Free Republic

The Trump administration is expected to use a federal stimulus package to pay hospitals that treat uninsured people with the new coronavirus as long as they agree not to bill the patients or issue unexpected charges, according to two people familiar with the planning. The plan, which could be released Friday, comes as the White House faces mounting criticism for not launching a special enrollment period for people seeking coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Congressional Democrats also are pressuring the administration and insurers to waive treatment costs for the growing number of Americans who are losing employer-provided health coverage...

As California continues its statewide shelter-in-place order in response to the spread of coronavirus, California governor Gavin Newsom stated that the daily number of unemployment insurance claims in the state has skyrocketed dramatically. During a press conference Monday night, Newsom reported that the daily average of claims over the last seven days is 106,000. The normal average per day is just 2,500, meaning the number of jobless claims has increased by over 4,000%. The governor called for block grants from the federal government to help the state pay for benefits. "It is critical that the states get these block grants,...

Early-onset dementia and Alzheimer’s disease jumped 200% among commercially insured Americans between the ages of 30 and 64 over a recent five-year period, a new analysis of Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurer claims shows. The report, the latest from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, shows 131,000 people between the ages of “30 and 64 were diagnosed with either form of dementia” in 2017. The average age of someone “with either condition is 49 and women are disproportionately impacted than men,” the report, which is the latest in the trade group’s “The Health of America” series, shows. In...

I have two children in my life. Because of circumstances I can give the children excellent properties, but I have little liquidity. The deal has been you care you get. I realized if something happends to either of them, I am without enough liquidity to survive my old age. I wonder whether I can or should insure them for enough money to care for me in case something GOD FORBID happens to them. This is new territory for me. Your thoughts?

Sales for some at-home DNA testing kits are on the decline amid consumer privacy concerns. 23andMe, the home DNA-testing company, is laying off about 100 people, nearly 14 percent of its staff, the company confirmed to FOX Business Friday. The company cut staffers in its operations department in charge of growing and scaling the company as fewer people pay for genetic test results which can reveal things about their heritage or how prone they are to health conditions like type 2 diabetes or celiac disease, according to a CNBC report. The declining sales came as a surprise for CEO Anne...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration warned California on Friday that it must stop requiring health insurance plans in the state to provide abortion coverage or risk losing federal money. The move — the latest clash between the White House and the nation’s largest state — opens a new front in a long-running national debate over whether abortion services must be covered by health insurance. It threatens to further restrict Californians’ access to abortion services, which must be offered in health plans that cover individuals and employees of small business in the state. The state’s rules do not apply to larger...

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...

An appellate court ruling that struck down a key pillar of Obamacare on Wednesday amped up anxiety about the future of the law that brought health insurance to millions of Americans. Court appeals are likely and experts say the matter probably won’t be resolved for years — creating uncertainty about the protections were built into the Affordable Care Act. Squirrel Hill resident Amy Raslevich is among the people worrying about the future of the law. “I’m fighting cancer,” the 48-year-old University of Pittsburgh doctoral student said. “I shouldn’t have to fight Congress and the president to stay alive.” In a...

Three-quarters of Californians who are eligible for a subsidy to defray the cost of health insurance either don’t know they qualify or don’t know just how much they could get, and if you haven’t checked, Covered California leader Peter V. Lee wants you to stop what you’re doing and go to the agency’s website by Sunday.

On Tuesday the Supreme Court will consider in Maine Community Health Options v. U.S. whether Congress can limit the spending discretion it has previously granted to the executive branch. Four health insurers have sued the government for not making payments they say they are entitled to under the Affordable Care Act’s “risk corridors.” The temporary program was intended to entice insurers to join the ObamaCare exchanges by minimizing their potential losses and giving them time to calibrate premiums and risk pools. Under a formula in the ACA, relatively profitable insurers for the first three years of the exchanges were required...

Responding to several years of unprecedented fires across California, regulators on Thursday imposed a one-year moratorium banning insurers from dropping policies for homeowners in wildfire-ravaged areas of the state. The move comes amid an exodus of some insurers in communities hard hit by fires, forcing some homeowners to take plans that provide less coverage, sometimes at higher premiums. Some have had to go without insurance altogether. “I have heard the same story again and again. People getting dropped by their insurance after decades,” California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said. “To add insult to injury, many struggle to find coverage.” Though...

Rudy Giuliani Snaps At Fox News’ Ed Henry: "THEY'RE GOING TO TRY TO KILL ME" President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani snapped at Fox News host Ed Henry during an interview Saturday, accusing Henry of covering up news about Joe Biden and Ukraine. “Are you afraid, Mr. Mayor that you could be indicted?” Henry asked. “Oh, wow, how long have you known me, Ed?” Giuliani said, adding, “Do you think I’m afraid? Do you think I get afraid? I did the right thing. I represented my client in a very, very effective way. I was so effective that I’ve discovered...

Kaiser Permanente chairman and CEO Bernard Tyson died unexpectedly in his sleep Sunday, the health care giant announced. He was 60. He rose through the ranks during a 30-year career at Kaiser to become CEO in 2013.

Allstate is expanding and bringing more than 200 new job opportunities to Missouri. The company is hiring for positions in agencies and sales in the Show-Me State, including 20 Allstate agency owners. "We're growing and have an opportunity for entrepreneurs to become agency owners in a very reliable industry," said Travis Peterson, Strategic Deployment Leader. "Candidates don't need an insurance background. We're in search of individuals with a strong entrepreneurial drive and the passion to help households in the communities where they work and live. The ideal candidate wants to build a legacy they can pass down for generations." Allstate...

The number of people without health insurance jumped by 2 million from 2017 to a total of 27.5 million in 2018, according to census data release Tuesday. It’s the first time the census survey reported an increase in the number of people without insurance since 2009, before ObamaCare took effect and vastly expanded coverage. The total uninsured rate increased to 8.5 percent in 2018 from 7.9 percent in 2017. Census officials said the increase was mostly driven by a drop in the number of people, including kids, covered by public programs like Medicaid. The number of children without insurance also...

AARP portrays itself as a classic membership organization, funded by dues in return for representation on a variety of issues. Yet its public financial statements reveal that the group receives the bulk of its revenue from health insurers. In 2017 the group received $627 million from UnitedHealth , the nation’s largest insurer, compared with $301 million in membership fees. The insurance company pays AARP a royalty for the right to brand its plans with AARP’s name and logo. Based on the AARP’s current financials as well as an admission in 2012 by a former director of its Public Policy Institute,...

A cozy alliance between insurers and law enforcement has turned the justice system into the industry’s hired gun and left innocent customers facing prison.... These tactics can be applied with impunity, thanks to legislation in all 50 states restricting the ability of customers to sue insurers for wrongly accusing them of fraud

Should taxpayers subsidize my new, gigantic beachfront house?  Few people realize this is going on, even though mostly everyone (excepting beach homeowners, real estate and rental agents, tourism promoters etc…) would agree that this is folly.Anyone trucking the family on serial pilgrimages to the Atlantic and the Gulf Coast can see that beach houses are getting bigger and bigger, especially after hurricanes strong enough to cause major (and sometimes complete) destruction.This was documented in the technical journal Nature Sustainability late last year—a mere two months after Category 4 Hurricane Michael (ultimately reclassified as a Cat 5) mowed down pretty much every...

Senator Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) released a health-care proposal on Monday that preserves a limited, tightly regulated, private-insurance market, finally articulating her position on the role of the private market after struggling to do so throughout her early primary campaign. Harris’s plan, which comes days ahead of the second round of Democratic primary debates in Detroit, represents a more moderate approach than that championed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who has called for the total elimination of the private health-insurance market. Like Sanders, Harris would allow every American access to an expanded Medicare program, but she would also seek...

Baltimore drivers are just the worst. Again. For the second straight year, Allstate ranked Baltimore drivers last out of those in the country’s 200 largest cities, adjusting for population density and precipitation. The city dropped into the bottom slot last year in the annual Best Driver’s Report — based on the average number of claims per driver and the company’s Drivewise app, which monitors driver behavior — after being ranked second-worst in 2017...