Free Republic

President Obama defiantly pledged to preserve his healthcare law, trumpeting the Affordable Care Act in Ohio on Thursday, even as Democrats pursue a legislative fix for his signature domestic achievement. Obama traveled to an ArcelorMittal steel plant in Cleveland for an event that was supposed to focus on economic gains made by the administration. However, the president was forced to confront the botched rollout of Obamacare, setbacks that have put Democrats on the defensive and entirely consumed Washington. “I'm going to see this through,” Obama said of the healthcare law. “We are not going to gut this law; we will...

If Access Health CT were a for-profit business, Tuesday might not have looked like a great opening day. Curious and interested people came in to ask questions, pick up some forms, look at the options online. Few actually enrolled, but then again, that wasn't the sole goal on this "soft opening" day. Sign-ups have been slow in the early weeks throughout the country, perhaps because people don't have to make decisions until the end of March, perhaps because of the well-publicized computer glitches, or, as critics believe, because the system isn't what it's cracked up to be. That third reason...

Young, healthy people are the targets, crucial to the success of the nation’s new federal health care law. They rarely see a doctor and would pay premiums for years to come. Their money would help cover the care of older and sicker customers. And one of the largest experiments to educate and ultimately enroll them is underway in California. California State University, with more than 437,000 students across 23 campuses, is applying a $1.25 million federal grant to reach students, their families, part-time staff and even those who apply to universities but don’t enroll. Plying them with pizza and luring...

Australia has a health care system which is similar in some aspects to what the Democrats are proposing. There is a public plan which covers about 70% of the country and private insurance which covers the rest. In a short time (the system was set up in 1983) the country became divided into one group that gets good medical care (private insurance) and the group whose insurance is not as good.For example those in the public system have to wait longer for surgery. There are also extensive waiting times for non emergency surgeries at public hospitals. Although waiting lists for...

As President Obama pushes for passage of his first major domestic policy change, some physicians are waging an all-out war against a health care reform bill they say amounts to nothing more than socialized medicine.

An organization of President Barack Obama's supporters has issued an urgent call for donations to battle "swiftboaters" over health care reform. ... the e-mail states: "We knew health care reform would face fierce opposition -- and it's begun. As we speak, the same people behind the notorious "swiftboat" ads of 2004 are already pumping millions of dollars into deceptive television ads. Their plan is simple: torpedo health care reform before it sees the light of day by scaring the public and distorting the President's approach. -------------- snippity snip --------------------

Primary care doctors in the United States feel overworked and nearly half plan to either cut back on how many patients they see or quit medicine entirely, according to a survey released on Tuesday. And 60 percent of 12,000 general practice physicians found they would not recommend medicine as a career.

Barack Obama on Thursday used Pittsburgh as his stage to ask Americans for a mandate to implement a national health care plan if he's elected president. "If we can't control skyrocketing health care costs, we'll confront a mounting moral crisis and a major anchor on the ability of American business to compete," Obama said the health care system's shortfalls hold back the nation and concern Americans more than any issue except soaring fuel prices. "The key is that the American people have to provide a mandate for change in this area," Obama said. "We have to insist ... we're going...

Eye specialist Sarah Anderson works at York Hospital. Her father Ian has been refused Sutent, a new cancer drug, which could provide the only real chance of prolonging his life. Sarah, 40, lives in York with husband, Bill, a computer programmer and their twins, Douglas and Ryan, five. As an ophthalmologist, I have spent my working life in the NHS. And for all its perceived failings, I have been proud of its fundamental role in our society - to provide equality of care for all. Of course, I've heard the term postcode lottery but as a doctor I've only ever...

Inside Sylvia de Vries lurked an enormous tumour and fluid totalling 18 kilograms. But not even that massive weight gain and a diagnosis of ovarian cancer could assure her timely treatment in Canada. Fighting for her life, the Windsor woman headed to the United States. In Pontiac, Mich., a surgeon excised the tumour - 35 centimetres at its longest - along with her ovaries, appendix, fallopian tubes, uterus and cervix. In addition, 13 litres of fluid were drained during that October, 2006, operation. And there was little time to spare: Had she waited two weeks, she would have faced potential...

Is all that ails the U.S. health-care system that it’s not run by a Communist dictatorship? That has long been a premise of apologists for Fidel Castro who extol the virtues of medical care on his totalitarian island nation. Left-wing documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is reviving this Cold War relic of an argument in his new movie on health care, Sicko, which premieres in a few weeks and favorably compares the Cuban health-care system to ours. Moore ostentatiously took a few sick 9/11 workers to Cuba for care. “If they can do this,” Moore told Time, referring to the Cubans,...