Free Republic

I'm technically disabled -- but not mentally disabled the way some of my foes on CNN seem to believe I am. No, my disability is hearing loss. In one ear I'm nearly deaf. I have to turn the TV up so loud the neighbors say they can hear it from their house next door. My friends complain that watching TV with me is like watching Garrett Morris on "Saturday Night Live" shout into the camera to provide news for the hard of hearing. There are some 30 million Americans like me suffering from severe to moderate hearing loss. Not being...

Link only due to copyright.

Graduate students at MU will demonstrate for larger stipends and university-subsidized housing and child care. Professors plan to cancel classes in order to attend the rally in support of their teaching assistants. An upcoming rally by graduate students at the University of Missouri (MU) demanding increased pay and benefits will likely provide undergraduate students with an unexpected break from their classes. Several MU professors plan to cancel classes Wednesday—just two days after the beginning of the fall semester—in order to attend the rally in support of their teaching assistants, who are demonstrating for larger stipends and university-subsidized housing and child...

An explosion in the number of Coloradans signing up for medical insurance during the last 18 months shook up the state’s health insurance market and severely strained Rocky Mountain Health Plans’ bottom line. The federal government will soon funnel nearly $70 million to the Grand Junction-based carrier, a move that will help make up for some of those losses. But a significant rate increase for some of the more than a quarter-million members of RMHP could be on the horizon. The rise in coverage brought about by the Affordable Care Act has insurers around the country adjusting premium rates to...

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled June 4 that members of the Catholic Benefits Association (CBA), including the Archdiocese of Baltimore and Catholic Review Media (CRMedia), are exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s mandate requiring all employers, including most religious employers, to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs. Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore said the court decision will allow the CBA to provide “quality, cost-competitive, morally compliant health care benefits for their employees.” Here’s what Catholics need to know: This all began in 2011 when the HHS defined “preventive services.” Congress...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just two weeks after President Barack Obama saw his Democratic Party put up an unyielding front against Republicans, his coalition is showing signs of stress. From health care to spying to pending budget deals, many congressional Democrats are challenging the administration and pushing for measures that the White House has not embraced. Some Democrats are seeking to extend the enrollment period for new health care exchanges. Others want to place restraints on National Security Administration surveillance capabilities. Still others are standing tough against any budget deal that uses long-term reductions in major benefit programs to offset immediate...

Obamacare is meant to provide health coverage to the millions of Americans who don't have it, but the cruel irony is that millions of other Americans may lose their current health insurance as a result. These "losers" are primarily people who buy their own health insurance rather than have it provided by an employer. Many now find their plans will be canceled because they fail to meet the minimum coverage requirements under Obamacare. These plans offer "bare bones insurance...usually catastrophic care...and beginning Jan. 1 insurance companies will not be allowed to offer these very plans," says Rick Newman, Yahoo Finance...

US President Barack Obama has accepted "full responsibility" for ensuring the troubled healthcare website gets fixed. Speaking in Boston, he said he was "not happy" about the glitch-laden project, but made a full-throated defence of the broader 2010 healthcare law. Earlier, his embattled health secretary apologised to the American people over the botched website rollout. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the largest overhaul of the US healthcare system since the 1960s. Commonly known as Obamacare, it aims to extend health insurance coverage to the estimated 15% of the American population who lack it. But a key element...

WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top health official apologized on Wednesday for the botched rollout of the government's healthcare website, acknowledging it was a "debacle", while also blaming insurers for cancelling coverage for hundreds of thousands of people. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, .. vowed to win back the confidence of millions of disappointed Americans. "Hold me accountable for the debacle. I'm responsible," Sebelius said in response to questions from Marsha Blackburn, the Republican U.S. Representative of Tennessee, .. Technical glitches have dogged the Healthcare.gov since its launch on Oct. 1, .. . But critics...

Just my thoughts on this! 1. It feeds Mr. Obama's ego. 2. It advertises for the opponent and his political affiliation. (Coke and Pepsi learned many years ago not to mention their competitor in their ads.) 3. Subliminal message is that Mr. Obama cares - I don't see any caring in this act except about votes for person and party. 4. Congress and senate critters passed bill and all members voting for this act should be held accountable for their votes. If they had not voted for it, the President could not have signed it. As to alternative name, call...

A stern President Obama lectured Republicans on Thursday, one day after they accepted a Democrat deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt limit until Feb. 7—getting nothing in return. The president suggested that the system of checks and balances invoked by tea party Republicans in an attempt to defund Obamacare is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. “Let’s work together to make government work better, instead of treating it like an enemy or purposely making it work worse,” Obama said. …

The on-line exchange system is the Achilles heel of the Affordable Care Act. If there is not an ObamaCare exchange doing business in a state, no one can enroll for ObamaCare coverage and Mr. Obama’s namesake “healthcare” plan will literally starve to death. But the American people must also do their part to assist in the death of ObamaCare and end the left’s drive to single payer insurance. Just 17 states have agreed to build an ObamaCare exchange. And with October 1st, the grand opening day for ObamaCare enrollment rapidly approaching, not one of these states is ready to complete...