Free Republic

GEORGE WILL: Someone has to tell the president it's not clever to be seen trying to be clever. In all the prevarications and the equivocations of politics, one tries to be economical in the use of the word lie. That's why Churchill once said an opponent was guilty of terminological inexactitude. Well, it's hard to avoid the feeling that even if the president really didn't know on September 26th what was going to happen on the first of October, now he knows what he actually said then, and he's not telling the truth about what he said then. In the...

Administration officials were concerned that once users were able to view the available policies for purchase on HealthCare.gov, they could be disappointed with the cost and options available. The concerns were expressed in meeting notes from the ObamaCare "war room" obtained by CNN. "In some cases, there will be fewer options than would be desired to promote consumer choice and an ideal shopping experience," the meeting notes read. "Additionally, in some cases there will be relatively high cost plans." The discussion last week among officials at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight appeared to reveal a behind-the-scenes concern...

<p>Nearly 26,000 New Mexicans are having health plans terminated at the end of the year because the insurance policies fail to provide expanded benefits and other coverage mandated by a federal health care law, according to insurance industry officials.</p> <p>State Insurance Superintendent John Franchini estimates most of those individual policyholders will pay an average of 35 percent more for new coverage, but will have plans with more health care benefits.</p>

Most of the talk about the Affordable Care Act has focused on website glitches and skyrocketing premiums but there are other issues looming on the horizon for the healthcare overhaul. Hospital coverage. If consumers expect to have (or continue to have) access to the best medical services at the nations top hospitals, they are in for a rude awakening. "Most of the top hospitals will accept insurance from just one or two companies operating under Obamacare." Because the ACA caps premiums, insurers will be have to offer less money to the nations best doctors and hospitals. In return, the hospitals...

Read and weep for our country... 11 people who seemed shocked - shocked to hear about obamacare penalties this week

Thanks to Obama and the Democrats (read Socialists) my cancer insurance is up 340% and the older I get, it will go up each year (was a fixed amount for everyone regardless of age before). My families healthcare premium went up 37%, but that's not the worst of it. Rather than having co-payments, now I have a deductible of $1901 before I see a dime of benefits. Thanks Obama for screwing my family over. We will let your, so called, Democratic Party (IE Socialist) exactly how we feel at the ballot box and every blog we know.

In this clip, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., gets a taste of the same medicine Democrats have been dishing out in the Obamacare debate for years. Why, he is asked by CNN’s Dana Bash, will he not go forward if the House passes a bill restoring NIH funding so that about three dozen kids with cancer can get treatment right away? Reid, looking a bit flummoxed, personally attacks Bash’s intelligence for asking the question...Speaking of the House, Reid asks, “What right do they have to pick and choose what part of government’s going to be funded?” There is actually...

Perhaps Obama was onto something when, as a young author, he zeroed in on the term "audacity" to (subconsciously) telegraph his ambitious designs to fundamentally transform our beloved America. What word could describe better than audacity Obama's refusal to accept responsibility for his dreadful policies; his standing before the American people -- even today -- in the face of the avalanche of evidence proving how terrible Obamacare is and continuing to lie about what it will do; his persistence in mislabeling his unaffordable monstrosity "the Affordable Care Act;" his failure to address the legitimate, undeniable complaints about Obamacare and his...

The Obamacare that consumers will finally be able to sign up for next week is a long way from the health plan President Barack Obama first pitched to the nation. Millions of low-income Americans won’t receive coverage. Many workers at small businesses won’t get a choice of insurance plans right away. Large employers won’t need to provide insurance for another year. Far more states than expected won’t run their own insurance marketplaces. And a growing number of workers won’t get to keep their employer-provided coverage.

Even most Republicans, in their candid moments, admit that the Affordable Care Act won't be defunded. But for former Vice Presidential Nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, that's not good enough. "We’d like to believe that the GOP establishment would applaud the way [Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee] have rallied the grassroots to their cause," Palin writes, in an op-ed penned for the conservative website Breitbart. "But, no, such praise would require a commensurate level of guts and leadership, and the permanent political class in D.C. is nothing if not gutless and rudderless." "But the permanent political class is...

Paul Ryan, the wonky Wisconsin GOP congressman, was standing next to Michelle Bachmann, the folksy Minnesota Republican. ... As Boehner and the rest of the House leadership entered the room after Friday’s vote, the Republican members of Congress in attendance let out a hurrah of support. “Our message to the United States Senate is real simple: the American people don’t want the government shut down,” Boehner said. “And they don’t want Obamacare.” Added Boehner, as the conference roared in applause: “The House has listened to the American people. Now it’s time for the United States Senate listen to them as...

A riveting day has dawned. House Speaker John Boehner, long criticized for inconsistent conservative passion, is actually allowing members to vote on a budget bill that ties continued government operations to a defunding of Obamacare. This would be the strategy Ted Cruz and his allies have been offering for weeks, earning them harsh criticism from Democrats and timid Republicans alike. The House, run by Republicans, will pass the measure. The Senate, run by Democrats, will not. No matter what those votes might be, a presidential veto pen stands ready to kill the whole idea of a bill that funds...

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is in the Sunshine State to continue trying to inform people about the Affordable Care Act,which launches October 1. “It is particularly difficult in some states where there is a lot of misinformation being circulated on a regular basis so we have a double challenge in states like Florida,” said Sebelius during a visit to Miami-Dade College.

Death Panels by a thousand cuts. No one could have seen this coming, no one. From the L.A. Times, that hotbed of right-wing scare-tactics, Insurers limiting doctors, hospitals in health insurance market: The doctor can’t see you now. Consumers may hear that a lot more often after getting health insurance under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. To hold down premiums, major insurers in California have sharply limited the number of doctors and hospitals available to patients in the state’s new health insurance market opening Oct. 1. New data reveal the extent of those cuts in California, a crucial test bed...

[Dear xx,] This is the last thing I wanted to talk about before Labor Day weekend, but you gotta hear this: Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin just joined the "Defund Obamacare" movement -- a group of people, including 80 members of Congress, who are willing to sabotage the economy because they don't like Obamacare. This is the kind of reckless nonsense President Obama is up against in trying to pass a smart budget that actually grows the economy for the middle class. OFA is here to fight back -- because when it comes down to it, I doubt the American...

Implementation hits hurdle after hurdle — let us count the ways. By Andrew Stiles The White House plans to delay yet another provision of Obamacare, the New York Times revealed on Monday, in what was described as “another setback for President Obama’s health-care initiative.” Indeed, it seems that every week the administration offers up a new example of the implementation “train wreck” of which Obamacare architect Max Baucus (D., Mont.), among others, has warned. Here are nine examples of how Obamacare implementation hasn’t gone according to plan:

<p>Obamacare would keep running even in a government shutdown, a new congressional report suggests.</p> <p>The new health care law draws funding from sources that are not subject to the congressional budget process, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Also, the revenue collected under Obamacare is considered to be part of a category that ensures the "safety of human life or the protection of property," which makes it immune to government shutdowns, the report said.</p>

A race to define Obamacare to the masses began today between the stacks at the Centreville Library... Just one volunteer stayed to help work the phone bank for the health law, and the event’s organizer bolted after 20 minutes — although he was bound for another Obamacare event, a house party. The poor turnout here in Centreville wasn’t necessarily indicative of what’s happening across the country at other OFA events Sunday afternoon and evening, which coincide with President Barack Obama’s birthday.

We must be forever vigilant in protecting and defending our Country — because one mistake, one terrorist attack that we don’t prevent, can cost untold lives and suffering. That said, we must also do the smart and Constitutional thing, and not just everything we can think of, and get away with, with terrorism as the excuse. With that in mind, lets look at this from a medical perspective: Let’s say you’re healthy overall but you develop a cough, it’s lasted for a month, and it seems to be getting worse. It might just be allergies, or bronchitis, or pneumonia, or...

The NHS’s medical director will spell out the failings of 14 trusts in England, which between them have been responsible for up to 13,000 “excess deaths” since 2005. Prof Sir Bruce Keogh will describe how each hospital let its patients down badly through poor care, medical errors and failures of management, and will show that the scandal of Stafford Hospital, where up to 1,200 patients died needlessly, was not a one-off.  Show that the warning signs were there for managers and ministers to see, including alarming levels of infections, patients suffering from neglect and appalling blunders such as surgery performed...