Free Republic

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is urging her surrogates to blame the media for having a double standard if they're pressed about her derogatory dig at "half" of Donald Trump supporters being "deplorables," The Washington Post reports. According to the Post, the advice is contained in a memo, "'Deplorable' Comment Talking Points," sent out Saturday afternoon to Democrats preparing for TV interviews or other appearances on Clinton's behalf. Clinton on Saturday expressed "regret" for being “grossly generalistic" and using the characterization of "half" – even as she insisted Trump is amplifying bigoted views. But the memo says Clinton has "apologized" – a...

Now that FOX News is under a new, more liberal management, has it begun to show signs of a drift in reporting. For the second consecutive day, Carl Cameron has been far too critical of Donald Trump. DT said on one occasion that he didn't really know Putin. On another occasion DT said they met briefly in the 60 minutes green room. Cameron makes this a near scandal saying that it's a discrepancy that the Trump team simply must clarify. This is such a petty thing; I expect more from FOX News.

upert Murdoch wants his top executive at Fox News to rein in the network's coverage of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, but the executive has so far refused to comply, according to a report published Wednesday. Gabe Sherman of New York magazine quoted an anonymous source who said that Murdoch has tried to get Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes to have the conservative news channel "back off the Trump coverage." The channel has covered Trump more than any other presidential candidate in the 2016 race, according to the report. And Murdoch has not hesitated to voice his dislike of the current...

According to NOAA's Great Lakes Surface Environment Analysis (GLSEA) the record for total Great Lakes ice coverage was set in 1979 with 94.7% coverage. Last year's winter almost broke that record with 92.2% and is currently sitting in second place. Just a few days ago the ice coverage sat at 60%. Today that number has jumped to 76.6% based on yesterday's analysis due the recent cold the area has been receiving. Their forecast for the next 24 hours is for that coverage to jump to 82.3%. This is within 10% of second place. Some long range weather forecasts I have...

The Defense Health Agency, relying on medical laboratory experts and existing authority to conduct medical “demonstrations,” will restore TRICARE coverage this month for up to 40 genetic tests used in patient care. Many of these laboratory-developed tests — also called molecular pathology tests — are viewed as medically necessary. But TRICARE had stopped reimbursing for more than 100 such tests in January 2013, believing it lacked authority to pay for them when such tests are ordered by civilian physicians delivering care through TRICARE provider networks Military treatment facilities have continued to order and pay for such tests routinely, which created...

Americans have already qualified for about $10 billion in tax credits to help them purchase private health insurance this year through the Affordable Care Act, according to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) That’s an average of $2,890 for each of the 3.5 million people who qualified for a subsidy as of March 1 — about 83 percent of those who enrolled in an exchange plan. But four of five Americans who could qualify for a subsidy hadn’t applied for coverage by that date. And sign-up rates varied greatly by...

Paul D. Donahue and his wife, Angela, are among more than a million Americans who have signed up for health coverage through the federal insurance exchange. Mr. Donahue has a card in his wallet from his insurer to prove it. But when he tried to use it to get a flu shot and fill prescriptions this week, local pharmacies could not confirm his coverage, so he left without his medications. Similar problems are occurring daily in doctors’ offices and drugstores around the country as consumers try to use insurance coverage that took effect on Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care...

In less than 24 hours, the big three networks have devoted 17 times more coverage to a traffic scandal involving Chris Christie than they've allowed in the last six months to Barack Obama's Internal Revenue Service controversy. Since the story broke on Wednesday that aides to the New Jersey governor punished a local mayor's lack of endorsement with a massive traffic jam, ABC, CBS and NBC have responded with 34 minutes and 28 seconds of coverage. Since July 1, these same networks managed a scant two minutes and eight seconds for the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups. In contrast,...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans who already have health insurance are blaming President Barack Obama's health care overhaul for their rising premiums and deductibles, and overall 3 in 4 say the rollout of coverage for the uninsured has gone poorly. An Associated Press-GfK poll finds that health care remains politically charged going into next year's congressional elections. Keeping the refurbished HealthCare.gov website running smoothly is just one of Obama's challenges, maybe not the biggest. The poll found a striking level of unease about the law among people who have health insurance and aren't looking for any more government help. Those are...

Seeking the long list of things a health policy judged "adequate" by O-Care must include. Some are sensible, some pretty silly. Was posted before, but I can't find it after diligent search.

Those would be the same college professors who donated overwhelmingly to Democrats. Steven Hayward of The PowerLine Blog reports. Obamacare Hits the CampusThe other day I mentioned that things might really get rough for Obama when health insurance cancellation notices hit elite Washington journalists. I neglected to consider what might happen if it began to happen to . . . college professors. A professor at an elite university writes in with this account (name withheld by request): We are now in the process of enrolling in Medical Reimbursement Accounts for next year, and a visit to the Human Resources Department...

About 73,000 policy holders around the state will lose their insurance in coming months because nine insurance companies are dropping some health plans that were not grandfathered under the Affordable Care Act, the Maryland Insurance Administration confirmed Monday.

(Reuters) - If technical problems with the U.S. government's new healthcare website are not fixed in November, hundreds of thousands of Americans could lose easy access to lower-cost coverage, jeopardizing the Obama administration's goal of making affordable insurance broadly available in 2014. Consumers in 36 states are relying on Healthcare.gov to qualify for tax subsidies that will reduce coverage costs under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which was expected to cover 7 million people next year alone through new private insurance marketplaces. But if glitches in the marketplaces that operate chiefly online fail to be resolved, the government might have...

Headline only.

MIAMI (AP) -- Dear seniors, your Medicare benefits aren't changing under the Affordable Care Act. That's the message federal health officials are trying to get out to elderly consumers confused by overlapping enrollment periods for Medicare and so-called "Obamacare." Medicare beneficiaries don't have to do anything differently and will continue to go to Medicare.gov to sign up for plans. But advocates say many have been confused by a massive media blitz directing consumers to new online insurance exchanges set up as part of the federal health law. Many of the same insurance companies are offering coverage for Medicare and the...

United Parcel Service Inc. plans to remove thousands of spouses from its medical plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere. The Atlanta-based logistics company points to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, as a big reason for the decision, reports Kaiser Health News. The decision comes as many analysts are downplaying the Affordable Care Act’s effect on companies such as UPS, noting that the move reflects a long-term trend of shrinking corporate medical benefits, Kaiser Health News reports. But UPS repeatedly cites Obamacare to explain the decision, adding fuel to the debate over whether it erodes traditional employer coverage,...

Conservatives and libertarians have criticized the IPAB “death panel” that Obamacare endows with the authority to make top-down decisions about Americans’ health care. They’ve discussed how mandates for religious employers, businesses, and individuals run counter to the Constitution and the principle of personal choice. They’ve issued calls for Republican governors to resist Medicaid expansion in their respective states in order to impede the law’s implementation. But now a number of conservative groups have issued a blanket Obamacare ultimatum: “If you fund it, you’re for it.” Conservatives of all stripes are united in their opposition to Obamacare. But we are not...

Let´s start by going through the Post´s article to create a list of journalists married to or closely related to officials within the Obama administration. The size and scope of this is bad enough. But what is most troubling is how high up this incest occurs in the worlds of both the media and the Obama administration: •ABC News President Ben Sherwood, who is the brother of Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a top national-security adviser to President Obama. •His counterpart at CBS, news division president David Rhodes, is the brother of Benjamin Rhodes, a key foreign-policy specialist. •CNN’s deputy Washington

After I graduated college and before I landed my first real-deal job that included insurance benefits, I took out my own independent health insurance plan that covered all of the bases a young and healthy person like myself might need. It cost me about ninety dollars a month, and seeing as how I didn’t have any regular health care needs, it was pretty much just catastrophe insurance in case I happened to break my leg or get into a car accident or catch malaria or some other relatively unlikely scenario. I felt secure about the situation, knowing that I would...

Many people who buy their own health insurance could get surprises in the mail this fall: cancellation notices because their current policies aren't up to the basic standards of President Barack Obama's health care law. They, and some small businesses, will have to find replacement plans. Also, it doesn't seem to square with one of the president's best known promises about his health care overhaul: "If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan."