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Earlier today I called to make an appointment (routine check-up), at one of the Family Medicine offices of Reading Hospital/Tower Health, in Reading, PA. I was a patient a few years ago, but because it's been that long, I'm considered a new patient. I was just about floored when they said that ALL of their family medicine offices/doctors in all locations are booked out until JANUARY 2018, for new patients! This happens often with specialists, where you have to wait weeks or even months for an appointment. In fact I'm in a 2-month wait to see a specialist in mid-December....

Senate Republican leaders are adding a provision to their tax bill that would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, a major change as they now try to accomplish two of their top domestic priorities in a single piece of legislation. “We’re optimistic that inserting the individual mandate repeal would be helpful” to the tax effort, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday after meeting with party members during a closed-door lunch. President Trump and many GOP lawmakers have supported using the tax bill to repeal the mandate, a part of the health care law that creates penalties for...

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama may not be running for anything these days, but his signature health care law was a big winner in Tuesday’s elections, as voters rebelled against Republican lawmakers who have blocked Obamacare's Medicaid expansion. Democrats are hopeful their victories are a harbinger of further gains as they look to capitalize on the law's rising popularity in polls — and repeal legislation's deep unpopularity — with more ballot initiatives, legislative efforts and campaign messages. In Maine, voters passed a ballot initiative that would expand Medicaid to an estimated 70,000 residents by a margin of 18 points, 59-to-41, doing...

According to a report from the Washington Examiner, President Donald Trump will prepare an executive order that will unravel Obamacare’s individual mandate. A Republican senator told the Examiner that the executive order resides at the Office of Management and Budget waiting for final approval. President Trump reportedly delayed the executive order after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) pushed to include a repeal of the individual mandate in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. A White House official pushed back on the Senators’ claims, saying that the Trump administration’s position remains that Congress should resolve the issue of repealing Obamacare. The White...

I am very positive, and if Trump were not president, I'd be livid...I should not be surprised, but still I am. I have an Anthem $11,500 deductible policy for my family of 4. It is going up Jan 1 from $514 to $605, or roughly 20%. I am pissed, of course. I hope this thread drives good discussion. I believe under Trump in 2018 we'll see some improvement and competition...am I correct that the increases are due to profit shortfalls the obama-partnering healthcare execs are hedging and covering their losses? Ant thoughts out there from those more plugged in this...

The electorate isn’t buying the “Trump broke it” propaganda.For a year, the Democrats and the legacy media have waged a relentless propaganda campaign calculated to convince the public that Obamacare’s myriad failures — from skyrocketing premiums to stagnant enrollment — are the result of sabotage by President Trump and congressional Republicans. This headline from the Hill is typical: “Many states blame Trump, GOP for Obamacare premium increases.” It seems, however, that “the stupidity of the American voter” has been greatly exaggerated. A new survey shows that more than two-thirds of registered voters believe former President Obama and the Democrats are...

A federal judge in California on Wednesday denied a request from 19 attorneys general across the country to force the Trump administration to resume funding of cost-sharing payments under the Affordable Care Act. The ruling leaves intact President Trump’s decision earlier this month to immediately end the payments that reimburse insurers for discounts the law requires them to give lower-income customers with health plans through ACA marketplaces. The attorneys general, from 18 states and the District, were seeking a judicial order that would have maintained the funding. In his decision, Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the...

Democrats and some Republicans in Congress are pushing for a $10 billion a year payout to insurance companies that sell Obamacare plans. President Trump calls it "bailing out" the insurance industry. Truer words were never spoken. The politicians backing this sweetheart deal claim it will protect consumers. Don't fall for it. The money will go straight to the bottom lines of insurers -- who enjoy tremendous clout in Washington, D.C., thanks to over $85 million in campaign contributions and over $150 million spent on lobbying every year. The deal's authors, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R. Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D....

Why don’t the stories say: “President Trump Faithfully Executes Affordable Care Act”? In report after sky-is-falling report, the journalism wing of the media-Democrat complex castigates the president over his decision to — as the New York Times put it — “scrap subsidies to health insurance companies that help pay out of pocket costs of low-income people.” These subsidy payments are “critical” to sustaining the “Affordable Care Act.” Without them, the Grey Lady frets, “President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement” could “unravel.” To add insult to injury, the paper implies that Trump’s “determination to dismantle [Obamacare] on his own” is...

POTUS: "Obamacare is finished, it's dead, it's gone... There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore." https://twitter.com/FoxBusiness/status/919974555342516226

Key Republican members of Congress want to restore the ObamaCare payments, known as cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), that President Trump is ending, fearing the impact his move will have on the individual insurance market and their constituents. But there are obstacles ahead. Still, even if Democrats grant concessions, there’s no guarantee a health-care deal can pass Congress. Conservatives warn the payments to insurers are corporate “bailouts,” a message echoed by Trump on Friday. “The Democrats ObamaCare is imploding. Massive subsidy payments to their pet insurance companies has stopped,” Trump tweeted. Trump warned Congress during the months-long debate over legislation to repeal...

President Donald Trump’s decision to end a provision of the Affordable Care Act that was benefiting roughly 6 million Americans helps fulfill a campaign promise, but it also risks harming some of the very people who helped him win the presidency. Nearly 70 percent of those benefiting from the so-called cost-sharing subsidies live in states Trump won last November, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.The subsidies are paid to insurers by the federal government to help lower consumers’ deductibles and co-pays. People who benefit will continue receiving the discounts because insurers are obligated by law to provide them....

Cue the funeral bagpipes. My fourth health insurance plan is dead. Two weeks ago, my husband and I received yet another cancellation notice for our private, individual health insurance coverage. It's our fourth Obamacare-induced obituary in four years. Our first death notice, from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, arrived in the fall of 2013. The insurer informed us that because of "changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA)," our plan no longer met the federal government's requirements. Never mind our needs and desires as consumers who were quite satisfied with a high-deductible PPO...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct 9 2017 Ferguson asks court in Seattle to declare new rules unlawfulSEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the Trump Administration’s new rules undermining women’s access to contraception.The new rules would allow any company to deny coverage for contraceptive services to its female employees based on religious grounds. Additionally, certain types of organizations would also be able to deny this coverage on moral grounds. If allowed to go forward, President Trump’s rules could have a significant impact on the more than 1.5 million Washington workers and their dependents who receive...

The Internal Revenue Service was involved in a $5 million push to pressure Americans to buy Obamacare coverage, according to documents obtained from the watchdog group Judicial Watch. Under former president Obama, the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House's Behavioral Sciences Team created a $5 million program to target and pressure those who refused Obamacare and either decided to pay a penalty instead or were exempt from being forced to purchase coverage. "Attached are drafts of the letters that IRS will send to selected taxpayers who paid a penalty for failure to have coverage or who...

Two U.S. senators from both parties are close to finalizing a bipartisan deal to shore up the health insurance exchanges created under Obamacare, the chamber’s top Democrat said on Thursday. The move, which Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said was “on the verge” of completion, would stabilize the market for individuals who buy their own insurance plans on the federal or state-based exchanges.

President Trump is preparing an executive order to allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines, a reform conservatives have long championed as a way to bring costs down and stir greater competition in the national marketplace. The executive action gives the White House a chance to follow through on at least one promise related to healthcare reform after Senate Republicans' second attempt to overhaul Obamacare failed this week. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul "I think there's going to be big news from the White House in the next week or two, something they can do on their own," Paul...

Donald Trump is preparing an executive order that would achieve a long standing goal of insurance reform advocates.  The president's executive order will reportedly allow individuals to join group plans from out of state.  Current law allows companies to sell across state linesn but due to red tape and resistance by state insurance officials, most companies refuse to take advantage of the opportunity. The order would allow consumers to join associations and group health plans located in other states. ABC News: Current law allows companies to sell health insurance across state lines, but so far few have offered out-of-state...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., predicted Wednesday that President Trump would soon move on his own to make health insurance more affordable, after the Senate failed again this week to advance any bill to reform federal healthcare policy. Paul he has been pitching the idea of using the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to let people buy insurance across state lines. That law already allows corporations to buy insurance across state lines for their workers if they are located in several states. Paul's idea is to let individuals form associations and do the same thing, and he said Trump administration officials...

A**clown!!!!!!! Somebody needs to ask that POS what he wants for obummercare. Get him on record.