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Experient Health Explains Health Care Reform and Women's Preventative Care in Latest Blog Post

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The health care reform law requires health plans to cover certain preventive care services for participants without any cost-sharing, such as deductibles, copayments or coinsurance. This requirement includes additional preventive care for women.

Richmond, VA (PRWEB) June 13, 2014

The health care reform law requires health plans to cover certain preventive care services for participants without any cost-sharing, such as deductibles, copayments or coinsurance. This requirement includes additional preventive care for women, Experient Health wrote in its latest edition of its Blog series to help the community better understand changes in coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Experient Health, the health insurance arm of the Virginia Farm Bureau, has benefits consultants in every county in Virginia and are experts in health care reform. They feature an online health insurance quote engine and in their blog work to help the community live well to work well.

Under the health care reform law, more types of preventive care must be provided at no cost to women than to men. This is because women have unique health needs and higher rates of chronic disease, such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, Experient Health wrote.

What Is Covered?

Health plans must cover certain additional preventive services with no copay, coinsurance or deductible for the patient. The following items are included in this coverage:· Well-woman visits (annual preventive care visit in which adult women obtain recommended preventive services)
· Gestational diabetes screening for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant, and women at high risk
· Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing for women 30 and older, once every 3 years
· Annual counseling for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, plus annual HIV testing for all sexually active women
· Contraceptives and contraceptive counseling. (Certain religious employers, such as churches, are not required to cover contraceptives)
· Breastfeeding support, supplies and counseling
· Domestic violence screening and counseling

"Be sure to check your plan’s specific rules before receiving care," Experient Health advised. "The preventive care rules do not apply to health plans that have 'grandfathered' status under the health care reform law."

Though plans are required to provide these services free of charge, they do have the option of using cost-control measures, such as requiring patients pay for a brand name drug if a comparable generic drug is available, or charging a copayment for preventive services received at out-of-network facilities.

Questions? Contact an Exerpient Health benefits consultant today. Reported by PRWeb 10 hours ago.

Full Coverage Auto Insurance Quotes Website Adds New Rates Online

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Full coverage auto insurance quotes website, http://quotespros.com, is now featuring new rates from American insurers that can be viewed in real time by any car owner.

Miami, FL (PRWEB) June 13, 2014

The competition in the American insurance industry for vehicle coverage options has expanded the types of policies that consumers have available to research on the Internet. The Quotes Pros company is helping with public research this year by displaying full coverage auto insurance quotes publicly at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

The quotations that are now accessible by any U.S. driver includes full plans aside from the basic state minimum plans that exist in the location system. All quotes information that is viewable publicly can be reviewed by any car owner with a simple entry of a zip code that matches a U.S. city.

"The policies for vehicle coverage that any person can find when using our digital location system are broad, and the system returns many providers to maximize savings," said a source at the Quotes Pros company.

The full coverage policy data that is now viewable through the QuotesPros.com finder tool is in addition to other options for coverage that motorists have available. A driver who requires a policy that provides protection like SR22 or non owner can find these plans using the public tool.

"What our system provides is a faster solution compared with many offline systems for insurance reviews and allows any person to make informed decisions about insurer pricing," said the source.

The Quotes Pros company has maintained its website system over the past year in the U.S. and is now featuring other policies that are not directly related to the automobile industry. Coverage plans for life, health, renters and homeowners insurance are available for review or quotes at http://quotespros.com/health-insurance.html.

About QuotesPros.com

The QuotesPros.com company has maintained its growth inside the research industry by allowing consumers to access its information through its national search system. The free tools on the company website link the public with various insurers provided coverage quotes. The QuotesPros.com company is now focusing its efforts on providing real time quotes compared to the long process of phone or mail quotations. All supplied quotes data comes from national insurers inside the network of providers. Reported by PRWeb 9 hours ago.

State slows transfer of public health coverage to MNsure site

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State officials have slowed a massive transition of public insurance beneficiaries to the new MNsure system, but say the health insurance exchange still will meet projections for 1.3 million enrollees by 2016. Reported by TwinCities.com 9 hours ago.

Online Car Insurance Search Database Now Includes PIP Insurance Rates

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Online car insurance search database setup for public use at the Quotes Pros website is now delivering PIP insurance for motorists. State plans are now quotable at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

Jacksonville, FL (PRWEB) June 13, 2014

Personal insurance protection is one add-on coverage type to vehicle insurance that some state legislation now requires drivers to have throughout the U.S. The Quotes Pros company has expanded its insurer finder this year and now presents its online car insurance database with PIP insurance quotes at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

The database of providers that is accessible to any motor vehicle owner uses zip codes to determine PIP coverage states. A motorist in Texas, Florida and other states who is required to carry personal insurance protection as part of a vehicle coverage plan can quote all prices using the database system.

"The privacy that our system offers is an added benefit for a person who has limited time to review prices for policies," said a Quotes Pros source.

The car insurance agencies that are featured inside the public system are licensed and do provide more than PIP car insurance add-on coverage. The state minimum plans like liability and non owner are featured as well as more advance policies. The rates information provided through the system also includes a link to process an insurance policy purchase.

"All use of our database is free to the public and all transactions that are processed for insurance are completed directly with each coverage provider," said the source.

The Quotes Pros company has added more plans to its growing database this year and more consumers could find low rates using the advanced features available. Life insurance, homeowner and health insurance are part of new quoted plans that are viewable at http://quotespros.com/life-insurance.html.

About QuotesPros.com

The QuotesPros.com company supplies the public with a simplistic method of reviewing insurance quotes and other services from insurance agencies. The Internet tools that have been developed for the public seek to provide content faster in the insurer industry. The QuotesPros.com company provides vehicle, health, renters, business and homeowner rates that are calculated from actual companies in the website system. New providers are explored and entered into the system monthly for public searches. Reported by PRWeb 8 hours ago.

Flipping Houses Not as Easy as TV Makes It

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Before you quit your day job, understand that it is not as easy as it looks.You come home from a long day at work and while channel surfing, you come across a show in which guys are buying run-down houses, fixing them up and reselling them for huge profits before the first mortgage payment is due.

Wow. What's more, they claim they make as much money on this one house as you have in the last year.

They don't look or sound any smarter than you are and they're raking in the cash. You start crunching numbers and before you know it, you're thinking about a career change.

Before you quit your day job, can we talk?

It's not as easy as it looks on TV. There is a boatload of competition out there, which means that the obvious deals are gone in a heartbeat. The pros will tell you that they make their money on the front end by buying properties for at least 30% below market value. Finding those houses takes time and once you find them, you'll need to move fast. And no matter what the late-night gurus say about doing this with no money down, it hardly ever works that way. That means you'll need access to cash to do the deal, not to mention the rehab.

"The masses believe in the dream that's been promised to them, that they'll be making a fortune in the next six months," says Todd Tretsky, Managing Partner of CRE- Finance. "They don't have the basic know-how. If it were as easy as they make it seem, 10 million people would be flipping real estate."

What's there to learn? Todd Tretsky explains "I wish people understood that they need to have adequate savings in place to pay the bills while money is flying out the door for cabinetry, plumbers and plants. You need more cash to carry the house, the insurance, the utilities and the maintenance. You won't get a contractor to renovate a house for no money. People go to trade shows and buy these books and tapes on how to buy a house with no money down. I've never seen someone actually do that."

Tretsky's advice to individuals who are considering going full-time is to keep your job, make a little bit of money and pay yourself back, building up your cash reserves. Go with experienced partners on your first couple of deals, then make the jump yourself.

Hopefully, by the fifth or sixth house, you don't need me anymore and you're buying houses for cash. That's important because as soon as you (quit) your job, you can't get a loan.

Tretsky states "I know plenty of guys who do two, three, four houses a year, keep their health insurance and do this on the side," he says. "Many times, they can double their salary."

Call me If you have any questions regarding property flipping, commercial real estate or are seeking financing, please contact Todd Tretsky at 212-257-7305 or visit my site at ToddTretsky.com

Company Contact Information
CRE Finance
R. K. Rich
2 Industrial Way West, Suite 202A
Eatontown, NJ
07724
855-515-5585

News and Press Release Distribution From I-Newswire.com Reported by i-Newswire.com 7 hours ago.

Experient Health Offers Weight Loss Setbacks Tips In Latest Blog Post

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In the case of managing set backs when trying to stick with a healthy eating and fitness plan, Experient Health offers these tips to keep the community on track.

Richmond, Va. (PRWEB) June 14, 2014

When it comes to losing weight or sticking to a fitness plan, people often have setbacks.

And that's ok, Experient Health wrote in one of its latest Blog posts in its Live Well, Work Well series, launched last year to help educate the community on how to stay healthy even between doctor visits. Experient Health is the health insurance arm of the VIrginia Farm Bureau and offers health care consultants in every county in the Commonwealth and an online health insurance quote engine.

"What matters most during a setback is how quickly you gain control of the situation," Experient Health wrote. "In the case of managing set backs when trying to stick with a healthy eating and fitness plan, here are some tips to keep you on track."

Avoid a setback to begin with.

Been eating well for weeks and need a reward? Don’t look to food.

"Rewarding yourself with food is one of the quickest ways to fall into that downward spiral of old habits," Experient Health wrote "Reward yourself with a new running shirt or something pampering, like a massage or pedicure."

Understand how to get off a plateau.

"Many people get easily discouraged when they are stuck at a plateau in their weight loss," Experient Health wrote. "A plateau can occur after you have lost 10% of your weight and can last a couple of weeks. As you begin a new habit of diet and exercise, your body will eventually adapt, therefore it doesn’t have to exert as much energy and calories into doing it. When you reach these plateaus, readjust your calories and activities to get things moving again but most importantly, don’t give up!"

Manage expectations.

"There are stages we all go through when we desire a change in our lives," Experient Health wrote. "In terms of weight loss, it’s important to remember that you didn’t put the weight on overnight and you can’t take it off overnight. Give yourself time."

To read more healthy living tips and weight loss suggestions, visit the Experient Health Live Well, Work Well Blog. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

President Obama Talks Climate Change, Optimism at UC Irvine Commencement Speech

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President Obama Talks Climate Change, Optimism at UC Irvine Commencement Speech President Obama delivered the commencement speech at UC Irvine on Saturday afternoon, telling graduates they "have a right to be optimistic" and urging them to get involved in the fight against climate change.

According to NBC Los Angeles, the President said he could not wait to see what this generation of college graduates will do, calling them "super underrated" and crediting his own administration with much of the progress the graduates have seen in the country.

"Consider this: since the time most of you graduated from high school, fewer Americans are at war," Obama told the 8,000 graduates at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. "More have health insurance. More are graduating from college. Our businesses have added more than nine million jobs. And the number of states where you're free to marry who you love has more than doubled. That's just some of the progress you've seen over your four years at UC Irvine."

Obama's speech marks the second time a president has given the commencement speech at UC Irvine, according to the Los Angeles Times; Lyndon B. Johnson spoke there in 1964, and Michelle Obama spoke to graduates there in 2009.

Obama also announced the creation of a $1 billion fund for states affected by extreme weather, for rebuilding and security purposes. The president said the fund "should not be a partisan issue," before taking a jab at Republicans.

"After all, it was Republicans who used to lead the way on new ideas on how to improve the environment," he said, referencing President Nixon's passage of the Clean Air Act and President Theodore Roosevelt's development of national parks.

The Times reports that UC Irvine spent $2 million on the ceremony. Campus officials and students spent about a year sending postcards and video invitations in an effort to persuade the president to speak at the school's 50th anniversary and commencement speech.

"I'm here for a simple reason," Obama said. "You asked."

President Obama was at a $32,000-a-plate fundraiser in Laguna Beach on Saturday morning for donors to the Democratic National Committee. After the speech, Obama flew to Palm Springs, where he'll stay until Monday morning. Reported by Breitbart 7 hours ago.

New Digital Health Tools to Change the Face of Healthcare in the Near Future

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User-friendly applications have the potential to make health systems more efficient as they get adopted at large scale. New players, such as Insurance companies, will be able to reach out more effectively to citizens responding to health shortages.While developments in the field of health information technology is advancing and the use of eHealth and mHealth applications is gaining ground, the future of healthcare, including interactions between patients, health professionals and most of the actors of the healthcare ecosystem (Insurance companies, Pharmaceutical companies, Hospitals, Universities etc.) will move towards better and quicker communication and thus digital tools.

Some regions of the world, such as the United States, are a lot more advanced in this sense, the use of eHealth having been adopted by about 30 percent of physicians' offices. In Europe, the situation is quite different. The figures given by the European Commission show that there are more than 100,000 #mHealth apps already available across multiple platforms. Overall, the good news comes with the top 20 free sports, fitness and health apps that already account for 231 million downloads worldwide.

Digital health tools can simplify, ease exchange and engage people in a closer relationship. User-friendly applications have the potential to make the health systems more efficient as they get adopted at large scale. New players, such as Insurance companies, will be able to reach out more effectively to citizens and offer them medical care options especially in geographies where currently there are major health coverage shortages. In addition, Insurance companies can use these new digital health tools to increase health awareness and allow everyone to be involved in their own health, enabling people to focus more towards prevention rather than only being reactive

In the online space, the power of social networks can also contribute to the development of online trustful relationships between different people and professionals and Insurance companies can bring everyone under the same umbrella with targeted services responding to their needs. Some social health networks, like iValuehealth.NET, address such topics bringing everyone in one place, sharing more information for better awareness, and services allowing users to interact with each other. iValueHealth.NET is a social health network that acts both as local and global hub, which offers citizens and professionals multiple possibilities to find health information and services, applications as per their needs in one place. This helps to overcome shortages in different geographies, reducing distances, and enabling best practices to be shared in the benefit of all. As we all say "prevention is better than cure", and with new digital tools, this can save a lot for private or public companies, yielding lower costs of having health insurance for everyone.

About iValueHelath.NET:

iValueHealth.NET (http://beta.iValueHealth.NET) is the first European multilingual health social platform. After years of intensive research, to meet the needs in the area of healthcare, iValueHealth.NET was successfully launched in 2012. The platform is unique in its field and connects the healthcare ecosystem in one place, enabling health actors to become visible in the online world, interact with each other, share experiences and benefit from different services. It is currently available in 6 European languages, attracted more than 450,000 members and has over 2 million page views each month.

Company Contact Information
iValueHealth.NET
iValueHealth
Spain
+33645502752

News and Press Release Distribution From I-Newswire.com Reported by i-Newswire.com 7 hours ago.

Supreme Court has 17 cases to decide by June's end

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The religious rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the privacy rights of people under arrest are among the significant issues that are so far unresolved. Corporations are claiming the right to exercise religious objections to covering women's contraceptives under their employee health insurance plans, despite the new health law's requirement that birth control be among a range of no-cost preventive services included in health plans. Abortion opponents are challenging as a violation of their speech rights a Massachusetts law mandating a 35-foot protest-free zone on public sidewalks outside abortion clinics. — Recess presidential appointments: A federal appeals court said President Barack Obama misused the Constitution's recess power when he temporarily filled positions on the National Labor Relations Board in 2012. Investors could find it harder to bring class-action lawsuits over securities fraud at publicly traded companies in a case involving Halliburton Co., a provider of energy services. Reported by SeattlePI.com 11 minutes ago.

Supreme Court Has 17 Cases To Decide By June's End

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WASHINGTON (AP) — It's crunch time at the Supreme Court, where the justices are racing to issue opinions in 17 cases over the next two weeks.

The religious rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the privacy rights of people under arrest are among the significant issues that are so far unresolved.

Summer travel, European teaching gigs and relaxation beckon, but only after the court hands down decisions in all the cases it has heard since October.

In rare instances, the justices will put off decisions and order a case to be argued again in the next term.

This is also the time of the year when a justice could announce a retirement. But the oldest of the justices, 81-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has signaled she will serve at least one more year, and maybe longer.

The justices will meet Monday and again on Thursday to issue opinions, and could wind up their work by the end of the month.

A look at some of the cases that remain:

— Contraceptive coverage: Corporations are claiming the right to exercise religious objections to covering women's contraceptives under their employee health insurance plans, despite the new health law's requirement that birth control be among a range of no-cost preventive services included in health plans.

— Abortion clinic buffer zones: Abortion opponents are challenging as a violation of their speech rights a Massachusetts law mandating a 35-foot protest-free zone on public sidewalks outside abortion clinics.

— Cellphone searches: Two cases weigh the power of police to search the cellphones of people they place under arrest without first obtaining a warrant from a judge.

— Recess presidential appointments: A federal appeals court said President Barack Obama misused the Constitution's recess power when he temporarily filled positions on the National Labor Relations Board in 2012.

— TV on the Internet: Broadcasters are fighting Internet startup Aereo's practice of taking television their programming for free and providing it to subscribers who can then watch on smartphones and other portable devices.

— Greenhouse gases: Industry groups assert that environmental regulators overstepped their bounds by trying to apply a provision of the Clean Air Act to control emissions of greenhouse gases from power plants and factories. This case is unlikely to affect the recent proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency to slash carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by nearly one-third by 2030; that plan involves a different part of the same law.

— Union fees: Home health care workers in Illinois want the court to rule that public sector unions cannot collect fees from workers who object to being affiliated with a union.

—Securities fraud: Investors could find it harder to bring class-action lawsuits over securities fraud at publicly traded companies in a case involving Halliburton Co., a provider of energy services.

— "False" campaign claims: An anti-abortion group says state laws that try to police false statements during political campaigns runs afoul of the First Amendment. Reported by Huffington Post 19 hours ago.

Scholfield State Rep Race Won by Old Fashion Shoe Leather

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Scholfield State Rep Race Won by Old Fashion Shoe Leather KATY, Texas--Republican Texas State Representative candidate Schofield was like the mailman, out walking, rain, sleet, or shine. It paid off because he won by 68% of the vote in a district where 5,100 voters voted in the run-off. He did so against a candidate who has been the President/CEO of the Katy Area Chamber of Commerce since 1999.

His attitude is that “if you want to win the hearts and minds of the voters, you have to go to the grassroots and actually talk with them. They want to know what you believe.”  He says that you go out and talk to the voters “not just because it helps you win, but because it makes you a better representative, you hear the issues.”

Schofield told those who he talked to on their doorsteps that “if I just wanted you to know what I thought, I could mail you this brochure. I want to know what you think.”

Scholfield told Breibart Texas that he is a grassroots candidate and believes that a “race is about getting to know people – not about attacking your opponent." He said it is like applying for a job – "you do not attack the other applicants, you try to convince the employer that you are the right candidate for the job.” 

He covered 1000 homes a month between October 15th and Memorial Day. He knocked on 7,880 doors, just shy of the 8,000 he thought he would get to by the primary run-off date. He had knocked on 3000 doors by the time of the primary vote on March 4th. He hit the pavement on all but 9 days during that 7 1/2 month period. Schofield knows the power of the grassroots. He has been working for candidates for over two decades in West Houston and Harris County.

The Republican nominee for House District 132 is a lawyer who has worked at the prestigious law firm of Baker Botts, and as in-house counsel of a joint venture between Shell and Texaco. Schofield has served as advisor to Governor Rick Perry since 2003 - 6 sessions of the Texas Legislature.

While serving Governor Perry, Schofield worked on getting tort reform passed in 2003. At that time, Texas was losing doctors because they were facing double-digit malpractice insurance premium increases in the valley and in high risk specialties. High risk health care was limited for some of the most vulnerable Texans.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court case of Kelo v. City of New London sparked a nationwide property owner movement. The case expanded eminent domain powers beyond public use, to the power to take private land for the public benefit. It allowed an economic development authority to take homes for a corporation on the theory that it would increase the tax base and be good for the community. This U.S. Supreme Court decision enraged Democrats, Republicans, Southerners, and Northerners. Schofield went to work and helped pass a law, and later a constitutional amendment, that operated to limit eminent domain powers in Texas. 

He is also an expert on election law and worked on the Voter ID law during 3 sessions. He has assisted the Governor and Texas legislators with a whole host of legal issues as they relate to legislation, and he has experience with a wide range of policy issues. Schofield was entrusted with any question that involved lawsuits and potential lawsuits in legislation. The object – not to make suing the remedy in legislation. In-between sessions, he took time off to help candidates and to help get out the vote.

Schofield says he learned by knocking on doors that the issues facing the voters in his district are pretty much the same as those facing all Texans. He says “Texans are concerned about government that can’t be bothered to protect its borders, but has plenty of energy to get into their family’s business and tell them what health insurance to buy. Texans are very concerned that under Barack Obama the government is trying to enter into a permanent state of dictating more and more from Washington about how people have to live.”

He says that “government no longer suggests that smoking is bad and that you should eat more vegetables, they want to tell you to stop smoking and to eat more vegetables. There is no reason to believe that dictating that you must buy health insurance is anything but the first step in Washington’s attempts to tell you how to live.” 

If elected in the November general election, he pledges to stay out in the community. The district is very fast-growing and more and more people are added to the area every day. He says he will stay out in the community in order to see how the community is affected by the constant growth.

The fiscally conservative candidate attended a Katy Area Economic Development Corporation meeting a few months ago. Twenty minutes of slides were shown setting out commercial projects that were going to employ from 500 to 1000 people each. He says that the amount of housing and road mile increases, and increases on water infrastructure, is going to be enormous. Schofield is concerned that if the state keeps spending tens of billions of dollars on projects that are outside of Republicans’ core mission, the state is never going to be able to pay for things it is supposed to pay for like roads, schools, and water.

During the past 6 sessions of the legislature, Schofield spent his time helping the passage of good bills, keeping bad amendments off bills, and getting amendments on bills. He says “that if elected, I have no illusions that I will be anything other than a freshman legislator” but adds that “I have had a lot of experience working bills through the process.” 

Anyone desiring to run for state representative, city council, school board, or any local race, would be wise to emulate Mike Schofield when running for office. As the Republican nominee, he is now turning his attention to November 2nd. His plan is to turn out the voters for the judges and for all of the Republican ticket. He faces Democrat Luis Lopez in November.

Follow Lana Shadwick on Twitter @LanaShadwick2 Reported by Breitbart 17 hours ago.

State Auto Insurance Lookup Tool Launched by Quote Company Online

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State auto insurance agency lookup tool has been launched for public usage at the Quotes Pros website. Vehicle owners can access rates data from anywhere in the U.S. at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

New York, NY (PRWEB) June 15, 2014

Reviews for vehicle insurance companies is one method that average consumers use to find out information prior to purchasing a plan for coverage in the U.S. The Quotes Pros company is now adding to normal reviews by launching a state auto insurance lookup tool direct from its website at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

This tool now offers access to an enormous list of agencies within the U.S. offering coverage for most vehicles at the state level. The different companies now part of the Quotes Pros lookup system add to the variety that consumers will find in price and other incentives for multiple coverage plans.

"The review of prices for car insurance using our system requires no person to enter a vehicle identification number or vehicle details," said a Quotes Pros company source.

The insurer system was built with consumers in mind and offers a secure path to explore different companies. Because the launched system specializes in locating state companies, any person can receive licensed insurance company quotes in real time while remaining private.

"Data collection is a big part of the insurance industry and companies are now using more than one information source to help determine how much annual coverage will be for the average motorist," said the company source.

The Quotes Pros company has emerged as a direct source for the public to find a number of coverage options from American agencies this year. The car insurance options are currently mixed into the open database that also offers life, renters and health insurance quotations at http://quotespros.com/life-insurance.html.

About QuotesPros.com

The QuotesPros.com company provides the public with ways to explore insurance coverage for nearly any brand of motor vehicle used in the United States. Relationships have been strengthened by this company over the past several years to grow the company network. The QuotesPros.com company offers free access to its tools to provide an accurate quote for coverage to any website visitor. The car, life, business, renters and homeowner policies can be bought using the e-commerce system. Reported by PRWeb 13 hours ago.

Life Insurance Price Quotes in 50 States Now Comparable at Insurer Website Online

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Life insurance price quotes are now available for all 50 states through the Quotes Pros website. New rates information is now available at http://quotespros.com/life-insurance.html.

Houston, TX (PRWEB) June 15, 2014

Adults who are exploring the options that insurance companies add for term or whole life insurance protection now have new research capabilities online. The Quotes Pros company has added its comparison tool featured at http://quotespros.com/life-insurance.html to provide life insurance price quotes good in all 50 states.

The rates that are calculated through the use of the system are provided solely by national companies that specialize in whole, term, guaranteed and cash value insurance plans. The basic searches that the open system offers uses a zip code to match an adult with the best state rates available.

"Exploring insurance agencies by zip code is one concept that we're now offering to keep adult data private while providing full access to compare agency prices," said a Quotes Pros rep.

The quotes for life insurance that are viewable from the QuotesPros.com website are one example of the type of policy data that is now offered. Any person can retrieve homeowners insurance, renters or health insurance by selecting these options when visiting the website system.

"All quoted pricing is good through the remainder of the year and more companies are being added at a steady pace to further enhance adult research for life insurance," said the rep.

The Quotes Pros company has improved its strategies for displaying prices for different insurance products and is experimenting with new technologies. The auto insurance rate quotes that are found at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html now allow sorting by agency.

About QuotesPros.com

The QuotesPros.com company supplies instant rates details for insurance policies through its detailed insurer system on the Internet. The insurer database is digitally connected to provide consumers with an effective source of updated price information. The QuotesPros.com company has integrated new agencies inside of the platform to broaden the research any consumer can conduct while accessing the company website this year. Weekly changes are now a part of the offerings to the public database. Reported by PRWeb 11 hours ago.

Best Car Insurance Rates for California Drivers Added to State Quotes System at Insurer Portal

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Best car insurance rates for drivers in California are now featured in the statewide search tool from the Quotes Pros company. Every quotation available is now presented at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 15, 2014

Fluctuating prices in the insurance industry have affected motorists in states like California over the past decade. The Quotes Pros company is now providing relief to West Coast auto owners with its best car insurance rates for California drivers added to the quotes program at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.

The CA specific rates that are available provide the public with direct prices from local and state agents. The major cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento are included in the search platform to expand driver resources when comparing agency price discounts.

"We've opened up a new source of price reviews for any driver to use through our website and the entire system runs off of a zip code locator," said a Quotes Pros rep.

The location by zip code that is now provided helps to maximize the rates reductions that are possible to find while using the QuotesPros.com website. Because most rates are calculated locally by agencies, applicable fees and taxes are included in the prices that are offered to car owners using the CA research program.

"Our database connects with different agencies licensed to provide car insurance to California drivers and a valid zip code is required of all motor vehicle owners accessing the special rates," said the rep.

The Quotes Pros company has included new forms of coverage that is viewable in real time using the zip locator service. Quotes for renters insurance, life insurance and health insurance have been added for review this year at http://quotespros.com/health-insurance.html and include buy buttons for policy purchases.

About QuotesPros.com

The QuotesPros.com company supplies insurance agency price information through its connected portal on the Internet. Thousands of American consumers rely on the information supplied by this company weekly. The QuotesPros.com company specializes in finding auto insurance, life insurance, homeowners insurance and other agencies to distribute price details to consumers. The public information this company supplies is offered direct from each partnered company viewable from the website search tools. Reported by PRWeb 10 hours ago.

Thousands to Be Questioned on Eligibility for Health Insurance Subsidies

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The government has notified hundreds of thousands of people that information provided for subsidized health insurance did not match other federal documents and they may risk losing their subsidies. Reported by NYTimes.com 9 hours ago.

$15 wage too much to swallow, restaurant group says

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The Board of Supervisors last week put that measure on the ballot and approved separate legislation to close a loophole in the city's universal health care law that has let employers reclaim money set aside for their employees' health care if the funds went unspent. Eventually, employers won't be able to reclaim any of that money, and city officials hope they'll use the funds to provide regular health insurance instead. Word of an increased minimum wage and closed loophole in health care has been percolating at City Hall for months, sparking anger among Bleiman's fellow bar owners. The alliance and the Golden Gate Restaurant Association wanted a tip credit to be part of the minimum wage compromise among labor representatives, business groups and city officials - but they were stiffed. Adding surchargesTip credit aside, restaurant and bar owners say the minimum wage and closure of the health-care loophole will mean their already small profit margins of 3 to 5 percent will shrink into negative territory after a string of progressive laws from City Hall, including mandatory sick leave, mandatory health care and more. Supervisor David Campos, who spearheaded the health care loophole legislation and backed the minimum-wage increase, said they're both "very modest proposals" that will gradually take effect - and that the perspective of business owners was taken into account in both. Reported by SFGate 7 hours ago.

Three Reasons Liberals Lack Traction With Voters, Despite Conservative Failures

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· · AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File

In this March 18, 2014 file photo, voters cast their ballots in the Illinois primary in Hinsdale, Ill.

 
Today’s conservatives have a problem. The middle class is increasingly anxious about its economic prospects, and with good reason. Inflation-adjusted earnings have declined for most people since 2000, long before the collapse of 2008. Young adults face more than $1.2 trillion in college debt, declining entry-level salaries, high costs of housing and childrearing, and dwindling employer health and pension benefits. 
 
With new public attention being paid to inequality of income and wealth, these concerns don’t exactly play to conservative strength. The era since 1981 has been one of turning away from public remediation, toward tax cuts, limited social spending, deregulation, and privatization. None of this worked well, except for the very top. For everyone else, the shift to conservative policies generated more economic insecurity. The remedies are those of liberals’. So what’s a conservative to do? 
 
A good illustration of how the right is responding is a manifesto titled Room to Grow: Conservative Reforms for a Limited Government and a Thriving Middle Class. The document is a series of essays written by people who profess to be intellectually serious, “reform conservatives,” as a credulous press calls them. 
 
Room to Grow is published by the YG Network, which stands for “Young Guns.” The manifesto acknowledges as Young Guns founders House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan, House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy, and former Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a trinity that suggests the limits of reform. 
 
The editors and writers include such middle-aged guns as Peter Wehner, former head of George W. Bush’s in-house White House think tank; Yuval Levin, founding editor of the journal National Affairs; Scott Winship of the Manhattan Institute, and National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru. 
 
At least these conservatives admit Republicans have a problem. The document begins by candidly stating the plight of the middle class and the challenges facing the right. “Sixty-two percent of those in the middle class say the Republican Party favors the rich while 16 percent say the Democratic Party favors the rich,” Wehner writes. “Americans do not have a sense that conservatives offer them a better shot at success and security than liberals.” 
 
Well, yes. But the remedies the young guns offer are mostly the same old stuff—more tax cuts, tax credits for everything from health insurance to education, more deregulation, more vouchers, more cuts in social supports. To help the long-term unemployed, they propose a temporary reduced minimum wage. 
 
To read this manifesto, you would think liberals had been in charge since 1981 and that the woes of the middle class had not worsened during an era of conservative dominance. Where the document offers genuinely new stuff, it can be out of touch bordering on creepy.
 
For example, the authors, proposing cuts in social insurance, write that “Social Security and Medicare have ‘crowded out’ the traditional incentive to raise children as a protection against poverty in old age. Today, most workers can reasonably foresee getting enough support from the public retirement system to stay out of poverty when they get older, making it less likely that they will have to call on direct aid—either in cash or in kind—from their own children.” In other words, if only the government did not provide so much help, people would have more kids, who would support their parents in old age. So let’s go back to the 19th century. 
 
Are the authors aware that the median Social Security check is only about $14,000 a year, pretty bare subsistence? With young adults suffering downward mobility, are these Young Guns serious about adding burdens of supporting aging parents as well as raising young children? No wonder voters are skeptical. 
 
If conservatives offer little that’s credible to the anxious middle class, why aren’t liberals just trouncing them? 
 
First, the right has been so successful at blocking liberal initiatives to deliver tangible help that the middle class is not sure which party to trust. 
 
Second, compromises like the Affordable Care Act that do make it through Congress are hobbled by a costly and complex role for commercial middlemen—and seem to represent government inefficiency. 
 
And third, the details are wonky. This exercise is more about slogans and headlines. Only a tiny fraction of voters will notice the holes in the specifics. So despite such empty rhetoric, Republicans are poised to win the midterm elections. 
 
So what’s a liberal to do? 
 
As the party that considers itself responsible stewards of government, Democrats are reluctant to offer proposals that stand no immediate chance of passage. The liberal imagination has been stunted by decades of conservative obstruction and has lost its power to inspire. Most of what ails the middle class requires far more robust policies than are currently in mainstream debate. Liberals should say what they are really for. They might even win more followers. 
  Reported by The American Prospect 2 hours ago.

Supreme Court to decide 17 more cases

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The religious rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the privacy rights of people under arrest are among the significant issues that are so far unresolved. Corporations are claiming the right to exercise religious objections to covering women's contraceptives under their employee health insurance plans, despite the new health law's requirement that birth control be among a range of no-cost preventive services included in health plans. Abortion opponents are challenging as a violation of their speech rights a Massachusetts law mandating a 35-foot protest-free zone on public sidewalks outside abortion clinics. — Recess presidential appointments: A federal appeals court said President Barack Obama misused the Constitution's recess power when he temporarily filled positions on the National Labor Relations Board in 2012. Investors could find it harder to bring class-action lawsuits over securities fraud at publicly traded companies in a case involving Halliburton Co., a provider of energy services. Reported by SFGate 1 hour ago.

Insurers Are Fleecing Us Out of Billions While Congress Looks the Other Way

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A year-long investigation by the Center for Public Integrity has revealed that health insurers may have fleeced taxpayers out of $70 billion in just five years.

You would think members of Congress in both parties would be so outraged they'd be launching their own investigation and railing against the "fraud and abuse" they decry on the campaign trail.

But I'm not holding out much hope. That's because I know just how powerful and influential the health insurance industry is and how its lobbyists almost always get what they want out of Congress and the White House, regardless of who is sitting in the Oval Office.

The Center's Medicare Advantage Money Grab investigation, led by veteran reporter Fred Schulte, found that:
· Federal officials made nearly 70 billion in "improper" payments to Medicare Advantage plans from 2008 to 2013, mostly overbillings, by manipulating or misusing a Medicare payment tool called a "risk score."

· From 2007 through 2011, Medicare Advantage risk scores rose more than twice as fast as the average for people in standard Medicare in more than 500 counties nationwide.

· Federal health officials have long kept key financial records of Medicare Advantage plans in a "black box," inaccessible to the public and press.

· Medicare Advantage health plans collect billions of dollars from controversial "house calls" that industry officials say help improve care but which critics argue inflate costs needlessly.The findings did not come as a shock to me. During my two decades in the industry, at both Humana and Cigna, I came to understand just how much of a cash cow the Medicare Advantage program has become to insurers participating in the program. Wall Street financial analysts devote considerable attention to determining how much insurers' Medicare Advantage business contributes to their bottom lines and how much of the money they take in from the government is actually paid out in medical claims. The less they spend on medical care, the better, from Wall Street's perspective.

This is a huge business, and it's growing rapidly. This year alone, the government is expected to pay private insurers $150 billion to cover about 16 million Medicare beneficiaries. Almost one of every three Medicare enrollees now belongs to a privately operated Medicare Advantage plan.

Because the business is so profitable, insurers spend millions of dollars on lobbying, advertising, PR and "grassroots" political activities to keep the money flowing unimpeded.

It's not been a secret that the government has been overpaying the private insurers. The Congressional Budget Office has provided lawmakers with estimates of the overpayments a number of times in the past. One health policy expert testified that the extra payments to Medicare Advantage plans averaged 13 percent -- or $1,100 per enrollee -- in 2009 alone. In an effort to fix the problem, lawmakers included a provision in the Affordable Care Act to reduce the overpayments by several billion dollars over the next several years.

That prompted the industry to launch an intensive campaign to try to forestall those reductions. Having served on the strategic communications committee of America's Health Insurance Plans, I can imagine how sophisticated and multi-pronged the industry's campaign really is.

As I noted last January, AHIP formed a front group call the Coalition for Medicare Choices to intimidate lawmakers by posting ads on Washington buses and subway trains and on TV stations serving the area. The ads, which were part of a seven-figure campaign, warned that seniors would face higher costs, fewer benefits and a loss of provider choice if Congress and the Obama administration didn't act to keep plan rate cuts from going into effect.

In a POLITICO story at the time, an industry source was quoted as saying that, "If CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) doesn't keep Medicare Advantage payment rates flat next year, it is going to create a huge political problem for members of Congress this fall when they have to face millions of angry seniors who just found out they are losing benefits and choices they were promised they could keep."

The industry has played the intimidation card many times over the years, and members of Congress, Democrats as well as Republicans, know it. When I was an industry executive, we used to joke about the "granny fly-ins" -- all expenses-paid trips for hundreds of seniors to DC for a day of lobbying -- coordinated by AHIP.

Even Charles Schumer of New York, who chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2005-2009 and is the third ranking Democrat in the Senate, has become a champion of the Medicare Advantage program. Schumer was among 40 members of Congress who signed a letter to CMS supporting the insurers' cause earlier this year. Schumer and his colleagues wrote that seniors who join the plans "enjoy better health outcomes and receive higher quality care than their counterparts in the Medicare fee-for-service program."

The effort paid off. Health plan executives and financial analysts were happy that the relatively minor reductions were "not material to earnings," to use Wall Street jargon. Reported by Huffington Post 20 hours ago.

The GASB’s OPEB Proposals and Related Resources Are Now Available Online

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The GASB’s OPEB Proposals and Related Resources Are Now Available Online NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) today published two proposed Statements intended to significantly improve financial reporting by state and local governments of other postemployment benefits (OPEB), such as retiree health insurance. The GASB also published a third Exposure Draft that would establish requirements for pensions and pension plans that are outside the scope of the pension standards the GASB released in 2012. The three proposals, whi Reported by Business Wire 20 hours ago.
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