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Elizabeth Warren Book Is A Liberal Call To Arms That Rips Tea Party 'Magical Thinking'

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WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Warren's new book isn't just a memoir -- it's a full-throated endorsement of modern, populist liberalism and a scathing indictment of anti-government "magical thinking" by the tea party.

While the Democratic Massachusetts senator structures her new volume, A Fighting Chance, as a chronological tale of her life, she also uses her experiences to make strategic points and arguments about her political philosophy, which embraces government and the labor movement as forces for good.

"We can't bury our heads in the sand and pretend that if 'big government' disappears, so will society's toughest problems. That's just magical thinking -- and it's also dangerous thinking," Warren writes. "Our problems are getting bigger by the day and we need to develop some hardheaded, realistic responses. Instead of trying to starve the government or drown it in the bathtub, we need to tackle our problems head-on, and that will require better government."

She recounts in the book, which is due out next week, that she believed she was doing that as she put together the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help protect regular people from the sorts of financial chicanery the banking industry was guilty of before the mortgage market meltdown.

And sometimes she ran headlong into those very people she feels are guilty of magical thinking, such as Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), who won election in 2010 as a tea party candidate from Staten Island.

Warren met Grimm early in his first term. She figured that as an ex-Marine, former FBI man who investigated Wall Street crime and graduate of a public university, he'd be someone on the GOP side who would understand her focus on making government work better and holding giant financial institutions accountable for breaking the rules.

He didn't.

"When I launched into an enthusiastic description of what we were trying to get done at the agency, the congressman looked surprised," Warren writes. "After a bit, he cut me off so he could make one thing clear: He didn't believe in government."

A stunned Warren asked him if that included the FBI. He allowed that he believed in the Bureau, "but not other forms of 'big government' and certainly not a consumer protection agency."

Warren found that more than a little ironic for a guy who had spent most of his adult life working for or benefiting from government institutions. And he still was.

"Heck, he had even been quoted as saying that he wanted the government-paid health insurance when he joined Congress, because 'God forbid I get into an accident and I can't afford the operation. That could happen to anyone,'" Warren writes, citing a New York Daily News interview Grimm gave.

The "could happen to anyone" remark actually is one of the larger themes in Warren's book, whether its about health problems or financial ruin.

And she thinks it's government's job -- as her book title suggests -- to help give a theoretically injured Michael Grimm or anyone else a fighting chance.

Michael McAuliff covers Congress and politics for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.

HUFFPOLLSTER: Could Obama's Approval Rise In Time For Midterms?

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President Obama's approval rating has ticked up but still weighs down Democrats. The RNC's quest for a data advantage remains a work in progress. And anti-Obamacare ads are still flooding the airwaves. This is HuffPollster for Friday, April 18, 2014.

*WILL OBAMA'S APPROVAL RATING RISE IN TIME FOR MIDTERMS?* - Jonathan Bernstein, writing earlier this week: "According to the HuffPollster estimate, Obama’s approval rating bottomed out at 42.5 percent in the first week of December. He’s up to 44.4 percent now [at the time of writing], a 2 percentage-point gain over about four months. We’re seven months from Election Day; if the trend continues, Obama could get up to about 48 percent. Of course, the trend could just as well reverse or accelerate. *I’m somewhat skeptical that it would make much difference*….Four presidents have made it to a second midterm in the polling era. In January 1958, Dwight Eisenhower was at 60 percent approval and was at 52 percent in early November. Ronald Reagan held steady, going from 64 percent in early January 1986 to 63 percent in late October. Bill Clinton was at 59 percent in early January and ended October at 66. And George W. Bush began 2006 with 43 percent approval and slumped to 38 percent by early November. [Bloomberg View, Pollster chart]
*BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE RNC'S QUEST FOR DATA SUPREMACY* - Jon Ward: "The Republican National Committee, in particular, has staked its reputation -- in the press and with conservative donors -- on becoming the center of data and tech for the GOP….But as the 2014 midterm elections grow nearer, behind-the-scenes, *intra-party squabbling has highlighted where the RNC still has a ways to go in using tech to win the future*…Beacon [a Republican voter relationship management system] is designed to 'pull' reports from the voter file and to originate lists of voters for workers in the field to contact…The problem, as another RNC official recently admitted on condition of anonymity, is that Beacon 'is not currently operational.'...For now, the RNC is using a program called GOP Data Center, built by FLS Connect, a political data technology company. Data Center was built in 2012 to connect primarily with the door-to-door mobile device application GeoConnect, also built by FLS Connect. But it is harder for Data Center to connect with other applications not built by the company. This has limited the ability of outside users to tap into the resources available in the RNC's voter file, thus limiting the ability of the RNC to continually update and refine that same file….RNC sources acknowledged that Beacon will continue to operate largely in beta mode throughout the 2014 midterm cycle, putting most of the GOP's load on the shoulders of Data Center, which has its own challenges. Fully replacing Data Center likely won't happen until the 2016 cycle." [HuffPost]

*OBAMACARE ADS: A ONE MESSAGE ENVIRONMENT* - Kantar/CMAG's Elizabeth Wilner: "Number of new anti-'Obamacare' campaign or issue commercials launched since the first open enrollment window closed on March 31: 32. Number of pro-Affordable Care Act campaign or issue ads launched since March 31: 1. The Obama Administration may have reached its CBO-determined enrollment target or come darn close, but that hasn’t exactly stopped the ads....*The lone pro-ACA ad to hit broadcast TV since open enrollment ended was an ad by the group Put Alaska First*. In its efforts to support vulnerable Democratic Sen. Mark Begich (D), the group’s ad of April 10 features a breast cancer survivor saying she was initially denied insurance due to “a pre-existing condition,” but, “I now have health insurance again because of Mark Begich.” The ad does not mention the ACA. Unfortunately for the sake of public opinion about the law and Democrats on the ballot, not only are Obamacare foes keeping up the advertising, but we’re approaching the peak of Republican primary season. Since March 31, a number of GOP candidates in races for U.S. Senate and governor down to a state senate contest in Alabama have used Obamacare in their attempts to out-conservative their rivals for their respective nominations." [Cook Political]

*HUFFPOLLSTER VIA EMAIL!* - You can receive this daily update every weekday via email! Just click here, enter your email address, and and click "sign up." That's all there is to it (and you can unsubscribe anytime).

*FRIDAY'S 'OUTLIERS'* - Links to the best of news at the intersection of polling, politics and political data:

-Maggie Hassan (D) continues to lead her challengers in the New Hampshire governor's race. [UNH]

-Most Americans favor building the Keystone Pipeline [Reason-Rupe]

-Most Americans say they can ill afford to be out of work for more than a month. [Gallup]

-John Sides examines how many seats the GOP is likely to gain in the House in 2014. [Monkey Cage]

-The authors of the "where's Ukraine" survey follow up. [Monkey Cage]

-Charlie Cook argues that fundamentals will give Republicans an advantage in the 2016 presidential race. [Cook Political]

-Nate Silver sees little chance that the a national popular vote compact will succeed. [538]

-Pennsylvania voters are the most disadvantaged by the Electoral College. [The Week]

-Brent Benson attempts to adjust polls on the Democratic primary race for governor of Massachusetts governor for the name recognition of the candidates. [MassNumbers]

-More Americans search for "church" around Easter than any other time. [Pew]

-Facebook users are more likely to say the service is getting worse (29 percent) than getting better (20 percent). [Edison Research]

-Men have more leisure time on weekends than women. [Pew] Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.

HUFFPOST HILL - Christians Pause To Recall Jesus' Worst Week In Washington

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Drone pilots are increasingly unsatisfied with their jobs, a development that could result in brain drain to the professional World of Warcraft community. Harry Reid and John Boehner hold all of their meetings in Boehner's office because Reid can't stand smoke in his office and Boehner can't stand the sight of human scalps. And the GOP should really try to poach the guy who is doctoring the jobs AND Obamacare reports to do some voter purge work for them. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, April 18th, 2014:

*HARRY REID LOVES WATCHING JOHN BOEHNER SMOKE* - While discussing the latest negotiations with House Speaker John Boehner on unemployment insurance, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid discussed the speaker's smoking habit. “We kick around John Boehner often, but I have a wonderful relationship with him. He’s the nicest guy… And every meeting that I have with him takes place in his office...You know [the] protocol is you go back and forth. But we decided to do it that way because John Boehner smokes, and he smokes a lot. I don’t want him smoking in my office, so every meeting we’ve had has been in his office. And *usually he smokes a cigarette about every ten minutes. I am glad he is able to smoke, it keeps him pacified and we have been able actually to get some things worked out*." That is nice. [Roll Call's Humberto Sanchez]

*GOP WILL NOT LET OBAMACARE GO* - An upsetting amount of Republican distrust in the administration seems to be centered on counting, which isn't terribly surprising coming from a party whose central scientific tenants are 1. That the Earth is warming because God has a sinus infection and 2. That Jesus likely stepped in a lot of stegosaurus poop. Paige Lavender: "The Republican National Committee sent a message to President Barack Obama Friday: the GOP is not moving on from Obamacare. The Republicans' message came in the form of a web video, posted one day after the president announced 8 million people had signed up for private health insurance using the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act...Republicans argued that 'Americans don't think it's time to move on' in the video. Some prominent Republicans personally promised to keep up the fight against Obamacare, with House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) saying 'Republicans cannot and will not accept this law.' *The office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) also released a statement, according to NBC: 'If the president is so confident in his numbers, there is no reason not to release transparent and complete enrollment data*, and answer the questions, how many enrollees were previously uninsured and how many people had lost their previous plans due to Obamacare.'" [HuffPost]

*TEA PARTY CHUCKLEHEADS THROWING JOHN BOEHNER AN UNWANTED RETIREMENT PARTY* - John Boehner would like to mow this party like a lawn. John Stanton: "Tea Party activists are sending out invitations for a “surprise retirement party” for House Speaker John Boehner, targeting inside-the-beltway Boehner backers and reporters. The email invites are paid for by the Tea Party Leadership Fund Political Action Committee, a conservative organization that has spent more than $300,000 this cycle supporting 32 year old J.D. Winteregg’s primary challenge to Boehner this year. '*We’re throwing a retirement party for our John Boehner and 1,000 of his closest Beltway buddies are invited.* I’ve pledged to get him a shuffleboard set so he can enjoy his new Florida retirement in style,' PAC spokesman Rusty Humphries said Friday." [BuzzFeed]

The Congressional Budget Office released some real pretty infographics today. The CBO's chart game is strong.

*GOP UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE POLICY ISN'T MAKING UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE GO AWAY* - Andrew Perez: "What's happened since Congress killed long-term unemployment insurance in December proves the jobless aren't lazy, according to one state workforce agency. The Illinois Department of Employment Security announced this week that 86 percent of the state's long-term unemployed were still without work at the end of January, according to a study by the agency. '*This seriously undermines the perception that unemployment insurance discourages workers from finding employment,'* Jay Rowell, the Illinois agency's director, said in a press release. 'You should look at this analysis as confirmation that re-authorizing emergency unemployment is a cost-effective way to help families stay in their homes and put food on their tables. But you cannot look at this and say that people don’t want to work.'" [HuffPost]

*DAILY DELANEY DOWNER* - The latest blog in HuffPost's All Work, No Pay series is by DJ Cook: "I am suffocated by student debt. I am 36 years old, I'm employed, and I live slightly above the poverty line…. I would love to be a spokesperson or an activist for the plights of the indentured servants of student loan debt and/or the working poor, but I already have two jobs (full-time high school teacher and part time economics tutor), *I have no savings nor any prospect of savings and with student loan debt being the only debt in this country that you cannot wash away with bankruptcy* I can't afford to take off a single day of work to even attempt to organize or be part of an organization that fights for the millions of American who find themselves in the exact same situation." [HuffPost]

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

*CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S SLEAZY MOVE ON MIN WAGE* - Bill Clinton tried to index the minimum wage to inflation but didn't inhale. Dave Jamieson: "Democrats in Congress and a clear majority of Americans would like to raise the minimum wage and tie it to an inflation index so that it keeps up with the cost of living. *This concept -- known as indexing -- is something of a holy grail for backers of a strong minimum wage, since it would eliminate the need to constantly re-legislate new increases to the wage floor*. The idea isn't new. In the late 1990's, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) had championed legislation that would have indexed the minimum wage and kept it from eroding over time. His efforts failed. And according to newly released documents, they appear to have failed at least in part because *the economic team under President Bill Clinton didn't want Democrats to lose hold of a winning political issue.* In a January 1998 memo to Clinton, *Gene Sperling*, then the director of the National Economic Council, laid out all of the reasons why his team couldn't get behind Kennedy's indexing proposal. Part of it, he said, was due to a potential show of hypocrisy, since they'd opposed an indexing proposal related to capital gains in budget negotiations. Another concern was that some Democrats could oppose it on the grounds it would "lock in" a permanently low minimum wage (a concern that still exists today). And they were worried about the logistics of the Labor Department figuring out a new increase each year.

"*But then there was this: '[S]ince the minimum wage would automatically rise each year, it would take away a good political issue for those who believe the minimum wage is an important tool to help low-income families.'* Here's another way to read that: Keeping the minimum wage somewhat low is helpful politically to Democrats who say it should be higher." [HuffPost]

*DRONE PILOTS ARE HAVING A SAD* - And not just because of all the carpal tunnel and decreasing number of LAN parties. Amanda Terkel: "*The negative attention on drone strikes appears to be taking a toll on the people who control these unmanned* aircraft, with a new government report finding that Air Force drone pilots are suffering from low morale. The Government Accountability Office report, released this week, looked at 10 focus groups of active-duty Air Force drone pilots, known as remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) operators. Investigators found that these individuals feel stressed and overworked as they face uncertainty in their careers, long hours, negative public perception and a prohibition on talking about what they do, which is often classified. Part of their stress comes from that fact that although there has been an 'explosion' in the government's use of drones, as of last December the Air Force had only 85 percent of the drone pilots it needed. Attracting new pilots for these missions appears to be a problem. Every single focus group agreed that there is a negative perception of the work they do. That stigma isn't coming just from the public, but from within the Air Force as well." [HuffPost]

*LAWMAKERS TARGETING OVERLY PHOTOSHOPPED ADVERTISEMENTS* - Because it should never be cool to have a bicep than skinnier than your wrist. Shadee Ashtari: "*In an effort to shield young children and teenagers from the damaging effects of photoshopped images, Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Lois Capps (D-Calif.) have co-sponsored legislation to reduce the use of misleadingly altered images in advertisements.* 'Just as with cigarette ads in the past, fashion ads portray a twisted, ideal image for young women,' Capps said in April. 'And they’re vulnerable. As sales go up, body image and confidence drops.' While the proposal would not implement new regulatory standards, the 'Truth in Advertising Act' would mandate the Federal Trade Commission to report on advertisements photoshopped to 'materially change the physical characteristics of the faces and bodies of the individuals depicted.'" [HuffPost]

*MAN WHO RAN FOR PRESIDENT NOT READY TO HAVE PEOPLE PAY ATTENTION TO HIM* - Mitt Romney, noted shy person and possessor of modest goals, is back. WaPo: "Romney has returned to the political stage, emerging as one of the Republican Party’s most coveted stars, especially on the fundraising circuit, in the run-up to November’s midterm elections. He may not direct a high-powered political-action committee or hold a formal position, but *with the two living former Republican presidents — George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush — shying away from campaign politics, Romney, 67, has begun to embrace the role of party elder*, believing he can shape the national debate and help guide his fractured party to a governing majority. Insisting he won’t seek the presidency again, the former GOP nominee has endorsed at least 16 candidates this cycle, many of them establishment favorites who backed his campaigns. *One Romney friend said he wants to be the 'anti-Jim DeMint,'* a reference to the former South Carolina senator and current Heritage Foundation chairman who has been a conservative kingmaker in Republican primaries. Romney’s approach is to reward allies, boost rising stars and avoid conflict.Romney has signed his name to sharply partisan e-mail appeals and headlined recent fundraisers from Las Vegas to Miami to Boston. This week, he appeared in his first television ad: a U.S. Chamber of Commerce spot supporting Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, who faces a tea party challenger in a state where Romney remains widely popular. And Romney’s confidants said he will appear in more ads, record robo-calls and stump at rallies later this year." [WaPo]

*Charlie Crist's campaign staff is more erratic than his party affiliation*: "Something's weird in Charlie Crist's campaign. His new spokesman, Eric Conrad, just left after less than a week on the job 'to pursue other opportunities,' said de-facto spokesman Kevin Cate. The pro-Crist Saint Petersblog noted the departure first. Cate has said as much before when Bill Hyers, Crist's here-today-gone-tomorrow campaign manager quit before/around the time he started...Crist relies on his own talents. But he resists coaching. He doesn't always take good advice. He acts spur of the moment. His campaign is more of a cult of personality compared to [Gov. Rick] Scott's campaign, which is more like a disciplined business start up." [Miami Herald]

*ELIZABETH WARREN SHOWS WALL STREET A THING OR TWO BY, UH, PUKING* - YEAH! Mike McAuliff: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren has gotten an awful lot of mileage out of her popular appearances on 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.' *But it was something of a revolting experience the first time she prepared to sit across from the sometimes caustic comedian. She had such a bad case of nerves before the 2009 broadcast that Warren threw up. Twice*. 'I was miserable. I had stage fright -- gut-wrenching, stomach-turning, bile-filled stage fright. And I was stuck in a gloomy little bathroom, about to go on The Daily Show,' the Massachusetts Democrat recalls in her new book, A Fighting Chance, due out next week. 'I was having serious doubts about going through with this. I had talked to reporters and been interviewed plenty of times, but this was different. At any second, the whole interview could turn into a giant joke -- and what if the joke turned on the work I was trying to do?' 'For the zillionth time, I asked myself why on God's green earth I had agreed to sit down with Jon Stewart,' Warren writes." [HuffPost]

*RED FOX WON'T STOP STALKING THE FIRST FAMILY* - Meet the Michaele Salahi of the carnivora order. Journal: "There's a new guest at the White House. Unlike most people who pass through the presidential residence, he wasn't invited. But in cutthroat Washington fashion, he saw weakness and took advantage. Now he rests and plays uninhibited at the seat of power. He also has pointy ears and a bushy tail. *The little red fox, who hasn't been named, turned up on the White House grounds in the weeks before the government shutdown in October. After many White House groundskeepers were furloughed, the fox settled in*. Months later, the furry little conundrum has left officials who sort through some of the world's most complex challenges scratching their heads. The fox lacks the deference typically exhibited by White House guests. He tore through the White House garden when it was left unattended during the shutdown. He graduated to tripping alarms in the middle of the night, napping wherever he pleases and generally living the high life on a campus overseen by dozens of highly trained Secret Service agents. Even President Barack Obama was stunned, aides say, when he looked outside the Oval Office one morning to see the fox running down the same open-air colonnade along the Rose Garden that has been traversed by American presidents and world dignitaries for the past century." [WSJ]

*BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR* - Here is a child hugging a chicken.

*PEOPLE WHO PRETEND COLLIDE WITH PEOPLE WHO LIE* - A giant group of cosplayers convened on the Mall, yet our dream of seeing Virginia Foxx in a Bane mask remains unfulfilled. Sigh. Roll Call: "Perhaps even superheroes can’t stand the thought of getting too close to Congress. That was one possible explanation for *the failure of Awesome Con to secure a world record for assembled costumed players photographed at one time.* Promoters had hoped to turn out thousands on Friday at noon for a record-breaking photo in front of the Capitol’s Reflecting Pool. The stage was set. Social media was activated. Commissioner Gordon sent out the Bat signal. There might have been an Aquaman siting in the murky depths of the duck-riddled Reflecting Pool. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. At 11:45 a.m., only a few dozen costumed players were milling around. Guinness World Record officiants were there, folders in hand, to see if D.C. Awesome Con could best China’s World Joyland, which assembled 1,530 crusaders in 2011. As the final calls went out over Twitter as the clock struck close to 1 p.m., explanations were bandied about. Some cosplayers apparently went to the Reflecting Pool connecting the Lincoln Memorial to the World War II Memorial. Apparently, superpowers didn’t include map-reading skills for that bunch. Didn’t matter. Only around 200 or so showed, well short of the record." [Roll Call]

*COMFORT FOOD*

- There exists video of a llama prancing about to DMX. This is that video. [http://huff.to/1jRobub]

- Eleven words that should be dirty but aren't. [http://bit.ly/1f3H7la]

- These two dudes are the Ruth and Gehrig of pen spinning. [http://bit.ly/1jSb1wh]

- Don't drive your car at full speed if its missing a wheel. The More You Know. [http://bit.ly/P7pV7h]

- A board that spews fire in sync with music. Motley Crew's tour staff has some work to do. [http://bit.ly/PcTeFq]

- Pharrell's "Happy" without the music is much more enjoyable... and schizophrenic. [http://huff.to/1jerJok]

- This web app will generate any facial expression from "The Office" that you so please. [http://bit.ly/1kJB9em]

*TWITTERAMA*

@AndyRichter: Charles Krauthammer does not deserve such a metal name

@ScottWestefield: Plot idea: 97% of the world's scientists contrive an environmental crisis, but are exposed by a plucky band of billionaires & oil companies.

@ProffJeffJarvis: What if Judas had never doxxed Jesus?

*Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com), Ryan Grim (ryan@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e* Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.

Is Obamacare working?

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*Is Obamacare working?*

Way back last fall, when HealthCare.gov was so dysfunctional we advised people to stay away while it was being repaired, few people imagined that the new health law could possibly meet its informal target of signing up 7 million people for private health insurance during the first open enrollment period.

But it did, and then some. This week President Obama unveiled the final open enrollment tally, and it was impressive:

· 8 million people enrolled in private insurance through their state’s Health Insurance Marketplace.
· Another 5 million enrolled in new plans sold outside the marketplace that meet the health law’s higher standards.
· Medicaid and CHIP enrollment increased by 3 million (and by the way, you can enroll in these programs year-round).
· And an estimated 3 million young adults avoided going uninsured by being allowed to stay on their parents’ plans.

Numbers like those are big enough to affect the uninsurance rate in the United States, and they have, according to the latest Gallup Poll. As you can see on the chart above, the percentage of Americans lacking health insurance is the lowest it’s been in more than five years.

Moreover, according to the nonpartisan wonks at the Congressional Budget Office, lower-than-expected health cost growth means that the price tag for expanding coverage under the new law will be $104 billion less than originally projected over the next 10 years, and the Medicare and Medicaid will cost $180 billion less by 2020 than originally projected in 2010.

As the saying goes, this is a win-win: more people covered, costs lower than we thought.

But one piece of health reform news is not good: the decision by 24 states not to expand the Medicaid program to cover all low-income households has left 5.7 million people without a source of health coverage they can afford.

What this means is that the new law is working way better in states that embraced it than in states that resisted. The Gallup analysts looked at the change in insurance in the 21 states that went all out for Obamacare by expanding Medicaid as well as operating their own marketplaces rather than leaving the job to HealthCare.gov. In those states the proportion of uninsured residents fell 2.5 percentage points, from 16.1 percent in 2013 to 13.6 percent today. But in the other 29 states, the uninsured rate fell only 0.8 percentage points, from 18.7 percent in 2013 to 17.9 percent today.

Here’s the honor roll of the 21 states that helped their inhabitants get insured by fully embracing the new law: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.

If you live elsewhere, ask your elected officials why they think it's okay to try to keep people from getting health insurance easily and affordably.

Got a question for our health insurance expert? Ask it here; be sure to include the state you live in. And if you can't get enough health insurance news here, follow me on Twitter @NancyMetcalf.

—Nancy Metcalf

 

*We're providing regular coverage of the new health care law. To get health insurance advice tailored to your situation, use our Health Law Helper, below.*

*Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2007-2013 Consumers Union of U.S.*

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Update your feed preferences Reported by Consumer Reports 16 hours ago.

The Affordable Care Act Gets Us a Step Closer to Equitable Health Care

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As a person who has been living with what's commonly known as "a preexisting health condition," and one that can require expensive surgery and even result in emergency-room visits if it gets out of control, I consider the Affordable Care Act a lifesaver. It provides the most hope I have ever had for myself and my family when it comes to keeping us healthy and getting care when we need it most.

I have endometriosis. It's not uncommon, but it is chronic, and it's a condition I've been living and dealing with for more than 10 years. There have been a few years when I had to have multiple surgeries to address complications associated with it. I've even been forced to go to the emergency room on occasion. I lost my health-care coverage when I had to leave my full-time job due to extreme complications during my pregnancy with my son back in 2011. Five months of bed rest made it impossible to maintain my 50- to 60-hours-a-week job. Since then, I have been working multiple part-time positions, including one as a college instructor and another as a clinic receptionist. While these positions have provided me with flexibility and a stable income, because they're part-time jobs, none of them offers health-care coverage. For several months, both my son and I went without coverage, and I spent nearly every moment terrified and anxious. I constantly worried about whether we could afford to visit the doctor, and often I found myself trying to somehow "make do" without. My husband and I even sold our car to try to purchase private health insurance, but we were repeatedly denied coverage because of my preexisting condition. It's simply incredible how access to health care can impact so many of the decisions you make about your work and life.

I'm not alone; it seems that so many people in my community have chronic or serious health conditions that they can't afford to manage without comprehensive health coverage. I have seen friends asking for donations on Facebook in order to get health care for their kids. That should never, ever happen. No child should go without the health care he or she needs because there's not enough money, nor should any adult.

Now my son and I are both enrolled in a health plan through CoveredCA (California's health-insurance exchange, created as part of the Affordable Care Act). We are keeping the same great plan with fewer out-of-pocket costs, and we get a $235 subsidy each month. This means we now pay less than we did prior to the new health-care law, for better insurance. We also get to be on a family plan, so I no longer have to worry about how my income is going to affect our child's coverage, not to mention that I now know that one health crisis won't send us into bankruptcy.

I believe the Affordable Care Act provides important protections for me both as a consumer of health care and as a human being who needs access to health care. It's not perfect, but there are problems with almost all programs, especially when they are implemented for the first time, and the Affordable Care Act is certainly better than what we've had up until now. It gets us a step closer to a more equitable health-care system.

There are a lot of people opposed to the Affordable Care Act. They think it takes away choice, is too expensive or unfairly places a burden on taxpayers. My own family members are among them. For me, not having any options for health coverage definitely did not feel like it gave me more choice. I'm a hardworking taxpayer; don't I deserve the same chance to get health coverage for my family? Now that I'm covered, I have the financial security to consider buying a house, looking for a new job or maybe even starting a business. If we want to support thriving families and a growing economy, providing secure health coverage is the best place for our country to start. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.

Friday Talking Points -- Our 4/20 Acronym Contest Challenge

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Three hundred of these columns? To coin a phrase... far out, man.

We'll get to patting ourselves on the back in a bit, but first we'd like to propose a party game for this weekend's big 4/20 festivities across the land. So put this in your (metaphorical) pipe and smoke it.

The rules for this contest are pretty simple. First, you've got to picture a day in the future when the Weed Wars are completely over, with marijuana reform having won the biggest victory of all: a complete change in the federal government's viewpoint. Not just rescheduling, but descheduling, in other words. The feds throw in the towel and decide to treat marijuana not as a dangerous and illegal drug, but as a regulated vice like tobacco and alcohol. In other words, total victory for the reformers.

OK, got that image in your mind? Here's where you need to get creative. If marijuana is descheduled, what would happen to it, in terms of the federal government? Well, they would take it away from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and hand it off to the official "vice control" agency. But (and here's where the contest comes in) then they'd have to rename this agency.

The obvious choice would be to add it to what used to just be called "ATF" or sometimes "BATF" -- the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. This name was expanded a while back to include explosives, making "BATFE." Now, the easiest way to change the name gives us a rather strange acronym for the new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives, and Marijuana: "BATFEM." Um... we're not sure that's an improvement over "Batgirl," really.

So our challenge is to come up with a better acronym. The rules: you can use either "marijuana" or "cannabis," and you can change "bureau" to "agency" or "commission" or any other governmental collective noun. This means you can add an M or C to the core letters A, T, F, and E; and then use a B or A or C (or whatever) at either end. Got that? So who has a better acronym than BATFEM for the real end to marijuana reform: what to call the bureau or agency that would federally regulate marijuana? This once seemed like pie in the sky -- too much to even hope for -- but is now within the bounds of possibility. So scramble those letters, and post your entries in the comments! Get creative!

As we've noted in these pages for the past few months, 2014 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for marijuana reform. The Colorado and Washington experiments are proceeding apace, the Attorney General is now actually "cautiously optimistic" about the success of these experiments, and the only real question people are asking is "which state will be next?" Alaska may move first, as full legalization is on the ballot there in August.

However, not everyone is on board (just to get serious for a moment). The head of the Drug Enforcement Agency tried his hand at a little scaremongering in front of Congress, warning that with legal marijuana edibles lying around, there was an increased risk of dogs eating it with harmful consequences. The prompted one of the most brutal takedowns of such propaganda we've ever read (from the Washington Post), which provides a long list of dogs mercilessly killed by drug raids gone horribly wrong. It's not for the faint of heart, and neither is this equally-brutal takedown which lists 13 human victims killed by Drug War hysteria.

In non-marijuana news, Vladimir Putin has finally responded to my April Fool's Day column (well, not really...) by insisting that Alaska is too cold for Russia to want to annex: "Is Alaska really in the Southern Hemisphere? It's cold there, too. Let's not get hot-headed." No word yet on any response (hot-headed or not) from Sarah Palin.

What else? The Pulitzer awards were handed out to the reporters which covered the Edward Snowden story, surprising exactly nobody. The federal government decided -- after getting some justifiably bad press -- they would no longer attempt to collect questionable "debts" that were over ten years old. Here's just one of the stories of the folks caught up in this effort:



Mary Grice, a federal worker who lives in Takoma Park, Md., never got the refunds she was expecting to see in her mailbox this year. The government seized her checks because of a $2,996 debt that was supposedly incurred under her father's Social Security number. Her father died in 1960, when she was 4, and her mother received survivors' benefits thereafter.

But 37 years passed between when the Social Security agency says it overpaid someone in the Grice family and when Mary Grice's refund was taken. She was unable to find out from the agency exactly who received the overpayment -- her mother or perhaps her father's first wife, both of whom are no longer living.



There's a word for this sort of thing: Biblical. "Visiting the sins of the fathers on the sons," to be blunt, should not be the policy of the federal government, and we're glad someone woke up and realized this.

We've got some idiocy from Republicans to highlight in the talking points, but here is one item up front, just because. Scott Brown, former senator from Massachusetts, would now like to become the future senator from New Hampshire (after getting beaten by Elizabeth Warren in the Bay State). Speaking at a rally for Brown was former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, who made a rather bizarre pitch that tried to tie Senator Jeanne Shaheen (the Democrat Brown is challenging in New Hampshire) to other Democratic senators, saying: "She votes with Elizabeth Warren. She votes with [Ed] Markey. She is the third senator from Massachusetts." Um, really? You really think that line's going to work to promote an actual former senator from Massachusetts? I guess John Sununu thinks New Hampshire voters are pretty dumb.

And, finally, some non-idiocy from the Republican Party of Nevada. At their party convention last weekend, they decided to jettison the planks of their party platform which opposed same-sex marriage and abortion. This is an attempt to move the party away from these hot-button social issues, and it bears watching to see if the GOP in other states decides to follow Nevada's lead or not. We're guessing "not," but we could always be wrong....

 

Obamacare had another very good week, but we're going to get to that in the talking points as well, so we'll just mention it here in passing.

John Kerry had a pretty good week as well, pulling together a fragile agreement to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine. It remains to be seen whether it'll work or not, but the surprise was that anything was agreed to at all -- expectations that Kerry could deliver were pretty low, before the announcement.

And while it's not exactly award-worthy, we have to at least mention the fact that Chelsea Clinton is pregnant. This is going to be a photo-op goldmine for Hillary, for the next few years. "This is my family" images with Baby Clinton should be seen as both inevitable and soon-to-be-adorable, at this point. Like I said, the news that Hillary will be a grandmother isn't exactly award-worthy, but it will indeed positively influence her upcoming campaign.

Instead, this week (and in advance of the 4/20 celebrations), we're giving out the *Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week* more for a long-term effort than for any news made this past week (although he did have some good new quotes, as previously pointed out).

Attorney General Eric Holder is, quite obviously, a man who is "evolving" on the subject of marijuana laws. His evolution is far from complete, one hopes. But it is worth pointing out the changes he has made in both attitude and in federal law enforcement priorities over the past year. Holder was painted into a corner by the new Colorado and Washington laws, and he dithered and stalled for just about as long as he could get away with. But then he announced that the state-level "laboratories of democracy" experiments which legalized recreational marijuana would go forward without heavy interference from federal agencies. He made a list of rules that would have to be followed to avoid a federal crackdown, giving some clear guidance on the issue. He could have chosen a far different route, but -- to his credit -- he didn't.

Holder has since begun to address some of the other problems in federal law which surround the marijuana issue. He told banks it would be OK with him for marijuana businesses to open bank accounts (lessening the fear of federal prosecution for "money laundering for drug dealers"). He is actually showing quite a bit of flexibility on marijuana -- more flexibility than America has seen since the 1970s, in fact (what archaeologists call the "pre-Nancy Reagan era").

Eric Holder still has far to go. He has balked at rescheduling marijuana, which would end the ridiculousness of federal laws treating marijuana as more dangerous than methamphetamine. Holder could accomplish this with a stroke of his pen, but he is punting the decision to do so to Congress. Holder knows full well that medical research is almost impossible to now do on marijuana, and rescheduling could take a big step towards solving this problem, but he refuses to do so for purely political reasons.

Nonetheless, Holder still deserves the *Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week* award, this 4/20 week. The steps he has taken on his evolutionary road are important ones, and he could easily have taken a much harsher position on each of them. Nobody could mistake Eric Holder for a pro-marijuana reformer at this point, but he is also neither a rabidly anti-marijuana absolutist. He is trying to accommodate a changing situation by slowly revamping the federal government's attitude on marijuana. For now, this is enough to earn him some praise. He's got many more steps to take along this path, but for the decision on Colorado and Washington alone, Holder wins our "looking back at the past year" 4/20 edition of the *MIDOTW*.

[Since he doesn't provide direct contact information, you'll have to congratulate Attorney General Eric Holder via the White House contact page, to let his boss know you appreciate his efforts.]

 

In keeping with this theme, we're going to award Patrick Kennedy this week's *Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week* award. Kennedy used to be a House member from Rhode Island. After leaving office, he founded a group which calls itself "Smart Approaches to Marijuana," which aims to strike a sort of "centrist" pose on the issue, along the lines of: "the Drug War has gone too far, but legalization is still wrong." The reason they're in the news is that they're fighting against the Alaska ballot measure which would legalize and tax recreational marijuana.

The pro-reform folks held an amusing bit of political theater to point out Kennedy's hypocrisy, with a giant check for $9,015 -- the amount Kennedy had accepted from the alcohol lobby in his short stay in office. The purpose of this check, the political director of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol said, was to offer it as a contribution to the anti-reform effort, if they could disprove these three statements: "a person is much more likely to overdose on alcohol than marijuana, long-term alcohol consumption causes more deaths than chronic marijuana use and violent crimes are committed by drunken people far more often than by people who are high." The chair of the pro-reform campaign tossed down the gauntlet: "We decided to present them with a challenge that really strikes at the heart of the issue. They are going to spend the next four months trying to scare people into thinking marijuana is so dangerous it simply cannot be legal for adults. Yet the fact is marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol to the consumer and to society."

So, if anyone can prove that marijuana is more harmful than alcohol, the pro-marijuana group will contribute the same exact amount that Patrick Kennedy got from the alcohol lobby to their opponents. That's some pretty admirable political theater, we have to say. In fact, the Alaska Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol deserves their own *Honorable Mention*, as they point out why former Representative Patrick Kennedy is worthy of this week's *Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week*.

[We were going to provide contact information for Kennedy's group, but we decided it could be misinterpreted as a measure of support for them, and we certainly don't want to give that impression, so you'll have to look Patrick Kennedy's group up yourselves, to let him know what you think of his actions.]

 

*Volume 300* (4/18/14)

Three hundred! Woo hoo!

I certainly never thought, when I wrote the first one of these columns, that I'd still be doing so seven years in the future. But here we are, for the 300th time. These columns began (and continue) with a simple idea: "talking points" are not in and of themselves a bad thing. The reason why a lot of Democrats don't like them is that Republicans are much better at them than Democrats ever seem to be able to manage.

Republicans all get their talking points before the weekend, and they then appear on the political talk shows and -- almost word-for-word -- repeat the same points, over and over again. You barely even need to pay attention to which Republican is using them, in fact, because they are all singing from the same songbook, in unison.

Democrats, to be charitable, just aren't that disciplined. But the idea of talking points (or "soundbites" or "bumpersticker slogans" or whatever else you want to call them) is nothing more than a neutral tool in the political toolbox. Talking points, to put it another way, are not Republican or conservative, or inherently evil. They are a way to communicate -- and what you communicate is up to you.

Democrats have gotten somewhat better at this sort of thing, in our humble opinion, than they were in 2007 when this column began. We take no credit for this, because our egos are simply not that large. But choosing words wisely and getting in a zinger to make your point indelibly in the public mind are skills which always need honing. Hence the 300 columns.

This week's offerings deal mainly with Obamacare and the Republican War On Women. In preface to the Obamacare segment, here is a great ad now running up in Alaska which does an excellent job of defending the Obamacare program. Other Democrats campaigning this fall, take note, because this is a great example of how to make the issue work for you. For the rest of you, sit back and enjoy, as always.

 *   And counting*We confidently predicted this two weeks ago in this space. And always remember those crucial last two words, Democrats.

"President Obama announced today -- once again -- that the number of signups on the Obamacare exchanges has risen dramatically. Two weeks ago, the number was at 7.1 million, even though most were expecting roughly a million less than that. Last week, the number was up to 7.5 million. This week, it topped 8 million. President Obama is right. The law is working. It is now impossible to deny. Eight million people have signed up on the Obamacare exchanges -- and counting."

 *   No other reason than political spite*We're going to let President Obama have this talking point. He's right in pushing this -- the denial of Medicaid expansion could become a very potent argument for Democrats this year, as is already happening in Virginia. This Obama quote comes from his announcement about hitting the 8 million figure:



This does frustrate me. States that have chosen not to expand Medicaid for no other reason than political spite. You've got 5 million people who could be having health insurance right now at no cost to these states -- zero cost to these states -- other than ideological reasons they have chosen not to provide health insurance for their citizens. That's wrong. It should stop. Those folks should be able to get health insurance like everybody else.



 *   All kinds of good news*I wrote about this earlier this week, in more detail. This has been the best week for Obamacare stats yet. In fact, it's been the best week overall for Obamacare since the law passed. So point it out!

"The statistics on Obamacare just keep getting better and better, no matter how much Republicans would like you to ignore them. The big news was that 8 million people -- and counting -- have signed up on the Obamacare exchanges, which is a full million more people than the original estimate. The Congressional Budget Office now estimates that 12 million Americans will have insurance this year alone -- people who would not have been insured if Obamacare didn't exist. The C.B.O. also pointed out the program is covering more people, but the costs are coming down -- their new estimate is that Obamacare will save another $100 billion in the first decade than previously thought. Major insurers are now signaling that they are going to expand their offerings in the Obamacare exchanges next year -- which is a big vote of confidence from the industry. And finally, Gallup announced that in the states which accepted the Medicaid expansion with their own exchanges, the uninsured rate dropped three times faster than it did in the states which didn't. States which joined in Obamacare fully dropped their rate to 13.6 percent uninsured, while states which didn't were still at 17.9 percent uninsured. The numbers are starting to come in, folks, and so far every single one of them proves Obamacare is working as it was designed to do. Obamacare got all kinds of good news this week, in fact."

 *   And the Republicans still have... nothing*This is almost too funny for words.

"House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy just announced that the House Republicans -- who had planned to unveil their magic proposal to replace Obamacare this April -- will be indefinitely delaying this announced rollout of the GOP plan. As Bloomberg reports, 'the Republicans had said they would release the outlines of their proposal to replace President Barack Obama's 2010 health-care law over the two-week congressional break later this month at town-hall meetings with constituents. Instead, a Republican leadership aide said the rollout will occur at an unspecified time later this year.' Later in the article, aides are quoted saying 'April wasn't intended to be a formal rollout of a bill, rather a discussion about ideas,' and 'lawmakers are still working toward a policy consensus.' So let's just review the record, shall we? Four years ago, Obamacare passed. Since that time, the Republicans have offered up nothing -- no replacement bill at all -- to replace it with. They have had all the time in the world, but they cannot agree on anything even among themselves. So let's be blunt. Obamacare is working. There is no Republican replacement bill. After four years -- two full House terms -- the Republicans in the House have precisely nothing to offer the American people as a replacement. That is the choice America will have this fall: continue with the 'Can't-Do' Congress, or throw these slackers out of office."

 *   Fighting for low wages*This one is pretty unbelievable, folks.

"The governor of Oklahoma just signed a law which actually bans raising the minimum wage across the state. It also bans any effort to provide employees vacation days and sick leave, just for good measure. This is truly shocking, especially since it goes against what is supposed to be a bedrock belief of the Republican Party: local governmental control is always better than bigger government. This new law will block any city in the state from raising their own minimum wage, and -- even worse -- will block a citizens' initiative that was heading for the ballot this year. Republicans are scared to put this on the ballot -- they are scared of what the voters actually think about it. So much for letting the people decide, eh? That's an interesting political slogan to run on, isn't it? Republicans: fighting to keep your wages low!"

 *   Traditional gold-digging?*And finally, an update on the ongoing War On Women. Because it won't fit into either of these talking points, here is a funny Jeff Danziger cartoon on the issue, as well.

"Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum wrote an extraordinary opinion piece this week, which could provide a glimpse into what Republicans mean about all that 'traditional family' stuff. Schlafly's answer to the pay gap between men and women is that it's a good thing, and that maybe the best thing for women, quote, is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap, unquote. The reason Schlafly wants a bigger pay gap? So that women can all get married to men who make more money than they do. No, seriously. That's what she's saying: women need to marry men who make more, and that can't happen if the pay gap disappears. So that's the Republican answer to all of modern women's problems: marry a rich guy, and be happy. This is pretty laughably outdated thinking, especially when you consider that the Republicans are trying to 'reach out' to women voters this year."

 *   More War On Women hijinks*This quite obviously falls into the "you just can't make this stuff up, folks" category.

"Republican outreach to women, or War On Women? You decide. In Alaska, a state Republican legislator had to apologize after editing the title of a press release to read -- and I am not making this up -- 'Smart and Sexy: Legislature Encourages Hospitals to Promote Breastfeeding.' Sexy? Really? That's your message to promote breastfeeding? Wow. Down in Texas, meanwhile, someone in a prominent Republican consulting firm registered a political action committee with the charmingly frat-boyish name: 'Boats 'N Hoes PAC.' This is apparently the name of a song from a Will Ferrell movie. The PAC was swiftly dissolved -- after the press noticed it -- but not before Texas Democrats got the final word: 'There's no defending the use of a derogatory and offensive term like 'hoes.' How can women possibly take the GOP rebranding effort seriously? Their consistent contempt towards women is simply unforgivable.' Just another few stories from the frontlines of the War On Women, I guess -- each more jaw-dropping than the last."

 

Chris Weigant blogs at:Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
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  Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.

Medicare spends nearly $2 billion in South Florida

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Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, spent the most on office visits in South Florida. Reported by Miami Herald 15 hours ago.

Tom Cotton Wants to Make Medicare Doubly Dead... Attacks from Two Fronts

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It is not on his website; it is not in his campaign platform. But, do not let this stealth candidate fool anyone: Republican Senate candidate Tom Cotton (R-AR) really wants to kill Medicare. So much so, that he attacks it on two different fronts.

First, by repeatedly voting to repeal Obamacare, he votes to make Medicare become insolvent in 2016, as it was destined to do.
Solvency is greatly improved from the insolvency date that was projected before enactment of the Affordable Care Act . This legislation improved Medicare's financing by reducing the rate of increase in provider payments, phasing out overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans, and increasing Medicare payroll taxes for high-income individuals and couples.* Repealing the Affordable Care Act, would move up the insolvency date to 2016*. [Emphasis Added].
By contrast, Obamacare extends Medicare's solvency to at least 2026, an additional decade.

But, that was not enough for this anti-Medicare warrior. Cotton also voted for the Ryan budget that scraps Medicare's guaranteed benefits and replaces them with vouchers for seniors to purchase health insurance on exchanges. (Vouchers... exchanges... hmmm, sound like anything you know that Cotton voted to repeal?)

Of course, killing Medicare would only partially satisfy Cotton. He would like to see the demise of Medicaid, and he has a two-pronged attack against that as well. Repealing Obamacare would throw more than 100,000 Arkansans off of Medicaid for which they are now qualified. This is an vicious attack on the working poor.

Then, for his double-whammy against Medicaid, Cotton votes to "block grant" Medicaid to the states. Sounds benign, doesn't it? Who would object to getting a "grant" in a big "block"?

The "block grants" he voted for are cleverly designed to decrease in value over time -- just like the Ryan vouchers he voted to replace Medicare.

Think of that. Of the ~74 million children in the United States, ~43 million are covered by Medicaid.

That is not all. About 60 percent of nursing home costs for the elderly are covered by Medicaid. Yes, Medicaid, not Medicare.

So Tom Cotton not only wants to reduce seniors' health care coverage when they are ill but not infirm, and then follows that up with a "sorry, too damned bad" when they need nursing home attention.

Of course, he will never, ever, say that that is what he wants to do. Heavens, no.

But, if it were up to Tom Cotton, Medicare would be doubly dead.

All his sweet words are not going to provide a single medication, a single doctor's visit, a single surgical procedure or a single night in a nursing home for our nation's senior citizens. Reported by Huffington Post 13 hours ago.

Small Business Owners: How many missed taking the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit?

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"Communication Breakdown
It's always the same"
-Led Zeppelin

"What we have here is a failure to communicate"
-from the movie Cool Hand Luke

A Kentucky professional who owns his own business found that he missed getting the Health Care Tax Credit.

For the past four years!

Since the credit is worth 35 percent of what he is paying in health insurance, his business lost out on about $40,000.

It gets worse: this year he could get a 50 percent tax credit. Since his firm is paying about $50,000 in health care benefits, it would have been a savings of about $25,000.

Instead, his business will get nothing.

He purchased an Anthem Blue Cross group insurance policy from his longtime insurance agent in Kentucky and locked in for the entire year. In order to get the tax credit plan in 2014, he had to purchase the plan from a Health Care Exchange.

Kentucky's Health Care Exchange, which has won accolades as one of the best run in the United States, offers plans from Anthem Blue Cross. Almost exactly like what my friend has now.

But at half the cost.

He lost out on $40,000, although he can get some of it back if he goes through the screaming agony of filing amended tax returns for the previous years. (Apparently he can't get 2010 as it was too far in the past.) He's paying twice as much for health insurance as he should be paying and there does not seem to be an easy way for him to get out of his plan and get to the Exchange. The Health Care credit offers a provision of allowing his firm to get the money monthly so he could take that money and possibly hire another employee or improve his cash flow.

Like most small businesses (including mine), health care is the biggest budget expense behind payroll. Unlike many employers, he has paid for 100 percent of his full time employees' health care coverage and has done that for many years. With so many businesses looking for ways to dump health insurance or reduce their coverage, he ought to be rewarded.

Actually, the government did reward him, but he didn't know about it. Neither did anyone around him.

I tipped him off in a casual conversation. Up until then, he had never heard of him and no one in his circle of advisors had either. Remember the credit started in 2010. That's a long time to be missing out.

I feel bad for my friend, but also convinced that his situation is not an isolated incident.

I would bet there are thousands of small businesses that missed on the same credit that my friend missed out on. I also wonder how many small businesses went under when the money from the tax credit could have helped them stay afloat. It is possible to figure out the exact number by looking at every small business tax return and seeing if they took the credit, but the incredibly overworked Internal Revenue Service does not have the resources to do it.

Actually, if I were working at the Democratic National Committee, I would figure out a way to get the word to small business owners any way that they can. I suspect a lot of the whaling about "Obamacare" would die out quickly if all small businesses got the tax credits due to them.

$20,000 or $25,000 is a lot of money to anyone, but especially to a small business. It's tip money for Jamie Dimon and the people on Wall Street, but serious money on Main Street.

Getting the word out to every business on Main Street, and helping them figure out the formula for getting the money, might help a few Democratic Senators and Congress people keep their jobs and maybe elect a few more.

The national Chamber of Commerce spends buckets of money on advertisement bashing on candidates who support "Obamacare." If they took that same money and let people know about the tax credit for their many small business members, their true constituency would be a lot better off.

Back to my friend, who does he blame for missing out on the credit?

The first stop would be his accountant. The New York Times did a story on April 14 titled "Tax Preparers New Role: Health-Coverage Advisers" and said that many preparers like Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block have started offering a "tax and health care review" to educate people on the tax advantages and penalties associated with health care reform.

Over 140 million people file tax returns, but only half use any kind of paid tax preparers. Many, including a number of small business owners, do the returns themselves.

My friend may have been better off wandering into a storefront tax preparer. Instead, he has used the same high-powered accounting firm for over a decade.

If you are not looking for it, the small business credit is easy to miss on the IRS form 1040. Rather than having a line to itself, like the Child Tax Credit or the Residential energy credit, the Health Care Tax Credit is under a category called "total credits."

Although the Internal Revenue Service, unlike Health and Human Services, has a terrific website and several easy to understand pages about the credit, not a lot of people sit around reading the IRS web site.

They probably should, and my friend's accountant should have hit the site a lot harder, but I suspect it was one that was easy to overlook.

Next stop for my friend was his long time insurance agent, who is highly respected in the industry. The agent missed it too and then dismissed it, saying to my friend, "your payroll is too high to qualify."

Actually, it's not. In order to get the credit, one of the qualifications is that the average payroll be under $50,000 a year WITHOUT THE BUSINESS OWNER BEING INCLUDED.

This is where the insurance agent and probably the accountant missed. My friend makes well over $50,000, but his employees average under that.

If you look at a small law firm, realtor, doctor's office or any kind of professional office where there is an owner surrounded by clerical workers and support staff, I will bet you find that kind of dynamic.

It's not just a white collar dynamic. The same would hold true for plumbers, contractors, auto mechanics and other craftspeople who have helpers or support staff.

The credit is designed to encourage an owner to give health care coverage to those support people who may or may not have it before.

It's just that that small business owners need to know about it.

I would like to think that everyone will get the word by next year, but I am not sure. Since the credit has been out there since 2010 and many people missed it before now, when you did not have to buy insurance from the exchange, I suspect many more will keep missing out.

The insurance agent has an interesting dilemma. An agent is paid by commission. If he knew about the tax credit and pointed my friend to the Health Care Exchange, he just lost a client. Since health insurance agents are really getting pushed out of business by health care reform, I don't think many of them are jumping up and down to send their clients down the street.

An insurance consultant is paid a fee to advise on coverage, but there are not many of them and not many small businesses think to call them.

Disclaimer: I am a licensed life and health insurance agent and also a licensed insurance consultant in the state of Kentucky and have non-residence agent and consultant licenses in several other states.

There are a lot of people who benefit if small business owners get the word about the Tax Credit. It would obviously help the business owner and probably have the desired impact of getting employers to pay for coverage for their employees. I also think that getting the word out would be a political plus for people in Congress who voted for health care reform and also for President Obama, who's taken major hits in the polls when the health care website had so many problems.

It would be a big help to my friend. And also to his accountant and insurance agent who probably lost a longtime customer.

Health care reform has been so complex and multifaceted that there have been some communication breakdowns along the way.

This is one instance where it would be a good time to pump up the volume.

Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC has been a licensed life and health insurance agent for over 30 years and a life and health consultant for over 20. He has written six best-selling books and spent a decade as an award-winning, syndicated financial columnist.

*Internal Revenue Service sites about the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit for Small Employers: *

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Small-Business-Health-Care-Tax-Credit-for-Small-Employers

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8941.pdf

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8941.pdfhttp://www.irs.gov/uac/Small-Business-Health-Care-Tax-Credit-Questions-and-Answers:-Determining-FTEs-and-Average-Annual-Wages

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Small-Business-Health-Care-Tax-Credit-Questions-and-Answers:-Determining-FTEs-and-Average-Annual-Wages Reported by Huffington Post 10 hours ago.

Antique Car Insurance Rates for Car Owners Now Supplied at Auto Website

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Antique car insurance rates from U.S. companies are now supplied to drivers at the Quotes Pros company. These rates are now part of new content displayed at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

Orlando, FL (PRWEB) April 19, 2014

Vehicles that are considered antiques in the U.S. are often priced differently for insurance protection. The Quotes Pros company is now helping licensed car owners to match antique car insurance rates through its national system built at http://quotespros.com/car-insurance.html.

The established rates that agencies are supplying through the active quotation system are accurate for the current year for all brands of antique vehicles. One disadvantage that consumers researching offline can encounter is the lack of protection plans that are available at affordable prices for foreign manufactured vehicles.

"The U.S. agencies that are supplying the vintage vehicle coverage quotes through our tool are capable of extending protection to owners of foreign and American made cars," said a Quotes Pros company source.

The rates data that is now reviewed by consumers accessing the insurer tool is now mixed with other forms of insurance products. The antique policy rates that are featured as a new part of the company system are related to the state minimum plans and other protection types for standard automobiles in use this year.

"We've created one of the most unique systems that still offers speed of quotes delivery as well as privacy while researching any insurer data," said the source.

The Quotes Pros company is now experimenting with providing different levels of coverage to consumers who access its free quotation system this year. Medical insurance from exchange providers is now one form of coverage quotable at http://quotespros.com/health-insurance.html.

About QuotesPros.com

The QuotesPros.com company is currently showcasing a range of product types to consumers who are researching insurance protection in North America this year. A private tool is now accessible to explore different rates of companies offering coverage. The QuotesPros.com company adds different insurers that can be reviewed and compared through the open platform each day to educate consumers. The different products that are available for coverage types are easier to extract and review using the completely automated platform for policy information this year. Reported by PRWeb 9 hours ago.

Insurers Fret Hepatitis C Pill Costs Along With Obamacare

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As health insurance companies reveal much anticipated first-quarter earnings, it’s the unpredictable impact from the five-figure cost of new Hepatitis C treatments that are the subject of as much  Wall Street worry as the Affordable Care Act. This week, UnitedHealth Group (UNH) executives spent more time answering questions about the mounting cost [...] Reported by Forbes.com 28 minutes ago.

The Facts on ObamaCare

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There is a quote attributed to multiple sources:

You are entitled to your own opinions, you are not entitled to your own facts."

Here are some facts on the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare).

The tally for the total number of Americans getting coverage (so far!) thanks to the ACA :
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• 8 million people have signed up for private health insurance through the state and federal marketplaces.
• 3 million more have signed up for coverage through expanded Medicaid but millions more are blocked by GOP governors and legislatures.
• 3 million now have coverage by staying on their parents' plan.
• 5 million people have signed up for ACA-compliant plans outside the marketplace, thus protecting themselves from lifetime caps, pre-existing condition denials, and higher female premiums.
In addition:
• 28% of enrollees are between the ages of 18 and 35. That's the same percentage as in Massachusetts, which has run a successful healthcare marketplace since 2007. Gallup echoes this point, writing that "the newly insured are, on average, much younger than the overall population."
• New Congressional Budget Office projections for 2016 insurance premiums are 15 percent lower than previous estimates, a reduction that they estimate to save $186 billion.
The basic rationale for the ACA was to provide health care for the uninsured. Anew Gallup survey reveals that 4 percent of all Americans are newly ensured this year. This percent will increase next year, more so if delinquent states agree to expanded Medicaid coverage.
The market place is responding, according to Politico. In at least ten states, insurers that didn't offer coverage through the exchanges this year have said they plan to in 2015. This creates more options for consumers, and signals the strength of the ACA marketplaces and its attractiveness to private insurance companies.
As a result a recent Kaiser survey found that 59 percent of Americans want keep the law in place or improve it, while only 29 percent want get rid of it. Pew reports that even a "majority of ACA opponents - representing 30% of the public overall - want politicians to do what they can to make the law work as well as possible, compared with 19% of the public that wants elected officials to do what they can to make it fail."

What are the counter facts? So far the opposition has produced anecdotal evidence of people paying higher premiums or lasing their existing plans and not being able to get coverage. But no data has been presented and few if any such stories have been verified. Let's see the data and figure out how to solve any real problems. The proponents of repeal need to make the case that these problems are of such a magnitude as to justify repealing ObamaCare and undoing all the good it is bringing to Americans.

The ball is in the opposition's court and so far they do not seem to know what to do with it.

### Reported by Huffington Post 22 hours ago.

Zane Benefits Publishes Overview of Section 105 Plans

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An Overview of Section 105 Plan Rules and Regulations

Park City, UT (PRWEB) April 19, 2014

Today, Zane Benefits, the #1 online health benefits solution, published new information on section 105 plan rules and regulations.

According to Zane Benefits’ website, a Section 105 plan allows an employer to reimburse an employee for medical and insurance expenses incurred by the employee or his or her dependents.

Zane Benefits’ website says the most common type of Section 105 plan is a self-funded (or self-insured) health plan, where the employer self-funds (or self-insures) health benefits rather than pay premiums to an insurance company.

However, Section 105 plans are also frequently found in the form of medical reimbursement plans.

For example, an employer might implement a Section 105 plan alongside a conventional employer-sponsored health insurance plan (to reimburse deductible amounts). This is also called an Integrated HRA.

Click here to read the full article.

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About Zane Benefits
Zane Benefits, the #1 online health benefits solution, was founded in 2006 to revolutionize the way employers provide employee health benefits in America. We empower employees to take control over their own healthcare, while helping employers recruit and retain the best talent. Our online solutions allow small and medium-sized businesses to successfully transition to a health benefits program that creates happier employees, reduces costs and frees up more time to serve their customers. For more information about ZaneHealth, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com. Reported by PRWeb 20 hours ago.

Expect Rise in Health-Insurance Premiums

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Various factors are shifting costs to consumers. Reported by Wall Street Journal 16 hours ago.

Obamacare enrollees urged to change passwords over Heartbleed bug

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans with accounts on President Barack Obama's health insurance enrollment website, HealthCare.gov, were advised that their passwords had been reset to guard against the "Heartbleed" bug, in a message posted on the site on Saturday. Reported by ChicagoTribune 11 hours ago.

Zane Benefits Releases New Information on the Eight Million Enrolled in ACA

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Obama Says Eight Million Enrolled in ACA Marketplace Coverage

Park City, UT (PRWEB) April 20, 2014

Today, Zane Benefits, the #1 online health benefits solution, published new information on the eight million that enrolled in the ACA marketplace coverage.

According to Zane Benefits’ website, the Obama administration announced Thursday that eight million Americans enrolled in coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual health insurance marketplaces. Another three million Americans have signed up for Medicaid, while five million have signed up for non-exchange health plans.

Zane Benefits’ website says that for states using the federally run exchange (HealthCare.gov), 35% of those who signed up are under 35 years old and 28% are between 18 and 34 years old.

Click here to read the full article.

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About Zane Benefits
Zane Benefits, the #1 online health benefits solution, was founded in 2006 to revolutionize the way employers provide employee health benefits in America. We empower employees to take control over their own healthcare, while helping employers recruit and retain the best talent. Our online solutions allow small and medium-sized businesses to successfully transition to a health benefits program that creates happier employees, reduces costs and frees up more time to serve their customers. For more information about ZaneHealth, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com. Reported by PRWeb 4 hours ago.

4/20 May Be Legal Federally Before The End Of The Decade

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A version of this story was first published earlier in April.

Two states with legal recreational use. Twenty-one that allow medical use. Record-high support at the national level for more permissive policies. It seems fair to say that the United States' official stance on marijuana is shifting quickly. In fact, one congressman is predicting that U.S. pot prohibition will be a thing of the past relatively soon. Meaning, America may see it's first legal 4/20 before the end of the decade.

"I think it’s game over in less than five years," Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said during an interview with The Huffington Post.

"There's no question that we're likely to see another state or two this year legalizing [recreational] use," Blumenauer said. "We're going to see more medical marijuana progress. The crazy prohibitions on bank services and probably the tax disparities -- these are all eroding."

As of now, 21 states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, and voters in Colorado and Washington have approved marijuana for recreational use. About a dozen more states are expected to legalize marijuana in some form over the next several years. One recent study has projected a $10 billion legal marijuana industry by 2018.

Despite a growing and profitable legal marijuana industry, the federal government continues to ban the plant, classifying it as a Schedule I substance alongside drugs like heroin and LSD, and maintaining that it has "no currently accepted medical use."

Such policies cause a number of problems for state-legal, state-licensed pot businesses. Banks often refuse to work with marijuana businesses out of fear that they could be implicated as money launderers if they offer traditional banking services. The pot businesses also can't deduct traditional business expenses like advertising costs, employee payroll, rent and health insurance from their combined federal and state taxes, meaning that dispensary owners around the U.S. often face effective tax rates of anywhere from 50 to 80 percent, due to an antiquated Internal Revenue Service rule.

But more than a dozen members of Congress, including Blumenauer, have sponsored legislation aimed at reforming federal marijuana laws. Blumenauer himself has sponsored three bills -- States' Medical Marijuana Patient Protection (H.R. 689), Marijuana Tax Equity Act (H.R. 501) and the Small Business Tax Equity Act (H.R. 2240) -- and has supported several other bills seeking everything from increased banking access for pot businesses to a complete end to federal marijuana prohibition.

It's already possible to observe significant shifts in federal policy toward pot. The federal government allowed Colorado and Washington's laws to take effect last year. The FDA recently green-lit a clinical trial that will study the safety and efficacy of cannabidiol in children with severe epilepsy. And just this month, the Department of Health and Human Services approved a long-delayed study looking at marijuana's effect on veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

President Barack Obama's recent signing of the Farm Bill, which legalized industrial hemp production for research purposes in the 12 states that permit it, is one of the most recent indications that the federal government's decades-long war on cannabis may be winding down, Blumenauer said. He also pointed to the flood of state hemp bills this year as further evidence.

"Part of what is going on with the hemp discussion is that people are seeing through the nonsense that somehow this is cover for surreptitious marijuana production, conflating industrial hemp with marijuana," said Blumenauer. "And throughout the whole marijuana issue debate, there are numerous flat-out falsehoods. Schedule I drug? No therapeutic use? Worse than cocaine and meth? I mean, wait a minute."

"But the hemp one, that was so blatant and so obvious," Blumenauer went on. "And that is what's changing the whole marijuana landscape, is that all the falsehoods, misrepresentations and misclassification that have been basically sanctioned by inertia no longer work. And hemp is the best example of that."

Confused by the video above? See here: 4/20: How Weed Day Got Its Name Reported by Huffington Post 3 hours ago.

Obamacare Enrollees Urged to Change Passwords over Heartbleed Bug

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Americans with accounts on President Barack Obama's health insurance enrollment website, HealthCare.gov, were advised that their passwords had been reset to guard against the Heartbleed bug, in a message posted on the site on Saturday. The warning marks the latest fallout... Reported by Newsmax 2 hours ago.

Obamacare Spawning 'Medical Homelessness' Crisis

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Obamacare Spawning 'Medical Homelessness' Crisis California Obamacare enrollees are struggling to find doctors who accept their newly purchased health insurance plans.

UCSF Dr. Kevin Grumbach calls the phenomenon "medical homelessness."

CBS San Francisco says that many of the health care clinics for low-income individuals that helped people enroll in Obamacare are now seeing those same people "coming back to the clinic begging for help."

"They're coming back to us now and saying, 'I can't find a doctor,'" Rotacare clinic staffer Mirella Nguyen told CBS San Francisco. "What good is coverage if you can't use it?"

The problem stems from Obamacare's "narrow networks" – extreme restrictions on access to doctors and hospitals in an effort to cut costs.

California single mother of two Thinn Ong experienced the pain of Obamacare's narrow networks when she realized that her $200-a-month Obamacare plan is not accepted by many of the doctors in her area.

"Yeah, I sign it. I got it. But where's my doctor? Who's my doctor? I don't know," said a frustrated Ong.

CBS San Francisco reports that "Experts said the magnitude of the problem is growing, and will soon be felt by all Californians." 

Breitbart News contributor Scot Vorse experienced the reality of Obamacare's narrow networks when he discovered that the closest dentist who accepted the required dental plan he was forced to purchase for his children was over 100 miles away.

Californians are not the only ones coming to terms with the reality of Obamacare's narrow networks. In Staten Island, New York, Margaret Figueroa, who suffers from a neurological disease that has required four brain surgeries, says her Obamacare plan denied vital medications and dropped all her doctors. Figueroa's congressman, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), said he's already received similar complaints from at least a dozen of his constituents.

Concerns that Obamacare's narrow networks would spawn a medical homelessness crisis have been building for months. The Washington Post warned in January that "Obamacare's narrow networks are going to make people furious."

Obamacare's narrow networks crisis comes as vulnerable Democrats are scrambling to distance themselves from the president's unpopular health care program. On Saturday, the New York Times reported that Obamacare has Democrats "running from it rather than on it." Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) said last week that Obamacare will cost Democrats dearly in the Nov. 4 midterm elections.

"We will lose seats in the House," said Lynch. "And I think we may lose the Senate. I think that's a possibility if things continue to go the way they have been... primarily because of health care." Reported by Breitbart 20 hours ago.

Collector Car Insurance Quotes Now Available in Real Time at Automotive Portal Online

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Collector car insurance quotes are now included in the rates data available at QuotesPros.com. The agencies providing high value car rates are now viewable at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

Lubbock, TX (PRWEB) April 20, 2014

Owners of collector vehicles in North America now have a different option for researching price changes from different insurance agencies on the Internet. The Quotes Pros company is now offering real time collector car insurance quotes to any vehicle owner at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

The prepared quotations that are easily delivered through the company website this year are based on the rates that agencies are offering for various collector protection plans this year.

"A quote for foreign or American collector motor vehicles can be extracted while using our real time finder system to review prices for this year," said a Quotes Pros company source.

Visitors to the company website now receive immediate access to the quotation tool by using the zip code that is connected to the vehicle registration of each vehicle requiring a coverage policy. This new research option improves security and system privacy during independent research on the Internet.

"Users of our quotation system available through our homepage can easily compare rates from providers in any part of the country without having to enter vehicle values or VIN numbers," the source said.

The Quotes Pros company has introduced additional insurance products for consumers to evaluate and review through its finder tool for 2014. Adults accessing the rates tool can now find auto, life, business, renters and health insurance plans at http://quotespros.com/health-insurance.html.

About QuotesPros.com

The QuotesPros.com company has improved the accuracy of the quotation tool that is featured on the homepage for 2014. This company has gathered a number of different insurance agencies offering immediate quotations with a single click on the Internet. The QuotesPros.com company offers a simple solution to American vehicle owners to compare policies and other information critical to a successful vehicle protection policy purchase. New solutions for customer support are now provided by this company for users of the website throughout this year. Reported by PRWeb 19 hours ago.
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