Free Republic

One of the top issues for U.S. voters is health care. There is a simple solution most of the world is smart enough to recognize but is lost on us: a single-payer system. There are two compelling reasons for a single-payer system. The first is the moral argument that health care security is a right for all of us. The second is a little more complicated, and that is health care economics. Sadly, most Americans do not understand this aspect of the health care debate and how it adversely affects them. Anthem announced its first-quarter profits to be $1.31 billion....

If you’re not a health care policy nerd like me and don’t pay close attention to the fear-mongering commonly found in outlets like The Washington Post and CNN, you may have missed the recent explosion of news stories and opinion articles bashing the Trump administration for allegedly putting Obamacare in grave danger — and doing so in a reckless and legally questionable manner, too.For instance, New York magazine accused the Trump administration of “standing against the rule of law.” The New York Times’ Margot Sanger-Katz wrote a recent Trump administration decision could make it “much more difficult for individuals and...

As a physician whose career in medicine was dedicated to preserving and improving my patients’ health, I know firsthand how important it is for everyone to have access to care. This is a fundamental precept, morally and pragmatically sound, that should be honored by all who seek to transform for the better America’s flawed system of health care delivery. Regrettably, since its passage in 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has had the net general effect of raising the cost of health insurance while reducing the quality and variety of the services that insurance covers. This is the opposite of...

Democrats are seizing on the Trump administration’s push in court to overturn ObamaCare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions, hoping to leverage the issue ahead of November’s midterm elections as some Republicans rush to distance themselves from the move. The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to join a legal battle arguing that one of the most popular parts of ObamaCare should be struck down is being viewed by Democrats as a political gift, with the party apparatus quickly using the issue to attack GOP candidates and rally their base. Ever since the DOJ joined 20 GOP-led states last week in...

The Trump administration’s new attempt to have key pieces of the Affordable Care Act struck down in federal court — particularly the ban on insurance companies turning people away or charging them higher premiums based on a pre-existing condition — could have a serious and damaging domino effect throughout the health care sector. Insurance trade groups, health care experts and lawmakers say the fallout is likely to extend beyond the individual market, impacting many of the tens of millions of Americans who get their health insurance from an employer. The Justice Department is arguing in a new court brief that...

Congressional Democrats are seizing on the Department of Justice's (DOJ) decision to not defend key parts of ObamaCare in court, signaling they think the issue could pay political dividends in November. The DOJ, as part of its announcement late last week, argued the law's protections for people with pre-existing conditions should be invalidated because the individual mandate that required people have insurance or pay a penalty is now repealed. Despite a flurry of North Korea news on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) started his weekly news conference with reporters by talking about health care, saying his caucus would...

A senior career Department of Justice (DOJ) official has resigned, one week after the Trump administration made a controversial announcement that it would argue key parts of ObamaCare are unconstitutional. A DOJ official confirmed to The Hill that Joel McElvain resigned and his last day is July 6, but declined to comment on whether the resignation was due to last week’s announcement. Last week, the DOJ wrote in a filing that it wouldn’t defend ObamaCare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The move broke with historical practice, where the DOJ defends federal laws, and sided in part with a challenge...

Most of the discussion of the Trump administration's decision not to defend the Affordable Care Act — and to urge the courts to throw out its protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions — has focused on what happens to the individual insurance market. But the political impact may be even greater. Why it matters: Protections for people with pre-existing conditions are hugely popular, and the administration may have handed Democrats their strongest health care weapon yet — because now they can make the case that the administration has gone to court to take away protections for people with pre-existing...

Vermont is poised to require that all residents have health insurance. Republican Gov. Phil Scott late last month quietly signed into law a bill that will include a penalty for those who don’t have insurance. The mandate is scheduled to take effect in 2020. A spokeswoman for the state’s largest private health insurance provider said the mandate provides stability. Nationally, many have rebelled against the idea the federal government could tell them what they needed to buy. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a similar law days later.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Thursday that "Medicare for All" proposals should be “evaluated” if Democrats win back the House this year, adding “it’s all on the table." Pelosi has long backed a public option for health insurance, but has not supported going further — as many Democrats want — and setting up government-run, universal health insurance. The Democratic leader did not explicitly endorse the idea of Medicare for All during a press conference Wednesday, but she also did not rule out the proposal. “I've always been for a public option so I'm always eager to talk about...

The Trump administration told a federal court Thursday it won’t defend Obamacare against a lawsuit that’s trying to strike down most of the law. It’s a notable stance that means it will be up to Obamacare fans such as Democratic governors to step in and defend the Affordable Care Act against on onslaught from GOP attorneys general, who say after Congress nixed the individual mandate at the heart of the law, the rest of it should follow. In court papers, the Justice Department said it doesn’t want to stop the law in its tracks, but said they agreed with the...

Social Security will spend more than it collects this year, the program’s trustees said Tuesday, marking the first time in more than 35 years that it will run an annual deficit as it slides toward insolvency by 2034. Medicare’s main trust fund is in even worse shape, scheduled to hit insolvency in 2026 — three years earlier than last year’s estimate, the trustees said. The twin warnings add even more pressure to a budget already strained by last year’s tax cuts and this year’s deal to boost spending on defense and basic domestic needs, leaving few bright spots in the...

The latest official report on Medicare's financial status says it will be insolvent in 2026 — just eight years from now. So much for the promise that ObamaCare had fixed that program for the long term. When he signed ObamaCare into law in 2010, President Obama bragged repeatedly that ObamaCare's combination of slowing down overall health spending, payment cuts to providers, improved productivity and quality, as well as less waste, fraud, and abuse would vastly extend Medicare's solvency. He promised ObamaCare would guarantee that Medicare's "sacred trust between America and its seniors … is never broken." Turns out "never" isn't...

WASHINGTON — Seven months after Maine voters approved a ballot measure to expand Medicaid to tens of thousands of additional residents, a state judge on Monday ordered Gov. Paul LePage’s administration to stop stonewalling and move ahead with the plan. It was the second victory in a week for Medicaid expansion, which became possible under the Affordable Care Act. Lawmakers in Virginia voted last week to open the program to an additional 400,000 residents. Advocates in Utah have succeeded in getting a question on the November ballot about expanding Medicaid, and similar efforts are underway in Idaho and Nebraska.

Democrats are adopting a new political spin, which is that everything is fine with ObamaCare. They claim that the only reason premium and deductible costs keep exploding is because President Donald Trump repealed the individual mandate tax — which was nothing more than an unfair penalty on low-income families who couldn't afford the high cost of the health law's mandates. But if Trump is to blame, why were the costs skyrocketing two years before Trump even entered the Oval Office? The clear-eyed reality is that things aren't going well for ObamaCare. The predicted death spiral in the insurance market (higher...

New York Obamacare insurers want to raise prices for 2019 by an average 24 percent, with some plans seeking rate increases as high as nearly 40 percent. The most common reason the state's 14 insurers on Obamacare’s exchanges gave for the increases was the repeal of the individual mandate in the new tax law. That follows insurers in several other states that have cited the mandate repeal and other moves by the Trump administration for their proposed rate hikes. “Insurers have attributed approximately half of their requested rate increases to the risks they see resulting from its repeal,” New York’s...

If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. If you like the surgery you’re about to receive, you can get the surgery you’re about to receive. Yes, that’s the latest cost-cutting measure that’s about to hit Obamacare recipients. In California, according to the American Spectator, they’re going to start cutting funds to hospitals that perform too many surgeries. How many is too many, of course, is whatever the nearest bureaucrat says that it is. “Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act,...

This week President Trump signed the "Right to Try" bill recently passed by Congress. The new law will allow desperately ill patients to employ therapies not yet approved by the FDA. Trump called the bill "a decent and humane option to the current policy that allows patients no option until the glacial pace of the FDA has run its full course. Many have died waiting. This will give them a chance to act at their own risk to try to avert dying." Former President Obama predicted "this legislation is a costly mistake. Patients aren't qualified to assess the risks. Neither...

Don't answer that. How can one get by, at least for a while, without complying with the ACA? I thought Trump was going to get rid of the law that said everyone must buy in, especially individuals? I am very low income, as is a friend of mine, and the fines and policies they want us to carry take a very sizable portion of our meager income. I thought if you made under $17K - $24K you were exempt? The IRS came after us on our filings and every agent or official we speak to is incredulous that we hadn't...

The Republican tax cuts signed by President Trump repealed the Obamacare individual mandate tax nationwide, but New Jersey residents will be stuck paying it due to the state’s Democrat legislature and governor. Governor Phil Murphy on Wednesday signed the new tax into law that will impose the tax on residents who choose not to purchase “qualifying” health insurance as defined by Obama-era regulations.