Who is the Freedom Caucus?
Over the past few weeks as I’ve listened to arguments over healthcare, the “Freedom Caucus” keeps coming up which made me wonder “Who is the Freedom Caucus?” The answer: a congressional caucus made up of 30 men, almost all (28) of whom are white and middle-aged or seniors. The other two men include a middle-aged man who was born in Puerto Rico and an Arab-American.
The Freedom Caucus is a conservative group of congressmen who claim to represent the interests of their constituents. There are no women and no African-American members of the Freedom Caucus, and this fringe group only has 30 members (7%) out of 435 members of Congress, which is telling. And, yet the Freedom Caucus is a powerful group in that they can withhold enough votes to stop the Republican party from pushing forward their agenda (which actually helps the Democrats much to their dismay). Read more 
The Health Insurance Exchange – What’s the Big Deal?
The governor of Arizona let the federal government know the state does not plan to set up a Health Insurance Exchange by October 1, 2013 – the deadline to have the exchanges operating to allow consumers time to purchase policies for 2014 coverage. 17 states and the District of Columbia plan to create their own health insurance exchanges and the remaining states have until December 14, 2012 to decide what they are going to do. For those states that decide not to set up a Health Insurance Exchange themselves, the task will be left to the federal government who has the authority to step in and create the exchanges. Read more
The Individual Mandate to Buy Health Insurance
Few topics spark strong opinions like health insurance – and the individual mandate to require the uninsured to purchase health insurance is at the center of the controversy. In 2010 before the Obama administration in conjunction with Congress and the Senate overhauled the US healthcare system, there were estimates of 40-50 million of uninsured Americans which equates to approximately 15% of the population. Read more
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