Free Republic

See? There’s something in this law for everyone, just not exactly the way they said.But take heart, America. Brian Williams of the NBC Nightly News is on it, sending investigative reporters to look into the “fine print” of Obamacare. Isn’t that something that would have been more useful four years ago? Now NBC’s found out that large companies— add ‘em to the small companies and individual market plans—are also reducing benefits, raising co-pays and deductibles to cope with Obamacare’s new costs. So, if you have a catastrophic plan in the individual market, you’re losing the plan you may have liked...

For 75 million Americans who get their insurance through large companies, the Affordable Care Act is a mixed bag.  Experts tell NBC News the new healthcare law is only slightly increasing premiums next year, but causing some companies with the most generous plans to reduce their employees’ benefits. Aaron Baker, 36, his wife Billie and their two young children are covered under a generous health insurance plan offered by the private Midwestern university where he’s worked for 10 years. When they opened their benefits notice this year, they were pleased to see their $385 premium is only up by four...

This is how Democrats say thanks– Today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid went on KNPR in Las Vegas to discuss current affairs. One question he faced was about union uproar over Obamacare. Harry Reid said it’s time for them to give up their Cadillac plans and “put some skin in the game.” “Let’s understand where we are with the unions. One of the things we’ve learned with all of the hearings we held, dozens and dozens of them, is that if you have insurance you have to be able to have some skin in the game as we say in...

Perhaps somewhere along the line I acquired an egregious misunderstanding of the premeditated and calculated limited powers granted to the Congress and the Executive Branch by the United States Constitution.It has always been my understanding, and also the understanding of a few antediluvian and currently extraneous thinkers like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Ben Franklin, et al., that according to Article I Section VII of the United States Constitution, the two legislative bodies, the House of Representatives and the Senate, were granted the exclusive power to write, have an open and honest debate, then call for a...

All Men Are Created Equal-But Unions Are MORE Equal Than Others In the United States we are supposed to believe that all men are created equal and have equal protection under the law. Truth is, since the Progressives took over congress and Barack Obama was elect President, unions are more equal and get greater protection the rest of us. That's why the UAW was able to get the largest share of the GM and Chrysler even though legally it should have been the primary investors. Union members represent one of the biggest and most powerful Democratic constituencies and their support...

PICTURE 1: U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and General Motors Chairman Ed Whitacre speak with each other; PICTURE 2: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, talks with Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally, center, and Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman William Ford, Jr., right, during press days of the 2010 North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan January 11, 2010. Chrysler LLC CEO Sergio Marchionne points to Chrysler displays as he talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (L) during Press Days of the 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan January 11, 2010 in Detroit,...

After the Senate voted Saturday night to pro ceed with debate on health reform, Majority Leader Harry Reid declared the public the winner. In truth, more Americans will be losers than winners. Both Senate and House bills strip nearly half a trillion dollars from Medicare, robbing seniors to expand Medicaid. The Senate bill also spends billions on drug treatment, sex education, translators and romance and relationship lessons (p. 612) that could be used to treat heart disease, cancer and stroke -- the diseases that kill most of us.

Although cast as a tax on gold-plated insurance policies for the well-heeled, it has prompted anxiety among the middle class. The idea, proposed last Wednesday by Senator Max Baucus, is to help raise money for the nation’s health care overhaul by placing a new excise tax on the most expensive health insurance policies, like the ones offered to partners at Goldman Sachs and other affluent professionals. The tax is meant to raise more than a quarter of the $774 billion needed to pay for the Baucus plan. But just as much, the tax is intended to discourage the overly generous...

Labor unions and some Democrats are pushing to scale back a proposal in the latest version of Senate health-overhaul legislation that would tax generous insurance plans. A sweeping proposal to fix the health system, unveiled this week by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.), would impose a 35% tax on high-dollar health plans offered by insurers. The tax on insurers is the biggest revenue generator for a plan that is expected to cost about $774 billion over 10 years. The new tax is intended to target "Cadillac" plans offered to wealthy individuals. It would fall on plans valued at...