wrote in a famous passage, “if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but...

THE NHS should not be treated as a “national religion” while millions of patients receive a “wholly unsatisfactory” service from GPs and hospitals, the official regulator has warned. David Prior, the chairman of the Care Quality Commission, said the health service had been allowed to reach the brink of crisis because it was “too powerful” to be criticised. He said parts of the NHS were “out of control” because honest debate about the weaknesses of the health service was not tolerated. Mr Prior said priority must be given to reform of an “out of control” system of emergency care, overloaded...

Millions of Americans who had their health plans cancelled will be exempt from the Obamacare individual mandate, the administration said Thursday – a surprise move that comes just before Monday’s deadline to sign up for coverage starting Jan. 1. The administration also said people who had their plans cancelled could get a scaled back catastrophic plan, which has more limited benefits than those included in other Obamacare health plans. The move prompted sharp criticism from Republicans and concern from the insurance industry that another last-minute change would disrupt coverage and lead to tumult in the new marketplaces. “This latest rule...

The lie of the year, according to Politifact, is “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” But the story of the year is a nation waking up to just how radical Obamacare is — which is why it required such outright deception to get it passed in the first place. Obamacare was sold as simply a refinement of the current system, retaining competition among independent insurers but making things more efficient, fair and generous. Free contraceptives for Sandra Fluke. Free mammograms and checkups for you and me. Free (or subsidized) insurance for some 30 million uninsured....

There’s an old saw about cooking frogs: Place them in cool water, and then turn up the heat. The frogs fail to respond to gradual temperature change, and by the time the water gets near the boiling point, the frogs are unable to jump out and save themselves. That is what President Obama and the Democrats have had in mind with Obamacare, which they planned would lead to single-payer, socialized medicine. However, their incompetent “chefs” have placed ordinary citizens directly in a boiling health care caldron. Americans are reacting with extreme reproach, and it is progressivism and the Democratic Party...

It’s early for a palate cleanser but I’m not sure this doesn’t qualify as legit news. I … did not expect to find myself eager to revisit the Romney 2012 campaign on film, but here we are, my friends. Here we are. It’s true that the trailer is more humanizing than anything Romney’s campaign did for him, but the deck is stacked. The bio video that the GOP produced for the convention was solid but nothing as stage-managed as campaign propaganda will ever have the disarming charm of behind-the-scenes footage of the candidates in unguarded moments. Plus, the trailer’s cheating...

Nearly 15,000 enrollment records from Americans trying to sign up for Obamacare never made it to insurers — but the federal government does not know which records never made it to which insurer. The federal analysis merely compares the number of times Obamacare enrollees clicked “enroll” to the number of plans HealthCare.gov sent to insurers, according to The Washington Post. Consumers who send the vanishing enrollments, or “orphan files,” are not notified that their information has not been processed and an insurer did not receive sensitive financial and health-related data, meaning that they could be in for an unpleasant surprise...

Obamacare’s face has no bedside manner. Dr. Zeke Emanuel, brother of Obama’s previous Chief-of-Stiffs, Rahm who is currently the Mayor of the disaster called Chicago, showed what a petty, evil law the ACA truly is. As he abetted and added to 4 years of Obamacare lies by your president (not mine), he has become the face of the mad, self-proclaimed-genius-evil-doctor we all worry about who has the power of life and death over us. All that lacks are a deeply German accent, a wheelchair and an arm that flies uncontrollably into full Nazi salute while Zeke screams SEIG HEIL! SEIG...

In the face of mounting criticism, President Barack Obama announced last month that he would allow insurance companies to renew so-called "subpar" plans for existing customers. But nearly a month later, not everyone is seeing the benefit of this policy change. CNN spoke with four people in the days and weeks that followed the president's announcement to see how they have been affected. Their results are varied, and for some of them, the future remains uncertain. Catherine Franklin 46, Winston-Salem, North Carolina It was September when Catherine Franklin received her letter. The much-maligned HealthCare.gov website had yet to be launched...

Opponents of the Affordable Care Act tend to suggest expanded coverage resulting from the law’s Medicaid expansion somehow doesn’t really count as success. But the law’s goal is to expand coverage, and the Medicaid expansion is one of the tools it utilizes to accomplish that. And here’s another way the Medicaid expansion could succeed — continuing to grow the built-in constituencies that will benefit from the Affordable Care Act. I’m told that the Department of Health and Human Services has just notified Iowa that it is prepared to grant the state a waiver to pursue much of what it has...

Getting people to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act remains an uphill battle in much of Florida. Politicians in the state erected roadblocks to the law from the beginning — from joining in the 2010 lawsuit to thwart the law to placing restrictions on what insurance helpers called navigators can tell people seeking advice. Even so, advocates have been trying to get the word out to an estimated 1.6 million Floridians who qualify for new subsidies to make coverage more affordable. Florida has the second-highest rate of uninsured residents in the U.S., yet it seems many...