Free Republic

The federal government needs to be more proactive in alleviating healthcare workforce shortages, Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, wrote in a Jan. 27 letter on the organization's website. In the letter, Mr. Pollack wrote the dire workforce shortages the healthcare industry is facing are projected to get worse. He wrote that by the end of 2022, the industry is set to lose 500,000 nurses, mostly through retirement. In addition, because of shortages in teaching staff and difficulties with classroom space, nursing schools had to turn away more than 80,000 qualified applicants in 2019. He suggested...

Don’t listen to Bernie Sanders, America’s crazy uncle who said taxes will not increase for households making under $400,000 per year. Aside from the obvious expansion of Federal government control over the economy, the Senate’s budget resolution did NOTHING to fix the bankrupt Social Security program. This budget resolution fails to tackle the nation’s most important fiscal challenges, while likely making future reforms to forestall a crisis even more difficult. Any meaningful fiscal reform must tackle the unsustainable entitlement programs, including Medicare and Social Security. Without reforms, the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be depleted in 2027 and the...

Licensed therapists in New Jersey have been prohibited since 2013 from engaging in conversion therapy, an attempt to change a child’s gender identity or their sexual orientation from gay to straight. But encouraged by a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, Liberty Counsel, a national religious legal organization, just asked the nation’s highest court for a chance to prove New Jersey’s law violates the free speech rights of counselors who believe the treatment works. The ruling in June struck down portions of a California law that required crisis pregnancy centers to tell pregnant women about the availability of publicly-funded family-planning...

A little more than 1.9 million people signed up for health insurance in the first three weeks of the Affordable Care Act open enrollment for 2019 coverage. That compares with almost 2.3 million during the first three weeks of open enrollment last year, which included an additional day. Americans are signing up for coverage through the federal marketplace at a slower rate this year, but the CMS numbers don't include enrollment in states that operate their own exchanges. It also does not include those who will be automatically enrolled in plans during the last week of open enrollment, which ends...

The key problem with the draft House health care bill is that it fails to correct the features of Obamacare that drove up health insurance costs. Instead, it mainly tweaks Obamacare’s financing and subsidy structure. Basically, the bill focuses on protecting those who gained subsidized coverage through the law’s exchange subsidies and Medicaid expansion, while failing to correct Obamacare’s misguided insurance regulations that drove up premiums for Americans buying coverage without government subsidies. That is both a policy problem and a political problem.

<p>Now that Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire primary and proved himself as a legitimate threat to win the Republican nomination, it's time to take a serious look at his policy proposals. When it comes to health care, Trump hasn't had much to say of substance, but the policy pronouncements we have gotten from him are a mix of socialism and incoherence.</p>

During the last two decades I have read everything I could get my hands on pertaining to health care policy. I also spent the longest two weeks of my entire life reading the PPACA – Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act – shortly after it was passed into law on March 23, 2010. I have also appeared on television,radio, and written expert commentary on health care policy on this blog and for professional business journals around the country. If there is one thing I know it is health care policy and if there is another thing I know it is...

The owners and two employees at a popular San Jose spa are charged with health insurance fraud, accused of billing insurers for chiropractic treatments, “when in reality they were providing free mani-pedis.” The owners of the San Jose Chiro Spa are accused of using their spa, near Montague Expressway and 680, to bilk insurance companies out of more than $7 million, according to Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Kwok. The investigation, dubbed "Operation Nail Polish," began in 2012. Prosecutors say an undercover investigator went into the spa numerous times for manicures and pedicures. Employees reportedly took the investigator's...

The President’s popularity is crashing, congressional Democrats are on the run, and America is about to make a shift to the “right” in the upcoming elections –right? I’ll believe it when I see it. The electoral outcomes of this year are still unknown, but this we do know: for the past six years Americans have displayed not only a tolerance, but an appetite for big and abusive government. For those of us who are seeing this clearly, there are some lessons to be learned amid the insanity. Even as Mr. Obama himself continuously and arbitrarily changes and delays implementation of...

Cary woman charged with financial exploitation of elderly woman in her care Mar 01, 2014 5:21 AM CST CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) - A northwest suburban woman hired to be a caregiver for an elderly resident with Parkinson's disease is facing criminal charges for allegedly using the 86-year-old victim's credit cards without her permission, running up thousands of dollars in charges. The Kane County State's Attorney's office charged Lalaine Regencia, 46, of Cary, with financial exploitation of the elderly and two counts of theft, all Class 2 felonies, Carpentersville Police Commander Timothy Bosshart told the Elgin Courier News. Regencia...

As healthcare reform occurs throughout the nation, Virginians voice their opposition to Medicaid expansion. Funding Limitations The promised levels of Federal funding for Medicaid expansion cannot be fulfilled. The evidence is mounting. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, recently stated that funds will not be available for Medicaid expansion. Medicaid ExpansionThe funding streams for expansion have been greatly impacted by the disastrous roll-out of the ACA. The federal government has recently refused to pay what they promised to Indian tribes for medical services. Health insurance companies are guaranteed a bailout because not enough young people are singing up...

Long-term care (LTC) for the elderly is already a large risk and expense for private citizens and public programs. The need for and cost of LTC will increase radically with the aging of the baby-boom generation. Most expensive long-term care, including care provided in nursing homes or by professional aides in family homes for more than nominal durations, is paid for by Medicaid, a means-tested public assistance program. Medicaid already strains federal and state budgets, including Virginia’s. Yet major initiatives at the federal level and in Virginia are underway to expand Medicaid coverage in general and to make the program’s...

Labor unions are breaking with President Obama on ObamaCare. Months after the president’s reelection, a variety of unions are publicly balking at how the administration plans to implement the landmark law. They warn that unless there are changes, the results could be catastrophic. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) — a 1.3 million-member labor group that twice endorsed Obama for president — is very worried about how the reform law will affect its members’ healthcare plans. Last month, the president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers released a statement calling “for repeal or...

For Veterans, There's No Clear Difference Between Obama And Romney Plans Walter HickeyOctober 15, 2012 In an election where most issues are cutthroat and divisive, the presidential candidates' split on veterans issues is actually surprising minimal. In short, both candidates support veterans and have plans that confer on them special privileges and benefits. While there are some distinctions, neither candidate has come out in favor of slashing benefits or cutting the G.I. Bill. Here are the plans: The Obama plan Obama right now is standing on a pretty strong record of accomplishment on veterans' issues. His first term performance has...

The White House has begun an aggressive campaign to use the upcoming Supreme Court arguments on the new health care law to build support for President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement and shape public opinion on an issue at the center of the battle for the White House and Congress. On Wednesday, White House officials summoned dozens of leaders of nonprofit organizations that strongly back the health law to help them coordinate plans for a prayer vigil, news conferences and other events outside the court when justices hear arguments for three days beginning March 26. The advocates and officials mapped...

The Republican Presidential campaign is off to a slow start, but judging by the last week not slow enough. First Mitt Romney defends his ObamaCare prototype in Massachusetts, and now Newt Gingrich has decided to run against House Republicans on Medicare. They must be loving this at the White House

Sen. Sanders appeared on MSNBC and said that we need to get rid of all private insurance companies. Sanders, who is registered as an Independent is a self-described Socialist – a pretty significant point every host who has him on their show should inform the public of. Sanders said on health care: “I hope to be able to get waivers from Congress and the White House to allow us to do so. At the end of the day, if you are going to provide health care to all of our people in a cost effective way, you have to get...

...snip... At the local level, The Boston Herald reports here that health care costs are driving cities and towns to go into the municipal equivalent of credit card debt. In the most recent example, Gov. Deval Patrick is weighing a proposal to permit Orange, a western Massachusetts town of fewer than 8,000 residents, to borrow $445,000 to cover health care claims and pay it back over the next five years ...snip...

WASHINGTON -- Gov.-elect Nikki Haley challenged President Obama over his landmark health insurance law Thursday in a candid, personal exchange in front of Cabinet members and newly elected governors from across the country but away from reporters. In an exchange recounted by Haley and confirmed by White House aides, Obama rejected Haley's request to repeal the health care bill - but said he'd consider letting states opt out of its mandates if they ran exchange programs, banned insurance firms from denying coverage of pre-existing conditions and enabled people to pool together for better rates. With only four Democratic incoming governors...

The great Democratic revolution of 2008 is en tering its pitiful stage. If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a guillotine, Robert Gibbs' head would be rolling around in a basket. His offense? Uttering perhaps the most unassailably accurate statement of his tenure as White House press secretary: that there is "no doubt" Republicans might take back the House.