Free Republic

If you think the story I'm about to tell you sounds sensational, it is. If you think the information provided in this column sounds unbelievable, unfortunately, it is not. The fact of the matter is: America's health care system has gone far beyond the madness demonstrated by Dr. Jack Kevorkian who was convicted of murder in 1999. "Dr. Death" Kevorkian received a sentence of 10 to 25 years for the role he played in a nine-year crusade which led to the deaths of over 130 human beings. Many hospitals and nursing homes are now the new "killing fields" in America,...

STERLING, Va. -- House Republicans came to TART Lumber in suburban Washington, D.C. Thursday to unveil their "Pledge to America," a sweeping conservative agenda that calls for reigning in federal spending, permanently extending all of the Bush tax cuts and repealing President Obama's democratically passed health care reform law. Republicans are hoping the document serves as a rallying call for conservatives to get out the vote this fall and propel them back into the majority in the House of Representatives. "The Pledge" also gives us a preview of the issues Republicans would push should they succeed in their efforts. Although...

The acrimony surrounding health care reform, stoked up to white hotness as the 2010 midterm elections draw nigh, seems to have claimed another victim, albeit an odd one: Andy Griffith, the long-living television and film star.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, those who buy health insurance as individuals or through a small business are about to be socked with huge premium increases, ironically as a result of efforts to make health care reform more palatable.

This Politico piece by Jim VandeHei, Alex Isenstadt, and Mike Allen got a lot of play last week: Top Democrats are growing markedly more pessimistic about holding the House, privately conceding that the summertime economic and political recovery they were banking on will not likely materialize by Election Day. In conversations with more than two dozen party insiders, most of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly about the state of play, Democrats in and out of Washington say they are increasingly alarmed about the economic and polling data they have seen in recent weeks. They no longer believe the jobs...

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli will continue to challenge what he calls the “utterly destructive” and “invasive, oppressive” policies of an overstepping federal government. “States created the federal government, not the other way around,” Cuccinelli said to applause this morning at a Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast event. About 75 people, mostly business and elected leaders, came to the Fredericksburg Country Club today for the Republican attorney general’s 40-minute address. Cuccinelli has been aggressively challenging the policies of the Obama administration since being sworn in as the state’s attorney general in January. He compared the administration to the British...

How to order a pizza after Obama Care

With one swipe of his pen, President Barack Obama signed into law a health care reform bill that will cut Medicare's budget by $500 billion over the next ten years. In addition, late in the first year of his presidency, Social Security recipients received a letter notifying them that they would not be receiving a Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) starting January 2010. Since this announcement, there are reports seniors and the disabled will not receive a COLA for two years or more beyond the current year. Yes, the Dept. of Labor's statistics, gleamed from the Consumer Price Index (CPI),...

Obama's healthcare "reform" legislation included a federal takeover of the college student-loan business. 

Obama touted this aspect of "reform" as a way to save $68 billion over the next 11 years. The savings would go to pay for expanded Pell Grants for low-income students and to help low-income graduates pay back their student loans.

But more is going on here than the standard Obama redistributionist impulse. Student loans have become a weapon to attack and control private colleges.

 Federal government involvement in student loans dates from the Higher Education Act of 1965. Federal interest-rate subsidies made loans to "qualifying" students more...

And I've had my first eye-opener. Like everyone of their generation, my parents automatically qualify for Medicare. Soon after the new health care bill passed, their personal physician retired. When they set about looking for a new one, they kept hearing the same refrain: "We are no longer accepting new patients." Why? Because while Congress fashioned a massive -- and massively expensive -- new health care program, they have also allowed Medicare reimbursements to physicians to be reduced. Many seniors have physicians who are their contemporaries because they've been under their care for many years. As these older physicians retire,...

The economic benefits Health Savings Accounts (HSA) have on society as a whole are very complicated and outside the scope of this blog. What really matters to the average person is that you can have part of your paycheck deposited into your HSA without it being taxed. That means more money for medical expenses, a reliable and secure means of covering medical treatments, and the confidence that comes with such stability. Many people who use HSAs do so in order to save up for future medical procedures. It is not uncommon for a family to put money into an HSA...

One of the most controversial provisions of the Obama health care reform legislation is the individual health care mandate. This is a requirement that individuals maintain essential health care insurance coverage beginning in 2014 or face an excise tax enforced by the Internal Revenue Service. This provision has already spawned numerous court challenges by individual states challenging whether the federal government has the constitutional authority to compel Americans to buy something they may not want to buy.

The Senate passed a bill which would fund the 21% increase of physician Medicare reimbursement on Friday, but House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi rejected the bill, making it unlikely to pass. Republicans have wanted the so-called `doc fix` to be funded through cutting other spending. Friday`s bill took this approach. However, Pelosi called it a `great disappointment` and saw `no reason to pass` it. The previous `doc fix` bill ran out June 1st, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has held off paying doctors the lower amount. On Friday, CMS ordered that the payments be made at...

Seeking independent practicesNurse practitioners, midwives ask end to pacts with doctors By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer First published: Saturday, June 12, 2010 ALBANY - Midwives and nurse practitioners in New York are trying to break free of formal ties to physicians. Both groups of have bills before legislators that would remove the legal requirement that they have written practice agreements with a doctor. "The piece of paper doesn't mean anything because we are going to collaborate with the person who is the most appropriate (for the medical situation)," said Laura Sheperis, president of the New York State Association of...

Hey everyone! I have a brief breakdown of what I think is good and bad in the Healthcare legislation that Obama signed into law at the blog that I contribte to: The Poltical Panorama. Give it a once-over and let me know your thoughts. I'm a moderate Republican that has campaigned and worked for multiple Republican candidates in Missouri. We are a growing political blog and would encourage you to check us out!

The latest weekly Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey on the recently passed national health care bill finds that 60% of U.S. voters now want to see it repealed. That’s down three points from a week ago but is the second straight week to find support for repeal of the bill at 60% or above.

Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven were Columbia University sociologists who founded, in 1966, the National Welfare Reform Organization, a “parent organization” of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). They advocated what became known as the “Cloward-Piven strategy,” which “seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.” This is an instructive prism through which to view the recent health care legislation.

This video is about the current health care situation from a Surgeons perspective. Some of the humor contains inside jokes, but the topics discussed go to the heart of what is wrong with Obamacare. Click the link above, sit back and enjoy. By the end hopefully you will have an increased understanding of at least one Surgeons view on the current health care environment.

Obama Administration Cuts NYC Anti-Terrorist Funding! Hey, why not? It’s not like terrorists ever target NYC. Good job, Mr. Prez! 10,000 Square Foot Islamic Center To Be Built at Ground Zero It’s true. You can’t make-up something this ridiculous. Obama Administration Wants to Cut Military Pay! Hey, why not? Those guys don’t do anything. CBO says Obamacare to Cost More Than Projected Duh, see above; cuts for NYC anti-terrorist funding and cuts for military pay. Turns out all those racist, rabble-rousers formerly known collectively as the American people were right to oppose the legislation. And now for our – Democrat...

Why is it OK to check auto insurance verification, now even health care insurance verification, but not verify whether one has the right to even be in this country?