Obamacare

Supreme Court rules in favor of Little Sisters of the Poor in ObamaCare contraception case

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration acted within its authority when it expanded exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) requirement for employers to provide insurance coverage that includes contraception — in a victory for Little Sisters of the Poor, the Catholic group that has been at the center of the national debate over the mandate. The court ruled 7-2 in favor of the Trump administration and the Catholic charity that cares for the elderly in two related disputes against Pennsylvania, which sued over the validity of a rule from the Trump administration that allowed religiously-affiliated groups and some for-profit companies to opt-out of providing contraception coverage to employees. The majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, ruled that the Trump administration’s challenged rulemaking was aboveboard, and hailed the work of the Little Sisters of the Poor. “For over 150 years, the Little Sisters have engaged in faithful service and sacrifice, motivated by a religious calling to surrender all for the sake of their brother,” Thomas wrote. “But for the past seven years, they — like many other religious objectors who have participated in the litigation and rulemakings leading up to today’s decision — have had to fight for the ability to continue in their noble work without violating their sincerely held religious beliefs.” He added: “We hold today that the Departments had the statutory authority to craft that exemption, as well as the contemporaneously issued moral exemption. We further hold that the rules promulgating these exemptions are free from procedural defects.” Little Sisters of the Poor Sister Constance Veit told Shannon Bream on “Fox News @ Night” earlier this year that following the ACA mandate was “unthinkable.” “We dedicate our lives to this because we believe in the dignity of every human life at every stage of life from conception until natural death,” Veit said. “So, we’ve devoted our lives — by religious vows — to caring for the elderly. And, we literally are by their bedside holding their hand as they pass on to eternal life. So, it’s unthinkable for us, on the one way, to be holding the hand of the dying elderly, and on the other hand, to possibly be facilitating the taking of innocent unborn life.” The Supreme Court also ruled in favor of religious organizations in an employment discrimination case Wednesday. And last week it came down with a ruling that states could not ban religious schools from receiving money from state-funded scholarship programs that are available to non-religious private schools. Lower court rulings had gone against the administration, with a nationwide injunction putting the exemptions on hold. But the Supreme Court’s ruling Wednesday amounts to a huge win for religious conservatives who have been battling the ACA’s contraceptive mandate for years. “It is outrageous that the Obama administration forced a group of nuns to violate their religious beliefs in the first place,” Judicial Crisis Network Vice President and Senior Counsel Frank Scaturro tweeted. “The Court’s decision today upholding that exemption is a victory for freedom of religion and conscience—for the Little Sisters and for everyone. Let’s be thankful that the Little Sisters’ ordeal in court has finally ended.” Thomas was joined in his judgment by all the justices except for Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Wednesday.

Gee…  What a shocker.   This is a HUGE win for our religious freedoms, and for President Trump.  And, it’s a big smack-down for big-government nazis and the nanny state.  Major kudos to the Supremes for this excellent decision.  For more of this article, click on the text above.  Outstanding!!    🙂

Supreme Court rules government must pay insurers enrolled in ObamaCare program

The Supreme Court ruled in an 8-1 decision Monday that the federal government must pay out $12 billion to insurers who had enrolled in the Affordable Care Act’s “risk corridor” program, reversing a lower court’s decision that had left Washington off the hook. The program limited both profits and losses for insurance companies that offered plans through the online exchange created by the Affordable Care Act – commonly known as ObamaCare – by having certain profits go to the Department of Health and Human Services, which in turn would give money to plans that did not bring in profits. The result was the government owing over $12 billion more than was brought in. “We conclude that §1342 of the Affordable Care Act established a money-mandating obligation, that Congress did not repeal this obligation, and that petitioners may sue the Government for damages in the Court of Federal Claims,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the court’s opinion. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had ruled that Congress had “repealed or suspended” the obligation by implication through appropriations riders. The Supreme Court noted that according to court precedent, “repeals by implication are not favored,” and because Congress never directly repealed the obligation to pay the insurance companies, they are still bound by the program. Justice Samuel Alito, the lone dissenter in the case, argued that there was no basis for a cause of action. The majority held that this case falls under the Tucker Act, under which the government waives normal immunity from lawsuits based on “the Constitution, or any Act of Congress or any regulation of an executive department, or upon any express or implied contract with the United States, or for liquidated or unliquidated damages in cases not sounding in tort.” Alito argued that ObamaCare’s provision that the government “shall pay” for insurance companies’ losses is not enough to create a cause of action under the Tucker Act. He claimed that allowing the companies to sue has significant repercussions and allows private insurers to collect money to which they should not be entitled. “Today,” Alito wrote, “the Court infers a private right of action that has the effect of providing a massive bailout for insurance companies that took a calculated risk and lost.”

House votes to repeal ObamaCare’s medical device tax

The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to repeal the controversial medical device tax created by former President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law. “The House just voted to repeal Obamacare’s Medical Device Tax,” House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted. “This bipartisan legislation will make healthcare more affordable and ensure Americans have access to the most innovative life-saving and life-improving medical technology.” The measure passed 283-132. The Senate would need to pass it before it could be signed into law by President Trump, who supports a repeal. The medical device tax was designed to help pay for the health care overhaul, which has expanded coverage for millions of people. It is imposed on equipment like artificial hearts and X-ray machines, but not items used by individuals, like glasses. It went into effect in 2013 but Congress had temporarily suspended it until 2020. Opponents of the repeal effort say taxes the law imposed on many branches of the health care industry were outweighed by the added customers the law has created. Supporters of repeal — including Democrats from states where the devices are made — say the tax drives up companies’ expenses and stifles innovation.

Agreed..  Glad to see this move by the House.  Let’s hope the Senate follows their lead soon.   🙂

Senate Republican Tax Bill Will Repeal Obamacare’s Individual Mandate

Senate Republicans will add the repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate to the tax bill, Senate leaders said Tuesday afternoon. President Donald Trump urged the Senate in a tweet Monday to add the repeal. Sen. Rand Paul said on Tuesday morning that he would push for the move. Sen. Tom Cotton also indicated that he supported putting the repeal in the bill. Now, Republican leaders are confirming that the repeal will indeed be part of the bill and that they have enough votes for it to pass through the Senate. “We’re optimistic that inserting the individual mandate will be helpful,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and Sen. John Thune also told reporters that the repeal would be included. The savings from the repeal would “be distributed in the form of middle-income tax relief,” Thune said. Thune also said that the bill had 50 votes in the Senate, enough to pass with a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence if done under rules that allow for the passage of certain bills by a bare majority. A repeal of the individual mandate would save $338 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis. “Repealing the mandate pays for more tax cuts for working families and protects them from being fined by the IRS for not being able to afford insurance that Obamacare made unaffordable in the first place,” Sen. Cotton said in a statement, according to the Hill.

YES!!!!  🙂

Judge rejects bid by 18 U.S. states to revive Obamacare subsidies

A U.S. judge in California on Wednesday refused to block President Donald Trump’s decision to end subsidy payments to health insurers under Obamacare, rejecting a request by Democratic attorneys general from 18 U.S. states. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco sided with the Trump administration, saying the government does not have to make the payments while litigation over the subsidies unfolds. Chhabria, appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama, wrote that although the case appears to be a close call “it appears initially that the Trump administration has the stronger legal argument.” The Trump administration this month terminated the payments to the insurers, which help cover medical expenses for low-income Americans, as part of several moves to dismantle Obama’s signature healthcare law formally known as the Affordable Care Act. Chhabria also said the kind of emergency order requested by the states was not necessary. “The truth is that most state regulators have devised responses that give millions of lower-income people better health coverage options than they would otherwise have had,” Chhabria said. “This is true in almost all the states joining this lawsuit,” the judge added.

Exactly!!  Kudos to this Democrat judge for seeing through the bs.  This is another huge win!  Excellent!!

Trump declares Obamacare payments illegal; deals second blow to health law

The Trump administration announced late Thursday that it has concluded it can no longer legally make critical Obamacare “cost-sharing” payments and will cut them off, dealing another blow to the struggling 2010 health law. The payments had specifically been denied by Congress but President Obama had made them anyway, drawing a rebuke from a court who said he was overstepping his powers. The case has raged for months, and both the Obama and Trump administrations had continued making payments — until now. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in a statement, said the Justice Department has concluded the judge’s ruling is correct, and there is no valid legal ability to make the payments. “The bailout of insurance companies through these unlawful payments is yet another example of how the previous administration abused taxpayer dollars and skirted the law to prop up a broken system,” Mrs. Sanders said. “Congress needs to repeal and replace the disastrous Obamacare law and provide real relief to the American people.” The White House statement doesn’t explicitly say Mr. Trump won’t make the payments anymore, but a Justice Department statement said the agencies responsible for them “have decided not to spend money to fund those payments.” The cost-sharing payments go to insurance companies to pay for reimbursements for low-income customers’ out-of-pocket costs. Without the payments, insurers have said they would jack up premiums, which would further upend the already shaky economic underpinning the Affordable Care Act. The move comes just hours after Mr. Trump signed an executive order pushing his administration to allow association health plans, which would allow individuals and small businesses to join up and purchase insurance on the group market across state lines.

This was exactly the right, constitutionally sound, move on the part of the Trump White House.  Obama had illegally raided the U.S. Treasury, and got slapped down by a federal court which found his actions unconstitutional, and actually a violation of ObamaCare itself!  So, Pres. Trump was exactly right for doing this, and sending it back to Congress, which is how it’s supposed to work.  Kudos to Pres. Trump for following the actual Constitution!  Imagine that..  To read the rest of this article, click on the text above.

Sen. Cassidy fires back at Kimmel in health bill feud: ‘Jimmy doesn’t understand’

Sen. Bill Cassidy fired back Thursday at late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, as their feud over the health care bill the Louisiana Republican senator has co-authored extended into a third day. “Jimmy doesn’t understand,” Cassidy told “Fox & Friends.” The host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” who delivered a memorable monologue in May when he revealed his newborn son’s heart condition, first took aim at Cassidy and his bill on Tuesday night. He said Cassidy “was not very honest” in an earlier appearance on his show. Kimmel said Cassidy coined the term, “the Jimmy Kimmel test,” which was summed up by Kimmel as: No family should be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can’t afford it. They agreed the test would mean no lifetime caps, Kimmel said. Kimmel claimed, “This guy, Bill Cassidy, just lied to my face.” The host doubled down Wednesday night, again accusing the senator of breaking a vow to oppose plans that allow insurers to turn back people with pre-existing conditions. But Cassidy said Thursday that his legislation, which he and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced, would “absolutely” be cheaper and better than ObamaCare. “Jimmy doesn’t understand, not because he’s a talk show host — because we’ve never spoken,” Cassidy said. “He’s only heard from those on the left who are doing their best to preserve ObamaCare. He’s not heard from me, because we’ve not spoken.” The senator has spoken to Kimmel; he appeared on Kimmel’s show back in May. Challenged on that point, Cassidy acknowledged he was on the show but seemed to say that he and the host have not spoken specifically about his latest bill, which he said would give millions to the states to help low-income families get access to insurance and care for pre-existing conditions. Amid the feud, the White House is trying to rally support for the legislation in hopes of a possible Senate vote next week. “This may well be our last best chance” to pursue health care reform based on “individual choice” and “state-based innovation,” Vice President Pence told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday. He added, “We have to recognize that ObamaCare has failed.” At its core, the bill would put ObamaCare’s financing for subsidized private health insurance and Medicaid expansion into a giant pot and redistribute it among states according to new formulas. States could obtain federal waivers allowing them to modify insurance market safeguards for consumers. This means states could set their own coverage requirements. The bill also would allow insurers to boost prices on people with serious medical conditions, end former President Barack Obama’s mandates that most Americans buy insurance and that companies offer coverage to workers, and cut and reshape Medicaid. The bill’s full impacts are difficult to predict because the Congressional Budget Office has not had time to assess it.

There ya’ go..  That’s the 2-dimensional analysis of the situation from the very liberal Associated Press (AP), a major player within the dominantly liberal mainstream media.  We’ve since learned that Jimmy, who isn’t exactly the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, has been getting his monologue talking points from none other than Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).  Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is also an M.D.  That’s right.  A Medical Doctor.  He also happens to be married to one.  Let’s be clear…  The Graham-Cassidy bill being sponsored by Sen. Cassidy and Sen. Graham (R-SC) is by no means the end all be all fix to the nightmare that is ObamaCare.  BUT..  It DOES fix a things, and yes, covers pre-existing conditions, etc.  And, it rightfully returns the control to the states in keeping with our wonderful 10th Amendment.  The question you have to consider is..  Would you rather listen to some canned talking points disguised as late not comedy (more like late-night rant) by some idiot like Jimmy Kimmel and use that as your guide for thinking through the complexities of the healthcare debate…OR…would you like to listen to professional opinion of a MEDICAL DOCTOR like Sen. Cassidy?  And just think..  There are a LOT of people who think that’s a difficult choice…

President Trump Applauds Lindsey Graham’s Bill to Repeal Obamacare

President Donald Trump on Wednesday applauded Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) new legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare through block grants. President Trump released a statement on Wednesday cheering the Graham and Cassidy bill to replace Obamacare. Graham and Cassidy, along with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Dean Heller (R-NV), and former Sen. Rick Santorum, unveiled their legislation on Wednesday – otherwise known as Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ). The legislation would repeal Obamacare’s individual and employer mandate, Obamacare’s medical device tax, and deliver health care dollars to the states so that they can design a health care system that works best for their local population. President Trump said: ” I applaud the Senate for continuing to work toward a solution to relieve the disastrous Obamacare burden on the American people. My Administration has consistently worked to enact legislation that repeals and replaces Obamacare, and that can pass the Senate and make it to my desk. Obamacare has been a complete nightmare for the many Americans who have been devastated by its skyrocketing healthcare premiums and deductibles and canceled or shrinking plans. As I have continued to say, inaction is not an option, and I sincerely hope that Senators Graham and Cassidy have found a way to address the Obamacare crisis.” A number of governors have come out publicly in support of the new Obamacare repeal legislation. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds endorsed the Graham-Cassidy Obamacare repeal plan. Herbert declared that the bill was a “vast improvement over the Affordable Care Act.” Sen. Graham cheered Vice President Mike Pence’s support for the new Obamacare repeal bill. Graham said that Pence has been “awesome.” Graham said that he needs helps rounding up support for the bill. Sen. Graham explained, “I’m urging the White House to call governors and to urge Mitch McConnell to take action. I’m telling the Republican party that we have not tried everything.” President Trump contends that Obamacare continues to be a “complete nightmare” for Americans and has led to skyrocketing health care costs. The president hopes that this legislation will serve as the vehicle to repeal and replace Obamacare.

NOW is the time to call, or email, your member of Congress…and BOTH U.S. Senators and urge them to support (and vote for) this GCHJ bill!  This is critical!

Analysis: Either Republicans Cure Obamacare or Voters Will Repeal and Replace Them

‘Once upon a time, Republicans controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House, but they failed to repeal and replace Obamacare. They paid no political price for shirking seven years of promises to scrap Obama’s imploding entitlement. Nonetheless, they lived happily ever after.” Some Republican members of Congress may believe this fairy tale. Alas, for them, Washington, D.C., is no enchanted forest. Rather, it’s a fever swamp in which bad boys and girls get eaten alive by snakes and alligators. A Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday shows that the GOP may pay a huge political price for its belly flop on Obamacare repeal and replacement, starring Senator John McCain. The Arizona Republican’s literal thumb down on the so-called skinny-repeal amendment on July 28 decisively sandbagged efforts to move legislation to a House–Senate conference committee, where negotiations could have burnished the bill. According to Politico/Morning Consult’s research, Democrats now lead Republicans in a generic congressional face-off — 44 percent to 37 percent, with 19 percent undecided. Just one week before Democrats gained this 7-point edge, they were tied with Republicans at 40 percent in this poll. Amazingly, among 1,972 registered voters asked “Who do you trust more” to handle health care?, Democrats beat Republicans 47 percent to 34. How ironic that the party that singlehandedly built this beast now has a 13-percent advantage in how to tame it. (The survey’s margin of error is +/ – 2 percentage points.) This study should disabuse Republicans of the fantasy that they can wreck things this badly without suffering grave electoral consequences. If, after seven years of blood oaths to scrap Obama’s calamitous “reform,” Republicans simply throw up their hands and let this monster terrorize Americans, they deservedly will get slaughtered in the November 2018 midterms. Democrats have seen blood since the night Hillary Clinton lost the White House. These liberals will start lining up to vote next Memorial Day. Independents often value competence over ideology. Many of them may be so appalled at GOP ineptitude on this matter that they will favor Democrats. This fiasco may leave Republicans feeling too betrayed, disgusted, and depressed to vote in numbers necessary to win. If this nightmare unfolds, the GOP could lose the House. Moreover, they idiotically could blow a totally decent chance to gain at least eight Senate seats among the 25 the Democrats are defending (Republicans are shielding just eight) and secure a filibuster-proof Senate majority. Coupled with a GOP House and a right-leaning Republican president itching to sign pro-market ideas into law, this is the best chance in 30 years for the conservative, free-market movement to implement its entire agenda. So, naturally, Republicans are botching it. Meanwhile, the bog continues to swallow Obamacare. Premiums for Obamacare plans rose 21.6 percent last year. Prices for various policies are expected to climb next year, according to the Wall Street Journal, by 24 percent in Texas, 28 percent in Idaho, and some 30 percent in Colorado, Kentucky, Nevada, and Virginia. Illinois officials on Tuesday warned citizens to prepare for premium hikes of 43 percent. The Department of Health and Human Services recently calculated that average premiums for Obamacare policies on HealthCare.gov have rocketed from $2,784 in 2013 to $5,712 in 2017 — a 105 percent increase. So much for Obama’s promise that his pet plan would cut costs.

Indeed..  To read the rest of this outstanding, yet sobering, op/ed by Deroy Murdock, click on the text above.

Obama’s IRS ‘misled’ Obamacare customers: Audit

The Obama administration “misled” Americans into thinking signing up for Obamacare would be cheaper than it really was, according to an inspector general’s report Thursday that said the IRS dramatically understated the actual cost of enrolling. IRS officials sent the letters to try to prod Americans to comply with the 2010 health law’s “individual mandate” that penalizes them for not holding coverage. But as part of the letters, the IRS said most people could find plans for $75 a month or less once government subsidies were figured in. That was untrue — in fact, the average cost was more than twice that figure, at $168 a month, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said. “Many of the nearly 7.5 million taxpayers who receive letters and seek insurance may feel misled if the actual cost of their insurance is much higher than the $75 per month detailed in their notification letter,” the inspector general concluded. The IRS said it was only using numbers provided by Department of Health and Human Services and verified by the Treasury Department. They said the $75 figure was true for some taxpayers. The inspector general said it asked for that documentation but never received it. Auditors said their own analysis found the HHS studies were based on a smaller sample and was limited to those who chose lower-coverage plans with fewer benefits. According to the new audit, federal regulations require agencies to present accurate information.

Imagine that!