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Is anyone else experiencing this? Hubby is employed and we get health insurance through his employer. I am an "insured dependent" and not being charged - so MY non-vaxx status doesn't matter (evidently). He, however, is paying a surcharge for not being vaccinated - to the tune of $100/mo. He has had COVID twice and certainly should be considered "naturally immune", at this point. We have written to HR (who seems to be the point of contact for this) protesting the surcharge, sent a Dr's letter saying he (our Dr) does not recommend the shot for my husband (our Dr...

A recently released Gallup poll on healthcare was simultaneously right and wrong. It got statistically correct answers but asked the wrong questions.Fifty-seven percent of the 1,020 adults polled responded that "the federal government should ensure all Americans have healthcare coverage," presumably insurance. Despite assigning healthcare responsibility to Washington, 53 percent wanted private insurance rather than government-supplied. The article shied away from stating an inconvenient truth: what Americans say they want will not achieve what they really want and need. Most Americans do not distinguish healthcare from health care. As one word, healthcare refers to a massive system that consumes 18...

Annual premiums for family health insurance are expected to skyrocket to higher rates in 2023 due to rampant inflation, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report. While family rates increased modestly by about one percent to $22,463 in 2022 from $22,221 in 2021, which is well below the national overall inflation growth of 8.2 percent, employers are now sounding the alarm that premiums may surge next year, according to the 2022 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey. “Employers are already concerned about what they pay for health premiums, but this could be the calm before the storm, as recent inflation suggests...

ALBANY - Add your health insurance premiums to the long list of necessities that are going to get harder to pay for amid rampant inflation, the pandemic and war in Ukraine. Heath insurers serving individuals and companies in the state are requesting increases as high as 30 percent in some cases, although the weighted average is 18.7 percent for individuals and 16.5 percent for the so-called small group employer market that includes companies under 100 people.

Many Democrats seem to get sick in the fall during election years from a chronic disease known as premium increase-itis. That’s when Affordable Care Act (i.e., ObamaCare) premiums are announced for the next year. And it appears that 2022 will see one of the worst outbreaks in years. As The Hill’s Peter Sullivan explains: “The American Rescue Plan signed by President Biden last year temporarily increased financial assistance under ObamaCare, but that increase is set to expire at the end of this year, causing an increase in [2023] premiums for enrollees in the health law unless Congress acts. “Notices about...

In with a roar and out with a whimper. This is how we’ll remember a tedious progressive charade that was falsely billed as a righteous war to establish single-payer health care in California but instead fizzled and died in less than a day last week. Assemblyman Ash Kalra’s AB 1400 had dominated the attention of legislators in the first month of this year’s legislative session. Kalra, a San Jose Democrat, obediently carried the water of the radically progressive California Nurses Association (CNA) — and Bernie Sanders-inspired activists — while pushing a complete overhaul of health care in California. This legislation...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month for people on their plans. The Biden administration announced the change Monday as it looks to lower costs and make testing for the virus more convenient amid rising frustrations. President Joe Biden faced criticism over the holiday season for a shortage of at-home rapid tests as Americans traveled to see family amid the surge in cases from the more transmissible omicron variant. Now the administration is working to make COVID-19 home tests more accessible, both by increasing supply and...

It's no surprise that someone who went out of his way to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in Medicare taxes would agree to jeopardize the Medicare coverage of 27 million beneficiaries.Twelve months after Joe Biden claimed at the final presidential debate that “not one single person, private insurance, would lose their insurance under my [health] plan,” Democrats stand on the precipice of turning Biden’s statement into a reprise of Barack Obama’s “If you like your plan, you can keep it” Lie of The Year. The effort could cost millions of seniors their private Medicare plans, as Democrats raid...

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian notified employees Wednesday that they will face $200 monthly increases on their health insurance premiums starting Nov. 1 if they aren't vaccinated against Covid-19, citing steep costs to cover employees who are hospitalized with the virus. Unvaccinated employees will face other restrictions, including indoor masking effective immediately and weekly Covid-19 tests starting Sept. 12 the Atlanta-based airline said in announcing new Covid policies for employees. The measures are the latest attempt by a U.S. corporation to drive up Covid vaccination rates. Delta stopped short of an outright mandate like rival United Airlines established earlier...

Along with $1,400 stimulus checks and monthly child tax credit payments, the American Rescue Plan has another important benefit available to people who qualified for unemployment assistance this year – free health care. The no-cost and low-cost health care plans became available on July 1, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). They will provide coverage through the end of the year. "The Biden-Harris Administration is focused on providing relief to millions of families who need to access health insurance coverage because they have been impacted by job losses or underemployment during the pandemic,” said HHS Secretary...

Biden's American Family Plan would dole out free college, free child care, free meals, and more. But does the math add up? Nope.President Biden released the provisions of his American Family Plan last week, and just like with his American Jobs Plan, the details are scant and the price tag is high.Even given the limited details, the plans ought to give everyone pause — and by “everyone” I don’t just mean conservatives who oppose massive welfare state expansions, but also those who agree with the objective of an increase in the social insurance system in America. There are some serious...

Due to the pandemic, Paige Santillo had been laid off from her job as a marketing manager at the publishing company Informa in October. As part of her severance package, the company paid her COBRA health insurance premiums through April. Come May, she’d be on her own with the $700 bill. She didn’t know if she could afford that tab and, without coverage, she feared having to stop taking her medication for anxiety and depression. But then the American Rescue Plan passed in March, and the $1.9 trillion stimulus package included a provision that offered many unemployed workers free health...

A non-profit called the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) receives hundreds of millions of dollars each year through a hidden excise tax known as a PCORI fee. PCORI was established under Obamacare with the mission to assist people in making informed healthcare decisions. The non-profit is funded by a congressionally authorized tax called a PCORI Fee. The fee hits hundreds of thousands of private health insurance plans each year, extracting millions to create a behemoth non-profit. The 2019 PCORI Annual Report showed revenues of $615,205,771. PCORI allocates funding with a preference toward minority populations, including Transgender (LGBT) persons. A...

Xavier Becerra has had one health-care cause near and dear to his heart during his three decades in public life: making taxpayers pay for health coverage to illegally present foreign workers.At his confirmation hearings this week before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and Senate Finance Committees, Secretary of Health and Human Services-designee Xavier Becerra will talk about many subjects. Press reports prior to the hearings indicate he will highlight his claimed efforts as a member of Congress “to strengthen and modernize Medicare and how we finance it”—ironic claims from someone who voted for an Obamacare law that raided...

A federal appeals court in California on Thursday ruled to lift a ban on President Donald Trump’s proclamation that blocks immigrants from entering the United States if they lack health insurance or the means to pay for hospital bills. In a Dec. 31 opinion (pdf), the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said that Trump acted within his authority when, in October 2019, he signed the Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Will Financially Burden the United States Healthcare System. The ruling reverses a federal court decision to block the implementation of the president’s...

Kamala Harris wants to take away your private health insurance and replace it with some awful version of health insurance administered by the federal government. Why is this a bad idea? In the automobile insurance industry, all customers of a carrier pay into a large pool. Those who tap the insurance company’s resources as a result of mounting claims, due to accidents and poor driving, experience a rate increase. Good Behavior, Disproportionate RewardGood drivers can maintain low rates for the duration of their driving lives, but even good drivers, among a larger pool of drivers at the state level, still...

'They should not be ridiculed, vilified, or worse' Air Force medical providers and support staff assigned to COVID Theater Hospital-1 arrive for a farewell ceremony hosted by the staff of Eisenhower Hospital, Rancho Mirage, California, Aug. 28, 2020. (U.S. Army photo by Lt. Col. Charles Calio) At a Senate hearing, six prominent physicians called for removing obstacles to outpatient therapies for COVID-19 they contend are saving lives. The testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Tuesday was the second part a hearing organized by Chairman Ron Johnson titled "Early Outpatient Treatment: An Essential Part...

Mrs. Chandler has one year left before she is eligible for Medicare, and we are considering a Medical Sharing Ministry for her. Any suggestions?

In the summer of 2008, the Obama-Biden presidential campaign ran the most-aired ad of the decade, “Unravel,” alleging that Sen. John McCain’s policy proposals would dismantle employer-based health coverage. Twelve years later, that ad takes on an ironic tone for President Obama’s vice president. As I outline in a new report, Joe Biden’s health plan could pull apart the system by which most Americans receive insurance. The collapse would come as a result of two interlinked provisions in the Democrat’s plan. Mr. Biden proposes to increase subsidies for ObamaCare exchange plans—decreasing the percentage of income households must pay in out-of-pocket...

Your house should be your most expensive purchase, so the saying goes. Not these days. Today, health care costs make most mortgages look like loose change on the sidewalk. Your home or your vacation or your children’s future should be where your money goes—not to some plastic card in your wallet. Here’s how I threw away that expensive piece of plastic and kept my money for the things I want to spend it on. I opened my own medical practice five years ago, after resigning from my position as a physician at a hospital. Resigning meant I lost my health...