Free Republic

When President Obama signed his health-care reform last month, he declared it will "lower costs for families and for businesses and for the federal government." So why are Democrats scrambling to pass a new bill that would impose price controls on insurance? In now-they-tell-us hearings on Tuesday, the Senate health committee debated a bill that would give states the power to reject premium increases that state regulators determine are "unreasonable." Some 27 states currently have some form of rate review , but generally don't leverage it because insolvent insurers are expensive for states and bankruptcies limit consumer choices. One exception...

Yeah, I don’t get it either but Newsweek’s pretty sure that Jon Stewart’s right, so QED. Jim Treacher:

I’ve been thinking about President Obama’s foreign policy lately, but first, a golf tip: I went to Dave Pelz’s famous short-game school this winter to improve my putting and chipping, and a funny thing happened — my long game got better. It brings to mind something that happened to Obama. The president got health care reform passed, and it may turn out to be his single most important foreign policy achievement. In politics and diplomacy, success breeds authority and authority breeds more success. No one ever said it better than Osama bin Laden: “When people see a strong horse and...

Obama: Is He Helping Or Hurting Your Business? Timothy Shea has been providing IT solutions for 21 years and has never worked as hard or felt as much economic pressure. Shea, CEO and senior consultant at Alpha NetSolutions, a solution provider based in Marlborough, Mass., says his income as the owner of an "S" corporation that files a personal tax return has dropped 25 percent from 2007 to 2009. At the same time, the health-care costs for his eight-employee, $1.2 million business have doubled over the past three years. Shea is one of many small-business solution providers interviewed for this...

SNIPPET: "BOCA RATON, Fla., April 13 (UPI) -- Voters elected Democrat Ted Deutch Tuesday to fill out the term of retired U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., election returns indicated. Deutch, who campaigned as a supporter of healthcare reform legislation and of President Barack Obama, easily defeated Republican Ed Lynch and an unaffiliated candidate. Lynch conceded before 10 p.m. before all precincts reported, The Palm Beach Post reported."

Have a friend asking for literature/links to articles discussing the effects of the new health care bill on individuals ages 55-65. (other than increased taxes) I'm at a loss...is there anyone out there who could point me in the right direction? Thanks!!!

SNIPPET: "One of the many new taxes imposed by ObamaCare is a 2.3% excise tax on medical device manufacturers. Although this may not seem like much, it could be devastating to small companies working with thin profit margins. For instance, the Zoll Medical Corporation is one of the leading manufacturers of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). These devices are commonplace in airports, shopping malls, and other public places. They are meant to be used by members of the general public to give immediate life-saving electrical shocks to someone suffering sudden cardiac arrest. Advances in hardware and software have made these devices...

"Health Law Bans New Doctor-Owned Hospitals, Blocks Expansion of Existing Ones" SNIPPET: "The rules fall under Title VI, Section 6001 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The provision is titled “Physician Ownership and Other Transparency – Limitations on Medicare Exceptions to the Prohibition on Certain Physician Referral for Hospitals.” More than 60 doctor-owned hospitals across the country that were in the development stage will be canceled, said Molly Sandvig, executive director of Physician Hospitals of America (PHA). “That’s a lot of access to communities that will be denied,” Sandvig told CNSNews.com. “The existing hospitals are greatly affected. They...

Rep. Bart Stupak's announcement today that he will not seek re-election is no big surprise. The Michigan Democrat dug himself into a deep political hole and and couldn't climb out of it. Mr. Stupak repeatedly vowed that he would never vote for government-funded abortion. When he sold out that principle, the whole country - including his vast rural district - knew he singlehandedly pushed Obamacare over the top for passage. Mr. Stupak first claimed he wasn't violating his pro-life pledge because of an executive order President Obama said he'd sign to maintain the Hyde Amendment, which forbids public funding when...

The Vote: Conned by the promise of an ephemeral executive order, the last holdouts cave and ObamaCare advances. It doesn't add a single doctor or hospital room, but needs 17,000 new IRS agents to enforce it. Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., spent months spelling out in minute detail how the Senate version of the health care overhaul permitted federal funding of abortion through its failure to expressly prohibit it. In the end, he cashed in his principles for an unenforceable executive order that is trumped by the Senate bill he voted to pass. An executive order is not the law of...

In rural areas of the country, obtaining a doctor's appointment is practically mission impossible. Even in cities such as Boston and Manhattan, it can be very difficult for patients to attain the medical care they badly need, particularly for Medicare and Medicaid patients. From New York's Upper East Side to the heartland to San Francisco's Haight Ashbury, a striking physician shortage exists in this country. The reasons for the dearth of doctors are complex, but one thing is certain: The "health care reform" that President Obama ardently pushed down the public's throat and recently signed into law will not increase...

Dependency: The Democrats' reform bill had hardly become law before doctors and insurers began getting calls asking about free health care. The growing sense of entitlement is disheartening, to say the least. 'Where do we get the free ObamaCare, and how do I sign up for that?" That's what Carrie McLean, an agent for eHealthInsurance.com, told McClatchy newspapers she's been hearing from callers. She said that the company's phone center has been "inundated by uninsured consumers who were hoping that the overhaul would translate into instant, affordable coverage." The McClatchy reporter also talked to Sandra Preston, a state employee in...

It hasn't attracted much notice, but recently some prominent advocates of Obamacare have spoken more frankly than ever before about why they supported a national healthcare makeover. It wasn't just about making insurance more affordable. It wasn't just about bending the cost curve. It wasn't just about cutting the federal deficit. It was also about redistributing wealth. Health reform is "an income shift," Democratic Sen. Max Baucus said on March 25. "It is a shift, a leveling, to help lower-income, middle-income Americans." In his halting, jumbled style, Baucus explained that in recent years, "the maldistribution of income in America has...

THE Philippines should maximize its potential as a medical tourism, wellness and retirement hub in Asia, experts said. Medical tourism alone is projected to be a $188-billion industry by 2013, as more and more people seek quality health care overseas. Medical tourism in the Philippines is quietly but surely bringing benefits into the country. More than revenue, the benefits of medical tourism, wellness and retirement combined are larger, more substantial and more long-term than what can be quantified simply in financial terms, Sanjiv Malik, a renowned guru in medical tourism in India, told reporters during a press conference at the...

The news on healthcare reform this week is that right off the bat, the major corporations are discovering they will be losing stunning amounts to taxes as a result of Obamacare. Caterpillar, the first to speak out, reported it will take a one-time write-down of $100 million in order to account for the elimination of a federal tax refund it has been receiving for providing drug benefits to its retired employees. In the following days, AT&T, Verizon, 3M, Deer & Co., and AK Steel Holdings announced they would take similar write downs. AT&T's new tax bill will come to over...

Americans of modest means may soon get a lesson in the power of the IRS. ### Is there an IRS agent in your future? Shortly before Barack Obama signed the health-care bill, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee created a stir with a report suggesting our new law will lead the Internal Revenue Service to hire as many as 16,500 new agents. The Republicans came up with the figure by extrapolating from the IRS budget, the amount spent on employees, and the $10 billion in new funding that the Congressional Budget Office says the IRS will need to...

Politics: Rep. Henry Waxman vowed to haul CEOs into hearings after they revealed just how much ObamaCare will cost their firms. It's an absurd war on bookkeeping, from a Congress desperate to avoid heat for this fiasco. In the wake of President Obama's presidential signature on the gargantuan Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act last Thursday, big companies have crunched their numbers and come up with an ugly picture. In legally mandated filings, AT&T reported that ObamaCare will cost it $1 billion. Deere & Co. reported $150 million in new costs. Caterpillar must cough up $100 million. 3M must pay...

Relatively upbeat straight news story from Sweden's SOCIALIST daily newspaper, NSD, talking in positive terms about Obamacare's passage by the U.S. House of Representatives, how historic it was, the greatest forward movement since Lyndon B. Johnson's days, the points Obama scored which strengthened him, blah, blah, blah.What was particularly instructive was THIS gem: (excerpt) "There has been quite a effort at reform now that Barack Obama has taken office there, so this was important for him. It is historic in the sense that several US presidents before Obama has tried to get a more comprehensive health insurance system, but...

The Che Guevara-founded, official wire service of the Government of Communist Cuba, La Prensa Latina, reports Mr. Obama's victory tour to Iowa to bolster support for his Obamacare. (Link to article in Spanish above), and HERE.

Almost every sector of American society greeted yesterday's signing of a historic health care law as a major step toward guaranteeing affordable health insurance for all. Labor unions, health care professionals, small business owners, retirees, students, and ordinary people from throughout the country applauded President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for having the tenacity to push through what's being called the most sweeping health care legislation since the establishment of Medicare in the 1960s. We join with those who hail this legislation both as a measure that will save lives now and begin curbing the insurance...