Crosstalk: November 3, 2015

Twila Brase is President and Co-founder of the Citizens Council for Health Freedom. She is a certified public health nurse, but has been a watchdog, alerting citizens about health care issues, including private insurance, and government created and regulated health care insurance, including Medicare, Medicaid, and the insurance mandated by the "Affordable Care Act", popularly called "Obamacare". The Affordable Care Act has officially begun open enrollment for 2016. This is moving forward while yet another challenge goes to the Supreme Court challenging Obamacare, and Congress is in the process of trying to ""un-do"" parts of Obamacare. Many currently enrolled in Obamacare are having second thoughts, including callers who reported that the subsidy that was supposed to make their monthly premiums "affordable", was disallowed by the IRS, which required that the subsidy amount be repaid--making the monthly premium jump from just over $400, to more than double that amount. There are continuing problems with the state exchanges--at least 12 of which have closed, leaving their members without coverage until they rep-apply. Also, a state audit revealed that the New York health exchange was found to have enrolled, at taxpayer expense, 354 deceased individuals that had been identified incorrectly as active Medicaid recipients. There are continuing legal actions being taken, including a new appeal by the Pacific Legal Foundation claiming that the Affordable Care Act violated the Constitution which requires bills that raise taxes to originate in the House of Representatives, not in the Executive Branch of government. The foundation says this problem is just one of may ways that Obamacare is unconstitutional. In addition, the deadline is approaching on November 9 for public comment on proposed new rules for Obamacare, that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of "sex". But that term has now been redefined in the proposed rules to include not only the birth sex, but also "sexual identity" professed by the patient that may or may not correspond to their physical characteristics. Hundreds of references specify how discrimination can be avoided, including treating both the perceived gender and the actual physical body, even when that "perceived gender" changes from day to day. Twila brase detailed a number of exemptions that can be given as reasons not to join Obamacare--including joining a sharing organization where members help each other directly without insurance, and even a catch-all exemption that allows a person to claim many situations as "hardships". It is her opinion that no one should join the government program.