Free Republic

One of NHS England's specialist directors said he thought the service was not "at that point" of crisis, but admitted demand was higher than ever. The Red Cross helps some hospitals with patient transport and provides care for patients who have returned home. Labour's Jeremy Corbyn urged Theresa May to tell MPs how she would fix the "national scandal" of the NHS. Mr Corbyn said: "The fact is, this government have repeatedly failed to put the necessary resources into our health service, while they have cut social care and wasted billions on a top-down reorganisation to accelerate privatisation." The Labour...

Right from the jump on Jan. 20, Donald Trump needs to make clear to supporters, opponents and the entrenched interests of DC who’s boss. He’s off to a good start, swatting down a boneheaded Republican attempt to fiddle with the Ethics Committee and getting corporations like Carrier and Ford to bring jobs back to America.

And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? That thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: Exodus 13:14 The Marxists are crying the old You Broke it, You Own It chant as they hold a handful of shattered splinters. Is there anything they do which does not come with a 60’s cliché? Time for the Repubs to put the nail in the coffin and say, You Broke it, We Own It. This election was won on two...

The federal government is recommending the state of Colorado repay $9.7 million in grant funds it says were not properly managed in the creation of its Obamacare health insurance exchange. […] The government concludes the Colorado marketplace did not adequately document costs that it charged to the establishment grants ($4.4 million); charged grants for unallowable contract costs ($4.5 million); improperly transferred costs from one establishment grant to another ($312,000); and improperly awarded bonuses, overpayments, unallowable promotional giveaway items, excessive and unreasonable tips, vendor rebates that were not credited to the establishment grants, and unallowable social activities ($463,000). …

Outgoing President Obama is daring Congressional Republicans and President-Elect Trump to have a replacement healthcare plan in place. This is both a specious argument and an Alinsky tactic for two reasons: (1) Obama wants the replacement plan to contain the structural foundations and costs of Obamacare, so when it continues to fail, Dems in 2018 Congressional races will run against "Trumpcare". (2) A replacement plan itself acknowledges government control. Now more than ever, the Republicans have a chance to completely turn over healthcare to the free market and the states. All Congressional Republicans have to do is just repeal Obamacare....

FREEPERS: I just finished watching Congressman Jim Jordan rattle off the "Nine Lies of Obamacare". THIS IS THE EXACT KIND OF THING the 'RATS would be parroting word for word. The one problem is that JJ can rattle them off better than anyone except FREEPERS. 9 is a lot to remember.

Spending less by getting rid of Obamacare could end up costing a whole lot more. Up to 3 million jobs in the health sector and other areas would be lost if certain key provisions of the Affordable Care Act are repealed by Congress, a new report said Thursday. At the same time, ending those provisions could lead to a whopping $1.5 trillion reduction in gross state product from 2019 through 2023, according to the study.

Over the New Year’s weekend, President Barack Obama’s chief policy adviser and closest strategist, Valerie Jarrett, told a talk show host that her boss would have a happy legacy because there was an absence of scandal in his administration. When first I heard this preposterous claim, I thought I had misheard it. Yet it is apparently true that President Obama and his team somehow can overlook recent history and behave as if events with which we are all familiar never happened. Here is the back story. When Obama became president in 2009 and enjoyed significant Democratic majorities in both houses...

On health care, congressional Republicans should listen to Donald Trump. The president-elect may not be chock-full of ideas about health-care policy, but he has the right political instincts. He has said that Obamacare should be replaced, that its beneficiaries should not simply be stripped of coverage, and that people with pre-existing conditions should be protected. It is possible and desirable to devise legislation that meets these objectives. Trump has also warned congressional Republicans to be careful — and he is right about that, too, because their current course does not look likely to accomplish the repeal of Obamacare or its...

The Senate narrowly rejected Democrats' attempts to force Republicans to get 60 votes to repeal Obamacare rather than a simple majority. The Senate voted 52-48 along party lines to reject an amendment by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and other Democrats to a budget resolution bill that is the first step toward repealing Obamacare.

And so it begins. After six years of posturing and futile votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Republicans in the Senate have started a process to erase the most important provisions of the health reform law with a simple majority. Millions of Americans are at risk of losing their coverage. Republican opponents of the health care law insist that it has failed, though it has reduced the number of uninsured Americans to the lowest level in history. They say that it has driven up costs, though health care costs have risen at a much slower pace since 2010 than...

A Republican initiative aimed at repealing the Affordable Care Act “is about denying women healthcare” and “disempowering women,” NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue said on Capitol Hill Thursday. Speaking at a press conference held by House Democratic leaders to protest GOP plans to repeal the ACA and defund Planned Parenthood, Hogue said President-elect Donald Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan and the GOP-controlled Senate have “no mandate to take away our healthcare.” “More Americans voted for Democratic leadership in the White House and the Senate than voted for the Republicans,” she said. Hogue also cited “reports” saying “that Trump voters are...

President Barack Obama will leave office after eight years of strutting even while sitting down, of preening even while standing up, of swanking while playing eighteen holes. Yet he remains the first president in American history to cast no shadow. Jimmy Carter cast a pale and minuscule shadow. Lyndon Johnson cast an obscene shadow. Obama leaves absolutely no shadow, even in the moonlight. Provide me with a picture of this President, standing beneath the white columned portico of the White House, the sun on his face, a gray shadow behind him, and I will eat my hat. I might even...

Some of Trump's tweets this morning:@realdonaldtrump 14m ago massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful! 39m ago like the 116% hike in Arizona. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don't let the Schumer clowns out of this web... 47m ago Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases...... 1h ago things they did and said (like giving the questions to the debate to...

Health Reform: Remember when Democrats were promising that ObamaCare would cut the deficit by $1 trillion in its second decade? Turns out they were off by, well, about $1 trillion. A report from the centrist Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says that, left in place, ObamaCare would reduce the deficit by between $350 billion and $150 billion over the next 10 years, depending on whether or not you account for the economic harm caused by the law. It might look like a big number, but it's far smaller than the $1 trillion Democrats promised. What's more, a realistic accounting...

The world-renown MD Anderson Cancer Center has announced a workforce reduction by 1,000, the CEO of the center said on Thursday. The cancer hospital has had $110 million in operating losses from September through November this year, reported the Houston Chronicle. [Snip] The local publication reported that the financial problems began in the spring when the hospital implemented a new electronic medical-record system. Doctors and staff members at the center spent a great deal of time getting up to speed in using the program and that took time away from their patients.

President-elect Donald Trump may be following President Barack Obama’s lead come Jan. 20, using executive orders to roll back parts of the outgoing president’s signature health care law. During a meeting with Republicans on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said the president-elect plans to kick off his administration by signing executive orders to begin dismantling Obamacare. “We’re working now on a series of executive orders that will enable that orderly transition to take place even as Congress appropriately debates alternatives to and replacements for Obamacare,” Pence told reporters after the meeting. Pence did not elaborate on which parts...

Unless something changes, Republican leaders have no intention of repealing Obamacare If Republicans in the brand new 115th Congress want to enrage supporters and destroy whatever grassroots goodwill remains they are off to an excellent start. Daniel Horowitz has the gory details at Conservative Review:

Rules: You have to laugh at the Democrats' current plight. They have almost no leverage to block anyone Donald Trump decides to select for judgeships or cabinet posts. They can't stop Republicans from repealing most of ObamaCare. And they only have themselves to blame. On CNN this week, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer was lamenting the fact that Democrats wouldn't be able to use the filibuster to stop Trump's nominees. There should, he said, be "60 votes because on such important positions there should be some degree of bipartisanship." And who, exactly, is to blame for this? Schumer's predecessor in...

Vice President-elect Mike Pence met with GOP leadership today on the Hill and told the public that step one of Trump’s presidency will be to make good on a campaign promise to repeal President Obama’s flailing Affordable Care Act. While we have dissected the many strategies that Republicans can take in crafting their own plan, let’s take a look at three major reasons why ObamaCare failed the American people. 1. Skyrocketing costs: At no point in time did the $3-trillion-a-year ObamaCare plan work in favor of controlling the soaring health care costs in our country. While middle-class consumers were hit...