Free Republic

WASHINGTON — As Americans shop in the health insurance marketplace for a second year, President Obama is depending more than ever on the insurance companies that five years ago he accused of padding profits and canceling coverage for the sick. Those same insurers have long viewed government as an unreliable business partner that imposed taxes, fees and countless regulations and had the power to cut payment rates and cap profit margins. But since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, the relationship between the Obama administration and insurers has evolved into a powerful, mutually beneficial partnership that has been...

The CEO of Whole Foods Market said President Obama's healthcare law is more like "fascism" than "socialism," a parallel he drew in 2009, to some backlash. John Mackey made the remark in an interview Wednesday with NPR. "Technically speaking, it's more like fascism," Mackey said of the Affordable Care Act. "Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it, and that's what's happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms." The term "fascism" was first used to describe the right-wing regime of Italian leader...