Free Republic

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...

The economy is starting to bounce back from the coronavirus, but a full recovery will take years. About 30 million Americans remain unemployed. And the Federal Reserve expects the jobless rate — which currently exceeds 13 percent — to remain above 9 percent through the end of the year, far above the historic low of 3.5 percent we recorded in February. Simply put, Americans are struggling. Through no fault of their own, millions have lost their jobs — and with it, their health insurance. Many are signing up for Medicaid or Obamacare. Conservatives like me cringe to see so many...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Special donations will soon cover monthly health insurance premiums for nearly 900 MUSC Health care team members who were temporarily laid. MUSC Health is in the process of notifying affected employees that their insurance premiums will be paid through June 30 thanks to donations from two benefactors. According to a press release Friday, MUSC Health said it had already committed to continue paying the employer health insurance contribution during the layoff period. “We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of these two amazing people and for what they have tangibly done to make a difference in...

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas is agreeing to pay a $10 million fine and issue refunds to consumers after a state review found billing mistakes in the insurer’s handling of out-of-network emergency claims. The Texas Department of Insurance announced the fine and restitution agreement Friday. Richardson-based Blue Cross will begin sending out notices to affected consumers by May 1. The state said its review found: Incorrect information about how to resolve bill balances on explanation of benefits forms sent to HMO members receiving out-of network emergency care. Delays in processing out-of-network claims that went through a review process Blue...

Private health insurance companies routinely deny legitimate medical claims. Most denied claims for doctors are for in-network (so-called “contracted”) services. In these cases, patients never see a bill, and the doctor must separately try to resolve the dispute with the insurance company. For out-of-network (“non-contracted”) claims, however, the doctor is required by law to send the patient a bill while trying to resolve the billing dispute. Most of these denied claims are for legitimate emergency services. They are simply routine claims, not exorbitant or outlier charges as some folks lobbying for the insurance industry would have you believe.  Don’t take...

According to a PBS health report about a retiree on a Medicare Advantage plan, Z. Ming Ma was issued a prescription from her physician that cost $285 for a 90-day supply. “A month later,” the article says, “Ma and his wife were about to leave on another trip, and Ma needed to stock up on her medication.” But her 90 days weren’t up, so Anthem wouldn’t cover it. “Ma asked the pharmacist how much it would cost if she got the prescription there and paid out of pocket,” the article says. The total cash price was about $40. This is...

Editor's note: This column was authored by Chris Medrano. Americans from every walk of life have good reason to dread the rising cost of medical care. Thankfully, in 2018 the Trump administration gave people more options by loosening restrictions on a less expensive plan type, called short-term plans. These plans aren’t required to follow the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) mandates, which is why Obama heavily restricted them in 2016 — to force more people into the ACA. But thanks to Trump’s deregulation, the CBO predicts that 2 million people will enroll in these plans by 2023. Unfortunately, though, some politicians would...

As a conservative, you might want to stay mad at the insurance companies, because they are still gaming the system to make even more money off of Obamacare.  Right now, they are supporting legislation that will help health insurance companies to make even more money while harming doctors, patients and service providers. The lead trade group for health insurers, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), were critical in helping to get Obamacare passed. They loved the idea of the federal government mandating that all Americans be forced to purchase their product. Healthcare Finance reported on March 23, 2012, “in March 2009,...

My wife needs a knee replacement operation. We are stuck in a glitch between our NYC primary HMO that won't pay for an out of state knee replacement, Medicare and a hospital in Florida where we live in the winter, that since we do have health insurance won't even let us pay for the whole operation out of pocket. Crazy situation. We were just bumped off the schedule for Monday morning. We need prayers to get a new date and have someone apply some common sense to this situation. Need prayers to get out of this web. HELP Please!

Eight-year-old Blake Collie was at the swimming pool when he got a frightening headache. His parents rushed him to the emergency room only to learn he had a brain aneurysm. Blake spent nearly two months in the hospital. His family did not have traditional health insurance. “We could not afford it,” said his father, Mark Collie, a freelance photographer in Washington, N.C. Instead, they pay about $530 a month through a Christian health care sharing organization to pay members’ medical bills. But the group capped payments for members at $250,000, almost certainly far less than the final tally of Blake’s...

With the current third-party payment structure, you doctor does not practice as much medicine on you as insurance executives and federal bureaucrats do. Americans, who practices medicine on you? The answer may seem self-evident, but it is not. In our current health-care system, millions of nameless, faceless government or private insurance bureaucrats practice medicine on you without a license for medicine.You may think your life is in your doctor’s hands, but it is not. The bureaucrats, not you or your doctor, make your medical and financial decisions. Consider these health-care decisions: DiagnosisTreatment: what, when, where, by whomMedicationsPaying for care Your...

More Americans are going without health coverage and the pace of spending on health care nationally is rising in part because of an Affordable Care Act tax on insurers, Trump administration officials said Thursday. A federal report from actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services documented trends that are likely to further fuel the battle between Republicans and Democrats over how to slow health-care spending growth that has already put the U.S. far ahead of most comparable wealthy countries. Overall, national health-care spending rose to $3.65 trillion in 2018, up 4.6% from 2017. The U.S. spent $11,172 per...