Free Republic

The GOP has made opposition to ObamaCare a central pillar of its 2014 campaign strategy. And even though the health care law has begun to turn around, that may not be such a bad idea given lingering public skepticism over the law. However, there is one crucial piece of ObamaCare that may well become a big winner for Democrats by the end of the year: The dramatic expansion of Medicaid. Unlike the overall law, the expansion of Medicaid is actually quite popular with voters of all political stripes. Even in the Deep South, more than six in ten support expanding...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is using the memory of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to encourage Americans to sign up for the troubled Obamacare system. “As we celebrate the inspirational life of Dr. King, please join us in this historic effort by helping your friends, neighbors, and loved ones get covered through the Marketplace,” Sebelius said of the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Sebelius explained that King’s civil rights leadership extended to advocacy for the poor, and that he was concerned about health care inequality. “Dr. King memorably described inequality in health care as...

The Obamacare website is even less secure than it was in November, David Kennedy, head of computer security consulting firm TrustedSec LLC, told Fox News Sunday. Kennedy testified before Congress Thursday that the site was “100 percent” insecure and personal information for consumers at healthcare.gov was at risk, Reuters reports: Before the hearing, Kennedy told Reuters the government has yet to plug more than 20 vulnerabilities that he and other security experts reported to the government shortly after HealthCare.gov went live on October 1. Hackers could steal personal information, modify data, attack the personal computers of website users and damage...

The prospects for single-payer health care -- adored by many liberals, despised by private health insurers and looking better all the time to others -- did not die in the Affordable Care Act. It was thrown a lifeline through a little-known provision tucked in the famously long legislation. Single-payer groups in several states are now lining up to make use of Section 1332. Vermont is way ahead of the pack, but Hawaii, Oregon, New York, Washington, California, Colorado and Maryland have strong single-payer movements. First, some definitions. Single-payer is a system where the government pays all medical bills. Canada has...

The UK may soon tighten its health care rationing to prevent new medicines from getting to the elderly. From the Telegraph story: “New drugs would only be licensed for the NHS [National Health Service] if they help those judged to be a benefit to wider society under proposals from the health watchdog. Pharmaceutical firms on Thursday night warned that the move could lead to new medicines being denied to the elderly. “A senior professor also said that the plans could threaten the well-being of older people and were ‘deeply suspect’, while charities questioned the ethics of the policy. The National...

Record-keeping snags could complicate the start of insurance coverage this month as people begin using policies they purchased under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Insurance companies are still trying to sort out cases of so-called health insurance orphans, customers for whom the government has a record that they enrolled, but the insurer does not. Government officials say the problem is real but under control, with orphan records being among the roughly 13,000 problem cases they are trying to resolve with insurers. But insurance companies are worried the process will grow more cumbersome as they deal with the flood of...

"...That's why we're modernizing our unique system. Under the new approach—made possible by the Affordable Care Act and approved by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services—Maryland will implement a groundbreaking new system of health care delivery. Using the rate setting structure, the state will set global budgets and other alternative approaches to payment that reward clinical systems of care for providing improved outcomes at lower costs. Support for this new demonstration has come from a coalition of the hospitals, the insurance companies and the state all working together with a common vision....Under the new model, our hospitals have committed...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi corrected a reporter Thursday who called Democrats’ health care law “Obamacare.” “First of all, it’s called the ‘Affordable Care Act,’ ” the California Democrat said after a reporter asked about House GOP efforts to try to tweak the law. Democrats, who just a couple of years ago were happy to call President Obama’s signature achievement Obamacare,...

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...