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Obamacare Winners: Which Companies Will Profit the Most?

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Health-insurance companies and hospitals were both seen as big winners from the Affordable Care Act. Find out why reality's a bit more complicated.
 
 
 
  Reported by Motley Fool 10 hours ago.

Disincentivizing Work and Hurting Seniors: The Reality of Obama's Agenda

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As we enter March, the nightmare that is Obamacare continues to seek and destroy the pocketbooks of hardworking Americans.

Just recently, Americans have learned that the law will "reduce the American workforce by the equivalent of 2 million full-time workers in 2017," according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office.

The Obama Administration, quick to dismiss the CBO's report, said it is "subject to misinterpretation." However, President Obama has previously cited the CBO to generate support for his healthcare bill, and subsequently warned about those who "now suddenly are ignoring what the CBO says."

Strange how the Obama Administration's support for the non-partisan office simply vanished once it was determined that Obamacare "creates a disincentive to work."

We have also learned other ways that Obamacare negatively impacts the employment outlook in this country. For starters, a small business owner recently profiled in The Wall Street Journal said that "she doesn't plan to hire more workers since it would create an administrative burden for eventually complying with the law."

Additionally, The New York Times reported last week that "Cities, counties, public schools and community colleges around the country have limited or reduced the work hours of part-time employees to avoid having to provide them with health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, state and local officials say."

These stories offer a glimpse into how the Affordable Care Act is really affecting everyday Americans' employment opportunities; even if Harry Reid thinks these stories are "untrue."

These data have demonstrated that the Obama Administration does not deserve the American people's trust when it comes to healthcare, and this dupery is found in their policies towards America's seniors as well.

As former CBO Director (there's that pesky CBO again!) Douglas Holtz-Eakin recently chronicled, "Obamacare financed its assault on existing insurance arrangements in part by $156 billion over 10 years in direct cuts to Medicare Advantage plans."

This is bad news for America's seniors.

Per Holtz-Eakin's group, the American Action Forum, millions of seniors will be subject to plan cancellations, fewer plan options, higher premiums, reduced doctor networks and higher overall out-of-pocket costs for Medicare benefits as a result of these cuts.

Seniors will be exposed to even more risk from the disruption caused by President Obama to Medicare Part D. Milliman recently calculated that "Up to 50% of Part D plan choices may be eliminated or materially changed during 2015 and 2016 based on provisions in the Proposed Rule using assumptions derived from survey responses."

It's not fair to American seniors that their healthcare is raided by the Left in order to help pay for the failed program that is Obamacare. The disastrous policy ideas from liberals have shown that they don't work in real life. Here we have a great opportunity for conservatives to show the American people smart policy that helps lowers costs, improves access and actually helps their everyday lives. Reported by Huffington Post 6 hours ago.

Hillary Clinton Likes Obamacare, And Opposes Single-Payer Health Insurance

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Hillary Clinton has confirmed, to a paying audience of 20,000 sellers of electronic health records systems, that she supports Obamacare, and opposes single-payer health insurance.Speaking to a closed-to-the-press meeting of the "HIMSS14" (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Conference 2014) in Orlando Florida on February 26th, she condemned the Canadian and other nations' single-payer healthcare systems by saying, "We don't have one size fits all; our country is quite diverse. What works in New York City won't work in Albuquerque." The presumption is that what works in Canada cannot work here, that local control must trump everything in order to fix what's wrong with American health care.The data prove her statement to be false, if not irrelevant. America's healthcare problems are deeper than that. The latest OECD data on healthcare costs show that the U.S. spends by far the world's highest percentage of GDP on healthcare, 17.7 percent; and also show that the average U.S. life expectancy is 78.7 years; by contrast, Canada spends 11.2 percent, and their life expectancy is 81.0 years. The OECD average expenditure is 9.3 percent , and life expectancy is 80.0 years. So: the U.S. spends twice as high a percentage of GDP as every other OECD nation, and gets markedly inferior results. This makes the U.S. far less economically competitive than it otherwise would be; but, the healthcare industries finance conservative politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and all Republicans; so, those politicians don't like single-payer -- it would take much of the excess profits out of exploiting the sick, and those excess profits help to fund their campaigns.The American people's financial losses produce exceptional financial gains for the investors in healthcare-related stocks, and also inflate the pay for executives in those firms. This helps to fund lots of what conservatives such as Antonin Scalia lovingly call "free speech" -- campaign commercials.A physician in Canada headlined in the Los Angeles Times on 3 August 2009, "A Canadian doctor diagnoses U.S. healthcare," and he wrote: "Until 50 years ago, we had similar health systems, healthcare costs and vital statistics." But this situation ended with Canada's single-payer system, where, "all Canadians have insurance for hospital and physician services. There are no deductibles or co-pays. Most provinces also provide coverage for programs for home care, long-term care, pharmaceuticals and durable medical equipment, although there are co-pays. On the U.S. side, 46 million people have no insurance, millions are underinsured and healthcare bills bankrupt more than 1 million Americans every year." Nobody goes bankrupt in Canada to pay for needed care. Their system is shared sacrifice, not all of the downsides dumped onto the poorest and the sickest, who can't pay their bills and end up in emergency rooms until they die of needless ailments.The Canadian doctor explained that, in that year: "Canada spends 10% of its economy on healthcare; the U.S. spends 16%. The extra 6% of GDP amounts to more than $800 billion per year. The spending gap between the two nations is almost entirely because of higher overhead. Canadians don't need thousands of actuaries to set premiums or thousands of lawyers to deny care. Even the U.S. Medicare program has 80% to 90% lower administrative costs than private Medicare Advantage policies. And providers and suppliers can't charge as much when they have to deal with a single payer."So, Hillary received many bursts of applause from her audience of people who profit from other Americans' being vastly overcharged for inferior healthcare. In fact, the transcriber of her speech headlined "Hillary Clinton wows the HIMSS14 crowd."Back in March of 2008, when Hillary was running against Obama and proposed the same healthcare changes that Obama ended up adopting as President, there was a lengthy New York Times interview with her about healthcare, and she was asked her opinion of single-payer. She said: "I never seriously considered a single payer system. ... I think that, you know, there's too many bells and whistles that Americans want that would not be available." Besides, "Talking about single payer really is a conversation ender for most Americans, because then they become very nervous about socialized medicine and all the rest of this."Again, she was lying. Most polls showed overwhelming majority support by Americans for single-payer. For example, on 14-20 December 2007, an Associated Press/Yahoo poll of 1,523 registered voters, including 847 Democrats and 655 Republicans (about the same proportions Democratic and Republican as the U.S. population generally, at that time) asked these people whether "the United States should adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers," and also asked them "Do you consider yourself a supporter of a single-payer health care system, that is a national health plan financed by taxpayers in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan"; and 65 percent said yes to the first, and 54 percent said yes to the second.CBS News headlined on 30 January 2009, "Poll: Most Look To A Rosier Future," and reported their poll of 1,112 adults nationwide, taken just days before Obama's inauguration. Their key question concerning health policy was: "Should the government in Washington provide national health insurance, or is this something that should be left only to private enterprise?" Only 32 percent answered "private enterprise." Forty-nine percent wanted their government to provide the insurance for "all problems" regarding their health care. An additional 10 percent wanted the government to provide insurance only for their medical "emergencies." Back on 19 October 2003, during the public debate over Bush's privatized prescription drug plan, the ABC News/Washington Post poll headlined "Growing Health Care Concerns Fuel Cautious Support for Change," and they asked 1,000 adults: "Canada has a universal health care system run by the government that covers all people. Compared to Canada, do you think the overall health care system in the United States is better, worse or about the same?" Thirty-seven percent said "worse"; 29 percent said "better"; and 23 percent said "same." (11 percent had "no opinion.") Numerous other pro-single-payer poll findings were posted to the internet under the title of "Single-Payer Poll, Survey, and Initiative Results."The people who are pouring millions of dollars into Hillary Clinton's undeclared campaign for the Presidency know what they're buying, and it's not good government -- not even honesty.----------Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity. Reported by Huffington Post 5 hours ago.

NH Senate ready to take up Medicaid expansion

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The state Senate is set to take up a bipartisan agreement to use federal Medicaid money to buy private health insurance for an estimated 50,000 poor New Hampshire adults.
 
 
 
  Reported by Boston.com 6 hours ago.

The Promise of Affordable Health Care for Floridians

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March 31 is just around the corner and Planned Parenthood staff and volunteers are working double time to ensure our patients and the communities we serve have information about new, more affordable health insurance plans available to them thanks to the Affordable Care Act. March 31 is an important deadline because it marks the end of open enrollment in the Marketplace. Barring special circumstances, if Florida residents miss this deadline, they'll have to wait until November 15, 2014, to enroll. (It's important to know, however, that families who qualify for coverage in Medicaid programs can enroll all year-round.)

As the leading women's health care provider and advocate, Planned Parenthood is uniquely positioned to communicate with eligible uninsured and under-insured women and their families that rely on us for trusted information and health care. That's why I was proud to join Planned Parenthood of North Florida and State Representative Mia Jones at Northside LOVE's Health Fair during which Doctors for America conducted health care insurance enrollment -- here, in Jacksonville, Florida. The fair offered health screenings, food and fun for families interested in learning more about the new health care law and how they can get covered. I was there, talking to people about the benefits of the law and the importance of getting enrolled before the March 31 deadline.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the 77 percent of Florida residents who have insurance have more choices and stronger coverage than ever before. And for the 23 percent of Florida residents who don't have insurance, or families and small businesses who buy their coverage but aren't happy with it, they have through March 31 to enroll in new, more affordable plans. In Duval County, 145,000 people are uninsured. Of the nearly 753,300 people in Duval under the age of 65, nearly 20 percent are uninsured. More than 70,000 uninsured people in Duval are eligible for subsidies or tax credits to help them enroll.

Women like 28-year-old Lindsay from Jacksonville are already benefiting. Lindsay wrote to us and said: "Planned Parenthood is important to me because without it I wouldn't have been able to afford birth control without insurance while I am in school. When I went to my annual visit I left with information about the ACA and how to sign up. I went to the website and now have health insurance for the first time in my life!"

Here is what everyone should know about Obamacare:
1. All plans cover preventive care -- including annual well-woman exams, birth control and cancer screenings -- for free, without a copay.
4. Every plan must cover the full range of prescription birth control methods (pill, implants, IUDs, etc.) without copay. But some plans will require a copay for certain brands, so you should check with the insurer to be sure your preferred brand is covered for free, and if not, find out how much it will cost.
7. Every plan will cover essential maternity services. Some prenatal services and screenings are offered free with no copay, as well as breastfeeding counseling and services. The other covered services and copay amounts vary greatly from plan to plan, so make sure you know what and how much a particular plan covers before selecting it.
10. Insurance plans have a "network," or list of providers, where you can use your insurance. Not every plan will include every provider, so check to see if your current provider is included in the plans you are considering.
13. As the nation's leading women's health care provider and advocate, Planned Parenthood is here to help you understand what the law means for you, what to consider when choosing a health insurance plan, and how, when and why to enroll.
Floridians can check out their options today by going online to PlannedParenthoodHealthInsuranceFacts.org and PlannedParenthoodAsegurate.org for more information about health insurance options and to begin the sign-up process. Reported by Huffington Post 5 hours ago.

Ex-IT manager: Cover Oregon troubles not her fault

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Carolyn Lawson, the Oregon Health Authority's senior IT manager who resigned in the wake of the state's health-insurance exchange fiasco, said she is not to blame for Cover Oregon's botched rollout. Reported by Miami Herald 3 hours ago.

The missing context in yet another AFP ad featuring yet another Obamacare victim

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“My insurance was canceled because of Obamacare. Now, the out-of-pocket costs are so high, it’s unaffordable.” * *
— Michigan resident Julia Boonstra, in an ad sponsored by Americans for Prosperity * *

“I got a letter in the mail saying that my health insurance was over, that it was gone. It was canceled because of Obamacare. My premiums went from $52 a month to $373 a month.” Reported by Washington Post 2 hours ago.

HackerCare Aims To “Hack” Healthcare For Startups

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In four years David Varvel went from no health insurance, to full coverage via the Japanese government, to purchasing a high deductible plan, and then full coverage through an employer. He said having to switch insurance that often was “painful.” But now the founder of Tiny Cat Loans, a community lending platform, said he and his family have settled on HackerCare. Read More Reported by TechCrunch 23 hours ago.

Promise and peril in an ultra-connected world

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Fitness devices from Sony and Samsung connect with your smartphones to provide digital records of your daily lives. Car makers are building in smarter navigation and other hands-free services, while IBM and AT&T are jointly equipping cities with sensors and computers for parking meters, traffic lights and water systems to all communicate. Internet-connected products represent a growth opportunity for wireless carriers, as the smartphone business slows down in developed markets because most people already have service. [...] there are security and privacy concerns — health insurance companies would love access to your fitness data to set premiums. Expect companies to work together to set standards, much the way academic and military researchers created a common language decades ago for disparate computer networks to communicate, forming the Internet. Building everything is too much for a single company, yet "they want all this stuff to work together," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, a backer of the Tizen project for connecting watches, cars and more. Imagine someone spying on you remotely through security cameras in your home or tricking your home security system into believing your car is approaching, so it opens your garage door automatically. Reported by SFGate 17 hours ago.

This months big deadline: What you need to know

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Sick of hearing about the health care law? Plenty of people have tuned out after all the political jabber and website woes. But now is the time to tune back in, before its too late. The big deadline is coming March 31. By that day, for the first time, nearly everyone in the United States is required to be signed up for health insurance or risk paying a fine. Heres what you need to know about this months open enrollment countdown: ___ ALREADY COVERED? NO WORRIES Most people dont need to do anything. Reported by MyNorthwest.com 13 hours ago.

This Month's Big Deadline: What You Need to Know

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Tune in before it's too late: What you need to know about the March health insurance deadline Reported by ABCNews.com 13 hours ago.

A Brief History Of The Republican Alternative To Obamacare: Your Sunday Morning Conversation

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How to explain the history of the "Republican alternative to Obamacare?" It seems to reside in a realm where time elongates and reality warps. I cannot remember a time in which Republicans weren't fervently offering an "Obamacare alternative." Simultaneously, I cannot remember a time in which Republicans weren't fervently urging the creation of new "Obamacare alternatives." To borrow a line from Christopher Durang, I don't know if this is the trick of memory, or the memory of some trick.

At times, the "Republican alternative to Obamacare" seems to be forever on its way, but never arriving -- as if it were the public policy embodiment of Zeno's dichotomy paradox. New York magazine's Jonathan Chait, who's spent many a day navigating this Beckettian wilderness, suggests that the "Republican alternative to Obamacare" exists in a quantum reality, where they "reside in a state of quasi-existence, and any attempt to summon them into political reality will cause them to disappear."

More often than not, the history of the "Republican alternative to Obamacare" reveals itself as a cyclical set of traditions, repeating themselves over the years in political press conferences and pundit sparring. It goes something like this:

1. Republicans propose "alternatives" to Obamacare that don't go anywhere.
2. Allied partisans urge them to finally get serious and come up with a replacement.
3. They make new promises to keep at it.
4. Their return to the drawing board prompts columns from liberals about how the GOP lacks an alternative.
5. Allied partisans then criticize liberal pundits for saying there is "no alternative plan," citing the many plans that have been proposed, that went nowhere.
6. New alternatives are proposed and/or promised nonetheless, and the cycle repeats.

This cycle resembles Rust Cohle's "membrane theory" from the HBO show "True Detective." Time is a flat circle, in which Republicans have always been proposing alternatives to Obamacare, their proposals just cycling through their lives like carts on a track. The "Republican alternative to Obamacare" exists in an eternity where there is no time, nothing can grow, nothing can become, nothing changes, and everyone is reborn, but into the same effort to replace Obamacare that they’ve always been born into.

How many times have we had this conversation? I went back to the beginning to find out. By the end, I was ready to crush some Lone Star tallboys.

__________________________*March 2009:*

As Democrats begin to coalesce around a plan of their own, the GOP alternative is still nonspecific. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) offers that Medicare's prescription drug benefit is "a good pattern of how a competitive marketplace works."
*"Health care is a privilege." -- Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.)*
*April 2009: *

Igor Volsky of ThinkProgress reports that the GOP's alternative plan still basically resembles the McCain plan: "The recent trickle of so-called consumer-driven health care 'principles and recommendations' are a preview of the likely Republican alternative to comprehensive health care reform. Earlier this month, the Health Policy Consensus Group, headed by the conservative Galen Institute, published 'a vision for consumer-driven health care reform' and today Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review pens a New York Times editorial in which he explains that ... 'universal coverage' is 'misguided." Policy makers should focus on giving Americans 'more control' of their coverage instead."

*May 2009: *

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.), along with Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) introduce their Patient's Choice Act. Ezra Klein notes: "It's clear that many traditionally Democratic concepts have been embraced. To put it simply, the plan wants to encourage a version of the Massachusetts reforms ... in every state. There are some differences, of course. The plan doesn't have an individual mandate. It doesn't have an obvious tax on employers. But it strongly endorses State Health Insurance Exchanges."

The bill was referred to committee, but nothing ever came of it.
*June 2009: *
*"I guarantee you we will provide you with a bill." -- Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)*
Karl Rove: "In politics you can't beat something with nothing, so it is critical that the GOP offers an alternative to President Barack Obama's government-run monstrosity."

So here they come! The next semi-official GOP alternative to Obamacare is presented by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Dave Camp (R-Mich.). Time's Jay Newton-Small terms it "a four-page exercise in public relations that left out how many of the 47 million uninsured Americans would be covered, how it would be paid for or even how much it would cost." It rolls out alongside nine other "alternative plans."
*"I started reading a couple, three of the Republican plans, but frankly, there's only so much time in the day." -- Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.)*
*July 2009: *

In late July, the GOP-alternative effort briefly falls into contradictions. In a July 23 conference with GOP House leadership, Blunt declared, "As the president has gotten less specific, we have been more specific.” Cantor proclaimed that the GOP had a "third way" to do health care reform. A day before, however, Blunt had said that the GOP would not bother introducing a bill: "Our bill is never going to get to the floor, so why bother? We clearly have principles; we could have language, but why start diverting attention from this really bad piece of work they've got to whatever we're offering right now?"

The next week, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) would give it another shot, introducing the "Empower Patients First Act." Igor Volsky remarked that it was "almost identical" to four other GOP proposals that had been previously floated, and wondered, "What was wrong with the other four bills?"

*August 2009:*

GOP partisans begin to get testy. Morton Kondracke, writing for Real Clear Politics, says, "There's no question that Republican criticism has helped undermine support for President Barack Obama's health plan. But it hasn't done much to help Republicans. That's because while Republicans actually do have alternative ideas on health care reform, they have spent most of their time accentuating Obama's negatives." American Thinker's Paul Shlichta suggests that the GOP's failure to coalesce around a "counterproposal" is "political suicide."

Easier said than done, and the partisans aren't any better at coming to consensus. Justin Quinn urges the GOP to unite behind the "Improving Health Care For All Americans Act." Herman Cain begs the GOP to unite behind the "Empowering Patients First Act."

*September 2009:*
*"The Republican health care plan for America: don't get sick ... if you do get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: die quickly." -- Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.)*
*October 2009:*

The Hill reports that the GOP is still at square one, debating what to do:
Some House Republicans are growing frustrated that their leaders have not yet introduced a health care reform alternative.

For months, the message from House GOP leaders on a health care bill has been similar to ads for yet-to-be-released movies: Coming soon.

According to several GOP lawmakers, the leadership is split over how to proceed in terms of unveiling an alternative to the final Democratic bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) intends to unveil as soon as this week.
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Philip Klein in the American Spectator: "Taken together, these criticisms have helped to weaken support for and build opposition to Democratic initiatives, but they have done nothing to advance an alternative vision for the health care system."
*November 2009:*

The GOP introduces its alternative in the form of an "Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute Offered by Mr. Boehner of Ohio" to what was then the Democrats' bill, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act."

The Congressional Budget Office promptly torches it. Ezra Klein surveyed the damage: "The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan. And amazingly, the Democratic bill has already been through three committees and a merger process. It's already been shown to interest groups and advocacy organizations and industry stakeholders. It's already made its compromises with reality. It's already been through the legislative sausage grinder. And yet it saves more money and covers more people than the blank-slate alternative proposed by John Boehner and the House Republicans."

*December 2009:*

Jonathan Chait: "The Republicans eschewed a halfway compromise and put all their chips on an all or nothing campaign to defeat health care and Obama's presidency. It was an audacious gamble. They lost. In the end, they'll walk away with nothing."

*February 2010:*

The Weekly Standard offers a "one-page" alternative to Obamacare called "the Small Bill." Its praises are sung by people ranging from "people who work at the Weekly Standard" to "people who work at the National Review."

The White House offers to meet with legislators to hash out a health care reform bill. GOP lawmakers are optimistic that they can convince the White House to "scrap" the bill that's emerging. Their counterproposal? "A blank piece of paper." Meanwhile, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is shaping up to resemble a 1993 health care reform proposal floated by the GOP.

*March 2010:*
*"And, once we defeat Barack Obama, we need to proceed to repeal this disastrous plan before it can ruin our health care system. Then we must replace it with a Republican alternative that relies on the marketplace, tax incentives and individual responsibility to provide health care to all Americans." -- Dick Morris*
*May 2010:*

Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) is defeated in the second round of balloting at the 2010 Utah State Republican Convention. Among Republicans, Bennett was the most earnest in working on an Obamacare alternative. His sin, however, was partnering with a Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in the effort. As the Deseret News reported, "His seven opponents had claimed he was not conservative enough for Utah, and had attacked him for voting for a banking bailout and for pushing a bipartisan health care reform proposal."

*June 2010:*

Once again, the GOP managed a pileup of competing alternatives. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) offers RedState readers "four commonsense alternatives to Obamacare," detailing H.R. 5421, "To repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010." The bill was referred to committee, and nothing came of it.

Meanwhile, House leadership microwaved an old alternative plan, repackaging it as H.R. 5424, "To repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 and enact the Common Sense Health Care Reform and Affordability Act." The bill was referred to committee, and nothing came of it.

*July 2010:*
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Fred Barnes in the American Spectator: "Republicans have two great issues: health care and reform. They ought to go beyond advocating repeal of ObamaCare, tell voters what they'd replace it with, and explain the benefits."
*August 2010:*

Writing for Fox News, Christian Wilton suggests that a GOP-controlled Congress needs to "refuse to appropriate money required for federal agencies to implement Obamacare, buying time to offer a Republican alternative." Buy time? They've been at this for over a year and a half!

*September 2010:*

The GOP releases its "Pledge To America," which includes a promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with ... a bunch of stuff that's already in Obamacare.

*October 2010:*
*"We could come up with a health care system that the American people would not only be proud of, but would actually love. ... We've never had a real conservative majority." -- Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)*
The Los Angeles Times' Noam Levey reports: "Conservatives are campaigning on promises to repeal Obama's overhaul, but a few admit their proposals haven't changed much in the last few years."
Some conservatives acknowledge that the healthcare program offered by party leaders is largely unchanged from the proposals the GOP pushed when it held majorities from 2000 to 2006. During that period, insurance premiums skyrocketed, businesses reduced benefits and the number of Americans without health insurance rose.
*November 2010:*

With a new House majority, Cantor reboots the effort to come up with an alternative. In a letter to incoming members, he writes: "Our new Republican majority will move to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with commonsense alternatives that lower costs while protecting those with pre-existing conditions." Newly minted House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) echoed the sentiments: "We must do everything we can to try to repeal this bill and replace it with common-sense reforms to bring down the cost of health care.” Rep. Camp tries to interest people in one of his old proposals.

*December 2010:*

The GOP struggles, once again, to unify its approach. Cantor's call to protect patients with pre-existing conditions -- ground he ceded to Obamacare -- wasn't embraced by the incoming freshmen. As Andrea Stone reported:
North Carolina's Renee Ellmers, a Palin protege, opposes requiring insurers to accept patients with pre-existing conditions -- including pregnancy. Austin Scott of Georgia, another House freshman, was asked if there was any part of the law he supported. He replied, "No, ma'am, there are not."
Meanwhile, right-wing pundit infighting commences over Charles Krauthammer's suggestion to not attempt to defund Obamacare, on the grounds that a defunding effort would naturally be blamed for the law's failings. Krauthammer supported allowing the bill to be implemented, so it would fail on its own. This was met with disagreement.

*January 2011:*

House Republicans check off one of the entries on their bucket list by passing the "Repeal And Replace The Job Destroying Health Care Law." While the symbolic bill is long on "repeal," it doesn't offer much in the way of "replace." In fact, Cantor characterized the effort to construct an alternative to Obamacare as something that Republicans were, once again, embarking on for the first time, telling reporters that the vote for the bill meant they were ready “to begin work to construct an alternative health-care vision” that would be their “so-called replacement bill.”

Bloomberg reported that "Republican leaders didn’t offer specific alternatives" or a "timeline for moving forward with their proposals." The bill would die in the Senate.

*February 2011:*
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Jeffrey Anderson in the Weekly Standard: "But while Americans want repeal, they don’t just want repeal. And thus the House Republicans are now confronted with their greatest challenge -- and opportunity -- in the whole span of the health care debate. They need to show the American people that the choice is not between Obamacare and nothing. They need to provide a meaningful, sensible alternative to Obamacare’s comprehensive failings."
Days later, the American Thinker's Jim Guirard had a brainwave: "We must focus on an alternative plan which can and should result in a simultaneous repeal and replacement of ObamaCare."

"As soon as the time is right," he specified.

*March 2011:*

WNYC reports that the GOP was hard at work "mull[ing]" an "Obamacare alternative": "Because now, Republicans (and their presidential hopefuls) must face the task of figuring out just what kind of health care law they'd like to see." Meanwhile, Ezra Klein opines:
It's put-up-or-shut-up time for Republicans. They managed to make it through the health-care debate without offering serious solutions of their own, and -- perhaps more impressive -- through the election by promising to tell us their solutions after they'd won. But the jig is up. They need a health-care plan -- and quickly.
Jennifer Rubin -- missing Klein's point by a country mile -- responded by citing numerous past examples of Republicans coming up with plans and insisting that Klein was "pretending there is no alternative to the deeply flawed ObamaCare."

*April 2011:*
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Ramesh Ponnuru and Yuval Levin in The New York Times: "Republicans have an effective slogan for their health care agenda: 'repeal and replace.' The problem is, they can agree only on the first half; agreeing on what to put in place of last year’s health care law is the hard part."
*May 2011:*

2012 hopefuls Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich wade into the health care reform waters, with mixed success. The Wall Street Journal offers the optimistic assessment that the "Republican primary contest ... could feature a robust debate on health care, with GOP candidates challenging the Democratic law while defending their own variations."

*July 2011:*
*"When they took control of the House, Republicans could barely stop talking about their plans to 'repeal and replace' the health care reform law. Six months later, they hardly talk publicly about those plans at all. And they’re nowhere close to 'replacing' the law." --Politico*

*September 2011:*

Ryan gives the "Republican alternative to Obamacare" another shot, proposing an expanded variation on his voucher system for Medicare.

*October 2011:*

Another dispatch from LA Times reporter Noam Levey indicates that, once again, the effort to come up with the "Republican alternative to Obamacare" is just getting underway: "Other conservative healthcare experts are developing an alternative to the law, an effort that could protect Republicans from past critiques that their healthcare plans left tens of millions of Americans without medical coverage."

Later in the same article, Levey reports, "A Republican replacement plan could build off a 2009 House GOP plan, said James Capretta, a former George W. Bush administration official who is developing a replacement strategy." (So much for dodging those "past critiques.")

*November 2011:*
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Deroy Murdock in the National Review: "Washington Republicans nevertheless have been unwilling or unable to lock themselves in a hotel ballroom for a long weekend and devise a single plan as the official GOP alternative to Obamacare. Lacking a proposal around which Republicans and their limited-government allies could coalesce, the Right rightfully hammered Obamacare but never offered its own coherent package. Lesson: Never try to defeat something with nothing."
*January 2012:*

The Hill reports that "House Republicans will be ready with a plan to replace President Obama’s healthcare law once the Supreme Court determines the law’s fate this summer," thus giving them six more months to come up with something. Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) -- who told The Hill that the "Republican alternative to Obamacare" would be ready regardless of the court's decision, "listed a number of policy ideas Republicans would consider in a replacement bill"...that were already part of Obamacare.

Meanwhile, it is reported that Romney's alternative plan is "light on details."

*February 2012:*

Months after she castigated Ezra Klein for "pretending there is no alternative to ... ObamaCare," Jennifer Rubin says that the Republicans need to come up with the "Republican alternative to Obamacare." She writes, "Conservatives need to let the public know what the alternative to ObamaCare may be. If, unlike Obama, Republicans care about getting a mandate for their agenda, they would be wise to start laying out what a market-oriented alternative to ObamaCare would look like."

*March 2012:*
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: James Capretta and Robert Moffit in National Affairs: "Now that Obamacare is with us, the law cannot be reversed without a credible proposal for what should take its place."
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is reportedly scaling back expectations, telling Ramesh Ponnuru, “We would want to more modestly approach this with more incremental fixes ... Not a massive Republican alternative.”

*April 2012:*

The mystery of the "Republican alternative to Obamacare" deepens. "Do Republicans have an alternative to ObamaCare?" asks The Week. "Is There a Republican Alternative to Obamacare?" wonders Uwe Reinhardt. Fox News insists, "There is a Republican health plan. The only problem: Just as Democrats don't want to talk about ObamaCare, Republicans are just as afraid to talk about their plan as well."

*May 2012:*

The Hill reports:
Republicans might not offer a comprehensive plan to replace President Obama’s healthcare law if the Supreme Court strikes it down this summer.

House Republicans had said they would have a healthcare bill ready to go by the time of the ruling to present a clear alternative to the Democrats’ Affordable Care Act.

But now, with the high court’s ruling just weeks away, some conservatives are urging the party to abandon that strategy, fearing voters will recoil from another sweeping revamp of the healthcare system.
*"The political dynamics are such that you can loudly promise to craft an alternative a million times, and then quietly take back that promise in a small article published in The Hill." -- Jonathan Chait*
*July 2012:*

A year and a half after Eric Cantor said the GOP was ready "to begin work to construct an alternative health-care vision" that would serve as his party's "so-called replacement bill," Cantor tells Tom Brokaw: "Tom, you knew back in 2009 when the Obamacare bill was being considered on the House floor, we put forward our alternative. So to sit here and say we don’t have a replacement is not correct."

Meanwhile, other Republicans were proceeding under the assumption that alternative plans were still needed -- and they continually offered "alternatives" that resembled the Affordable Care Act.

By mid-month, however, the L.A. Times reports that the GOP had "all but given up pushing alternatives to the sweeping legislation the president signed in 2010."
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Gail Wilensky, who headed the Medicare and Medicaid programs under President George H.W. Bush and advised Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during his 2008 presidential campaign, says: "One of the big questions that the public needs to ask Republicans who are so focused on repeal is what will come in its place."
*November 2012:*
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Ex-Romney adviser Avik Roy in Forbes: "Republicans have, rightly, spent the last three years campaigning against Obamacare. ... But conservatives are sorely mistaken if they believe that they can continue to campaign against Obamacare, without offering their own strategy for making health care more affordable for American families and the federal treasury."
*December 2012:*

Politico reports that Rep. Price becomes the latest GOP figure to suggest that the process of developing a "Republican alternative to Obamacare" needed to be rebooted: “It’s incumbent upon us to put forward positive, alternative solutions,” Price said at a Politico Pro breakfast panel discussion.

*January 2013:*

Jennifer Rubin offers a post-election lamentation:
The problem in the 2012 election was not that Mitt Romney didn’t seek to repeal Obamacare or that he had a state plan with one element (an individual mandate with an exchange); it was that he refused to spell out in particular detail an alternative. James Capretta and Jeffrey Anderson make a compelling case in the Weekly Standard that Republicans must do this ... without an alternative, the duo correctly point out, there will be no groundswell of support to dump Obamacare and no effective scene setting for the 2014 and 2016 elections."
Once again, I'll remind you that at one point Rubin got awfully snippy at Ezra Klein for "pretending there is no alternative to the deeply flawed ObamaCare." Now the lack of an alternative is the backbone of her urgings.

*March 2013:*
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Mona Charen in Washington Examiner: "As Obamacare's rising costs and constricted choices alienate the American people, Republicans should be ready with an alternative that is market-oriented, assembled and on the launchpad."
*April 2013:*

The "Republican alternative to Obamacare" returns to its conceptual stages, where it becomes part of a pundit pileup in Cloudcuckooland. Yuval Levin and Ramesh Ponnuru write in National Review that Republicans "need to realize that without ... an alternative their objections to Obamacare will ring increasingly hollow," adding, "Even though they cannot become law for at least four years, such ideas must become Republican orthodoxy if the party is plausibly to call for repeal.”

Levin and Ponnuru propose an alternative. Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein are not impressed. Ben Domenech is not impressed with their non-impressediveness.

Jonathan Chait notes that the GOP has had ample opportunity to come up with an alternative, but hasn't put many to a vote:
Republicans haven’t done so for pretty clear reasons. These alternative proposals are much less technocratically simple than they pretend. (You can’t just throw terms like “well-designed” at the Congressional Budget Office.) They cost money Republicans don’t want to spend. They upset voters and interest groups Republicans don’t want to upset.
*May 2013:*
*"Together, we could provide more cost-effective care and do something more about spiraling healthcare costs. But really, the only true Republican alternative to Obamacare is Nothingcare." -- Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)*
Ryan becomes the latest Republican to reboot the effort to create the "Republican alternative to Obamacare," telling those gathered at the Wisconsin state party convention: “The nation is watching. The broken promises are being realized in front of their eyes and in their daily lives. ... This is the moment that we have to offer them real hope and give them real alternatives.”
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Ross Douthat writes in The New York Times: "The fact that the G.O.P. isn’t really offering such an alternative at the moment clearly makes the case for repeal weaker than it otherwise might be, and it makes the case for resistance weaker as well."
*June 2013:*

Rep. Price of Georgia decides to give the "Republican alternative to Obamacare" another try, with H.R. 2300, the "Empowering Patients First Act of 2013," which repeals the Affordable Care Act and, among other things, replaces it with "refundable tax credits of up to $5,000 for low-income individuals and families to purchase health insurance on the private market." In June, the bill is referred to committee, and nothing further comes of it.

Meanwhile, the Weekly Standard's Jeffrey Anderson laments that his party's candidates for the 2012 presidential nomination didn't succeed in their efforts to develop a "Republican alternative to Obamacare," writing, "if a credible Republican candidate had entered the presidential race with the goal of making Obamacare — and a compelling GOP alternative — the focus of the campaign, Obama would likely now be living in Hyde Park rather than across from Lafayette Square (albeit still at public expense)."

*July 2013:*

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) tells Newsmax that "House Republicans plan to have an alternative to Obamacare ready by this fall." Really. They totally mean it this time.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Rubin is increasingly sounding like the people she once haughtily criticized: "Without a GOP alternative to Obamacare, their complaints are empty and their votes unlikely to be taken seriously by voters. It is long, long past the point at which Republicans should have begun crafting and selling their alternative. ... Where is the market-based health-care plan?"

*August 2013:*

August brings another spin of the "Republicans need an alternative!" to "Not fair, we have lots of alternatives!" cycle. Obama, in a news conference, criticized Republicans for not proposing a replacement bill: "They used to say they had a replacement. That never actually arrived, right? I mean, I've been hearing about this whole replacement thing for two years." It's understandable: let's recall that mere weeks ago, Rep. Brady was saying the alternative would not arrive until the fall.

Obamacare opponents did not take this well. John C. Goodman insists that "there is a serious GOP proposal," citing the "Patients Choice Act" proposed by Ryan and Coburn. ("This is essentially the health reform plan that John McCain proposed when he ran for president in 2008," he writes.) He'd later tell Fox News' Jim Angle, "I think the president has an incredibly short memory." Forbes contributor Chris Conover was similarly incensed: "It’s arguably the favorite myth of progressives, the oft-repeated claim that Republicans have no health plan."

Meanwhile, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells "a gathering of GOP operatives that lawmakers who criticize Obamacare but offer no alternatives will be left with 'zero answer' for constituents who ask for a policy solution to the president’s health care reform law."

"I would bet for most of you, you go home in the next two weeks while your members of Congress are home and you look at them in the eye and you say, ‘What is your positive replacement for Obamacare?’ and they will have zero answer,” said Gingrich.

Short memory, I guess.

*September 2013:*

Having missed all of August's harangues about how unfair it was to suggest that there were no "Republican alternatives to Obamacare," because so many already existed, the Republican Study Committee goes ahead an unveils a new one anyway, called the "American Health Care Reform Act of 2013":
“First of all, we start by repealing Obamacare,” RSC Chairman Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, said of the new bill.

Among other reforms, the GOP-sponsored bill would allow consumers to shop for insurance across state lines, let individuals and families deduct health care costs for tax purposes the way employers do and inject billions of dollars into state high-risk pools so people with preexisting medical conditions can gain coverage.

ThinkProgress' Sy Mukherjee remarks: "If that all of this sounds familiar, it’s because Republicans have been proposing some combination of these ideas since at least 2007." The bill is referred to committee on Sept. 18, and nothing ever comes of it.

*October 2013:*

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) jumps into the "create a Republican alternative to Obamacare" game on Twitter, proposing that every American should receive the same benefits that lawmakers receive through the Federal Employee Health Benefits program. Business Insider's Josh Barro terms this replacing "Obamacare with Obamacare."
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Rob McKenna in Smarter Government Washington: "It’s time for Congressional Republicans to unite under solid, practical alternatives to Obamacare and give the public a positive vision."
*November 2013:*

The Republican Study Group's alternative plan, the "American Health Care Reform Act of 2013," is said to be gaining "support" and "momentum," but I've already spoiled the ending for everybody, so I guess you'll have to appreciate the dramatic irony.

Meanwhile, the Onion gets into the game of making fun of the "Republican alternatives to Obamacare," with a list of their own that includes such proposals as "Repeating the phrase 'you can keep your current doctor' over and over until something happens," and "A true market-based solution -- perhaps a convenient website -- where uninsured people would pay for their own health insurance from private providers," and "Whatever the opposite of tyranny is."
*A GAME-CHANGING IDEA EMERGES*: Ramesh Ponnuru and Yuval Levin offer a breakout idea in The Wall Street Journal: "What Republicans can and should do is offer the public something better. Now is the time to advance a conservative reform that can solve the serious, discrete problems of the health-care system in place before ObamaCare, but without needlessly upending people's arrangements or threatening what works in American medicine."
*December 2013:*

Despite the fact that the calls for a "Republican alternative to Obamacare" are coming from inside the house, conservative partisans ignore the urgings of Ponnuru and Levin and lapse into another round of being aggrieved at the way Democrats keep saying that they've not come up with an alternative.

Meanwhile, Rep. Price tells Fox News that the GOP will really, totally, seriously "bring forth a bill" that will "unite Republicans around health care issues" sometime after the first of the year, and that's a promise, for real, this time.

"You can't beat something with nothing," Price added, sagely.

*January 2014:*

A new year dawns and with it comes yet another unveiling of a "Republican alternative to Obamacare." And the GOP had been at it for such a long time that it was second-bite-at-the-apple time for Sens. Coburn and Burr, who joined Sen. Hatch in creating the "Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment Act.""Mirabile dictu," sang out Ross Douthat, "an actual health care reform proposal!"

The glad tidings did not last long. "Within hours of the new plan coming into contact with political reality, things began to fall apart," wrote Jonathan Chait:
The first blow to its coherence came when the authors faced questions about their proposal to cap the tax deduction for employer-sponsored health insurance, a politically risky but economist-approved change that provided most of its money for covering the uninsured. Asked about this piece of their plan, the authors changed the language within hours to ratchet back its scope, insulating them from political attacks, but also neutering its value.
After that came the Congressional Budget Office report that described the way Obamacare would cause labor supply to shrink from the labor markets, as recipients escaped "job lock," or took advantage of the Obamacare subsidies to reduce their hours or retire. The GOP opted to describe this as "job killing," but what they didn't take into consideration was that this new plan from Coburn, Burr, and Hatch "would likely have approximately the same “job-killing” impact as Obamacare."

*February 2014:**"Republicans can easily pick [Obamacare] apart, but they won't win over voters without their own ideas." -- Karl Rove, once again*
Chait returns to this theme a month later, gathering string from numerous pieces of reporting, all suggesting that the process of crafting a "Republican alternative to Obamacare" is beginning anew.

Daniel Newhauser, giving Roll Call readers the inside scoop in a piece titled "GOP Leaders to Huddle on Obamacare Alternative," describes the process with sentences like: "House Republican leaders will meet Friday *to begin* crafting an alternative to Democrats’ health care law." An interview with Eric Cantor by The Wall Street Journal's Gerald Seib (in a piece titled "Cantor Pushes the GOP to Spell Out Its Agenda"), yields these quotes from the House majority leader:

"Our members are going to get very excited *if* we can provide alternatives, not just be a party that's against whatever the president is for."

And:

"We *may* have an opportunity for an alternative to be put in place."

Emphasis mine throughout. As Chait notes, all of this has a purpose:
Carping from the sidelines is a great strategy for Republicans because status quo bias is extremely powerful. It lets them highlight the downside of every trade-off without owning any downside of their own. They can vaguely promise to solve any problem with the status quo ante without exposing themselves to the risk any real reform entails. Republicans can exploit the disruption of the transition to Obamacare unencumbered by the reality that their own plans are even more disruptive.
"The amazing thing," says Chait, "is that House Republicans have managed to sustain this any-day-now stance since the outset of a health-care debate that began five years ago."

Welcome to Year Six.

*If you've got a story you want to share on Sunday, feel free to drop me a line!*

[You'll find more Sunday Reads and more on my Rebel Mouse page. What stories mattered to you this week? Drop me a line and let us know what you are reading.] Reported by Huffington Post 11 hours ago.

What you need to know about March health deadline

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Sick of hearing about the health care law? Plenty of people have tuned out after all the political jabber and website woes. But now is the time to tune back in, before its too late. The big deadline is coming March 31. By that day, for the first time, nearly everyone in the United States is required to be signed up for health insurance or risk paying a fine. Heres what you need to know about this months open enrollment countdown: ___ ALREADY COVERED? NO WORRIES Most people dont need to do anything. Reported by MyNorthwest.com 7 hours ago.

Health database requirement cut from bill

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Lobbying behind closed doors, Washington's largest health insurance company persuaded Republicans in the state Senate to gut a widely supported bill that aimed to reveal health care price and quality information to consumers. Reported by Miami Herald 4 hours ago.

Obamacare: What Every Small Business Owner Needs To Know

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The Affordable Care Act helps business owners acquire and pay for health insurance for their employees. Find out if your business qualifies. Reported by cbs4.com 18 hours ago.

Upstate NY health insurer finishes year with $53 million profit

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Health insurance provider Excellus BlueCross BlueShield pulled in $6.3 billion in revenue from premiums last year, generating $53 million in profits. According to a report from the Syracuse Post-Standard, Excellus, based in Rochester, had 1.8 million members in 2013. Here's the Post-Standard report: Reported by bizjournals 15 hours ago.

Small business weekly: Saving on regulations, losing on health insurance?

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A review of the biggest small business and startup stories from the past week, with a focus on Washington.

*Health law’s rules may hike premiums:* Nearly two-thirds of small firms that currently offer health insurance will pay more for plans as a result of some of the new rules in the health care law, according to estimates by the Obama administration. (WP) Reported by Washington Post 14 hours ago.

CDPHP Recognized as J.D. Power Customer Champion

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CDPHP is one of 50 businesses in the nation selected as a J.D. Customer Champion for its commitment to customer service excellence.

Albany, NY (PRWEB) March 03, 2014

CDPHP has received national recognition as a 2014 Customer Champion, one of only 50 companies in the country to earn this distinction.

To qualify for inclusion on this elite list, companies must excel, not only within their own industry, but among the nine industries included in the Customer Champions analysis by J. D. Power. To determine the J. D. Power 2014 Customer Champions, J.D. Power examined five factors, including: People, Presentation, Process, Product, and Price.

“CDPHP is thrilled to receive this prestigious recognition as we are deeply committed to customer service,” said Dr. John D. Bennett, president and CEO, CDPHP, “This award further confirms our commitment to our members and inspires us to continue working around the clock for the health and well-being of the communities we serve.”

For the 2014 Customer Champions, J.D. Power evaluated more than 600 brands. The 2014 Champions were identified based on customer feedback, opinions, and perceptions gathered from J. D. Power’s syndicated research in 2013. This group of 50 represents the highest-performing U.S. companies that deliver excellence, both within respective industry and across the nine industries measured.

In addition to recognition as a J. D. Power 2014 Customer Champion, CDPHP has also earned a number of honors and awards in the past year, including:·     Ranked #1 in NYS according NCQA’s Private Health Insurance Plan Rankings 2013-2014:
·     CDPHP HMO ranked #1 in NY
·     CDPHN HMO/POS ranked #1 in NY
·     CDPHP UBI PPO ranked #1 PPO plan in NY
·     CDPHN PPO ranked #1 PPO plan in NY
·     Best Companies to Work for in New York by Best Companies Group
·     Capital District Women’s Employment and Resource Center Advancement of Women in the WERCplace Award
·     The Principal® 10 Best Companies for Employee Financial Security
·     No. 1 on the EveryMove 100 Health Insurance Index for consumer engagement

About CDPHP®
Established in 1984, CDPHP is a physician-founded, member-focused and community-based not-for-profit health plan that offers high-quality affordable health insurance plans to members in 24 counties throughout New York. CDPHP is also on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Reported by PRWeb 13 hours ago.

Does Obamacare Offer Too Many Choices?

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With fewer than 30 shopping days left before Obamacare open enrollment ends on March 31, if you want to get coverage through the health insurance marketplace and avoid having to pay a penalty, you should log on sooner rather than later.

Although most of the problems with HealthCare.gov have been resolved, signing up for coverage that's best for you might take more time than you expect because of the often confusing assortment of plans to choose from. This definitely is not something you want to wait until the last minute to do.

Lawmakers who wrote the Affordable Care Act fell for the health insurance industry's insistence that Americans want "choice and competition." Having worked in that industry for two decades, I know the real reason insurers and their allies kept reciting the "choice and competition" mantra was to scare lawmakers away from even daring to give serious thought to a single-payer health care system.

And I also know that insurers benefit from the marketplace confusion that "choice and competition" can create. I can assure you that some insurers are counting on you becoming overwhelmed by all the choices and picking a plan that might appear at first glance to be a bargain. But beware: if you're not careful and pick a plan without really kicking the tires, you very possibly will be buying something that could wind up costing you much more than you ever imagined if you get sick or injured.

That happened to my friend Donna Smith, who as executive director of the Health Care for All Colorado Foundation, knows more about health insurance than most of us. She spent quite a bit of time last fall on the Colorado exchange trying to figure out which plan would offer the best value for her and her husband. If she had to do it over again, she would have taken the additional step of calling the insurance companies directly after reviewing the plans they were offering on the exchange, just to be certain of what her out-of-pocket obligations would be if she had to be hospitalized during the year.

A cancer survivor, Donna knew there would be a chance she might get sick again and need expensive care. It never occurred to her, though, that picking a gold or platinum level plan with a higher premium would likely have been better deal than the silver Kaiser Permanente plan she opted for and that seemed to be more affordable.

To make shopping for coverage even more challenging, Kaiser and most other insurers offer several silver plans on the Colorado exchange, so Donna had to spend time trying to figure out which silver plan would be the best deal.

Donna told me the she took the time to compare the monthly premiums, co-pays and annual deductibles of each of the silver plans before making her decision. "I felt that the one I chose offered the most coverage I could afford with my premium buying dollar," she said.

Sure enough, within days after the plan went into effect on January 1, Donna got sick and was hospitalized for a week.

To her shock, she later found out some limitations of her coverage that made her overall financial responsibility much higher.

For one thing, she discovered that hospitalization under her plan required a co-insurance payment of 30 percent. She didn't realize while shopping on the exchange that some other silver plans charged only 20 percent co-insurance for inpatient hospital stays.

She also found out that some services she needed, such as the anesthesia for a biopsy that was performed while she was in the hospital, were not covered under her plan at all.

"That $400 bill is my responsibility. So after this one illness and hospitalization, we end up several thousand dollars in debt," she said.

"In retrospect," she added, "I needed to ask much more detailed questions about the coverage. I definitely should have gone beyond talking just to the very gracious and helpful navigator. I believe now that I would have done better with one of the gold Kaiser plans that might have cost another $150-$200 per month but saved me from these higher costs of getting sick."

Donna says she feels "embarrassed and foolish" that she didn't go the extra step of asking those detailed questions of a Kaiser customer service person before signing up for her coverage.

Nevertheless, she says she's grateful for the Affordable Care Act because even though she is paying more for her care than she expected, she's not on the hook as much as she would have been before the law was passed. For one thing, the law caps her out-of-pocket spending this year at $6,350. And her Kaiser plan is still saving her money over the Aetna plan she had last year.

Donna is just as much an advocate for a single-payer system as she ever was, but she believes the Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction. But her experience is all the proof you need that too much choice in health care can increase the chances that you'll make expensive mistakes when signing up for coverage. Reported by Huffington Post 8 hours ago.

South Korea's Insurance Sector Represents a Promising Opportunity for Investment Managers

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Market Research Reports, Inc. has announced the addition of “South Korea Insurance Report Q2 2014” research report to their website http://www.MarketResearchReports.com.

Lewes, DE (PRWEB) March 03, 2014

The competitive landscape of South Korea's insurance sector continues to be dominated by massive companies that are members of the local chaebol corporate groups. Overall, the sector appears mature by many standards. Nevertheless, the ongoing growth in health insurance and long-term insurance is underpinning the development of the non-life segment. In the life segment, particular companies are gaining market share through development of new products and/or changes in distribution practices.

The new insurance report format provides forecasts of the life and non-life markets, including gross and net premiums, reinsurance premiums and assets. Moreover, it provides forecasts for key growth drivers such as vehicle fleet size, demographic factors and private health expenditure. The report also contains a comprehensive breakdown of the non-life insurance market, providing forecasts for motor and transport insurance, property, personal accident, health, general liability and credit insurance. Finally, the new report offers a detailed breakdown of the life and non-life competitive landscapes, covering the top companies present in each segment by premiums and market share.

Purchase a copy of this report at: South Korea Insurance Report Q2 2014.

As of early 2014, BMI remains of the view that the market is an attractive opportunity for large multinational companies in both segments. In the life segment, demand for annuities is being boosted by the ageing of the population and by success on the part of particular insurers in lifting the productivity of some distribution channels. The non-life companies are achieving double-digit growth in premiums - but thanks mainly to rising demand for longterm products. The long-term products would, in most other countries, be offered by companies in the life segment. Moreover, recent legal changes have lifted demand for particular non-life lines (such as compulsory liability insurance for managers of public facilities).

Nevertheless, there are challenges. The environment of low economic growth and low interest rates means that it has become harder for the leading life companies to offer annuities that are both attractive to the customers and profitable for them. Several of the leading regional life insurance companies, such as Allianz, Prudential plc and AIA, have emphasised how they are shunning unprofitable business in South Korea in the reports that they published through 2012 and 2013. This is at a time that the regulator is increasing its requirements in relation to capital. For the foreseeable future, both segments will continue to be dominated by the offshoots of the chaebol corporate groups that dominate South Korea's economy, even if some of these insurers are listed companies.

Nevertheless, a wildcard, and a positive one, is the change of shareholding in Kyobo Life. New private equity/institutional shareholders will probably guide South Korea's third largest life company towards a stock market listing. As of late 2013, ING has announced the sale of its life insurance operation in South Korea to MBK Partners, the country's largest private equity firm.

Key Report Forecasts
■ In 2014, total premiums written in South Korea should rise by 7.2% to US$158.6bn.
■ Life premiums should grow by 5.9% to US$92.8bn.
■ Non-Life premiums should expand by 9.0% to US$65.7bn.
■ Within the non-life segment, motor related premiums should grow by 6.7% to US$13.2bn.

The report covers industry forecast and SWOT analysis, industry risk reward ratings, market overview, demographic forecast and major company profiles including AIA, Group, Allianz, American International Group (AIG), AXA, Hanwha Life, Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance, MetLife, Prudential Financial, Prudential plc. Samsung Fire & Marine and Samsung Life.

For full report TOC and pricing please visit: South Korea Insurance Report Q2 2014.

Browse reports specific to insurance only at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/insurance.

Browse our banking and finance section for more reports at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/banking-finance.

Browse reports from South Korean industry at: http://www.marketresearchreports.com/countries/south-korea.

About Market Research Reports, Inc.
Market Research Reports, Inc. is the world's leading source for market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest market research reports on global markets, key industries, leading companies, new products and latest industry analysis & trends.

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