Free Republic

Under pressure from religious and conservative groups, the Obama administration has offered another compromise on the issue of birth control coverage within the Affordable Care Act. While exempting churches and some religiously affiliated institutions, such as hospitals and universities, from supplying the coverage, the new proposal calls for their employees to receive stand-alone private insurance policies providing birth control coverage at no cost. Insurance companies will foot the bill, but only the naive can possibly think the cost won't find its way back to the institution in the form of higher health premiums. Numerous lawsuits filed against this and...

It was reported in the Detroit News yesterday that Gov. Snyder will make a decision on Medicaid expansion THIS THURSDAY! “Lansing — Gov. Rick Snyder will fire the first shot in the next health care skirmish Thursday when he recommends in his budget presentation to the Legislature whether Michigan should open Medicaid to as many as half a million more residents.“ Medicaid is a VOLUNTARY program Medicaid Expansion is VOLUNTARY Medicaid expansion WAS being forced by on the states by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) until the Supreme Court Ruling on ObamaCare. They ruled that the expansion was unconstitutional.Therefor,the Federal...

Common sense is both a noun and an adjective. As a noun, common sense—good judgment—is becoming a rare and precious commodity in our world today, especially from Washington politicians; thus, it describes little of what comes out of our nation’s capital. Yet, I have noticed that whoever it is that puts the words in the mouth of Barack Obama (or whatever his name is), has latched on to “common-sense” as an adjective to describe what can only be regarded as tyrannical, unconstitutional dictates that the communist cabal controlling our federal government is currently shoving in the faces of the American...

Here in the darkest days -so far- of the nightmarish Obama era, it seems the monstrous statist power-and-tax-grab known as 'Obamacare' is here to stay... or is it? Judge Roberts might have sold us down the river, but there's still plenty of fight left in conservatives. And it's not just us right-wingers-clingers either: fact is, Dear Leader's unwanted and unloved quasi-nationalization of the US healthcare industry has never enjoyed majority public support in this country- same as the day they rammed it through. At least half the electorate still wants it repealed. We all know we're being screwed here, yet...

Signing up an estimated 30 million uninsured Americans for coverage under the health-care law is shaping up to be, if not a bureaucratic nightmare, at the very least a daunting task. While some people will find registering for health insurance as easy as booking a flight online, vast numbers who are confused by the myriad choices will need to sit down with someone who can walk them through the process. Enter the “navigators,” an enormous new workforce of helpers required under the law. In large measure, the success of the law and its overriding aim of making sure that virtually...

Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced Monday that he will accept the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, becoming the fifth Republican governor to embrace the provision of the health care reform law that the Supreme Court made optional. The governor unveiled the decision as part of his budget proposal. “We are going to extend Medicaid for the working poor and for those who are jobless trying to find work,” Kasich said at a press conference in Columbus. “It makes great sense for the state of Ohio because it will allow us to provide greater care with our own dollars.”...

In the olden days miners brought canaries into mines because canaries were very sensitive to toxic fumes and would keel over quickly, giving the miners time to escape before they were rendered unconscious. The HHS mandate is serving a similar function in modern American culture. It's making it clear that liberals believe in an all-powerful government, not the government empowered by the people that is enshrined in the Constitution. Historically in America, the government has rarely collided with the religious beliefs of even extreme groups. A few exceptions, such as Mormon polygamy, were based on common values shared by the...

Smith & Nephew eliminated nearly 100 jobs in Memphis and Andover, Mass., on Thursday, Jan. 31, as the medical device company cuts expenses in an effort to offset tax hikes included in the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act includes a 2.3 percent medical device tax, which took effect Jan. 1. The London-based company, which employs about 1,800 people in Memphis, said the new tax will cost the industry about $30 billion over 10 years. “(The tax) has impacted a number of companies across the U.S.,” said Joe Metzger, senior vice president of corporate communications. “Smith & Nephew is...

Being a good, Democrat-run state, Minnesota has decided to build an ObamaCare exchange, turning all healthcare rights and choices of its citizens over to the tender mercies of federal death panels and untrained, IT technicians in Washington, DC. But if anything, that’s the GOOD news for unsuspecting Minnesotans! For all information currently considered “personal” will, at the stroke of a keyboard, become known to countless bureaucracies throughout the State and federal governments. As the Citizen’s Council for Health Freedom explains it: “Buried in the text of the Minnesota Obamacare Exchange bill (MNHIX) [is] a tiny but controversial section allowing free-flow...

President Obama's reelection, along with the Supreme Court’s ruling last June on his signature health-care reform, may seem to have guaranteed that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will remain the law of the land. But that could turn out to be the easy part of Obamacare. Implementing the ACA's main provisions by January 1, 2014 --- the date on which the law is to take full effect --- presents a more grueling and protracted set of tests.The next round of health-care-policy battles will play out not just before Congress but also in state capitals and health-care markets across the...

Cardinal Health Inc. said Wednesday it plans to cut about 180 jobs, including 20 at its Dublin headquarters, and take a pre-tax charge of $79 million as it restructures a unit in its medical supply division. The moves are meant to anticipate customer demand for greater efficiency and lower cost, spokeswoman Debbie Mitchell said in an email to Columbus Business First. The pharmaceutical and supply distributor outlined the costs in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying the charges will come from employee separations and an expected loss on selling real estate at its campus in Waukegan, Ill....

GPs are to be forced to hand over confidential records on all their patients’ drinking habits, waist sizes and illnesses. The files will be stored in a giant information bank that privacy campaigners say represents the ‘biggest data grab in NHS history’. They warned the move would end patient confidentiality and hand personal information to third parties.

A response to my column, “Catholics Defy ObamaCare! What About Fundamentalist Churches and Universities?” reveals a lack of understanding many people have as to the responsibility of Christians in the face of government intrusion into their ministries. Most people obviously do not understand what all historians have known for two thousand years. The second century church leader, Tertullian observed, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Pagans (all non-Christians) observed that Christians who willingly went to their deaths influenced numerous unbelievers to trust Christ who then themselves became martyrs. My critic sarcastically asked, "And how much...

Actually, the answer is no, and it wasn’t intended to do so either, as I write in a new column for The Fiscal Times. The Obama administration was under a court order to modify the mandate regulation after a legal representation to a federal court that HHS never intended to enforce the mandate in its then-current form. The court ruled that a binding commitment and ordered HHS to submit a new regulation for their review by March 31st. Yesterday’s release of the new regulation is intended to win the court’s approval in dismissing a lawsuit brought by Belmont Abbey College...

This week the IRS issued its estimate for the projected annual cost of a “bronze” package of benefits when the system is fully implemented in 2016. The bronze package is the lowest level of benefits that will be allowed by law. It is expected to cost $20,000 per year. With the median family income around $50,000 per year, this health insurance bill may be out of reach for many. Not to worry says IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller, “families that can't afford to pay the $20,000 premium will have the option of going without insurance and paying an annual fine...

The Obama Administration has really pulled a fast one. In its proposed rule to supposedly provide greater protections to non house of worship religious organizations opposed to contraception, it actually ensures that contraception coverage will be provided to all religious employees–whether house of worship, convent, or school.  In other words, the proposed rule expands the government’s intrusion into religious affairs, rather than reduce it.Here’s how they plan to do it:1. From now on no distinction will be made in the rule between “house of worship” employers and general religious organization employers. In order to be exempted from the requirement of providing free...

Sixty-one percent of U.S. small business owners said they were “worried about the potential cost of healthcare” and 56 percent said they were “worried about new government regulations,” according to the Wells Fargo/Gallup small business index released on Jan. 31, which also showed that 30 percent of small business owners are not hiring and fear going out of business within a year. “At the bottom of the list, but still at a surprisingly high level, 30% of owners say they are not hiring because they are worried they may no longer be in business in 12 months,” according to Gallup’s...

(CNSNews.com) – Catholic, pro-life, and religious liberty leaders denounced the latest revised rule by the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) concerning mandated coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs, stating that it is an “accounting gimmick,” an “accounting shell game,” which will “do practically nothing to lessen President Obama’s attack on religious freedom.”The HHS mandate, as it stands under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), requires nearly all health insurance plans to offer sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs, such as “ella,” without co-pays. Strictly religious entities, such as a church or seminary, could exempt themselves from the mandate.In its...

Data grab: Doctors will be forced to hand over sensitive information about patients as part of a new programme called Everyone Counts but campaigners have criticised the move The data includes weight, cholesterol levels, body mass index, pulse rate, family health history, alcohol consumption and smoking status. Diagnosis of everything from cancer to heart disease to mental illness would be covered. Family doctors will have to pass on dates of birth, postcodes and NHS numbers. . . .

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (CBSDC) — A medical company is blaming President Obama’s health care law for the layoffs of nearly 100 people. Smith & Nephew says a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices in the “Obamacare” law caused the layoffs in the Memphis and Andover, Mass., offices. “The nearly $30 billion tax on medical devices that took effect Jan. 1, 2013, has impacted a number of companies across the U.S.,” the company said in a statement to WHBQ-TV. Joe Metzger, senior vice president of corporate communications for the company, tells the Memphis Business Journal that they were “not immune” to...