Free Republic

You might have missed this big news because the media largely ignored it, but President Trump signed a historic health care executive order (EO) in June. It supports innovative direct primary care (DPC) practice models and promises to make health care prices more transparent than they have been in a half century. One of the executive order’s biggest changes, however, is allowing patients to use tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSAs) to pay for DPC services.This incredibly important point about HSAs is buried deep in the EO: “Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Treasury,...

The president’s chest thumping boasting to the contrary, Obamacare is still a mess that has caused health insurance premiums and deductibles to skyrocket. Some advocates of Canadian-style single-payer systems, such as socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, maintain that this state of affairs will lead Americans to accept a universal, government run “Medicare for all” system. Such a system would also feature rationing and death panels, as has been the case in countries that have adopted such arrangements. However, a Wednesday article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that Obamacare will, inadvertently, lead to a free market, customer-driven health care system...

For all of those with HSAs Obamacare as of one week from today will require a doctors prescription to buy over-the counter medications such as aspirin, cold meds etc. Affordable Care Act: Questions and Answers on Over-the-Counter Medicines and Drugs Q. How are the rules changing for reimbursing the cost of over-the-counter medicines and drugs from health flexible spending arrangements (health FSAs) and health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs)? A. Section 9003 of the Affordable Care Act established a new uniform standard for medical expenses. Effective Jan. 1, 2011, distributions from health FSAs and HRAs will be allowed to reimburse the cost...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryJanuary 20, 2007 President's Radio Address       Audio      In Focus: Health Care      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. For many Americans, the new year began with a resolution to live a better and healthier life. Whatever goals you have set for yourself this year, one goal we can all share is reforming our Nation's health care system. Americans are fortunate to have the best health care system in the world. The government has an important role to play in our system. We have an obligation to provide care for the most vulnerable members of our...

...[O]ur indictment here is of the conditioned cowardice of the health-care policy community at large. How can you expect better of Mr. Kerry when the arbiters of good policy... judge candidate health plans by a single criterion: Which would commit the most resources to health care? There not being unlimited funds to spend on health care, Mr. Kerry's plan would only speed the day when politicians, no longer able to write blank checks with the private sector's money, would face directly the choice of whether to curb consumption or raise taxes to pay for it. That's the job description of...

...Basic problems remain the same, however. And so do many of the proposed solutions. In Washington, Democrats continue to push statist prescriptions to America's health care ills; at the state level, legislatures experiment with them. It would be easy, thus, to assume that while Hillary Clinton lost the battle, she is winning the war.... Tomorrow, President Bush shouldn't just emphasize HSAs (which Sen. Kerry, incidentally, opposes). He can map out further reforms that will make health insurance more affordable: • Tax fairness. While employer contributions to health insurance are non-taxable, individuals must pay in after-tax dollars. Leveling the tax field...

...Most Republicans avoid health care, but Mr. Bush sees that the Democratic vision is headed for a win by default, and so his campaign is making a serious effort to revive market incentives in health care. At the center of his program are the Health Savings Accounts created by last year's Medicare bill. HSAs marry real insurance (i.e., coverage for high and unpredictable costs) with contributions to a savings account that can be "rolled over" from year to year.... [I]ndividuals, not insurance companies, "ration" most of their own health care, and young people get a chance to save tax-free for...

Rhetoric WOMAN: “How long will they be playing with our minds? The problem of Cuba must be resolved by us Cubans.” CHYRON: Gladys Exiliada en el ano 1964. The Facts Kerry Has Long Voted Against Stronger Cuba Sanctions Kerry Voted Against Cuba Sanctions At Least Four Times. (H.R. 927, CQ Vote #22: Adopted 74-22: R 47-4; D 27-18, 3/5/96, Kerry Voted Nay; S. 955, CQ Vote #183: Rejected 38-61: R 5-49; D 32-12, 7/17/97, Kerry Voted Yea; S. 1234, CQ Vote #189: Motion Agreed To 55-43: R 43-10; D 12-33, 6/30/99, Kerry Voted Nay; S. 2549, CQ Vote #137: Motion...

...President Bush is beginning to promote the cause of tax reform. In his New York convention speech, Mr. Bush laid down the broad principles that tax reform must satisfy. With a friendly nod toward the desirability of home ownership (read the mortgage deduction) and charitable giving, he called for "a simpler, fairer, pro-growth system." And he's promised to appoint a bipartisan advisory panel to generate specific ideas.... Consider: Simplicity. The current system with its deductions, exemptions and credits -- many of which phase-in and then phase-out at different income levels -- piles complexity on complexity.... Fairness. Right now, the tax...

Congress is still negotiating a major Medicare prescription drug bill, but it looks like the Health Savings Account may be one item that's a keeper. Free market critics of the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act warn, however, that it won't be enough to win their support for the new $400 billion drug benefit. "I have no reason to believe that we are going to be taken out. And I expect that we will be in the final package," said Dan Perrin, executive director of the Archer MSA Coalition, a group headed by former House Ways and Means Chairman Bill...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers failed to agree on tax-free health savings accounts, one of several major unresolved issues in negotiations on a Medicare prescription drug bill. Closed-door talks that stretched late into the evening Thursday failed to produce any agreements, lawmakers said. "There were no decisions made on anything," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. The core group of negotiators - all but two of them Republicans - are trying to write legislation to provide a prescription drug benefit for seniors and try to remake Medicare, the government-run program for older and disabled Americans. President Bush has called...