Free Republic

10 states did not fall for the Medicaid expansion trap under Obamacare. The rest are suffering. Private payers (you, one way or another) make up the loss.. Medicaid Expansion Puts Hospitals at Risk.. The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) reports Medicaid Expansion Dramatically Increases Hospital Shortfalls emphasis mine. Medicaid expansion ushered in through ObamaCare has led to program enrollment growth well beyond what was promised or projected. While proponents argue that expansion is a silver bullet to keep hospitals financially secure, this is simply not true. Because Medicaid does not pay enough to cover the costs to hospitals to provide...

Our health care system is on life support, afflicted by the diseases of greed, incompetence, immorality, selfishness, politicization, and loss of good sense and ethics. “They are trying to kill me!” The worst words anyone wants to hear from their loved one. One might imagine hearing those words when you are on the phone with your loved who is being brutally attacked as they cry out for you to save them. But it is not. This fear-stricken cry for help from your loved one is caused by someone they trusted, that you trusted -- it is your doctor who wields...

Roberts’ overtly political actions aren’t preserving the image of the court in the eyes of the American people; they’re destroying it.A majority of U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) justices allegedly still maintain that the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which federally legalized abortion in the United States, is unconstitutional. According to a Saturday report from The Washington Post, “as of last week, the majority of five justices to strike Roe remains intact, according to three conservatives close to the court.”Published in Politico last week, the leaked February draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito makes clear that Roe “must be...

By this year’s standards, the process that led to Obamacare seems like a veritable exercise in transparency and open government.How quickly Democrats forget. A dozen years ago, President Barack Obama faced strong and justified criticism for backtracking on his promise, made numerous times during the 2008 presidential campaign, to televise health-care negotiations on C-SPAN:By this year’s standards, however, the process that led to Obamacare—the law that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said we had to pass in order to find out what’s in it—seems like a veritable exercise in transparency and open government. It’s gotten so bad that press reports...

For decades, going back at least as far as the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that concocted a constitutional right to abortion, conservatives have placed a great emphasis on winning back culture war ground through judicial nominations. As a consequence of that, Republicans have consistently told political pollsters that the Supreme Court is their top voting issue at a far higher clip than Democrats have. The Court, for instance, was certainly the decisive issue in the hotly contested 2016 presidential election. As the current Court term winds down -- one featuring a putative 6-3 "conservative" majority, including three new nominees...

With the latest HHS report about Obamacare coverage, the Biden administration doesn’t want to let facts get in the way of a good narrative.In the “lies, d-mned lies, and statistics” category comes a report the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released Saturday, in conjunction with a Zoom call from presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama promoting Obamacare.The report wants you to believe more than 30 million people obtained coverage because of Obamacare. But the Biden administration knows that number isn’t true. So instead of discussing people “newly insured” by the law, it talks about those who were merely...

If Congress follows the president’s lead and does not renew the Hyde Amendment, court precedents may require state Medicaid programs to cover abortions in most if not all cases.If Congress enacts them into law, the legislative concepts outlined in President Biden’s first budget will have far-reaching effects on American debt, deficits, and taxation. One specific policy may have an effect even as a proposal. By suggesting a repeal of the Hyde Amendment, the president gave conservative states another reason not to expand Medicaid. While coverage of the Biden budget has focused on its support of taxpayer funding for abortion, fewer...

The Supreme Court will consider whether setting Obamacare’s individual mandate tax to $0 renders the mandate unconstitutional, and if any other parts of Obamacare should fall with it.In a few weeks, health care will once again take center stage at the Supreme Court. In what has become a semi-regular occurrence, the justices will soon rule on a case focused on two central questions: Whether Congress’ 2017 decision to set Obamacare’s individual mandate tax to $0 renders the mandate unconstitutional, and if so, what if any other parts of Obamacare should fall with it.In advance of the impending ruling, John McDonough...

The bad news for liberals arrived on the front page of the May 18 Washington Post under the mild-mannered headline "Hopes dim for Democrats' bills on election oversight." That's a nicer headline than "It's Toast." Mike DeBonis began by reporting that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has approached the For the People Act that would federalize elections with the motto "Failure is not an option." DeBonis wasn't as dainty as the headline writer: "But failure is very much an option -- it is, in fact, the most likely one." There is one central figure in this bill's demise. Inside, The...

Biden went out of his way to avoid paying Obamacare taxes, using a loophole that tax experts said he put in place solely to reduce his tax bill.On Monday, the delayed due date for filing federal taxes for the last calendar year, the White House made a theatrical show of releasing President Biden’s 2020 tax returns. In so doing, the new administration wanted to show a contrast with Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, who did not release his tax returns.But while the White House emphasized the release of Biden’s returns, it does not want reporters to scrutinize the content of those...

Biden's American Family Plan would dole out free college, free child care, free meals, and more. But does the math add up? Nope.President Biden released the provisions of his American Family Plan last week, and just like with his American Jobs Plan, the details are scant and the price tag is high.Even given the limited details, the plans ought to give everyone pause — and by “everyone” I don’t just mean conservatives who oppose massive welfare state expansions, but also those who agree with the objective of an increase in the social insurance system in America. There are some serious...

What would you do with $100 million? Arkansas could let this hypothetical situation become their reality as the future of Medicaid expansion comes under debate. In 2014, Arkansas unfortunately took the bait of broken promises and expanded Obamacare to a new class of able-bodied adults. We’re not here to debate the merits of Medicaid expansion as a whole, though the research overwhelmingly says there are few, if any. Expansion has been a disaster for states across the country, but Arkansas managed to find a way to make it even worse. No, the topic of my reproach today is the specific...

How permanent an impact a Joe Biden presidency will have comes down almost entirely to what happens in the state of Georgia on Jan. 5, 2021.There’s no doubt a Joe Biden administration is going to have a massive impact on the United States. How permanent an impact it will have, however, comes down almost entirely to what happens in the state of Georgia on Jan. 5, 2021. Like all modern presidents, President Barack Obama used the power of the executive to his benefit, signing orders that ranged from granting amnesty to illegal immigrants to joining the Paris climate agreement. President...

It was Obamacare-mania over the past few weeks. The Senate hearings over the nomination of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett were dominated by President Barack ObamaÂ’s signature domestic achievement. Now, itÂ’s not totally out of the left field as the Supreme Court will hear arguments that could gut the law a week after the election, but it goes to the whole notion that Democrats think the judiciary is a separate legislative wing. They wanted to hear what ACB thought about health care, abortion, and gun rights as if sheÂ’ll legislate from the bench. ThatÂ’s what left-wingers do. Right now, Joe Biden...

After making this week’s confirmation hearings all about Obamacare, the Democrats apparently want to win the coveted lie of the year—again. And they’re well on their way to do just that. For as they questioned Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Obamacare, they were lucky not to be questioned themselves: How can they continue to canonize the Lie of the Year and themselves as the saviors of all of us with pre-existing conditions when it’s obvious they’re not geniuses at taking care of us? They couldn’t make their own Affordable Care Act, affordable. Nor keep their promise we could keep our...

Reassuring and rosy campaign rhetoric aside, Biden’s health care plan could very well lead to the elimination of private health insurance. Joe Biden has often said that his health-care plan wouldn’t disturb individuals who currently have coverage.During the first presidential debate, he denied President Trump’s assertion that his plan would ban private insurance or take away coverage options. When rolling out his health-care plan last year, Biden went so far as to reiterate Barack Obama’s infamous “Lie of the Year;” the former vice president claimed that “If you like your employer-based plan, you can keep it.”Except many Americans may not...

Editor's Note: Jon Decker is the co-author of this piece. Last week, the AARP sent a letter to the Department of Labor requesting a delay of a Department of Labor proposal to align its rules for investment advisers with the SEC's "best interest" standard, to give investors more choices while protecting their retirement savings.It's no surprise that the AARP would seek to thwart one of President Trump's policy objectives. Instead of being a neutral advocate for seniors, the AARP routinely engages in far-left political advocacy.  Recall that when seniors were contacting the AARP 14-to-1 urging the group to oppose Obamacare,...

John Roberts is a politician — a politician who consistently makes laws, inconsistently applies the Constitution, and can't be voted out of office. Knock, knock. Who’s there? Unelected leftist politicians in robes with lifetime tenure. Turns out, the Supreme Court is a joke, and the punchline is Chief Justice John Roberts.Two high court decisions this week brought that reality into focus, when the George W. Bush-appointed chief sided with leftist justices to say sexual orientation is “sex,” and that the current commander in chief can’t undo unlawful executive action from a past president because of his reasons.Roberts has quite the...

Vote-by-mail would federalize a state-based electoral system, introducing something Democrats tend to use when they're desperate for a win: chaos. Leftists know that changing the rules of the game can bring victory, and have long tried to change election rules to do just that. When COVID-19 came, facing a contentious race with a populist incumbent president, Democrats turned to their vast network of money-men, many under the umbrella of the “dark money” empire known as the Arabella Network, and set about using the new crisis to their advantage. Their latest push is an expansion of vote-by-mail and its cousin, ballot...

What would you do to save your local hospital? That question is on the mind of many lawmakers in states struggling with whether or not to expand Medicaid to able-bodied adults under ObamaCare. Advocates of expansion have time and again pitched expansion as a way to save struggling, rural hospitals across the nation. More recently, activists are pitching Medicaid expansion as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak. As more hospitals find themselves in financial trouble, expanding Medicaid is promised to be the cure-all: not only will it save hospitals from closing, but it’ll create jobs too (or so advocates say)....