Free Republic

With White House officials promising to work to bail out Obamacare, how can tax reform have ‘essentially repealed’ the behemoth law? On Wednesday afternoon, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced they would postpone until the New Year their request for considering an Obamacare “stability” bill. Their statement capped a sequence of developments that raised almost as many questions as it answered—about the “stability” bill, the process used to consider it, and Obamacare itself.1. If Congress Just ‘Essentially’ Repealed Obamacare, Why Pass a Bill to Prop It Up? Ahead of final passage of the tax bill on Wednesday,...

WHEN Theresa Bixby, 63, learned that she had breast cancer four years ago, she reacted as many Americans do. “One of my first thoughts was, ‘will they pay?’ ” she said. But she wasn’t talking about conventional insurance plan. She lost hers when she left her full-time position for part-time work at her church in Greenville, S.C. She was worried about the program that she had joined six months earlier: Christian Healthcare Ministries. Christian Healthcare Ministries is not an insurance company. It is a nonprofit “health care sharing ministry” based in Barberton, Ohio. The cost of membership is far lower...

For individuals and families whose income does not exceed 250% of the Federal Poverty Limit (FPL), there are special “cost-sharing reduction” versions of Obamacare plans. These cost-sharing reduction (CSR) health insurance plans reduce the out-of-pocket expenses enrollees pay toward deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance. Cost-sharing reductions do not apply to medical services not covered by the health plan. Services rendered by healthcare providers outside the CSR health plan’s network are typically not eligible for cost-sharing reductions. Of the new Obamacare health insurance plans, only Silver Plans come in CSR versions. Bronze, Gold, and Platinum plans do not have cost-sharing reduction versions....

US asks Japan for 545 million dollars for missile defense Mon Jun 20, 4:13 AM ET TOKYO (AFP) - The US government has asked Japan to pay more than half a billion dollars for a joint missile defense system being developed that would be capable of warding off a possible attack by North Korea, but Tokyo finds the sum too high, a news report said. Washington estimates it will spend some 545 million dollars on the high-tech defense project between the 2006 and 2011 fiscal years and has requested Japan make an equal contribution, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said without...