Free Republic

You just might want to pay attention to the latest health insurance jargon. It could mean thousands of dollars out of your pocket. The Obama administration has given the go-ahead for a new cost-control strategy called "reference pricing." It lets insurers and employers put a dollar limit on what health plans pay for some expensive procedures, such as knee and hip replacements. Some experts worry that patients could be surprised with big medical bills they must pay themselves, undercutting financial protections in the new health care law. That would happen if patients picked a more expensive hospital — even if...

Dehydrate dementia patients to death to save money: British Medical Journal editorial by Hilary White, Rome CorrespondentMon Jul 16, 2012 15:38 EST July 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The courts should not interfere with doctors who want to dehydrate to death incapacitated patients who are a drain on scarce financial resources, according to an editorial in this week’s edition of the prestigious British Medical Journal. Raanan Gillon, emeritus professor of medical ethics and former chairman of the Institute of Medical Ethics governing body, wrote that a ruling last year by the High Court against dehydrating an incapacitated patient to death was...

March 19, 2012 The Improbable Mr. Santorum Outgunned in staff and money, disdained by the media, he refuses to be silenced and remains Romney's only real rival. By WILLIAM MCGURN When the Illinois primary closes in the next 24 hours, it is improbable that Rick Santorum will emerge victorious. Given the states that are left, arithmetic suggests it is equally improbable that Mr. Santorum can overcome Mr. Romney's lead in delegates. Perhaps most improbable of all is the hope that a contested Republican convention would settle on Mr. Santorum as its nominee. Then again, that Mr. Santorum would be where...

They say all things must end, but the wrangling over Mitt Romney's support for an individual health-insurance mandate persists without letup. It has been nearly six years since Romney, with much fanfare, signed the Massachusetts health-care overhaul into law. On the eve of the signing ceremony he had praised the bill's requirement that every resident obtain health insurance, and suggested with pride that the rest of the nation might want to follow the Bay State's lead. "How much of our health-care plan applies to other states?" he wrote in The Wall Street Journal. "A lot." It was a message he...