Free Republic

... A public option would be less disruptive than a plan that instantly eliminated private insurance. But a public option that is inexpensive and attractive could shake up the private market and also wind up erasing some current insurance arrangements. Conversely, a public option that is expensive and unattractive might not do much good at all. “The political appeal of the public option is it preserves the choice of private insurance,” said Larry Levitt, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “But the better it works, then the less likely it is to actually preserve a private insurance market.”...

arlier this month, the Trump administration signed a proclamation requiring individuals seeking immigrant visas to show proof of health insurance coverage or the financial means of paying for healthcare before entering the United States. The rule was scheduled to take effect on Sunday, but activists are always able to find a judge willing to block the president. On Sunday, they found him. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon granted a preliminary injunction preventing the rule from taking effect. The federal lawsuit was filed in Portland, Oregon, and claims the healthcare requirement prevents foreign family members of Americans from moving to the...

When the Census Bureau reported an increase in the number of people without health insurance in America, it sent political partisans reaching for talking points on the Obama-era health law and its travails. But the new numbers suggest that fears of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown may be a more significant factor in the slippage. Overall, the number of uninsured in the U.S. rose by 1.9 million people in 2018, the agency report this past week. It was the first jump in nearly a decade. An estimated 27.5 million people, or 8.5% of the population, lacked coverage the entire year....

Rep. Joe Cunningham's wife says therapy and marriage counseling are 'basic well-known needs' Democratic congressman Joe Cunningham's wife is furious that their taxpayer-subsidized healthcare plan declined to pay for therapy sessions, according to a rant on an insurance bill she posted on Instagram. The South Carolina Democrat is currently serving his first term in Congress, where members are given access to Obamacare "gold" plans from Blue Cross Blue Shield and are responsible for paying about a quarter of the premiums. The plan is apparently not good enough for his wife, Amanda Cunningham, who told her Instagram followers she would be...

Deepak Bhargava, a former ACORN lobbyist has been hired by President Obama to run a contest promoting Obamacare through videos. Bhargava was the manager in charge of advancing ACORN's legislative agenda until he resigned in 2002. He faces the daunting task of convincing huge numbers of young Americans to purchase health insurance, they will probably never use, instead of paying the $95 dollar tax. Bhargava is currently the executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Community Change, a left leaning partisan group, which is funded by George Soros. They are especially interested in immigration reform and support open borders....

"The next major priority for me, and for all of us, should be to lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs, and to protect patients with preexisting conditions." President Donald J. Trump OFFERING WORKERS BETTER COVERAGE: President Donald J. Trump is expanding Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs), opening new coverage options for American workers. The Trump Administration has finalized a rule to expand HRAs, giving businesses a better way to offer health insurance coverage. Under the rule, employers will be able to provide their workers with tax-preferred funds to pay for the cost of health insurance coverage that workers purchase...

Rising support for socialism in the United States comes at a time when politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., promise a great many “free” services, to be provided or guaranteed by the government. Supporters often point to nations with large social programs, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Scandinavian states, particularly when it comes to health care. Never mind that these are not true socialist countries, but highly taxed market economies with large welfare states. That aside, they do offer a government-guaranteed health service that many in America wish to emulate. The problem for their argument is that,...

I just tried to buy some health insurance and gee whiz, I am not allowed! How about that? It seems in New York you can only buy it in November due to the Obamacare enrollment mandate. I just got off the phone with a broker who told me. What kind of insanity is this? So if I get some disease or severely injured from now till November I'm basically screwed. Isn't government intervention wonderful?

Washington is set to become the first state to enter the private health insurance market with a universally available public option. A set of tiered public plans will cover standard services and are expected to be up to 10% cheaper than comparable private insurance, thanks in part to savings from a cap on rates paid to providers. But unlike existing government-managed plans, Washington’s public plans are set to be available to all residents regardless of income by 2021. The Legislature approved the plan last month, and Gov. Jay Inslee is scheduled to sign it into law Monday. The move thrusts...

Santa Claus, move over, Bolshevik Bernie and his fellow travelers are packing the presents with their Medicare for All bill, for which you'll get the tax bills: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1129/text "Every individual who is a resident of the United States is entitled to benefits for health care services under this Act." "Except as provided in subsection (b), benefits shall first be available under this Act for items and services furnished on January 1 of the fourth calendar year that begins after the date of enactment of this Act." "(b) Coverage for children.— (1) IN GENERAL.—For any eligible individual who has not yet...

A federal judge has struck down a rule letting individuals and small businesses pool together to buy health insurance, threatening a program encouraged by the Trump administration that was created as an escape hatch from high Obamacare premiums. The ruling, issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge John Bates, a President George W. Bush appointee, came after 11 states and the District of Columbia sued saying that the rules violated Obamacare and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA. Bates agreed, concluding in his opinion that the rule, issued by the Department of Labor, was "clearly an end-run around" Obamacare....

Presidential hopefuls in the Democratic primary have in recent weeks found themselves facing a new litmus test: Do they want to eliminate private health insurance? Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) faced a straightforward version of this question and gave a straightforward response. “Let’s eliminate all that,” she said of private coverage. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) faced a slightly more confusing version of this question and gave a slightly more confusing answer that indicated support for keeping certain parts of the health care system private.

These changes would hopefully stop the PPACA death spiral and make coverage affordable for millions more people. My Silver and Bronze plans would have modest annual benefit limits, permitting deductibles and premiums to be slashed to affordable levels to provide useable coverage for modest income folks. No annual limit Gold and Platinum plans would be based on luxurious governmental employee coverage. My proposal is written in bill hopper language meant mainly for health care specialist lawyers in government and lobby associations in DC. If you don't know what 42 USC is, don't waste Jim's bandwidth dollars. Health care is a...

(Bloomberg) -- Obamacare was struck down by a Texas federal judge in a ruling that casts uncertainty on insurance coverage for millions of U.S. residents. The decision Friday finding the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional comes just before the end of a six-week open enrollment period for the program in 2019 and underscores a divide between Republicans who have long sought to invalidate the law and Democrats who fought to keep it in place. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth agreed with a coalition of Republican states led by Texas that he had to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act,...

The Trump administration on Thursday outlined ways states will be allowed to waive parts of the Affordable Care Act, a move that has been welcomed by conservatives, spurred rebukes from Democrats and risks legal action. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which implements the health law, released four templates detailing how states may use waivers. States will get significantly more leeway to change the way they distribute and structure ACA premium subsidies that now go to almost nine million people. “The specific examples laid out today show how state governments can work with HHS to create more choices and...

The Senate on Wednesday defeated a Democratic measure to overrule President Trump’s expansion of non-ObamaCare insurance plans as Democrats seek to highlight health care ahead of the midterm elections. The Democratic measure would have overruled Trump’s expansion of short-term health insurance plans, which do not have to cover people with pre-existing conditions or cover a range of health services like mental health or prescription drugs. It was defeated on an extremely narrow, mostly party line 50-50 vote, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voting with Democrats in favor of overturning the short-term plans. Republicans argue the short-term plans simply provide a...

Whenever one segment of an economy exhibits, year after year, inflation above the general rate, and when there is no constraint on supply, then either a cartel is in operation or there is a lack of price transparency—or both, as is the case with American medical care. So it is clear that there is something terribly wrong with how health care is financed in our country. And a consensus on how to fix the problem—how to provide Americans the best medicine money can buy for the least amount of money that will buy it—has proved elusive. But the history of...

A proposal to repeal Obamacare entitlements and replace them with grants to states would reduce premiums for individual coverage by as much as 32 percent, according to an analysis by the Center for Health and Economy.The Health Care Choices Proposal also would modestly reduce the deficit, increase the number of people with private health insurance, and cut Medicaid spending, according to Center for Health and Economy.The proposal, the product of national and state think tanks, policy analysts, and others in the conservative community, embarks on a new path to empower consumers and return authority to the states to provide people...

Democrats say they’re champions of health care for all, but that narrative needs a reality check. Progressives around the country are working to outlaw insurance products that could cover Americans who have no other affordable options. On Governor Jerry Brown’s desk is a bill that bans the sale of short-term, limited-duration insurance in California. The Trump Administration recently issued rules on the plans, which don’t have to comply with Affordable Care Act mandates. The coverage can now last up to a year, which was the norm before the Obama Administration limited the options to three months. Plans also can be...

Last year, as insurance prices rose by an average of just over 20 percent around the country, people who qualified for Obamacare subsidies hung onto their insurance. But the increases appear to have been too much to bear for many customers who earned too much to qualify for financial help. According to a new government report, about a million people appear to have been priced out of the market for health insurance last year. The report is the first comprehensive look by the Department of Health and Human Services at people who buy their own insurance but don’t qualify for...