Free Republic

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Thursday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that she believed the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot was an assault on “personal freedoms” that former President Donald Trump must be held accountable for. When asked about President Joe Biden’s campaign ad highlighting the Capitol riot, Pelosi said, “I think it’s very important, but I think it also recognizes that democracy is a personal issue. Freedom to whether it is to have access to health care, when, if, and how to expand your family, freedom to be in the workplace in a very strong way because you have...

The worst situation is in Rome and its region, where more than 1,100 patients are waiting to be admitted, according to the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care. Just a few days ago, ambulances were queuing outside hospitals in Rome. In other regions, such as Lombardy, patients are crammed into waiting rooms until a bed becomes available. In cities such as Turin, hospital overcrowding has even led to a shortage of stretchers for patients. Emergency departments in Italian hospitals are in chaos and on the verge of collapse. The worst situation is in Rome and its region, where...

Undocumented Californians are leaving health care clinics with “smiles” after they learn they’re newly eligible for Medi-Cal insurance. The health insurance expansion was decades in the making for immigrant advocates.

This is tragic. A 91-year-old dementia sufferer died after foreign care staff at a nursing home in England were unable to communicate with emergency operators. Barbara Rymell died after she fell and got trapped under a stairlift at the Ashley House Residential home in Somerset. The two care staffers who were Romanian and Indian, were unable to tell emergency responders about the victim’s condition because they don’t speak English. According to The Telegraph, the foreign caregivers didn’t know the difference between “the patient being “alive” and “alert”, or “breathing” and “bleeding.” “Their lack of English “severely hampered” the call handler’s...

Indi Gregory, a critically ill eight-month-old baby girl from Britain who was taken off life support over the weekend following a legal battle, has died overnight, her family said on Monday. Gregory's parents lost a legal fight last month to keep her on life-support machines and have her transferred to a Vatican children's hospital in Rome. The baby died at 0145 GMT, Dean Gregory, her father, said in a statement issued by charity Christian Concern. Gregory suffered from a rare, incurable and degenerative mitochondrial disease which meant that her cells did not produce enough energy. Her doctors in Britain's National...

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — On a hot July morning, customers at the Dollar General along a two-lane highway northwest of Nashville didn’t seem to notice signs of the chain store’s foray into mobile health care, particularly in rural America. A woman lifted a child from the back of an SUV and walked into the store. A dog barked from a black pickup truck before its owner returned with cases of soda. Another woman checked her hair in a convertible’s rearview mirror before shopping. Each went right by a sign exclaiming “Quick, Easy Health Visits,” with an image of a mobile clinic....

Children in some areas of England are waiting up to 18 months on average for dental general-anaesthetic treatment and teeth extractions, an investigation reveals. Some have been left with prolonged dental pain, according to information shared with BBC News.The parents of one girl who has waited three years for extractions say the pain keeps her up at night. At the start of this year, more than 12,000 under-18s were on waiting lists for assessment or treatment at community dental service (CDS) providers, data obtained by the Liberal Democrats from the NHS Business Services Authority and shared with BBC News earlier...

The victor of the 2024 election is set to face a number of new legislative deadlines immediately upon entering office that could have drastic effects on the country’s economy. More than a dozen candidates are eyeing the Oval Office in 2024, positioning themselves as the best choice to address the nation’s cultural and economic challenges. However, upon taking office in 2024, the winner of the presidential election must deal with the impending expirations of both the 2017 tax law as well as subsidies included in Obamacare. On top of that, the debt limit bill is also set to expire just...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — British Columbia will send hundreds of cancer patients across the international border for treatment in Bellingham beginning this week in a multimillion dollar, desperate and controversial effort to restore government funded health care to some of its most vulnerable residents. It is a highly unusual, yet not entirely unprecedented effort by the free universal health care system Canadians have long enjoyed. It will also mean two Whatcom County clinics stand to make millions in payments from the BC government. “I don't think people who are suffering right now and in this immediate period should have to...

Billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss national who lives in Wyoming, has become a “Democrat-aligned mega-donor,” according to the Associated Press (AP), thanks to his funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing groups. “Newly available tax documents show that his giving through the Berger Action Fund, which describes itself as advocating for ‘solutions to some of our world’s biggest problems,’ swelled in 2021 to $72 million, cementing Wyss’ status as a Democratic-aligned megadonor,” the AP reports. Wyss, who built his fortune creating the medical device company Synthes USA, which was sold in 2012 to Johnson & Johnson for $20 billion,...

Deaths in England and Wales have remained above average post-Covid lockdowns, with NHS delays likely to ‘have had substantial impact’The crisis in the NHS is leading to continued higher-than-usual death levels in England and Wales, experts have said. Figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that almost 170,000 more people than normal died in England and Wales between March 2020, when coronavirus was declared a pandemic, and the end of 2022 – 11% higher than the five-year average. However, the new data also shows that the number of excess deaths has continued, even as the virus’s fatality rate has...

"We're grieving parents. I don't want to see any more grieving parents"The grieving parents of a 20-year-old Northampton amateur footballer have questioned health authorities about the sudden death of their son - and they want answers. Luke Abrahams, from East Hunsbury, died on the operating table at Northampton General Hospital on Sunday, January 23 after first complaining about a sore throat a week before. The former Abbeyfield School student was well-known in the Northants football community, playing for Blisworth FC and Hunsbury Hawks FC and also having associations with AFC Spinney. Dad Richard Abrahams and mum Julie Needham said: "We...

Another Nova Scotia family is speaking out about the death of a loved one following a lengthy wait at an emergency department -- and they’ve created a website where others can share their own stories. Katherine Snow says her mother-in-law, Charlene Snow, died suddenly at home on Dec. 30, 2022, after she waited seven hours in the ER at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital. “I’m mad. I’m angry,” says Snow, who lives in Donkin, N.S. “She should be here.” Snow says her 67-year-old mother-in-law had jaw pain and flu-like symptoms. She was triaged, but eventually gave up after being told...

Hannah Marie's heartbroken fiancé had only 10 minutes to say goodbye to herTributes have been paid to an 'amazing' mum-of-three who died just three days before Christmas. Hannah Marie had to wait 11 hours for an ambulance just days before her death. Now her heartbroken fiancé is calling for government intervention before more people lose their lives in the NHS health crisis. Hannah, 36, started to feel unwell on December 18, so partner James Jackman called for an ambulance at 7.20pm. The Mirror reports the ambulance would not arrive at their address until the following morning at 6.15am after it...

NHS hospitals are in crisis-mode because of 'structural' problems and Britons' poor health, a Tory MP claimed today. Hospitals are buckling under winter demand, soaring rates of flu and bed-blockers. Covid's resurgence and the emergence of the XBB.1.5 'Kraken' variant are expected to cause even more chaos. A&E patients have waited up to four days for a bed. Others are treated in cupboards, corridors, meeting rooms and even outside hospitals.... ...Nearly 3,800 flu patients were in hospital each day last week, on average — up seven-fold in one month. And around 8,600 Covid patients were taking up beds on December...

A disabled veteran in Canada has slammed her government for offering to euthanize her when she grew frustrated at delays in having a wheelchair lift installed in her home. Retired Army Corporal Christine Gauthier, a former Paralympian, testified in Parliament on Thursday that a Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) caseworker made the assisted suicide offer. After years of frustrating delays in getting the home lift, Gauthier says the caseworker told her: 'Madam, if you are really so desperate, we can give you medical assistance in dying now.' The worker who made the offer hasn't been named, but they are feared to...

Data stolen from a major Australian health insurer that had earlier refused to pay ransomSydney: Hackers on Wednesday began leaking sensitive medical records stolen from a major Australian health insurer that had earlier refused to pay the group's ransom demand. Medibank told investors and customers that a "sample" of data from some 9.7 million clients had been posted on a "dark web forum". Names, birth dates, addresses, passport numbers and information on medical claims were among the sensitive personal data posted anonymously early Wednesday. Medibank said more leaks were likely.

An acute nursing shortage is clogging or even closing hospital emergency rooms across Canada, pushing an already stressed national health system to the brink with potentially severe consequences for patient care. Burnout from the Covid-19 pandemic, abuse from patients and salary discontent have seen nursing staff quitting their jobs in droves, and experts say the situation is only likely to worsen. The impact on emergency care is such that Ottawa police recently had to take a shooting victim to hospital in their squad car, rather than wait for an ambulance, and an elderly woman who fell and broke her hip...

In 2015 Canada's Supreme Court struck down bans on medically assisted suicide as a violation of citizens' liberty, writing that "An individual's response to a grievous and irremediable medical condition is a matter critical to their dignity and autonomy. The prohibition denies people in this situation the right to make decisions concerning their bodily integrity and medical care and thus trenches on their liberty. And by leaving them to endure intolerable suffering, it impinges on their security of the person." Those quotes, in a nutshell, explain why the ability to end one's life is an important freedom. Our bodies belong...

The socialised healtchare system in England failed to meet its own cancer waiting time target in 98 per cent of areas, analysis has revealed. Only two of the 107 areas in England covered by the National Health System (NHS) met the cancer waiting time target set out by NHS ENgland, which states that no more than fifteen per cent of people who revieced an urgent warning should have to wait more than two months to begin treatment. The analysis of government figures, conducted by Sky News, found that only Bolton and Calderdale, both in West Yorkshire, actually met the target,...