The Washington state insurance commissioner has sent a reminder to health-insurance companies saying they cannot discriminate based on gender identity.
Reported by Seattle Times 10 hours ago.
Insurance rules on gender identity clarified
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1 in 3 New Yorkers enrolled in Obamacare are under 35
A large number of of young adults have obtained health insurance through New York State’s Obamacare website — but maybe not enough of them to keep the system afloat financially.
Reported by NY Daily News 10 hours ago.
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LISI Announces "THINK NOW" Market Strategy Event for Agents
LISI will offer three major four-hour events throughout the state of California to provide health insurance agents with expert insights into sales and market strategies.
San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) June 26, 2014
LISI, Inc., the premier California General Agency is excited to announce THINK NOW, a free-of-charge, four hour event for insurance agents aimed at providing insights into market strategies, sales opportunities and solutions for 4th quarter renewals.
“This event promises to give agents valuable strategies for moving their business forward,” said Ken Doyle, Executive Director of Sales and Marketing for LISI. “They’ll not only hear it from our perspective but from our carrier partners as well.”
The THINK NOW event will be presented on three different dates at three different locations throughout California. Registration will begin at 11:00 a.m. with the program running from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Lunch will be provided.
Dates and Locations are:
July 15: Westin South Coast Plaza, Orange County
July 17: Marriott Warner Center, Woodland Hills
July 24: Marriott Mission Valley, San Diego
The program will open with remarks and perspectives on the insurance industry given by Ken Doyle, followed by presentations by such industry notables as Kathy Dibble, Head of Sales and Service, Small Group, Aetna; Jack Lyons, Director, Individual and Small Group Sales, Anthem Blue Cross; Steve Shearer, Regional Vice President, Individual and Small Group Sales, Anthem Blue Cross; Kevin Timone, National Vice President, CHOICE Administrators; Chris Patton, Vice President of SHOP Sales and Agent Management; Juan Lopez, Area Director, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Tim Rhatigan, Senior Vice President, Small Business, UnitedHealthcare.
Agents who want to attend should contact their LISI Sales Representative at 866-570-5474. Reported by PRWeb 7 hours ago.
San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) June 26, 2014
LISI, Inc., the premier California General Agency is excited to announce THINK NOW, a free-of-charge, four hour event for insurance agents aimed at providing insights into market strategies, sales opportunities and solutions for 4th quarter renewals.
“This event promises to give agents valuable strategies for moving their business forward,” said Ken Doyle, Executive Director of Sales and Marketing for LISI. “They’ll not only hear it from our perspective but from our carrier partners as well.”
The THINK NOW event will be presented on three different dates at three different locations throughout California. Registration will begin at 11:00 a.m. with the program running from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Lunch will be provided.
Dates and Locations are:
July 15: Westin South Coast Plaza, Orange County
July 17: Marriott Warner Center, Woodland Hills
July 24: Marriott Mission Valley, San Diego
The program will open with remarks and perspectives on the insurance industry given by Ken Doyle, followed by presentations by such industry notables as Kathy Dibble, Head of Sales and Service, Small Group, Aetna; Jack Lyons, Director, Individual and Small Group Sales, Anthem Blue Cross; Steve Shearer, Regional Vice President, Individual and Small Group Sales, Anthem Blue Cross; Kevin Timone, National Vice President, CHOICE Administrators; Chris Patton, Vice President of SHOP Sales and Agent Management; Juan Lopez, Area Director, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Tim Rhatigan, Senior Vice President, Small Business, UnitedHealthcare.
Agents who want to attend should contact their LISI Sales Representative at 866-570-5474. Reported by PRWeb 7 hours ago.
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R.A. Management Group LLC is Hosting a Small Business Financial Workshop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
For most small business owners, retirement planning comes a distance second to the immediate needs of running a startup or growing establishment.
Baton Rouge, LA (PRWEB) June 26, 2014
For most small business owners, retirement planning comes a distance second to the immediate needs of running a startup or growing establishment.
What many small business owners may not know is that planning for retirement is just as essential as calculating the costs of overhead for the business.
With this in mind, R.A. Management Group LLC is hosting a small business financial workshop on June 28, 2014 at the Holiday Inn - 9940 Airline Highway Baton Rouge, LA 70816.
The workshop will cover topics such as planning for retirement, health plans, how to fund retirement plans, and more.
R.A. Management Group LLC is a service disabled veteran owned small business that seeks to help similar businesses understand and focus on long term financial management that will help them better understand retirements plans and setting benchmarks and requirements for life insurance and also understanding small business health insurance options.
The Small Business Financial Workshop features key financial executives, from First Financial Securities, offering their expertise on how to get small business finances in order to properly plan for retirement.
The workshop runs from 12pm to 3pm and will include topics on:
For You Personally:
How to receive Tax-Free retirement income for life.
How to best save for your children's education.
How to have peace of mind when it comes to your retirement.
How to get high returns without down-side risks.
How to access your money at any time for any reason (without age 59 1/2 restrictions)
How to protect your money from judgments, creditors, lawsuits, probate, taxes
Small Business Owners:
Group Health Plans - Federal Subsidy
Group Life Insurance Plans
How to Fund a Company Retirement Plan
Guaranteed Retirement Income Programs
This workshop is an information-packed time that is filled with useful and timely information for all small business owners or nonprofit and faith-based leaders.
For more information on the workshop or to register: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/first-financial-securities-small-business-advisory-services-tickets-11966330617
Media contact call 866-284-7166.
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Media Contact:
Elder Jeffre Saint James, D.PSc
R.A. MANAGEMENT GROUP LLC
info(at)ramanagementgroupllc(dot)org
866-284-7166 – Representative Code: 0053DI
http://www.firstfinancialsecurity.com/ Reported by PRWeb 4 hours ago.
Baton Rouge, LA (PRWEB) June 26, 2014
For most small business owners, retirement planning comes a distance second to the immediate needs of running a startup or growing establishment.
What many small business owners may not know is that planning for retirement is just as essential as calculating the costs of overhead for the business.
With this in mind, R.A. Management Group LLC is hosting a small business financial workshop on June 28, 2014 at the Holiday Inn - 9940 Airline Highway Baton Rouge, LA 70816.
The workshop will cover topics such as planning for retirement, health plans, how to fund retirement plans, and more.
R.A. Management Group LLC is a service disabled veteran owned small business that seeks to help similar businesses understand and focus on long term financial management that will help them better understand retirements plans and setting benchmarks and requirements for life insurance and also understanding small business health insurance options.
The Small Business Financial Workshop features key financial executives, from First Financial Securities, offering their expertise on how to get small business finances in order to properly plan for retirement.
The workshop runs from 12pm to 3pm and will include topics on:
For You Personally:
How to receive Tax-Free retirement income for life.
How to best save for your children's education.
How to have peace of mind when it comes to your retirement.
How to get high returns without down-side risks.
How to access your money at any time for any reason (without age 59 1/2 restrictions)
How to protect your money from judgments, creditors, lawsuits, probate, taxes
Small Business Owners:
Group Health Plans - Federal Subsidy
Group Life Insurance Plans
How to Fund a Company Retirement Plan
Guaranteed Retirement Income Programs
This workshop is an information-packed time that is filled with useful and timely information for all small business owners or nonprofit and faith-based leaders.
For more information on the workshop or to register: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/first-financial-securities-small-business-advisory-services-tickets-11966330617
Media contact call 866-284-7166.
###
Media Contact:
Elder Jeffre Saint James, D.PSc
R.A. MANAGEMENT GROUP LLC
info(at)ramanagementgroupllc(dot)org
866-284-7166 – Representative Code: 0053DI
http://www.firstfinancialsecurity.com/ Reported by PRWeb 4 hours ago.
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Hobby Lobby Supporters Ignore Company's Investments in Abortion, Birth Control Drugs
Hobby Lobby Supporters Ignore Company's Investments in Abortion, Birth Control DrugsHobby Lobby Supporters Ignore Company's Investments in Abortion, Birth Control Drugs
Health
Religion
Hobby Lobby Abortion Investments
Has Been Optimized
The Christian-owned craft chain Hobby Lobby won a historic decision yesterday at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, objected to a contraceptive mandate in Obamacare that provided two types of so-called "morning after" pills and IUD devices.
In its case, Hobby Lobby claimed the "morning after" pills Plan B and Ella, and IUD devices could cause abortions.
Even though this claim has been scientifically debunked, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Hobby Lobby in a vote of 5-4 and ruled that a "closely-held" for-profit corporations could block contraceptive access for its female employees on religious grounds.
Conservative Christians who support Hobby Lobby and bought into the abortion claim have been ecstatic over the victory.
"The Supreme Court made the right decision today and to me it is a hopeful sign that our country may be moving in the right direction," California megachurch pastor Greg Laurie told The Christian Post. "I applaud Steve Green, the CEO of Hobby Lobby, for making this bold stand in bringing this case to the highest court in our land, which clearly, the Lord has honored."
Rev. Franklin Graham tweeted, "Congratulations to the Green family, owners of @HobbyLobby, and a big thank you for their strong moral stand. #hobbylobby," and "The Green family is an inspiration to Christians all around the world. We thank God for answered prayer! #hobbylobby."
South Carolina megachurch pastor Perry Noble tweeted, "In America, freedom of speech seems to now be the right of those who bow down to political correctness! #HobbyLobby took a stand and won!" and "Thankful for #HobbyLobby and their willingness to take a stand when so many simply take a seat in silence!"
Hobby Lobby has repeatedly stated that they conduct their business "in a manner consistent with Biblical principles."
However, none of Hobby Lobby's supporters have mentioned Hobby Lobby's investments in companies that manufacture actual abortion-causing drugs and the very same birth control drugs that Hobby Lobby successfully fought to deny their female employees via health insurance coverage, notes CNN today.
Mother Jones reported in April that 2012 documents filed with the U.S. Department of Labor showed that Hobby Lobby held more than $73 million in “mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions.”
According to Mother Jones, these drug companies and their products include "Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes Plan B and ParaGard, a copper IUD, and Actavis, which makes a generic version of Plan B and distributes Ella."
"Other holdings in the mutual funds selected by Hobby Lobby include Pfizer, the maker of Cytotec and Prostin E2, which are used to induce abortions; Bayer, which manufactures the hormonal IUDs Skyla and Mirena; AstraZeneca, which has an Indian subsidiary that manufactures Prostodin, Cerviprime, and Partocin, three drugs commonly used in abortions; and Forest Laboratories, which makes Cervidil, a drug used to induce abortions," reported Mother Jones.
Mother Jones added that Hobby Lobby "also invested in Aetna and Humana, two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in many of the health care policies they sell."
Sources: MediaMatters.org, CNN, Mother Jones, The Christian Post, Twitter, RH Reality Check
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Video Piece:
Regular Piece Reported by Opposing Views 21 hours ago.
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Freedom, Power, and the Conservative Mind
On Monday the Supreme Court struck down a key part of the Affordable Care Act, ruling that privately-owned corporations don't have to offer their employees contraceptive coverage that conflicts with the corporate owners' religious beliefs.The owners of Hobby Lobby, the plaintiffs in the case, were always free to practice their religion. The Court bestowed religious freedom on their corporation as well -- a leap of logic as absurd as giving corporations freedom of speech. Corporations aren't people.The deeper problem is the Court's obliviousness to the growing imbalance of economic power between corporations and real people. By giving companies the right not offer employees contraceptive services otherwise mandated by law, the Court ignored the rights of employees to receive those services.(Justice Alito's suggestion that those services could be provided directly by the federal government is as politically likely as is a single-payer federal health-insurance plan -- which presumably would be necessary to supply such contraceptives or any other Obamacare service corporations refuse to offer on religious grounds.)The same imbalance of power rendered the Court's decision in "Citizens United," granting corporations freedom of speech, so perverse. In reality, corporate free speech drowns out the free speech of ordinary people who can't flood the halls of Congress with campaign contributions.Freedom is the one value conservatives place above all others, yet time and again their ideal of freedom ignores the growing imbalance of power in our society that's eroding the freedoms of most people.This isn't new. In the early 1930s, the Court trumped New Deal legislation with "freedom of contract" -- the presumed right of people to make whatever deals they want unencumbered by federal regulations. Eventually (perhaps influenced by FDR's threat to expand the Court and pack it with his own appointees) the Court relented.But the conservative mind has never incorporated economic power into its understanding of freedom. Conservatives still champion "free enterprise" and equate the so-called "free market" with liberty. To them, government "intrusions" on the market threaten freedom.Yet the "free market" doesn't exist in nature. There, only the fittest and strongest survive. The "free market" is the product of laws and rules continuously emanating from legislatures, executive departments, and courts. Government doesn't "intrude" on the free market. It defines and organizes (and often reorganizes) it.Here's where the reality of power comes in. It's one thing if these laws and rules are shaped democratically, reflecting the values and preferences of most people.But anyone with half a brain can see the growing concentration of income and wealth at the top of America has concentrated political power there as well -- generating laws and rules that tilt the playing field ever further in the direction of corporations and the wealthy.Antitrust laws designed to constrain monopolies have been eviscerated. Competition among Internet service providers, for example, is rapidly disappearing -- resulting in higher prices than in any other rich country. Companies are being allowed to prolong patents and trademarks, keeping drug prices higher here than in Canada or Europe.Tax laws favor capital over labor, giving capital gains a lower rate than ordinary income. The rich get humongous mortgage interest deductions while renters get no deduction at all.The value of real property (the major asset of the middle class) is taxed annually, but not the value of stocks and bonds (where the rich park most of their wealth).Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans.The minimum wage is steadily losing value, while CEO pay is in the stratosphere. Under U.S. law, shareholders have only an "advisory" role in determining what CEOs rake in.Public goods paid for with tax revenues (public schools, affordable public universities, parks, roads, bridges) are deteriorating, while private goods paid for individually (private schools and colleges, health clubs, security guards, gated community amenities) are burgeoning.I could go on, but you get the point. The so-called "free market" is not expanding options and opportunities for most people. It's extending them for the few who are wealthy enough to influence how the market is organized.Most of us remain "free" in limited sense of not being coerced into purchasing, say, the medications or Internet services that are unnecessarily expensive, or contraceptives they can no longer get under their employer's insurance plan. We can just go without.We're likewise free not to be burdened with years of student debt payments; no one is required to attend college. And we're free not to rent a place in a neighborhood with lousy schools and pot-holed roads; if we can't afford better, we're free to work harder so we can.But this is a very parched view of freedom.Conservatives who claim to be on the side of freedom while ignoring the growing imbalance of economic and political power in America are not in fact on the side of freedom. They are on the side of those with the power.
ROBERT B. REICH's film "Inequality for All" is now available on DVD and blu-ray, and on Netflix. Watch the trailer below: Reported by Huffington Post 20 hours ago.
ROBERT B. REICH's film "Inequality for All" is now available on DVD and blu-ray, and on Netflix. Watch the trailer below: Reported by Huffington Post 20 hours ago.
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Americans Can't Agree On The Hobby Lobby Decision
Americans don't agree on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds.
Forty-six percent of Americans said they approved of the high court's decision that "closely held" companies, such as those controlled by families, cannot be required to provide contraception coverage for their employees if doing so violates the owners' religious beliefs. Forty-one percent disapproved.
Opinion was sharply divided along party and gender lines. While 77 percent of Republicans approved, just 20 percent of Democrats did. Men were 11 percentage points more likely than women to support the decision.
More broadly, 52 percent of Americans favored requiring employers to provide health care plans that cover the cost of birth control, while 32 percent did not.
As with many other subjects that involve both a hot-button debate and a slew of nuanced details, however, the polling on this issue is highly sensitive to how the question is phrased. Ask Americans whether they generally support contraception coverage, and a majority tend to agree. Mention religious objections, and support tends to drop. In a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, for instance, 61 percent said private health insurance plans should cover the full cost of birth control, but just 55 percent said that for-profit companies whose owners object to birth control on religious grounds should have to cover it.
In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court's rulings in favor of Hobby Lobby and against abortion clinic buffer zones, the HuffPost/YouGov survey finds Republicans far more satisfied than Democrats with the court. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans said they approved of the Supreme Court's performance as a whole, compared to just 37 percent of Democrats and 33 percent of independents.
According to the poll, contraception is not controversial to most Americans. Seventy-three percent said using birth control is morally acceptable; just 7 percent said it is morally wrong.
Democrats were more likely to express positive views about birth control use, with 80 percent calling it morally acceptable. Sixty-two percent of Republicans and 72 percent of independents agreed.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted July 1 to July 2 among 1,000 U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. Reported by Huffington Post 20 hours ago.
Forty-six percent of Americans said they approved of the high court's decision that "closely held" companies, such as those controlled by families, cannot be required to provide contraception coverage for their employees if doing so violates the owners' religious beliefs. Forty-one percent disapproved.
Opinion was sharply divided along party and gender lines. While 77 percent of Republicans approved, just 20 percent of Democrats did. Men were 11 percentage points more likely than women to support the decision.
More broadly, 52 percent of Americans favored requiring employers to provide health care plans that cover the cost of birth control, while 32 percent did not.
As with many other subjects that involve both a hot-button debate and a slew of nuanced details, however, the polling on this issue is highly sensitive to how the question is phrased. Ask Americans whether they generally support contraception coverage, and a majority tend to agree. Mention religious objections, and support tends to drop. In a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, for instance, 61 percent said private health insurance plans should cover the full cost of birth control, but just 55 percent said that for-profit companies whose owners object to birth control on religious grounds should have to cover it.
In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court's rulings in favor of Hobby Lobby and against abortion clinic buffer zones, the HuffPost/YouGov survey finds Republicans far more satisfied than Democrats with the court. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans said they approved of the Supreme Court's performance as a whole, compared to just 37 percent of Democrats and 33 percent of independents.
According to the poll, contraception is not controversial to most Americans. Seventy-three percent said using birth control is morally acceptable; just 7 percent said it is morally wrong.
Democrats were more likely to express positive views about birth control use, with 80 percent calling it morally acceptable. Sixty-two percent of Republicans and 72 percent of independents agreed.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted July 1 to July 2 among 1,000 U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. Reported by Huffington Post 20 hours ago.
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Report: Medicaid expansion would cover more than 230,000 Tennesseans
Hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans would have better access to health care if the state expanded its Medicaid coverage, according to a new White House report. At least 234,000 people across the state would have health insurance by 2016 according to the report, which looks at the consequences of states’ refusal to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The report was compiled by the White House Council on Economic Advisers. The report also estimated that at least 165,000 Mississippians…
Reported by bizjournals 20 hours ago.
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Average health insurance bill may increase 13 percent in New York next year, and for some it's much worse
We’ve known health insurance rates will be increasing next year in New York. But now we have more details about insurers' overall plans for the state, where health insurance costs are already among the highest in the nation. State regulators today released proposed rate increases filed for 2015 insurance premiums. Overall, the weighted average increase that insurers requested for 2015 is about 13 percent, state regulators said. That average is comparable to historical trends in New York, but it…
Reported by bizjournals 19 hours ago.
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For Corporate America, Opposing Birth Control Is A Terrible Idea
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this week in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that closely held corporations can refuse on religious grounds to pay for contraception as mandated by the Affordable Care Act. Previously, only churches and religious nonprofits had exemption from the health law's contraception mandate.The Fortune 500 companies that had actively voiced support for the landmark 2010 Citizens United case, which ruled that corporations have a First Amendment right to free speech, were notably absent from this debate over a corporation's right to free expression of religion, as Slate reported earlier this year.
That might be because the Hobby Lobby ruling will do more harm than good to corporate America. Here are three reasons why.
*Corporations Might Have An Identity Crisis*
A corporation is not a person. It is an abstract legal entity that is separate from the individual owners and shareholders that comprise it.
Legally, corporations can do things that a person can do, like enter into contracts or pay taxes. The Hobby Lobby case entered into murky territory regarding the rights and responsibilities of a corporation: Can a corporation have religious beliefs like an individual person?
The ruling doesn't say that the corporation itself has religious beliefs, but it allows the corporation to avoid compliance with federal law based on the beliefs of its owners/shareholders. This muddies the traditional legal definition of a corporation, which separates the corporate entity from the individuals who own and manage it.
The Court's decision also has the potential to complicate corporate governance, according to an amicus brief filed by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce and the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. The brief argues that religious discussions could create a new source of conflict among shareholders, potentially pushing out those with minority views.
Even in the best case scenarios, corporations may be forced to invest time and money figuring out how to navigate new questions about their "official" religious expression.
*The Cost Burden Could Shift To Taxpayers And Insurers*
With employer-sponsored health insurance, both the employer and the employee pay for the employee's health benefits. The employer negotiates a per-employee premium with the insurance company and the employee pitches in by also paying monthly premiums and co-payments for office visits and prescription medications.
The Affordable Care Act mandated that all insurance plans need to cover certain FDA-approved contraception methods. Even though the Court's Hobby Lobby decision means the company doesn't have to pay for contraception through its employer-sponsored health insurance plans, many of the company's employees may still want access to the birth control that they legally have a right to.
What does that mean? Either the government or health insurance companies will have to pick up the tab.
For religious organizations that are already exempt from the mandate, the insurance company basically eats the cost. The onus is on the insurer to notify women in the health plan that it will be "providing them separate no-cost payments for contraceptive services for as long as they remain enrolled," according to a press release from the Department of Health and Human Services.
No word on what happens if a private insurer is religiously opposed to contraception, but the other option, proposed by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, is that the government provides the contraception free of charge.
*Paying For Contraception Costs Way Less Than An Unintended Pregnancy*
The U.S. government already shoulders a tremendous burden when it comes to paying for both family planning and unintended pregnancies (when a woman becomes pregnant even though she wasn't planning to).
The government spent $12.5 billion on births resulting from unintended pregnancies nationwide in 2008 through publicly funded programs like Medicaid, according to a report from The Guttmacher Institute.
Currently about 3.4 million, or half of pregnancies in the United States each year are unintended, and the rates are highest among low-income and minority women. Contraception plays a significant role in reducing unintended pregnancies.
The Guttmacher Institute reports notes that two-thirds of women who are at risk of getting pregnant take birth control "consistently and correctly." The at-risk women who do not use birth control, meanwhile, account for more than half of all unintended pregnancies. While some people may voluntarily forego contraception, the population of women who do not use birth control may well grow on the heels of the Hobby Lobby decision.
Making it more difficult for women to obtain contraception won't make them less likely to need it, but it may make them less likely to use it — or less likely to seek employment at whatever company chooses to make things more complicated.
Given that the average woman spends three decades trying to avoid an unintended pregnancy, the widespread access to contraception mandated by the ACA — and hobbled by this latest decision — was designed as a way to reduce costs for individuals and taxpayers as a whole.
The financial effect of the decision on businesses won't be known for some time, and that's part of the problem. "The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield," Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned in her dissent, noting that the decision was "bound to have untoward effects."
It's no wonder corporate America is not lining up behind Hobby Lobby to applaud.
*SEE ALSO: Supreme Court Says Small, Private Companies Don't Have To Provide Contraception *
Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 18 hours ago.
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Previously Deported Mexican Felon Captured 80 Miles Into Texas
HOUSTON, Texas—An illegal alien who had been deported from the United States because of a felony drug conviction was captured near Falfurrias, Texas after sneaking back into the country. A friend of his paid a coyote to smuggle him into the country in Hidalgo county where he began the nearly one hundred mile hike that would leave him left for dead in South Texas only to be arrested by volunteer deputies working extra shifts in Brooks County.The illegal alien, age 30, grew up in the United States having immigrated illegally as a child. He was deported six months ago after having served time for a felony drug conviction according to Daniel Weber, the head of the volunteer police officers who have come to the aid of the beleaguered Brooks County Sheriff’s Office.
The man had injured his ankle walking through the rugged terrain and deep sand. The coyotes of the group he was with left him behind for dead. He was discovered, according to Walden, after wandering for two days with no food or water. He was captured near the intersection of Highway 281 and Farm to Market Road 755 according to Walden.
The capture of the illegal alien felon came during a twenty-six and a half hour shift by Walden and one of his fellow reserve deputies for no pay as part of the Border Brothers of Texas program he created to help Brooks County. The county has had to cut down their staff to four paid patrol deputies because of the cost to the county of burying the dead illegal immigrants found on the ranches near Falfurrias.
Walden also reported he and his reserve partner responded to a drive-by shooting between two rival gangs operating in the area. “The members of the Tri-City Bombers gang were attacked by an unknown gang,” Walden told Breitbart Texas. “The victims refused to cooperate so we don’t know who the other gang is at this time.”
He said this type of shooting is illustrative of the dangers of working in this area. “We do this volunteer work without insurance coverage,” Walden said, “except for our own personal health insurance.” Brook County does not provide insurance coverage for its deputies because of the budget cuts that are breaking the financial backs of this lightly populated county.
“The twenty-six plus hour shift was a record for us,” Walden said about his reserve deputies. “Our previous record was twenty-one hours. We wanted to see if we could break it and we did!” He said the shifts start to feel long during the middle of the night and then something happens and they are charged back up by the opportunity to serve.
Bob Price is a staff writer and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX. Reported by Breitbart 18 hours ago.
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Affordable Car Insurance at the State Level Now Displayed in Real Time at Auto Portal Website
Affordable car insurance from state level agencies is now displayed for drivers using the Quotes Pros website. These cheaper rates can be accessed from http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.
San Jose, CA (PRWEB) July 02, 2014
Discounts for motor vehicle insurance from state companies can often rival the price structures from some of the largest insurers in the U.S. The Quotes Pros company is now showcasing affordable car insurance at the state level through its automatic quotation system at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.
Consumers have the option to explore the rates data through a zip code tool that matches local agencies first before expanding into national companies that are underwriting state plans. The use of the code format is a new add-on to the system for this year.
"State agencies that are licensed to provide consumers with motor vehicle insurance are a large percentage of the companies that can quote a plan through our real time system," said a Quotes Pros rep.
The display of price information is a new tool that some agencies are connecting to websites for consumers to access. One issue with basic systems is the non-discounted annual pricing that is displayed. Because agencies usually require the vehicle identification information or license numbers to quote plans, consumers can be limited when exploring available discounts.
"We've built a completely automated tool that provides access at the touch of a button to a series of prices that are offered for a specific area of the country," said the rep.
The Quotes Pros website is now featuring access to different agencies away from the motor vehicle coverage plans that are updated this year. Health insurance, life insurance and other packages are available to quote using the same search process at http://quotespros.com/health-insurance.html.
About QuotesPros.com
The QuotesPros.com company supplies easier methods for locating American insurance agencies on the Internet using its connected platform of agency prices. The quotations for coverage plans that this company distributes daily represents different packages offered by national companies. The QuotesPros.com website provides a direct access link to the company database that distributes all agency pricing with the input of a zip code. Reported by PRWeb 17 hours ago.
San Jose, CA (PRWEB) July 02, 2014
Discounts for motor vehicle insurance from state companies can often rival the price structures from some of the largest insurers in the U.S. The Quotes Pros company is now showcasing affordable car insurance at the state level through its automatic quotation system at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.
Consumers have the option to explore the rates data through a zip code tool that matches local agencies first before expanding into national companies that are underwriting state plans. The use of the code format is a new add-on to the system for this year.
"State agencies that are licensed to provide consumers with motor vehicle insurance are a large percentage of the companies that can quote a plan through our real time system," said a Quotes Pros rep.
The display of price information is a new tool that some agencies are connecting to websites for consumers to access. One issue with basic systems is the non-discounted annual pricing that is displayed. Because agencies usually require the vehicle identification information or license numbers to quote plans, consumers can be limited when exploring available discounts.
"We've built a completely automated tool that provides access at the touch of a button to a series of prices that are offered for a specific area of the country," said the rep.
The Quotes Pros website is now featuring access to different agencies away from the motor vehicle coverage plans that are updated this year. Health insurance, life insurance and other packages are available to quote using the same search process at http://quotespros.com/health-insurance.html.
About QuotesPros.com
The QuotesPros.com company supplies easier methods for locating American insurance agencies on the Internet using its connected platform of agency prices. The quotations for coverage plans that this company distributes daily represents different packages offered by national companies. The QuotesPros.com website provides a direct access link to the company database that distributes all agency pricing with the input of a zip code. Reported by PRWeb 17 hours ago.
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Crown Care expands patient advocacy services in Hawaii
Crown Care LLC, a Hawaii-based patient-advocacy company that helps companies and individuals navigate health insurance options, has expanded its services from advocating and assisting seniors with their Medicare and Social Security options to include patient advocacy for all age groups with any health care problems. “What we do is we make sure we get all the information and communicate it with patients and all members of their family,” said Dr. Eileen Hilton, president and CEO of the company.…
Reported by bizjournals 15 hours ago.
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Shortchanging Our Own Future
I am very disappointed and concerned about our inability to provide affordable education to the next generation of leaders. The last few years have been extraordinarily disheartening for graduating students and postgraduates faced with few employment opportunities, soaring costs of college tuition, and, most recently, increases in student loan interest rates. To win the future, we should be providing incentives to encourage our youths to pursue professional careers that are suffering from labor shortages, instead of making education more costly and taxing for them.
While our global economy is in a state of flux there is no question that the fastest-growing jobs are in healthcare, largely due to changing demographics. According to the United States Census Bureau, 83.7 million Americans are expected to be 65 and older by 2050. This aging population and retirement of the baby-boomer generation will inevitably intensify need for quality healthcare. Currently, experts anticipate considerable demand for personal care aides, diagnostic medical sonographers, occupational therapy assistants, nurse practitioners, dental hygienists, and medical equipment repairers. It is also estimated that healthcare providers will account for at least one-third of the jobs projected to be created over the course of the next ten years.
As the longstanding Dean of New York's Congressional Delegation, I have had the privilege of interacting with countless medical students from the some of the greatest medical schools in the nation, including Columbia University. Yet it is disheartening when aspiring physicians tell me that many of their peers are discouraged from obtaining degrees in healthcare because they do not foresee a high return on their investments.
Students are discouraged to pursue a career in medicine because it is simply becoming more unaffordable to endure the gruesome years of education and training. Subsidized Stafford student loans doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent last year. While my fellow Democrats and I sought to procure revenue by closing existing tax loopholes, a handful of Republicans refused to maintain affordable interest rates and instead sought to place the burden of deficit reduction on low-income students and middle-class families.
What is even worse, the Republican Party delivered another painful blow by coercing the Obama Administration into signing the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013, which effectively increased student loan interest rates even further. Consequently, new unsubsidized and subsidized student loans are now set at 4.66 percent, up from 3.86 percent.
The anxiety of rising student loan interest rates is compounded by the abhorrent increase in tuition cost that has skyrocketed far above the rate of inflation. According to a report released by the College Board, the average in-state tuition at a public institution for a four-year degree was $8,893 and a master's degree was $7,750 for the 2013-2014 academic year. Given that the median household income has declined from $54,387 in 2005 to $51,371 in 2012, the cost of higher education has become a significant drain on America's working families. This is what inspired me to introduce the Student Loan Interest Deduction Act (SLID) of 2013, which would double tax deductions for student loan interest rates and eliminate income phase-outs.
I am very proud of the accomplishments we have made in remedying some of our nation's most pressing issues. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act has been a step in the right direction, which have allowed those who were previously denied coverage access to health insurance and medical care. We must now enact measures that will resolve the labor shortage in the healthcare industry. If we do not improve access to affordable education and compel the next generation of leaders to pursue professional careers that will be in high demand, America will have fallen short on investing in our own future. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
While our global economy is in a state of flux there is no question that the fastest-growing jobs are in healthcare, largely due to changing demographics. According to the United States Census Bureau, 83.7 million Americans are expected to be 65 and older by 2050. This aging population and retirement of the baby-boomer generation will inevitably intensify need for quality healthcare. Currently, experts anticipate considerable demand for personal care aides, diagnostic medical sonographers, occupational therapy assistants, nurse practitioners, dental hygienists, and medical equipment repairers. It is also estimated that healthcare providers will account for at least one-third of the jobs projected to be created over the course of the next ten years.
As the longstanding Dean of New York's Congressional Delegation, I have had the privilege of interacting with countless medical students from the some of the greatest medical schools in the nation, including Columbia University. Yet it is disheartening when aspiring physicians tell me that many of their peers are discouraged from obtaining degrees in healthcare because they do not foresee a high return on their investments.
Students are discouraged to pursue a career in medicine because it is simply becoming more unaffordable to endure the gruesome years of education and training. Subsidized Stafford student loans doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent last year. While my fellow Democrats and I sought to procure revenue by closing existing tax loopholes, a handful of Republicans refused to maintain affordable interest rates and instead sought to place the burden of deficit reduction on low-income students and middle-class families.
What is even worse, the Republican Party delivered another painful blow by coercing the Obama Administration into signing the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013, which effectively increased student loan interest rates even further. Consequently, new unsubsidized and subsidized student loans are now set at 4.66 percent, up from 3.86 percent.
The anxiety of rising student loan interest rates is compounded by the abhorrent increase in tuition cost that has skyrocketed far above the rate of inflation. According to a report released by the College Board, the average in-state tuition at a public institution for a four-year degree was $8,893 and a master's degree was $7,750 for the 2013-2014 academic year. Given that the median household income has declined from $54,387 in 2005 to $51,371 in 2012, the cost of higher education has become a significant drain on America's working families. This is what inspired me to introduce the Student Loan Interest Deduction Act (SLID) of 2013, which would double tax deductions for student loan interest rates and eliminate income phase-outs.
I am very proud of the accomplishments we have made in remedying some of our nation's most pressing issues. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act has been a step in the right direction, which have allowed those who were previously denied coverage access to health insurance and medical care. We must now enact measures that will resolve the labor shortage in the healthcare industry. If we do not improve access to affordable education and compel the next generation of leaders to pursue professional careers that will be in high demand, America will have fallen short on investing in our own future. Reported by Huffington Post 16 hours ago.
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State lapse leaves MNSure health applicants in the lurch
At least 16,000 low-income health insurance applicants never received letters telling them that the state needed more information, and many remain uninsured.
Reported by TwinCities.com 15 hours ago.
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17 Facts That Prove That The Quality Of Jobs In America Is Going Down The Drain
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,*Do you wish that you had a better job? If so, you are not alone.* In fact, there are millions upon millions of Americans that get up every day and go to a job that they wish that they could afford to quit. Unfortunately, most Americans end up just desperately holding on to the jobs that they have because just about any job is valuable in this economic environment. Over the past decade, the long-term trends that are destroying jobs in America have accelerated. We have seen countless numbers of jobs shipped overseas, we have seen countless numbers of jobs replaced by technology, we have seen countless numbers of jobs taken by immigrants and we have seen countless numbers of jobs lost to the overall decline of the once great U.S. economy.
*Unfortunately, even though we can all see this happening, our “leaders” have failed to come up with any solutions. * And since there are so many of us that are desperate for jobs these days, employers know that they don’t have to pay as much. The balance of supply and demand in the employment marketplace has radically shifted in their favor. So less workers are getting health insurance these days, less workers are getting retirement plans and once you adjust for inflation our paychecks have been getting smaller for years. *Needless to say, all of this is absolutely eviscerating the middle class. *
The following are 17 facts that prove that the quality of jobs in America is going down the drain…
*#1* A study conducted by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity is projecting that the number of college graduates that will be entering the workforce in the U.S. this decade will be nearly three times as high as the growth in the number of jobs that require at least a Bachelor’s degree.
*#2* Only four of the twenty fastest growing occupations in America require a Bachelor’s degree or better.
*#3* It is hard to believe, but in America today one out of every ten jobs is now filled by a temp agency.
*#4* At this point, 53 percent of all wage earners in the United States make less than $30,000 a year.
*#5* Approximately one out of every four part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line.
*#6* One out of every three grocery store workers in the state of California is on some form of public assistance.
*#7* Due to the decline in the quality of our jobs, income inequality in the United States has grown to frightening levels. The following is an excerpt from a recent Politico editorial that was written by a very wealthy individual…
The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.
But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.
And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.
*#8* In 2007, the average household in the top 5 percent had 16.5 times as much wealth as the average household overall. But now the average household in the top 5 percent has 24 times as much wealth as the average household overall.
*#9* In terms of median wealth per adult, the United States is now in just 19th place in the world.
*#10* Our paychecks just keep getting smaller. Median household income in the United States is about 7 percent lower than it was in the year 2000 after adjusting for inflation.
*#11* During the last recession, the U.S. economy lost millions of middle class jobs. But during this “recovery”, most of the jobs that have been “created” have been low paying jobs. The following is from the New York Times…
During the recession, employment declined across the board, but 60 percent of the net job losses occurred in middle-income occupations with median hourly wages of $13.84 to $21.13. In contrast, these occupations have accounted for less than a quarter of the net job gains in the recovery, while low-wage occupations with median hourly wages of $7.69 to $13.83 have accounted for more than half of these gains.
*#12* Due to a lack of decent jobs, half of all college graduates are still relying on their parents financially when they are two years out of school.
*#13* According to one survey, 76 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
*#14* Back in the 1980s, over 20 percent of the jobs in the U.S. were manufacturing jobs. Today, only about 9 percent of the jobs in the U.S. are manufacturing jobs.
*#15* One recent study discovered that all job growth in America since the year 2000 has gone to immigrants.
*#16* Another recent study found that 47 percent of unemployed Americans have “completely given up” looking for a job.
*#17* The plight of unemployed workers is likely going to continue to get even worse as technology replaces more of our low paying jobs. For example, McDonald’s plans to experiment by replacing thousands of workers in Europe with touch screen terminals. Will we soon see the same thing in America?
Almost all of us know someone that is working a low quality job.
Perhaps you find yourself stuck in such a situation.
And when you are slaving away day after day, week after week for next to nothing, it can really suck the life right out of you.
Just consider what one restaurant cook named Ruben goes through on a daily basis…
Ruben has worked as a cook at the Golden Corral restaurant chain for more than five years, and still only earns $8 per hour.
He has been living with his mother because he can’t afford a place on his own. But now she is about to move into an assisted living facility so he has no idea where he will go.
His job is in Maryland, so he takes the bus from D.C. every day. The last train home leaves at 11:24 p.m., so on nights when he works later than 11:30 p.m. he walks two hours home because he can’t afford a cab.
He says he’s scared to ask for a raise because he’s worried that they will let him go and find someone else willing to take the low wage.
Other Americans have found themselves dumped out of the middle class in recent years and forced to take just about anything that they can find. A recent Huffington Post piece documented the plight of a formerly middle class couple named David and Barbara Ludwig…
In August 2008, factory workers David and Barbara Ludwig treated themselves to new cars—David a Dodge pickup, Barbara a sporty Mazda 3. With David making $22 an hour and Barbara $19, they could easily afford the payments.
A month later, Baldwin Hardware, a unit of Stanley Black & Decker, announced layoffs at the Reading plant where they both worked. David was unemployed for 20 months before finding a janitor job that paid $10 an hour, less than half his previous wage. Barbara hung on, but she, too, lost her shipping-dock job of 26 years as Black & Decker shifted production to Mexico. Now she cleans houses for $10 an hour while looking for something permanent.
They still have the cars. The other trappings of their middle-class lifestyle? In the rear-view mirror.
Reported by Zero Hedge 15 hours ago.
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Nevada woman with troubled Obamacare enrollment dead of cancer
A cancer-stricken Nevada woman whose health insurance coverage was delayed due to enrollment troubles with her state’s Obamacare-mandated health care exchange has died.
Reported by NY Daily News 14 hours ago.
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Need for ballot measure on health insurance rate regulation debated
Kicking off a major ballot fight this year, California lawmakers pressed the state's insurance commissioner to defend a proposal that would grant his agency sweeping new authority over health insurance rates.
Reported by L.A. Times 14 hours ago.
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Auto Insurance Prices in California Now Quoted at Auto Company Website
Auto insurance prices in California are now quoted through the Quotes Pros company for drivers. Exploration of these rates can be conducted at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 02, 2014
The rising costs for motor vehicle insurance coverage in states like California is one of the issues that car owners are presented with during a search for coverage plans. The Quotes Pros company is now displaying and quoting auto insurance prices in California through its tool at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.
Every price that is displayed to American motor vehicle owners using the state accessible quotation system is calculated by zip code entry. This method provides a secure access way to obtain individual policy pricing without giving up certain details like VIN numbers or license numbers for quotes review.
"California currently leads the United States in high insurance costs and our website is now providing a detailed way to locate less expensive coverage policies," said a Quotes Pros source.
The direct insurance quotation tool now in use is also capable of supplying quotations to drivers in other U.S. states. While California zip codes can be used to access each quote, drivers in any area of the country who can validate a zip code before system entry can begin the quotes process.
"We're making it an effortless procedure to review, compare or purchase a policy for insurance coverage using our free tools," added the source.
The Quotes Pros company has improved the features for researching agencies using a single zip code. Any consumer can review auto insurance, life insurance, business insurance, health insurance and other packages for pricing at http://quotespros.com/life-insurance.html.
About QuotesPros.com
The QuotesPros.com company showcases prices for vehicle insurance from its simple but effective website online. A group of agencies that have been selected supply a quotation system with price data for motorists to review daily. The QuotesPros.com company is expanding its options for public research for insurance products throughout this year by adding packages that are not automotive specific. A zip code is the only format needed for the public to review a quote virtually. Reported by PRWeb 14 hours ago.
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 02, 2014
The rising costs for motor vehicle insurance coverage in states like California is one of the issues that car owners are presented with during a search for coverage plans. The Quotes Pros company is now displaying and quoting auto insurance prices in California through its tool at http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.
Every price that is displayed to American motor vehicle owners using the state accessible quotation system is calculated by zip code entry. This method provides a secure access way to obtain individual policy pricing without giving up certain details like VIN numbers or license numbers for quotes review.
"California currently leads the United States in high insurance costs and our website is now providing a detailed way to locate less expensive coverage policies," said a Quotes Pros source.
The direct insurance quotation tool now in use is also capable of supplying quotations to drivers in other U.S. states. While California zip codes can be used to access each quote, drivers in any area of the country who can validate a zip code before system entry can begin the quotes process.
"We're making it an effortless procedure to review, compare or purchase a policy for insurance coverage using our free tools," added the source.
The Quotes Pros company has improved the features for researching agencies using a single zip code. Any consumer can review auto insurance, life insurance, business insurance, health insurance and other packages for pricing at http://quotespros.com/life-insurance.html.
About QuotesPros.com
The QuotesPros.com company showcases prices for vehicle insurance from its simple but effective website online. A group of agencies that have been selected supply a quotation system with price data for motorists to review daily. The QuotesPros.com company is expanding its options for public research for insurance products throughout this year by adding packages that are not automotive specific. A zip code is the only format needed for the public to review a quote virtually. Reported by PRWeb 14 hours ago.
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10 Mind-Bending Questions About the "Hobby Lobby" Decision
Judge Ginsburg certainly got it right when she said that the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision is going to create "havoc." And as the repercussions mount, so do the questions, in areas that range from economics and taxation to theology and philosophy.
There are those who might say that these questions are disrespectful to believers. But it is the Court which has arguably transgressed here, by declaring that a bloodless corporation is capable of belief. It has suggested that an economic and legal entity is capable of sharing in the profound and uniquely human phenomenon that is the spiritual experience. That notion could be described as disrespectful toward humanity.
Some might even call it blasphemy.
The ruling states that "closely-held corporations" don't have to provide reproduction-related health coverage if it violates the corporation's religious beliefs. If the Court intended to use the IRS definition of that term, then this decision covers more than 90 percent of all American corporations and more than half of all American workers - over 60 million people in all.
This decisions has created an understandable firestorm of confusion, since the Court didn't trouble itself to explain what it means by "closely-held corporation." Which gets us to our first question:
*1. Which owners determine a corporation's "religious beliefs"?*
However "closely held" is ultimately defined, it will almost certainly involve a small number of owners (the IRS standard is up to five) who own a substantial portion of the corporation's shares. This often happens in family-owned companies whose principal owners are presumed to share the same religion.
By its nature, this ruling is heavily oriented toward Catholic and fundamentalist Christian families. That raises certain questions that would make my Catholic grandmother very angry, but which must be asked anyway:
What if they don't share a religion? What if some family members break with the faith, as is so common nowadays?
Do a majority of the private owners need to have religious objections in order for this ruling to take effect? Or can a minority among the ownership dictate the "religious beliefs" of the entire corporation?
What happens if Mom joins a New Age cult, Junior becomes a Scientologist, and Sis becomes an atheist? At that point, the majority of our five-member family no longer has a religious objection to contraception. Then what?
And, as a practical matter, can owners be deposed regarding their religious affiliations in order to determine the corporation's legal obligations?
On these and related questions, the Court offers no guidance.
*2. What if different family members interpret Scripture differently?*
Even if all the owners share the same faith, questions could arise. Law professor Eugene Volokh states emphatically that "when the person believes that complicity itself is sinful, the question is not whether our secular legal system thinks that he has drawn the right line regarding complicity; it is whether he sincerely believes that the complicity is sinful."
Volokh is saying it doesn't matter whether society believes a certain action is contributing to the sinful behavior. If the religious "person" - in this case, the corporation - believe that action makes him complicit in sinful behavior, then he/she/it has the right to refuse to engage in it.
But who determines that belief? In the example of our five-member family, is it Mom? Dad? A majority vote? Again, would depositions - in this case regarding the details of each owners' theological positions - be considered appropriate?
Volokh may believe that his interpretation brings clarity to this ruling. It doesn't.
*3. If a corporation has already violated its own "religious beliefs," can those beliefs still be imposed on its workers?*
This question is particularly relevant to Hobby Lobby, since it's already been reported (in Mother Jones) that it invested heavily in corporations that manufacture contraceptives. In fact, nearly three-quarters of Hobby Lobby's retirement funds are reportedly invested in accounts which include contraceptive manufacturers among their holdings.
Does that render the corporation's self-professed beliefs null and void? Or is a corporation allowed to be selective, imposing its faith upon others but not upon itself according to its whims?
Which gets us to ...
*4. Does a corporation with "religious beliefs" has to follow all the tenets of its self-professed faith?*
Most American Catholics use contraception. In fact, 82 percent of American Catholics find contraception "morally acceptable." (My grandmother would not have been among them.) That makes the "corporate person" known as Hobby Lobby an outlier within its own theological community.
Even if we recognize this particular entity as Catholic - and somebody really should ask Pope Francis about that - it is being far more doctrinaire, at least in one area, than most of its human peers.
And yet, Hobby Lobby is the kind of believer which Catholic conservatives derogatorily describe as a "cafeteria Catholic," picking and choosing among church doctrines like a restaurant-goer at a buffet. The Church's reproductive doctrines are based on what it describes as "reverence for life" and are inseparable theologically from its opposition to the death penalty, its commitment to ending poverty, and its opposition to unjust wars (Pope John Paul II explicitly included in Iraq in that category). The Church calls it a "consistent ethic of life."
Conservative, ideologically right-wing Catholics - whether at Hobby Lobby or on the bench - don't go for that. They're far choosier when it comes to Church teachings. Is that permissible under these circumstances? Volokh would presumably say "yes," because the interpretation of faith is a personal matter.
But that's just gets us back to our earlier question: who is the person here, and how is that interpretation performed? Unless individuals are empowered to speak for the corporations on matters of theology, shouldn't the appropriate religious authorities dictate what it means to hold such beliefs?
Unfortunately for Hobby Lobby, the Church probably wouldn't approach of its selective reverence for life.
*5. Does the "religious belief" rule apply even when it's based on false information?*
One of the striking things about the Hobby Lobby decision is the fact that its moral position was based on a misperception of reality. This is not attack on anyone's faith. It's a statement of fact. Hobby Lobby has reportedly argued that certain forms of contraception - emergency contraceptives and IUDs - terminate a fertilized egg after that moment has passed. But that isn't true. They prevent conception before it happens.
This does not meet Volokh's standard regarding an individual's personal right to determine what constitutes complicity in a deed. In this case, there is no deed being performed.
Someone may have a moral objection to techniques which prevent conception, but that is not the position that Hobby Lobby took. Will "corporate persons" be routinely allowed to make these decisions on false grounds, or to rewrite reality as "a matter of faith"?
*6. What does it mean for the future of "corporate personhood" now that some corporations have more rights than others?*
This decision specified that only "closely-held corporations" - whatever those are determined to be - may have "religious beliefs," and therefore can be relieved of certain obligations. That gets us into another knotty area that has yet to be explored. It means that, in this era of "corporate personhood," there are now two distinct types of corporate persons: one which can exercise religious rights, and another which cannot.
The long-term implications of that have yet to be considered, but here's one right off the bat: if one corporation is relieved of a costly obligation while its competitors are not, it will quickly find itself at a competitive advantage in the marketplace. That could provide a powerful incentive for corporations to "get religion."
It also means that the Supreme Court is tampering with the one thing it may hold even more sacred than religion: the free market.
*7. Can a corporation be relieved of other responsibilities on the grounds of "religious belief"?*
Our employer-sponsored healthcare system is arcane, clumsy, and all but unworkable. It is a historical accident, and it makes us unique among all developed countries. But, over time, US employers eventually came to provide most of the nation's health care coverage. This was not and is not an act of generosity. It's a response to economic reality.
As leading healthcare economist Uwe Reinhardt recently explained in the New York Times, employers aren't giving health care coverage to their employees as a gift. The employees are indirectly financing their own health insurance through reductions in their take-home pay. What's more, no large American corporation could survive for long without offering health insurance benefits of some kind.
The system is the result of a historical anomaly which placed this obligation in employers' hands in return for lower salary costs. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, that obligation was enshrined into law.
If corporations can be relieved of one legal obligation on the grounds of "religious belief," where does it end? Sure, the Court limited this particular decision. But that probably won't last for long. What is the difference between exempting a corporation from providing insurance coverage and exempting it from, for example, paying taxes?
*8. Will a "third-party fix" be applied and, if so, who will carry the economic burden?*
Austin Frakt is a very competent healthcare economist - and he doesn't know the answer to this question either. It's already clear that any "fix" will be administratively complex and burdensome. What's not clear is whether there will be additional government cost.
If there is, that will constitute a redistribution of coverage cost from the employer to the general public. Isn't that, in effect, a government subsidy for religion?
If the government does not pay for coverage, it looks as if someone will have to write specialized coverage for contraception only. How would you underwrite something like that?
Whatever solution is proposed, we can be sure it will be complicated. And Congress is sure to object. So, if nothing is done ...
*9. How will the Court justify its decision's discriminatory effect on lower-income women?*
And how will their conservative friends feel about a sudden upsurge in births on the poor side of town?
*10. Will this finally force some common sense into the political debate, so that we replace employer-sponsored health care with a single payer system?*
Years ago, I used to say that my only objection to single-payer healthcare was that it wasn't politically feasible. After seeing what the legislative (and lobbying) process did to the ACA, I'm now convinced that nothing but some form of single-payer can make it through our political process and still be capable of substantially improving our failing healthcare system.
This decision is proof of that. So is the obstruction against Medicaid expansion which is taking place at the state level. So are the dozens of other complications we've seen along the way.
And so is the ongoing high cost of healthcare which continues to burden most Americans. The rate of cost increase has slowed in recent years, for reasons that are still unclear. But, while that offers some relief, it's not a solution to costs that are already too high - for results that are inferior to those of comparable nations.
It's time to do something that makes sense. (Michael Hiltzik makes this case in more detail at the Los Angeles Times. So does Emily DeVito at the Blog for Our Future.)
That leaves us with just one final question. It's a bonus question for the Court majority, one which may have occurred to you already: If a corporation can hold religious beliefs, does that mean it has a soul?
Reported by Huffington Post 11 hours ago.
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More Pages to Explore .....
