Free Republic

BOSTON (CBS) – The national health care reform law requires insurance companies to cover 100% of the cost of screening tests for dozens of potentially deadly diseases. But thousands of patients are finding out the hard way that free doesn’t always mean free. When Jim Dungee had his first colonoscopy, doctors found several polyps, which are a precursor to colon cancer. “Therefore, I had to come back in three years,” he said. The three year mark was back in December. Knowing the test could save his life, Jim did not hesitate to make an appointment. He even called his insurance...

Senator Boxer warned yesterday that if the HHS contraception mandate was repealed it would set a dangerous precedence of religious rights trumping the right to be insured. On MSNBC's Politics Nation with Al Sharpton last night, Boxer affirmed that under the proposed amendment proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt, an employer would not be forced by the government to pay for medical practices against his religion. "I mean, are they serious? Sharpton exclaimed, "How do you make a law where an employer can decide his own religious beliefs violate your right to be insured?" "Oh Absolutely," Boxer said,

On January 20, 2012, the Obama administration announced a clarification – one of many – on its requirement that all insurance policies must cover contraceptives, sterilization, abortions, and abortion-causing drugs (such as RU-486). From the beginning, there had been a foolish assumption that Obamacare would not cover abortion – Bart Stupak and others even voted for it on the president’s commitment that it would not. As if anyone with an ounce of sense would ever believe that this president would ever take a position contrary to one of his party’s most dependable and key constituents, the abortion lobby. When, over...

Medical insurance premiums in the United States are on the rise, the chief architect of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul has told The Daily Caller.Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Jonathan Gruber, who also devised former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s statewide health care reforms, is backtracking on an analysis he provided the White House in support of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, informing officials in three states that the price of insurance premiums will dramatically increase under the reforms. In an email to The Daily Caller, Gruber framed this new reality in terms of the same human self-interest that some...

In an effort to quell rising opposition to its mandate for all employers to provide contraceptive coverage in healthcare benefits to workers, the White House issued a directive that it maintains “ends the discussion.” Under the directive insurers would be required to provide this coverage “free of charge” to employers. “By putting the onus on the insurers we’ve given the Catholic Church ‘plausible deniability,’” said Press Secretary Jay Carney. “The Church itself will not be formally linked to the provision of services that it says violate its religious beliefs. No court can hold it culpable. The responsibility has been taken...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on President Obama’s revised healthcare plan as it affects Catholic institutions:President Obama’s latest ploy just adds insult to injury. If the insurance plan of a Catholic institution must cover services it deems immoral, then such a healthcare plan is offensive, plain and simple.The Catholic League, for example, uses Christian Brothers as its insurance carrier. So if a future employee of ours were to demand free abortion-inducing drugs, and she is allowed to request free drugs from Christian Brothers, then the rest of us would, in effect, be subsidizing her abortion. This is outrageous and...

What if Obama lifts the regulation that requires Catholic institutions to offer their employees medical insurance policies that cover the abortion pill? Is there another regulation that requires all insurers to only offer medical insurance policies that include such coverage? If so, from whom would the Catholic institution purchase the medical insurance?

DES MOINES — Legislative Republicans proposed Thursday to spend $182 million less than Gov. Terry Branstad’s $6.242 billion budget plan for next fiscal year and about $119 million under majority Senate Democrats’ targets by providing less money to education, human services and economic incentives and requiring state employees and elected officials to pay $200 a month for their health insurance coverage. All three competing and contrasting fiscal 2013 budget approaches offered by the governor and leaders of the split-control Legislature would fully fund spending commitments already approved last session, including a 2 percent “allowable growth” increase for K-12 public schools...

Insurance commissioners in California, New York and Washington State will require that companies disclose how they intend to respond to the risks their businesses and customers face from increasingly severe storms and wildfires, rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change, California’s commissioner said Wednesday. “Our experience and other states’ experience as regulators is you get a far better response rate if you require response to be provided than if you just allow companies to decide when and how they will respond,” said Dave Jones, the California commissioner. “Our goal is to have the most complete, best and accurate...

Dear Dave, I’ve got auto insurance, but can you tell me what other kinds of insurance are good to have? Chris Dear Chris, The purpose of insurance is to transfer risk that you can’t afford to take. Most people can’t afford to have a heart attack and triple bypass surgery. Having to pay for something like that completely out of pocket would bankrupt just about anyone. That’s why health insurance is a vital part of any good financial plan. It’s also important to have auto, which you do, and homeowner’s insurance, too. If you don’t own a home, make sure...

It sounds too good to be true, and if Texas regulators have their way, it won't happen. About 690,000 consumers are slated to get an estimated $160 million in rebates from health insurance companies by Aug. 1. But the Texas Insurance Department wants to slash that amount by three-fourths and phase in changes slowly. The department says the individual insurance market could be destabilized if companies have to make the payments and cut into profits. Consumer groups say that everything will be fine and that customers deserve their full refunds. A federal decision is expected within two weeks. The rebates...

(For the short version, skip to the "Body of Comment" section.) This is a personal rant, and is why I will leave Maryland as soon as I can afford to. Please indulge. Thank you. The state of Maryland kicks a man while he is down. April 2010, I lost my job as a computer programmer. Though I interview at least twice a week, jobs are competitive and very hard to get. Perhaps my biggest pet peeve is the trend for employers to tell me, "You're hired. You will start as soon as we get the budget for the project approved."...

State workers and their families will pay more for medical care starting Jan. 1 under the latest changes to emerge from a state law that wiped out most public employee union rights. The changes in the state health plan require 183,000 participants to pay 10 percent of their bills for doctor visits, tests, surgeries and hospitalizations up to an annual maximum of $500 for single people and $1,000 for families. Health plan administrators have explained the new system previously, but they expect to get a lot more questions when workers begin reaching into their pockets. "I think the reality will...

We Stand for Principle Over Politicsand the Establishment Can't Stand It December 21, 2011 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "House Democrats tried Wednesday to force a vote on the Senate’s two-month extension of the payroll-tax cut, but Republicans gaveled the House closed to prevent them from having a chance, as top GOP leaders huddled down the hall to try to figure a way out of the mess. The House was set to hold a pro forma session, but two top Democrats, Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen, demanded to be recognized to try to force a vote on the...

In an environment where jobs are hard to find, the Obama administration has thrown more than 100,000 health insurance agents and brokers under the bus and given them the gift of an unemployment line just before the holidays. To make matters worse, a large number of insurance agents, known in the trade as producers, are self-employed and under the prevailing laws may have difficulty receiving unemployment insurance.

Gingrich: Health Insurance Mandate 'Started As Conservative Effort to Stop Hillarycare' By Terence P. Jeffrey December 11, 2011 (CNSNews.com) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday defended his previous support of a federal mandate requiring people to buy health insurance by saying that "virtually every conservative saw the mandate as a less dangerous future" than the health-care plan being advanced by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1993 and that the idea of mandating that people buy health insurance "started as a conservative effort to stop Hillarycare in the 1990s." As recently as this May, Gingrich defended what he called...

A new Obama administration rule could drive out of the market the low-cost, high deductible plans that are supposed to be available under ObamaCare. That would likely mean a sharp jump in taxpayer subsidies. The problem stems in large part from contradictions in the hastily written health care overhaul.

A Miami congresswoman is pressuring National Public Radio stations, the cable television network CNBC and others to stop airing sponsorships and advertising by a giant German insurer that collaborated with the Nazis. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is pushing legislation that would allow Holocaust survivors to sue Allianz AG, has launched a letter-writing campaign aimed at blocking the insurer from advertising with any U.S. media until it pays off all Holocaust survivors’ life insurance claims. During World War II, Allianz insured concentration camp facilities and sent money to the Nazis instead of rightful Jewish beneficiaries. “Allianz is no ordinary insurance...

Obama snaps up crocodile insurance Down Under... (and Michelle gets £30,000 if he's eaten) By Emily Allen U.S. President Barack Obama snapped up an unusual gift on a visit to Australia this week - £30,000 worth of crocodile insurance. The official gift, worth about A$10 or just over £6, was given to mark his stopover in Australia's tropical north, home to some of the world's biggest and deadliest crocodiles. If he had been attacked and eaten during the visit his wife Michelle would have received a £30,000 pay-out. Mr Obama told about 2,000 U.S. Marines and Australian troops at the...

Please pray for my wife as she is having surgery today to repair a blocked ureter as a result of a botched c-section.

President Barack Obama is expected to receive a warm welcome in Australia Wednesday, but just in case the reception is wilder than expected a firm has offered him insurance against crocodiles. Obama will be the fifth president to visit close ally Australia, and his flying two-day visit will take in the staid capital Canberra as well as the Northern Territory town of Darwin, in the heart of "Crocodile Dundee" country. Local firm TIO has snapped up the opportunity to insure the high-profile visitor, issuing a him with a Crocodile Attack Insurance policy which will pay out Aus$50,000 (US$50,870) if the...

A new Gallup poll shows ObamaCare is working just as planned: kill the private health insurance industry in order to implement a single-payer government system. The number of people insured through employer provided health insurance continues to decline. The percentage of American adults who get their health insurance from an employer continues to decline, falling to 44.5% in the third quarter of this year. This percentage has been steadily declining since Gallup and Healthways started tracking Americans' health insurance sources in 2008. At least 45% of Americans got their health insurance from an employer in every month in 2010, compared...

Three years before the new health care law takes full effect, a survey of employers has found 30 percent of them are thinking about dropping coverage, in part because most employees will have an alternative -- government-subsidized insurance exchanges. McKinsey & Company commissioned a survey of 1,329 private sector employers in February and found that three out of 10 respondents who said their companies offered employer-sponsored health insurance said they would "definitely" or "probably" drop coverage in the years following 2014, the year the Affordable Care Act takes full effect. "The employer knows there's no reason to provide private, expensive...

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which is ongoing and has now spread to a number of cities across the United States, will test both public and private entities when claims start rolling in, according to a risk-management expert. While most cities are accustomed to demonstrations, they may not be prepared for an ongoing movement like OWS, says Lori Seidenberg, a member of the Risk and Insurance Management Society’s board of directors, serving as board liaison to the society’s Standards & Practices Committee. “Something like this could not have been anticipated by any risk manager,” Seidenberg says. “I know there is...

A Bernalillo County jury’s $12 million judgment this week against Progressive Insurance Co. was “very reasonable,” according to attorneys representing the family who sued. Lawyer Janet Santillanes said that among the evidence jurors heard during the six-day trial was that Progressive altered its computer records 11 days after a Nov. 4, 2002, accident to make it appear the Vigil family did not have coverage at the time of the single-vehicle crash that was at the center of the case. The company contended the policy lapsed about 90 minutes before the crash that killed one man and hospitalized five other passengers....

This is a true story about a young woman of Asian origin, who is a first generation immigrant to the United States. She has learned very well how to manipulate the system to her advantage. She has three children, no husband, and no job. She is on government welfare and the Oregon Health Plan. Every time she has a headache in the middle of the night, she runs to the emergency room of the local hospital, where they provide her with the best care that your money can provide. One of her three children was born about twelve weeks premature,...

My daughter had her finger shut in the door of our car a few weeks ago, accidentally, by a friend. It started to swell and turn black, so I took her to urgent care. Urgent care said they needed our medical insurance as well as car insurance information, so I gave it to them. Today she (not my husband or I, she's 13) got a letter from our car insurance company saying they needed a bunch of information from her, now required by the federal government, to see whether she is Medicare eligible. With a phone call I assured them...

Dear Carrie: I'm 55 years old and trying to be smart about planning for my retirement years. What I'm struggling with is whether buying long-term care insurance makes sense. What do you think -- is it a smart move or just a waste of money? --A Reader Dear Reader: You're certainly not alone in struggling with this question. With upwards of 79 million baby boomers currently living in the U.S. -- and people living longer -- there are lots of folks considering long-term-care insurance. And I believe they're wise to do so. That's because just as life-expectancy rates are going...

Spotlight back on healthcare lawBy Julian Pecquet and Sam Baker - 09/27/11 09:00 PM ET Health insurance premiums surged 9 percent in 2011, according to a report released Tuesday that raised new doubts about President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment. Republicans seized on the annual Kaiser Family Foundation survey, arguing it flew in the face of Obama’s campaign promise that healthcare reform would lead to lower insurance costs. Instead, the Senate Republican Policy Committee calculated, average family premiums have increased by $2,213 so far under the administration. The report was released a day after the Department of Justice decided against asking...

White House plays defense after report finds healthcare premiums on the riseBy Julian Pecquet - 09/27/11 11:33 AM ET The Obama administration quickly responded Tuesday to bad news about rising insurance premiums with a strong defense of the healthcare law and its benefits for consumers. An annual survey of premiums found that the premiums for employer-provided family plans increased by 9 percent — to $15,073 — in 2011, leaving Democrats vulnerable to charges that the law isn't working. The administration proactively responded with a post on the White House blog that went up as soon as the embargo on the...

Whether you believe that man has ruined the earth’s climate or not we can all agree that Washington’s bickering about emergency FEMA funding does nothing to fight the effects of global climate change. According to the New York Times, Hurricane Irene earlier this year was the first US catastrophe of the Obama administration to make the top 10 list, joining the insurmountable Bush catastrophes of Katrina and 911. Climate experts Bill McKibben and Al Gore agree that Obama has failed with only half hearted efforts to reverse the rising oceans. A search at usaspending.gov (Sponsored by Senator Obama under the...

Real estate industry warns of consequences Fearing another blow to a still-fragile housing market, real estate agents are pushing Congress to grant a long-term extension to the National Flood Insurance Program, which is set to expire this month for the 10th time in two years. Established by Congress in 1968, the program provides coverage to more than 5.6 million home and business owners in more than 21,000 communities nationwide that have adopted floodplain management plans in an effort to mitigate flood damage. Though private insurers sell the policies and administer claims, the federal government sets rates and assumes liability for...

Another ObamaCare glitch could result in some businesses being exempt from fines for not providing their workers with health insurance. A company would have to challenge the fine in court. But if one does, that could eliminate employer penalties in many states and make residents in those areas ineligible for premium tax credits. Under ObamaCare, a company with 50 or more employees faces a $2,000 annual fine per employee if it does not provide insurance. But it's only fined if one of its employees applies and qualifies for a premium tax credit via a health insurance exchange.

With the East Coast earthquake still a fresh memory, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pushing a bill designed to cut rates so more homeowners can afford quake insurance coverage, but the scope of the plan remains a big question mark with critics arguing that California would be the big winner at the expense of the rest of the nation. The nonprofit California Earthquake Authority is pushing the “Earthquake Insurance Affordability Act” that it says would cut rates by as much as 20 percent for homeowners. It also could leave the federal government on the hook for up to $5 billion...

One finding in the new Census Bureau report on health insurance has ObamaCare supporters cheering. As one pundit puts it, “some 494,000 young adults, those ages 18 to 25, gained coverage, which seems to point to the ACA provision allowing children to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26 that went into effect in the fall of 2010.” But is this much of an achievement? Young adults tend to be healthy and are among the cheapest to insure (see page 5), so it’s not as though ObamaCare brought coverage to a hard-to-insure group. Additionally, it’s probably a safe bet...

Campaign aims to sign up Americans for health insuranceEnroll America, a new nonprofit group, plans to publicize the expanded availability of health coverage under the new federal healthcare law and to help states make enrollment easier. By Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times September 14, 2011, 4:42 p.m. Reporting from Washington - Giving a boost to the new healthcare law, a coalition of hospitals, insurers, drug makers and consumer advocates is joining a multimillion-dollar campaign to get Americans signed up for health insurance starting in 2014. The new nonprofit group, called Enroll America, plans a state-by-state effort to publicize the...

State regulators have approved an auto insurance policy that rewards car owners for driving less and potentially emitting fewer pollutants into the atmosphere. The new program, called SAVE, will go on sale in January by CSE Safeguard Insurance Co. Motorists will be charged only for the number of miles they drive. "This is a true pay-by-the-mile program, where our customers pay for the miles they drive," said CSE President Pierre Bize. "Not only are drivers reporting their actual mileage, they are reimbursed for the difference between their estimated and actual annual mileage."

A Gettysburg couple is being sued for keeping a cluttered stairway that caused a police officer to trip and become injured. Ronald and Tammy Carstetter are being sued for failing to keep their stairway clean, inspect their stairway for debris, and warn guests of tripping hazards on the stairway inside their home at 250 E. Middle Street. In October of last year, Sgt. Kevin Wilson of the Gettysburg Police Department responded to complaints about a domestic situation occurring in the home. Ronald's daughter, April Carstetter, said she was having an argument with her stepmother Tammy at that time and called...

During the six months that Bridgette Buckner worked for a health insurance administrator, her daughter and grandmother died, she was injured in a workplace accident and her husband, an FBI agent, was killed in the line of duty. It was a string of horrible events that was almost unbelievable. And, as it turned out, totally untrue. DuPage County Judge John Kinsella on Wednesday sentenced Buckner to 10 years in prison for defrauding her employer by filing false death claims and collecting insurance on her company’s policy. The judge imposed the sentence after listening to testimony that the former Bartlett resident...

Because of a quirk in ObamaCare, people who buy health insurance through a federally run exchange may not be eligible for premium subsidies. Government-created exchanges are places for individuals to shop and purchase health insurance. ObamaCare will require individuals and families to buy insurance, starting in 2014. Those with incomes at 100% to 400% of the federal poverty level will be eligible for taxpayer funded subsidies — a tax credit to help pay for the premium. It turns out that the legislation isn't so clear, the latest example of what analysts predicted would be a stream of surprises from the...

Ok, I guess the best adage is to be nice until that doesn't work. But my agent keeps telling me, "don't worry, they'll pay." My policy language is very vague and open to a lot of interpretation. Without going into detail, I'm not getting the impression the adjuster will be that accomodating. You know, I'm 51 years old and have never had to file a homeowner's claim before I sort of feel like the difference between my agent and and the adjuster is like the difference between a military recruiter and the drill sergeant. Am I wrong?

State Police arrest Rep. Leo Medina Allegedly stole inheritance money from client Updated: Thursday, 01 Sep 2011, 8:51 PM EDT PROVIDENCE, RI (WPRI) - State Representative Leo Medina was arrested for allegedly stealing inheritance money from a client. The Providence Democrat, who was elected in November, has a long history of legal troubles, The Providence Journal reported earlier this year. A spokesman for House Speaker Gordon Fox was not immediately available for comment on the lawmakers arrest.

According to the company's release "rates for the company's HMO products will increase an average of 8.8%. More than 100,000 MVP members in New York State are covered under these plans. Small group EPO and high deductible plans will experience reate increases averaging 17%. About 65,000 members in New York State are covered under these plans." MVP says the proposed rate hikes are necessary because of the increases in the cost of health care. The company says health care costs went up because of: - the increase use of medical services - increases in charges from hospitals and doctors -...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of property and casualty insurers rose Monday after the damage from Hurricane Irene appeared to be less than the market had predicted. Complete clarity on loss estimates will not be known for some time, but research firms say based on weaker-than-forecast wind speeds, particularly for the New York metropolitan area, the total loss for the sector is likely less than the initially expected range, which some had been pegging as tens of billions of dollars.

RUSH: Rita in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here. Hello. CALLER: "Hi, Rush. It's an honor and a privilege to speak with you. I have been a longtime listener, and I'm really disturbed by this whole administration. My question to you today is, referring back to the health care bill: On pages 58 and 59 of the health care bill it specifically states that the government will have access to our monies -- and that includes, I do believe, our IRA accounts, our 401(k)s, our savings, our checkings. This is in the health...

Save on car insurance with tracking devicesRachel Leigh, Content Manager Posted: Aug 09, 2011 1:21 PM EDT (WFLX) - It looks like State Farm is going the extra mile to be a "good neighboor". The insurance company now wants to keep its eye on you while you drive. Starting in September, the company will offer a new plan that gives discounts to drivers who let them mount tracking devices in their car. The device would monitor your speed, acceleration, braking and other driving habits.

One of the features of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health-care reform bill colloquially known as Obamacare, is the creation of insurance exchanges that will offer heavily subsidized policies and coverage for people who cannot get insurance through their employers. In projecting the program's costs, the Congressional Budget Office figures that about 7 percent of the workforce currently covered by employer-provided insurance will drop those policies and sign up for the subsidized insurance. That estimate - and hence, the cost structure of the program - has been challenged by sources such as McKinsey & Company, the consulting...

Republican lawmakers who oppose the federal health care overhaul are questioning Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton's authority to move ahead with a state health insurance exchange using dollars from Washington. Sen. David Hann said today that Dayton is bypassing the Legislature by taking a $4.2 million federal grant to design a major feature of the federal law. Dayton has been a strong supporter of the health care overhaul since taking office in January.

Black Lab Mix Covered As 'Property' In Insurance TermsMarcia Pinkstaff said she couldn’t believe it when her dog was hit by a minivan last week and the driver’s insurance company told her they’d pay for one or two trips to the vet and would then “total out” her dog. “I don’t see how you could total out a family pet,” she said. Pinkstaff was walking west in the crosswalk at Canterberry Parkway and East Idyllwilde Drive, in Parker, when an eastbound minivan made a left turn striking Sasha, a 9-year-old Lab mix. “She didn’t see us and she hit Sasha...

On his bus tour, President Barack Obama said the federal health care law’s individual mandate, which requires every American to purchase health insurance, “should not be controversial.” To date, 26 states have sued the federal government, arguing that the individual mandate is unconstitutional because the U.S. Constitution does not grant Congress the power to require Americans to purchase a good or service. “Here’s the problem – if an insurance company has to take you, has to insure you, even if you’re sick but you don’t have an individual mandate, then what would everybody do?