Free Republic

As the government moves to involve itself in more of our healthcare in the ramp-up to the implementation of Obamacare, the old ways in which it interferes with the doctor-patient relationship serve as a stark reminder of what is come. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the regulatory body that basically sets the tone for which drugs patients have access to, is preparing to dramatically shift the drug approval process for the United States. It appears that using the late-stage cancer drug Avastin as a test case, the FDA is using cost as a factor in the drug approval process....

Americans losing confidence in healthcare By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Wed Apr 28, 12:30 am ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans are steadily losing confidence in their ability to get healthcare and pay for it, despite the passage of healthcare reform legislation, according to a survey published on Wednesday. The Thomson Reuters Consumer Healthcare Sentiment Index found that confidence lost three percentage points from a baseline of 100 in December to 97 in March. "Strikingly, Americans expect the situation to worsen significantly in the next three months," said Gary Pickens, chief research officer at Thomson Reuters. "The thing I...

President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law is getting a mixed verdict in the first comprehensive look by neutral experts: More Americans will be covered, but costs are also going up. Economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department concluded in a report issued Thursday that the health care remake will achieve Obama's aim of expanding health insurance -- adding 34 million to the coverage rolls. But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president's twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years. That increase could get...

(CNSNews.com) – If Congress passes the Senate health-care plan, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, American families will be required by federal law to buy a federally approved health insurance plan that will cost a minimum of $12,000 per year--and, on average, will cost $15,000 per year -- whether their employer or the government helps them with the premium or not. Beginning in 2014, the Senate plan would require all individuals to buy health insurance. Anyone who does not obtain insurance through an employer would be forced to buy it out of their own pocket. Families of...

Those unversed in the arcana of Congressional procedure should familiarize themselves with "reconciliation." It's just another word for nothing left to lose—that is, it's the tactic Democrats seem increasingly likely to use to bypass the ordinary legislative rules and railroad Obama Care into law with a bare partisan majority of 50 Senators, plus Vice President Joe Biden. ...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats are poised to pass a landmark health care bill that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in U.S. history. Ahead lie complex talks with the House to reach final legislation in the new year. "We stand on the doorstep of history," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. "We recognize that, but much more importantly, we stand so close to making so many individual lives better." The vote Thursday on the bill extending health care coverage to some 31 million uninsured Americans brings Obama...

While we slept this morning, the real mobsters, the ones dishing out and accepting bribes in the District of Criminals, completely screwed our country … with the first vote on Christmas Eve in more than a century. Atlas just shrugged.

Obama Defends Self Against Black Critics WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday rebutted critics who say he isn't showing enough compassion toward black America, citing his health care effort as one example he says "will be hugely important" for blacks. Obama said another example is the billions of dollars in aid to states included in the economic stimulus bill, money that was used to save thousands of teachers, firefighters and police officers from losing their jobs. He said many of those workers are black. "So this notion, somehow, that because there wasn't a transformation overnight that we've been neglectful...

The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack reports tonight that Illinois Democrat Sen. Roland Burris is claiming credit for inserting a provision that may benefit ACORN. But it’s not just the ACORN angle that’s scandalous. It’s the race hustler shakedown. Why, oh, why do we need to be funding massive new federal bureaucracies to create separate “Offices of Minority Health” in six separate health care agencies:

After the Senate voted Saturday night to pro ceed with debate on health reform, Majority Leader Harry Reid declared the public the winner. In truth, more Americans will be losers than winners. Both Senate and House bills strip nearly half a trillion dollars from Medicare, robbing seniors to expand Medicaid. The Senate bill also spends billions on drug treatment, sex education, translators and romance and relationship lessons (p. 612) that could be used to treat heart disease, cancer and stroke -- the diseases that kill most of us.