Free Republic

During last week's presidential debate, realizing that he was taking a beating on the Medicare solvency issue, Barack Obama issued the following cri de coeur: "AARP thinks that the savings that we obtained from Medicare bolster the system, lengthen the Medicare trust fund by eight years." Later, after enduring several more blows to his credibility, the President went on to claim AARP agreed with him that Romney's plan would weaken Medicare. Oddly, the "senior advocacy organization" took offense at these remarks. Having provided full-throated support to the President and the Democrats on Obamacare, and resisted Medicare reform, AARP has begun...

Missouri federal district Judge Carol Jackson ruled that forcing Catholics to pay for contraception and abortion services mandated under Obamacare does not violate their right to freely practice their religion. “The plaintiffs argue that their religious freedom is infringed by a government law requiring them to finance health services they view as repugnant to their beliefs,” Jackson wrote in her decision. “However, none of these plaintiffs is required to undergo an abortion or to make use of the covered contraception benefits. Consequently, they remain totally free to adhere to their religious beliefs insofar as the effects are confined to themselves.”...

"I mean think about that, your boss tellling you what is best for your health or safety," said Obama. "Let me tell you something, Virginia," Obama said, "I don't think your boss should control the care you get. I don't think insurance companies should control the care you get. I definitely don't think politicians on Capitol Hill should control the care you get. We've seen some of their attitudes, we've read about those. "I think there is one person who gets to make decisions about your health care, that's you," said Obama.

Forty-three hospital patients starved to death last year and 111 died of thirst while being treated on wards, new figures disclose today. The death toll was disclosed by the Government amid mounting concern over the dignity of patients on NHS wards. * as well as 43 people who starved to death, 287 people were recorded by doctors as being malnourished when they died in hospitals; * there were 558 cases where doctors recorded that a patient had died in a state of severe dehydration in hospitals; * 78 hospital and 39 care home patients were killed by bedsores, while a...

Forty-three hospital patients starved to death last year and 111 died of thirst while being treated on wards, new figures disclose today. There were 558 cases last year where doctors recorded that a patient had died in a state of severe dehydration in UK hospitals The death toll was disclosed by the UK Government amid mounting concern over the dignity of patients on NHS wards. They will also fuel concerns about care homes, as it was disclosed that eight people starved to death and 21 people died of thirst while in care. Last night there were warnings that they must...

As part of its “benchmark” health care plan to satisfy ObamaCare’s requirement of the establishment of Essential Health Benefits (EHB’s) in each state, the state of New York has requested that annual doctor visit limits be substituted for lifetime and annual dollar limits in health care plans. ObamaCare is gradually setting up a two-class system of health care access in this country. Only the very wealthy will be able to obtain the types of treatments and access to health care that many Americans have enjoyed in the past. Everyone else…well, just take a check and wait in line.

The emperor wears no clothes. The bloom is off the rose. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Pardon the barrage of stale metaphors, but it’s difficult to put into words the utter pasting Mitt Romney put on Barack Obama Wednesday night. Pat Buchanan called Romney’s “the finest debate performance” in 52 years “with the possible exception of Ronald Reagan’s demolition of Jimmy Carter in 1980.” Indeed, when all of CNN and MSNBC – to include Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow – hysterically admit that President Obama got smoked; he got smoked. Bad. Liberal blogger and Obama...

Personalized medicine is the future. It's where the science is going. It's where the technology is going. It's where doctors and patients will want to go. Yet, unfortunately for many of us, this is not where the Obama administration wants to go. First, the good news. All this is great news. Unless you happen to be in traditional Medicare. Or in Medicaid. Or unless you acquire subsidized insurance in a health insurance exchange. Or in some cases, even if you get health insurance from an employer. Implantable or attachable devices already exist — or soon will exist — that can...

Presenting facts about even popular aspects of the health-care law had a side effect: increasing support for Mitt Romney. Just a few days ago, the conventional wisdom about the presidential campaign was beginning to take hold: Mitt Romney's candidacy had failed to catch fire, and Barack Obama's re-election was almost certain. Wednesday's debate upended that notion. While there is still plenty of time for more twists in the campaign, it is clear that many voters who thought they had enough information about the candidates are now considering them in a new light. One of the debate's major topics was health...

Last week, a federal district judge in Missouri dismissed a case against the HHS mandate, ruling that forcing Catholics to pay for contraception and abortion-inducing drugs does not violate their faith, because they remain “free to exercise their religion, by not using contraceptives.” In her ruling, Judge Carol E. Jackson contended that the mandate does not prohibit a business owner’s religious worship or personal decision not to use contraceptives, echoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ contention that the new mandate does not “affect an individual woman’s freedom to decide not to use birth control.” “This Court rejects the proposition that requiring...

The Cleveland Clinic is owned by doctors. But thanks to Obamacare it's illegal for doctors to own hospitals. Section 6001 of the health care law effectively bans new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) from starting up, and it keeps existing ones from expanding. It has already halted the development of 24 new physician-owned hospitals and forced an additional 47 to struggle to meet the deadline to complete construction, according to the Physician Hospitals of America (PHA). You couldn't build the Cleveland Clinic today if you wanted to.

News of this latest PR contract comes on the heels of criticism from congressional Republicans over efforts to market Obamacare through popular television shows. “Americans’ hard-earned money should not be taken by government to subsidize Hollywood and insert propaganda into the popular culture,” a group of lawmakers said of that effort.

Federal authorities have charged more than 90 people in one of the largest Medicare fraud schemes ever uncovered, they revealed Thursday. The scheme defrauded the national healthcare scheme for the elderly of some $432 million, CNBC reported. "Those charged today not only broke the law -- but also violated their professional obligations and sacred oaths as medical practitioners," Attorney General Eric Holder said, as he announced the result of the crackdown. Holder said one doctor is accused of writing 30,000 prescriptions for 2,000 patients, leading to $100 million in fraud. The accused include "doctors, nurses and other medical professionals," Reuters...

DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz described the Medicare reforms proposed by GOP Vice-Presidential nominee and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) as "literally a death trap for seniors." White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Ryan's reforms would "change Medicare as we know it." But it was Obamacare that already changed Medicare as we know it, transforming it literally into a death trap for seniors. Obamacare cut Medicare by $716 billion over the next 10 years alone, mostly by slashing Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals. And that is just a down-payment on what is to come. Ryan...

There are a lot of differences between Obamacare and Romneycare, even though President Barack Obama said that the two plans were based on an "identical model" during the first presidential debate in Denver on Wednesday night. "We've seen this model work very well," Obama said, "in Massachusetts." Wrong, countered Mitt Romney. As Massachusetts governor, he passed a health care plan "on a bipartisan basis." President Obama, said Romney, "instead of bringing America together," rammed through a bill that garnered no support across the aisle. "Something this big, this important," Romney concluded, "has to be done on a bipartisan basis." Note...

President Obama reiterated a claim that his healthcare law will reduce costs, a promise he made when he started pushing for an overhaul as a candidate four years ago. Then, Obama said he would cut family health insurance premiums by $2,500 by the end of his first term. Today, this stands as one of the president’s biggest unfulfilled promises. In fact, the average employee share of an employer-provided health plan jumped from $3,515 in 2009 to $4,316 in 2012, an increase of more than 22%, according to a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational...

A top Democrat strategist and donor who served as President Obama’s lead auto-industry adviser recently conceded that the rationing of heath services under Obamacare is “inevitable.” Steven Rattner advocated that such rationing should target elderly patients, while stating, “We need death panels.” Rattner serves on the board the New America Foundation, or NAF, a George Soros-funded think tank that was instrumental in supporting Obamacare in 2010. Soros’ son, financier Jonathan Soros, is also a member of the foundation’s board. Rattner was the so-called “car czar,” the lead auto adviser to the Treasury Department under Obama. Last month, Rattner penned an...

Joe's middle class family has a taxable income of a meager $17,399 and he barely gets by. So he was dismayed to find out he was getting a 50% Federal Tax rate increase. On top of this, he learned there was to be a 30% increase in his social security tax payments. But he really began to cry when he saw his bare bones medical insurance premium skyrocket due to Obama's "Affordable" Care Act" (PPACA). Joe really wants everyone to let the Democrats know how he feels this November.

She's a former nun, an Army major, a lawyer, a college professor and a physician. Now Dr. Barbara Bellar wants to be a state senator from Illinois, and she has one question about ObamaCare. “What the blank could possibly go wrong?” Bellar asks, tongue in cheek, after delivering a one-sentence indictment of President Obama's health care law. Bellar, a Republican candidate running for office in the state’s 18th district, gave the extended one-liner while warming up the crowd at a recent event for GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Someone captured it on video, and now the doctor's diagnosis of the...

As Mitt Romney campaigns on the promise to repeal Obamacare, some Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to learn more about what the national health care law will actually do when it is fully implemented in 2014. Romney would do well to take a look at what they've discovered. Specifically, Romney might want to focus on the new and expanded role that the Internal Revenue Service will play in Americans' lives as a result of the Affordable Care Act. The nation's widely reviled tax collector will also become its health care enforcer. Once the law goes fully into effect, all...