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The United States has seen the sharpest increase in health insurance premiums in the last year than possibly ever, a new survey has found, and analysts have concluded the "increases are largely due to changes under the Affordable Care Act." According to Forbes Magazine, a quarterly survey by investment bank Morgan Stanley of 148 brokers who sell insurance showed that premiums accelerated in the last quarter more than of any of the 12 prior quarterly periods, a peak which has coincided with the run-up to the Obamacare deadline.

Here's more fallout from the health care law: Until now, customers could walk into an insurance office or go online to buy standard health care coverage any time of year. Not anymore. Many people who didn't sign up during the government's open enrollment period that ended Monday will soon find it difficult or impossible to get insured this year, even if they go directly to a private company and money is no object. For some it's already too late. With limited exceptions, insurers are refusing to sell to individuals after the enrollment period for HealthCare.gov and the state marketplaces. They...

With the March 31st deadline now passed for ObamaCare, it seems that the Obama administration is in full gloat mode. They say that 7 million people have signed up for ObamaCare and that despite a rocky start, the program is a success. President Obama gave a speech in the Rose Garden today, saying, "The law is doing what it's supposed to do. It's working." So is President Obama correct in that ObamaCare is a success? The answer depends upon your viewpoint. If you're Obama or one of his progressive liberal cronies, then ObamaCare is a success. The Affordable Care Act...

Some hearing-impaired California residents attempting to sign up for health insurance through the Covered California website prior to Monday’s deadline got a surprise -- and it wasn’t just long wait times. A page on the site allowing users to compare coverage costs listed a TTY phone number for the hearing-impaired, 1-888-899-4500, which was just one digit off from the correct “Contact Us” number. The incorrect number is for a hotline that offers up “hot ladies” instead of health insurance. “Welcome to America’s hottest talk line. Ladies, to talk to interesting and exciting guys free, press one now. Guys, hot ladies...

Health care expert Bob Laszewski explains why the answer to this simple question should be the decisive factor in determining the relative success or failure of Obamacare: Are enough people getting coverage who didn’t have it before to justify the sacrifices the people who were already covered––in the individual, small group, and large employer market––are making or will make? I will suggest the country will never really be able to judge how good or how bad Obamacare is until that question is answered…It’s easy to answer this question. We only need ask the carriers for two numbers: The number of...

The problems with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act may be masking another major change in the way health care is delivered to U.S. consumers, experts believe. At a conference in Washington on Thursday, health care and business professionals said that there’s an increasing trend in the industry toward cutting insurance companies out of the process entirely, as large, regional hospital systems move into the insurance business. Dr. Kenneth L. Davis, CEO and president of Mount Sinai Health System, the largest health care provider in the state of New York, said that starting next year, Mt. Sinai will begin...

The Obama administration just changed the ACA again, as reported by Fox News: "The Obama administration will grant extra time to Americans who say they are unable to enroll in health care plans through the federal insurance marketplace by the March 31 deadline, in a decision that swiftly drew Republican ridicule.   All consumers who have begun to apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, but who do not finish by Monday, will now have until about mid-April to ask for an extension."  Will it matter?  Probably not! The ACA has a bigger problem than "computer glitches" or "high deductibles," In other words, the...

That time of the week has come again where we sift through the debris of the preceding week and find out which person or group has been acting against the American people. Sometimes these entities are cloaked in the aura of righteousness, but they can mostly be described as hypocrites or opportunists. Our Jerk of the Week this time is a surprising choice is it is a group that represents an occupation that most Americans greatly respect and admire: doctors. Recently, the American Medical Association began to whine about an obscure rule in ObamaCare that could cost medical practitioners a...

Contrary to the thoughts of liberals, the ObamaCare mess continues to pile up. Every measurable yardstick that would spell failure in the private sector is being touted as a success in the pubic sector. If any business acted in the manner that the federal government has, they would be sued mightily and face prison time. Since it's only taxpayer dollars being wasted and our liberties curtailed, then it's just the new normal as the mainstream media turns a blind eye to what Obama and his cronies have been doing. One of the key cons of the ObamaCare mess is that...

Voters in November might be ready to show Democrats what they think about removing choice and hiking costs, as well as their arrogance in determining that a few politicians in Washington know better about their choices than they do. Unfortunately, Barack Obama doesn’t appear to have figured out this problem. In an interview with WebMD, Obama finally acknowledged that, contra his promise, people might not be able to keep the doctors they liked, but that they probably shouldn’t have liked those doctors in the first place:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO “For the average person, many folks who don’t have...

The genuine “can do” spirit of America is far more powerful and long lasting than the empty mantra “yes we can.” The cheap knock off slogan coined by political hucksters will ultimately be swept aside as America wakes from the Barack Obama nightmare. One sign of Americans’ “can do” response to the man who fancies himself as our king is the growing enrollment in Medi-Share, a Christian alternative to Obamacare. Built on the simple truths that people need health care insurance and that Obamacare is not health care insurance but a devious scheme to entice us to trade our freedom...

According to two new surveys published yesterday, uninsured Americans are staying away from Obamacare in droves. The people the law was supposed to help the most, are voting with their pocketbooks and not signing up. One survey by McKinsey & Co. shows that just one in ten uninsured Americans have signed up so far for Obamacare. Another survey by the Urban Institute shows that the uninsured are not signing up because they don't believe they can afford it. Washington Post: “If there is one point to the law, it is to lower the number of uninsured,” said Larry Levitt, a...

1) Obamacare Will Destroy 2.5 Million Jobs By 2024 ... 2) In 2024, There Will Still Be 31 Million People In The U.S. Without Health Insurance ... 3) Surprise! Millions Of People Who Liked Their Health Plan Will Lose Their Health Plan ... 5) Your Paycheck Will Be Smaller Thanks To Obamacare

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – According to a recent study, severely injured patients are less likely to be transferred to a trauma center if they have health insurance.

New Castle resident and business owner David Fitzsimmons used to pay $672 a month for health insurance for him and his family. This year, with the implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act that has resulted in the country’s highest rates being charged in Garfield County, he faced a minimum premium of $942 a month. “The insurance rates, frankly, it just comes down to a decision for me and my family, whether we have a roof over our heads or whether we have health insurance. The obvious answer is that we have a roof over heads,” he said Friday during...

One of many ObamaCare enrollment events was held in Boone County, Illinois this week. Targeted were the young, whose participation is absolutely necessary if Barack Obama’s “healthcare” fraud is to have any chance of viability. And as has become an all too familiar pattern at such taxpayer funded events, more media people were in attendance than enrollees of ANY age! HHS head Kathleen Sebelius maintains over 3 million Americans are now enrolled in ObamaCare. Of course, she also claims to have...

Thousands of Anthem Blue Cross individual customers with older insurance policies untouched by Obamacare are getting some jarring news: Their premiums are going up as much as 25%. These increases, 16% on average, are slated to go into effect April 1 for up to 306,000 people — unless California regulators persuade the state's largest for-profit health insurer to back down. Amid the fury last fall over canceled health policies, consumer advocates and state officials warned people that holding onto grandfathered policies purchased before the federal healthcare law was enacted in 2010 wouldn't shield them from significant rate hikes.

2017 Project executive director (and frequent TWS contributor) Jeff Anderson has an important memo outlining the new health care reform proposal from three senior Republican senators that would repeal Obamacare and replace it with legislation that "beats Obamacare in every particular" and would also "address many of the most serious shortcomings of the pre-Obamacare status quo." You can read Anderson's memo in full, below. There's been a lot of talk in magazines and from think tanks about a "conservative reform agenda"—and some laments as to the slowness of GOP elected officials to champion such an agenda. This proposal could mark...

900,000 Californians lost their health plans by January 1; only 500,000 signed up on the Obamacare exchange. Health care industry expert Bob Laszewski points out that that means at least 330,000 of the 500,000 people who signed up for Obamacare already had health insurance. "If you want to know how many uninsured bought it, subtract by at least" 330,000, Laszewski told THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

...Obama and his supporters in Congress spent a great deal of time and energy justifying the urgency of passing health care reform. The purported basis for passing the Affordable Care Act into law was to increase access and affordability of health care, mainly by increasing the number of insured people.After being heralded by his supporters and being firmly assigned the title as “the signature legislative achievement” of the Obama presidency,the law’s major provisions have finally begun. But in direct contrast to what one would rightfully expect from such a supposedly grand accomplishment,we see a strongly negative reaction from the American...