Free Republic

Nancy Pelosi warned us we’d have to pass Obamacare to find out what’s in it. And what we’re finding we don’t like at all. Higher insurance premiums are hitting families hard. Medicare Advantage has been decimated. Millions will be forced into government-run Medicaid where long lines and rationing await. If we like our insurance -- too bad. Beginning January 1, 2011, more than 15,000 over-the-counter (OTC) health care items will require a prescription (and that means a doctor’s visit) for tax-free reimbursement. Under Obamacare, OTC drugs cannot be reimbursed tax-free from Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) or Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)...

Patrick Fontana twisted his left knee last spring while hitting a drive down the fairway on a golf course in Columbus, Ohio. But what really pained him was the $900 bill for diagnostic imaging ordered by his doctor. Mr. Fontana, a 42-year-old salesman, has a high-deductible health plan coupled to a health savings account. Since he was nowhere near meeting his deductible, he was on the hook for the entire bill.So he did something that insurance companies routinely do: he forwarded the bill to a claims adjuster, in this case My Medical Control, a Web-based company that reviews doctor and...

Think your insurance has you covered? Just wait till you need it most. System of Dilemmas Heart surgeon Mehmet Oz was set to go. On the operating table lay a 50-year-old man, dying from heart failure. He was anesthetized, out cold, and his chest was painted with sterile Betadine. In minutes, Dr. Oz and his team would implant a mechanical pump to keep him alive until a donor heart could be found. All that remained was for Dr. Oz to scrub his hands. As he soaped up just outside the OR, he thought about the brief chat he'd had with...

IN the past five years, private health insurance premiums have risen 73 percent. Some businesses have responded by dropping healthcare coverage, leaving employees uninsured. Other employers pass the costs on to workers, both by raising co-payments and premiums and by denying workers the wage increases they need to afford these higher prices. What is driving this unsustainable run-up in health insurance costs, and how can we make things better? Health care is expensive because the vast majority of Americans consume it as if it were free. Health insurance policies with low deductibles insulate people from the cost of the medical...