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The next big thing in health insurance may be in Oak Lawn

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Nestled between a pancake restaurant and a hair salon in a strip mall in Oak Lawn is a store just for seniors.

UnitedHealthcare, the nation's largest health insurer, on Thursday opened what it calls a "Medicare Store" in the southwest suburb, its first in Illinois. Licensed insurance agents are... Reported by ChicagoTribune 6 hours ago.

U.S. Army Medicine Civilian Corps Recognizes National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2015

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The Civilian Corps of the U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) recognizes October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) with dedicated efforts to encourage employment in the federal workforce for individuals with disabilities.

Fort Sam Houston, TX (PRWEB) October 01, 2015

The Civilian Corps of the U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) recognizes October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) with dedicated efforts to encourage employment in the federal workforce for individuals with disabilities.

With increased recruitment, hiring and retention, the Civilian Corps continues to support the Department of Defense’s goals and objectives for disability employment. National Disability Employment Awareness Month helps educate the public about disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of America’s workers with disabilities. This year’s theme is “My Disability is One Part of Who I Am,” and marks 70 years since the first observance.

“Disability hires makeup 1% of the Recruitment and Retention Branch’s reported hires and we encourage individuals with disabilities to explore the various career opportunities and exceptional benefits with the Civilian Corps,” says Dr. Joseph Harrison, Jr., Chief, Recruitment and Retention, Headquarters U.S. Army Medical Command, Civilian Human Resources. “Our recruitment efforts will continue to support disability employment and ultimately lead to the hiring of qualified individuals to serve our military counterpart.”

The Civilian Corps utilizes the Federal Government’s Schedule A Excepted Service hiring authority for persons with disabilities and increases participation of individuals with disabilities in internships, fellowships and training and mentoring programs.

Civilians, roughly 45,000, make up approximately 60% of the total Army Medicine workforce providing the day-to-day care for Army Soldiers, beneficiaries and their families at Army hospitals and clinics worldwide. The Civilian Corps provides rewarding career opportunities for civilians to serve those who serve their country. Employees are not subject to military requirements, such as enlistment or deployment, and receive excellent benefits, including flexible work schedules, competitive salaries, health insurance and access to state-of-the-art training and equipment.

For more information about opportunities for individuals with disabilities with the Civilian Corps, please visit http://www.civilianmedicaljobs.com and enter job number 2475 to begin the application process. Reported by PRWeb 6 hours ago.

Wonkblog: 101 economists just signed a love letter to the Obamacare provision everyone else hates

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To economists, the Cadillac tax on health insurance is a linchpin of Obamacare — the provision of the law that at long last seeks to fix a World War II era tax loophole that economists have for decades argued has made health care a tremendously inefficient market and helped drive up spending. To pretty much everyone else -- Republicans, Democrats, labor unions, big employers -- it's just got to go. Reported by Washington Post 6 hours ago.

Assurant Completes Sale of Supplemental and Small Group Self-Funded Health Insurance Business Lines to National General Holdings Corp.

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Assurant Completes Sale of Supplemental and Small Group Self-Funded Health Insurance Business Lines to National General Holdings Corp. NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Assurant announces the closing of the sale of certain business lines and assets from its health insurance business to National General Holdings Corp., effective immediately. Reported by Business Wire 4 hours ago.

Single Payer "Universal" Health Plans, versus what?

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We are in Australia, and my wife just paid for a General Practitioner's visit to examine possibly dangerous sun damage to her skin. The Doctor's examination cost her $37 Australian, and the topical medication just $10Au. So what is wrong with a health care system that functions so well, yet is mostly paid for by Australia's taxpayers?

Perhaps it's time to bust the myth that universal, or government-run, or 'socialized' medicine is somehow less desirable than the present U.S. system of private health insurance. We know the U.S. has the highest per capita health care costs in the developed world. So how does that make private health care that is owned and run by privately-owned health care providers (except for Medicare) more desirable?

It just isn't true that total health expenditures - government plus private spending - is unsustainable. Australia spends about 9.5 percent of GDP on health services, for instance; the United States spends 17.7 percent. And though US spending, whether or not a good value for money, hasn't undermined its economy or sapped the vitality of the country, it has held back higher worker productivity.

Australia has a government-run and insured health care system that covers every citizen cost free, with additional private insurance for those that can afford it. And there was absolutely no waiting period in Australia's fisth largest city, Adelaide, with the appointment scheduled just one day in advance.

The Physician my wife consulted said that the only drawback to the Australian system, in her opinion, was the difficulty of keeping the same General Practitioner, as there were some 44,000 GPs in Australia, and a patient had to see whoever was available at the time needed. Then what about our own Obamacare?

The Commonwealth Fund, a noted health care foundation, provides some of the best research on comparing national health plans and policies. And it maintains the U.S. Affordable Care Act will enable the U.S. to only begin to catch up with the rest of the developed world in not only health care benefits but global competitiveness, even though it still relies on private physicians and doesn't regulate drug costs,.

First, working-age Americans are sicker and die younger than citizens in many other developed countries," say two researchers of the Commonwealth Fund. "This health disadvantage translates into a competitive disadvantage, as there is a well-documented relationship between workers' health status and their productivity. The annual economic losses from diabetes and depression alone are estimated to exceed $100 billion.
"The ACA could significantly improve the U.S. workforce's overall health. Insurance expansions have been shown to improve beneficiaries' health and raise their future earnings. Since the main coverage provisions of the law took effect, 12 million to 17 million working-age adults have gained health insurance. In addition, the ACA has stimulated a wave of innovations in health care, many focused on the things that keep us well, like prevention, telehealth, and promoting healthy lifestyles and living environments. To the extent that these succeed, the benefits will be felt in workforce productivity and business competitiveness."Second, taming our nation's astronomical health care bill would further improve our ability to compete in foreign markets. We spend more on health care than any other wealthy country, as I said--health spending represents nearly one-fifth of the U.S. economy, compared with one-tenth in the average industrialized nation. This leaves fewer resources available for research, infrastructure, education, and other investments that are foundational to economic competitiveness. Warren Buffett went so far as to call our health system "the tapeworm, essentially, of the American economy."
Another study by the Commonwealth Fund reported:

• The United States stands out for having the highest rates of chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease: 87 percent of older adults in the U.S. reported at least one chronic illness,and 68 percent reported two or more.
• Despite having Medicare coverage, U.S. adults age 65 or older were the most likely to report that cost posed a barrier to care. One-fifth (19 percent) said cost was the reason they did not visit a doctor, skipped a medical test or treatment recommended by a doctor, did not fill a prescription, or skipped doses.
• U.S. survey respondents were also the most likely to report trouble paying their medical bills (11 percent). Only 1 percent in Norway and Sweden reported the same.

So the U.S. Affordable Care Act is just a beginning in offering equivalent health care benefits of other developed countries. Yet many of our poorest red and southern states are refusing to expand their own health care coverage, though much of it will be paid for by the federal government. Hence they will remain our poorest states, with the greatest income inequality whose citizens will be most in need of better health care. Need we say more?Harlan Green © 2015Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 2 hours ago.

Struck by a Turtle? There's a Code for That

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Medical providers have to use this new system of red tape to get reimbursed by health insurance and it's unintentionally amusing. Reported by msnbc.com 2 hours ago.

Health Insurance is Great - Navigators Needed to Help People Use It

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This spring, Adriann Barboa and her colleagues at Strong Families New Mexico went on a five-county tour, fanning out across the state to share findings from the Breaking Barriers study they'd conducted on progress under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The report is part of a ten-state series by the Alliance for a Just Society.

"In all the towns we went to, many people said it was great to finally have insurance, but they didn't know how to use it," Barboa said.

"The Breaking Barriers report recommends using navigators to help people understand what a primary care provider is, what preventive care is, and how to get those services using their insurance," Barboa said. "Across the five counties people pointed to that recommendation and said 'That's what we need.'"

Since passage of the ACA, the United States has seen a record decline in the uninsured rate. In 2013, more than 13 percent of people in the country were uninsured. By 2014, that figure had dropped to 10.4 percent.

These gains were achieved thanks to the ACA's Medicaid expansion and subsidies for coverage through state and federal marketplaces. The new law made millions of people eligible for health coverage when they'd been shut out in the past.

But, even with these changes, it took real people to get so many new enrollees through the door - these are the navigators mentioned by Barboa.

In the first open enrollment period alone, navigators and other enrollment assisters helped more than 10 million people apply for coverage. These navigators provided information about plans, assisted people with forms, helped them submit documents, and showed them how to make their payments.

This help was - and continues to be - key to the ACA's success, which is why the federal Department of Health and Human Services is increasing its investment in navigator programs.

We all know how apt the term "navigator" is, since the process of enrolling in health insurance is so complicated. But those complications don't end once you're signed up for insurance and have sent off your first premium payment. Using health insurance can be very confusing, too.

Many of us have had questions about our coverage. How do I select a doctor or other practitioner from my health plan's list of providers? What kind of care comes free of additional costs, and when may I be charged out-of-pocket payments - and how much will those payments be? How do I find out what services or prescriptions are covered? If I'm denied a service, what are my rights to challenge that denial?

These questions are hard enough when you've had health insurance your whole life. It's that much harder if you're getting coverage for the first time. In that case, you're entering a new world of formal terminology, provider lists, and paperwork.

That's why navigator-type programs should be there for us after we enroll, too.

Without an effort to make sure coverage translates into care, we run the risk of missing out on the promise of health reform - which, we should remember, is about transforming our health sector so people can get the care they need. Enrolling all those millions of formerly uninsured people is just the first step.

As the Alliance for a Just Society's recent Breaking Barriers reports show, many people - especially people of color and low-income people - still aren't getting into the doctor's office even after they have coverage.

Some community-based organizations provide good models for how an integrated assistance program can help people move into coverage and then turn that coverage into care.

The Community Service Society of New York (CSSNY) provides one such model. Drawing on funding from New York State, CSSNY has established an innovative coverage-to-care approach - using both a navigator network and a community health advocates program - that helps people obtain coverage and put their coverage to use.

A New Yorker needing help can call CSSNY's toll-free helpline, where advocates connect people to enrollment assistance, answer questions about coverage, or help troubleshoot insurance issues (such as coverage denials or billing problems). Using a hub-and-spoke structure, CSSNY also works with a broad, statewide network of community group and small business groups, offering help in almost 200 languages.

We need more programs like this one if we hope to truly transform our health care system and make it work for everyone. We need to make sure a person's insurance card is worth much more than the plastic it's printed on. Good coverage-to-care navigator programs are key to achieving that goal.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 15 minutes ago.

As California goes... But will nation follow state's lead on healthcare for immigrants?

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Like many blue states, California enthusiastically embraced Obamacare, signing up millions for health insurance. Now, it's venturing into a potentially costly and controversial new frontier of health policy: offering medical coverage to hundreds of thousands of people living in the country illegally.

... Reported by L.A. Times 14 hours ago.

The Brilliant Alex Borstein On Parenting, Creativity, And Divorce

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Sophia is a project to collect life lessons from fascinating people. Subscribe to get our updates directly via Facebook or email, or share your own wisdom.

Alex Borstein is the profanely funny comic actor who voices Lois Griffin on "The Family Guy." She also stars in "Getting On," the most under-hyped series now airing on HBO, a dark comedy about a down-and-out hospital unit for elderly patients.

In an interview with HuffPost earlier this year, Borstein opened up about parenting, body image, creativity, and life with hemophilia ("it's like diarrhea of the blood").

She also described a new phase of her life, divorce. "If you believe in romance and if you believe in marriage, you also have to believe in divorce," she said. "It's like with 'Getting On,' a lot of people say, 'I don't want to watch that. It's so dark.' But you can't just want to go to weddings and children's birthday parties. You've got to witness it all. We're just here to witness and believe in both."

"Getting On" returns for its third season on Sunday, November 8.*Have you had any recent realizations about living a more fulfilling life?*

You have to take breaks. That's what I think I've discovered from everything. Take a breather from work. Take a breather from your kids. You can't try to keep going and sustain everything all at once. That is, I think, the new magic rule I live by.

This trip is the most relaxed I've been in like two years. I've got a two-year-old kid. And it's being out here, in a hotel room, solo, laying naked in a bathrobe ordering room service -- it's the most relaxation I've had lately. It's astonishing how you have to take this kind of time.

*I get the sense that you're a more private person than most who have been working in television for 20 years. *

I'm definitely not interested in the notoriety side of it. If it gets you a table at a restaurant, it's nice. But I'm just interested in the play, the fun work. "Getting On" is just the coolest experience ever, and working with people like Laurie Metcalf, that's the joy. That's what I love about it. I still get very uncomfortable and flushed on the street if somebody recognizes me or stops me. I don't know what to say. It's uncomfortable and strange.

I purposely moved to Pasadena in Los Angeles to not be so centered in it. I didn't want to be going to restaurants where you know there's going to be paparazzi. You see all these poor people and the paparazzi won't leave them alone.

That's been a good tool, just removing myself and not having to deal with it too much. I don't want pictures of my kids anywhere. I don't tweet pictures of my kids. I don't put them on any social media. I definitely do like to keep some privacy that way. And mostly it's fear-based; people are crazy.

Fans turn on you on a dime. I mean, I remember, Seth [MacFarlane] and I were signing autographs in front of a premiere for a movie, and people were like, "Oh, oh, Seth, Seth, Seth." The staff started telling us to get into the theater because the movie's going to start. One guy says, "Alex, Alex, Alex, just one more." I'm like, "I'm sorry. I can't do it." I handed the pen back and turn around and he darted the pen into the back of my head as hard as he could. "Bitch!" He called me a bitch. And you're just like, really? Just like on a dime they turn on you. It was mob mentality.*What has surprised you about parenthood?*

Being terrible at it. [laughter] No. It's just 24/7. You don't really understand the constant-ness of it until it's too late. [laughter] You have to say that we laughed after I said that!

But yes, I think that was the most surprising part for me -- it is just all day, every day. The kids don't care that you have a script due. They don't care that you have to learn these lines. They don't care that you haven't slept. It also is a welcome surprise how your heart just melts, how you can't really believe your capacity for love for another human being until you have kids, I think.

*Is there anything that you've specifically done differently than your own parents?*

I think the biggest thing that I do is trying to delay gratification, and letting them feel things. Letting them cry, letting them be upset about things. My parents were wonderful, but there was a lot of, "Come on, now. Stop that. You're fine. You're fine. You're okay."

For them, it was how they were raised. "Uh oh, she's crying. Let's try to fix this, or help her stop crying." For a long time that made me feel like I should be stronger than to cry, I shouldn't let anyone see that I feel or emote.

I felt scared to feel things for long, so I'm trying to let my kids feel things and just be upset. If something that upsets them happens, I say, "You go ahead and cry. That's awesome. Let it out." Don't get me wrong. There comes a time where you're like, "Okay. You've been screaming for 10 minutes, I'm closing the door." 

*How do you balance the work and parental life?*

I don't. People who say they balance it are full of shit. It's never balanced. One day you fuck up in this way because you've done too much of this, and the next day you fuck up in that way. It's wonderfully imbalanced. And I think that makes life, life. I just do the best I possibly can.

I'm here instead of with them right now. I'm going to Pittsburgh tomorrow to work on a movie and I'm going to try to fly back every weekend to see them. And it's still not balanced, but it's going to be the very best I can do and it's probably going to be good for them in a way. I think having a break from mommy can be a good thing.

*Interesting. In what sense?*

The more present you are, the more you do things for them. The more you'll take over, the more you'll insert yourself into their personalities, insert yourself into their choices.

You remove yourself from the picture and their dad will do more of it that time, or grandma and grandpa will be there, or we've got sitters. I think it's really healthy for them to have time with all these different people and perspectives, and a chance to miss me. When I come back, it'll be, "Mommy!" It will be very exciting.


Seven years ago today the universe decided I would never get to sleep-in again. pic.twitter.com/tQ4AcveH8i

— Alex Borstein (@AlexBorstein) September 8, 2015

*Creativity is a big part of your life. How do you try to instill that in your kids?*

We chose progressive schools, which basically means you pay a lot of money and they just finger-paint all day, play in the sand, and crap themselves. That was a conscious choice to let them be in a place that let them be kids for a long time.

There's a lot of creative stuff going on in the house all the time. Literally, almost every other day I move the furniture around just because, fuck it. And I love it. I love messing around with what you think is certain. We live in a loft, so you can change the layout of the place dramatically by moving this here or there, or flipping where the dining room is and living room is. We do a lot of that, which keeps them like, "What?"

We do a lot of art projects. We do a lot of drawing. There's a lot of singing, a lot of singing, piano lessons, and I'm taking cello lessons, so the kids are around that a lot. There's no sitting down and forcing them to be that way. It's just kind of all over, they're surrounded by it right now.

*"The Family Guy" in particular has been an incredible hit. What has been the relationship between financial success and personal fulfillment in your life?*

I've been really lucky. I've been really, really lucky that things have blossomed one after the other. I mean, right now, I'm in a new chapter of my life. I'm going through a divorce [from husband Jackson Douglas], so that's a little different. But in terms of "MADtv" and then "Family Guy" and "Gilmore Girls," and then doing little movies here and there, and interesting projects, and a lot of writing, and now "Getting On".

I'm afraid -- I feel like I'm being set up. If I go for a mammogram, I'm like: Something bad is going to happen because things are too wonderful. Everything is blossoming. Please, please let me be healthy because, knock on wood, it feels like it's all blossomed together.

Of course, when you first come upon the dissolution of a marriage, it feels like a huge catastrophe and a blow. All you can do is say, Okay, this going to lead to something super interesting. What's next?

So I feel like everything has grown together. The schedule that "Family Guy" has allowed me to be with my kids is tremendous. It's astonishing. And then "Getting On" we shoot in the summer, a really tight schedule. So I'm around all the time for them, which is rare.*Are there any lessons that you've learned from the divorce?*

Don't get married. Is that a good lesson? [laughter] If you believe in romance and if you believe in marriage, you also have to believe in divorce. It's like with "Getting On," a lot of people say, "I don't want to watch that. It's so dark." But you can't just want to go to weddings and children's birthday parties. You've got to witness it all. We're just here to witness and believe in both.

You have to ride the highs and ride the lows. To know when you've done all you can in something and ridden it to the end is important, too. To know, which is hard. It's hard to see that when you're in it, but maybe that's a good thing. You shouldn't see it immediately because then you do the work, and you work really, really hard for as long as you can.

*Are there any books that have had a major impact on your life?*

There was a book that haunted me for a long time. It was called "Shoot the Piano Player". I believe it was made into a film, too. It is really dark, really heavy. It sat with me for so long. I can't shake the characters.

Steve Martin's "Cruel Shoes" was huge. All of Steve Martin's work was a big influence on me and "Cruel Shoes" was just so odd. So bizarre, just his form of comedy, that opened my eyes to what's possible. It's a book of blown-out stories that are so weird, absurdist. It was my introduction to that.

In college, when I studied rhetoric, we had to read this book that took me forever to get through. It was by [Jean] Baudrillard and it was called "Simulacra and Simulation," and that was mind-bending. That kind of cracked opened things that made me realize I barely know anything and nothing is real.*What's some life advice you wish you'd been given 10 years ago?*

Childbirth changes everything. Bodywise, as a woman, when you realize what your body is actually designed to do, it's such a fucking weight off of your shoulders. Just realize, like, it's perfect. Your body is perfect and it doesn't matter, a chunk here and a fat here and a cellulite here and your stomach this or that. That shit is just such a waste of time. That's one of my things I hate, is that I wasted so much time thinking that way, thinking that I was so imperfect. That would be the biggest bit of advice: do not waste that time.

Also, to actors, I would say, "Don't pay a lot for headshots." That's always my advice. They don't matter. The photo just needs to look like you. Take a bunch of classes and don't spend time writing to working actors asking them how they did it, because 9 times out of 10, if you're the person asking those questions, you're not the person that's got chutzpah to make it happen.

I find that to be true. The people that say, "How do you get into voiceover work?" You figure it out. I did. I don't even know how I did it now. When I was doing it, people would take demo reel classes and end up with a demo. You had a tape, a cassette tape. [laughter] Now people can just do things on their phone.  I don't even know what the hell the advice would be now. My advice is don't ask people for advice. [laughter]

*Memories are important to happiness. Do you do anything to retain your memories? Keep a journal, anything like that?*

I do. I keep several journals because I fall in love with a new blank book and start one, so I have a whole bunch of started journals.

They usually start off just trying to document the day so that I remember things with the kids when they're little, remember things they’ve said. Then they usually turn into emotional quandaries and questioning and philosophical things that I can't answer, and then I get frustrated and give up.

Then I open my computer and get back to work on a script and then I get stuck on that and I go back to the journal, and I kind of bounce back and forth.

I also do a lot of the photo books, basically photo journals. That's really fun to do now because there's always a camera with you. I just place a picture there and then ruminate on it. Meditate on it. You can write next to it sometimes.

I do ones where they're all little Fuji Polaroid photos. I'll put it in the corners and I’ll write in silver marker next to them. I also do digital one on the Mac, the iPhoto books, and it's fun.*Have you been thinking more about the fragility of life since working on "Getting On"?*

Definitely. It makes you realize how short it is. The women that work on the set with us are in their 70s, 80s, some 90s, and they'll all tell you, [snaps fingers], "It's just a snap. It happens so fast." They’ve been doing theater.

The woman who plays Birdy on our show was Millie on the Dick Van Dyke Show. She says like, "Oh, it was yesterday that I was doing that." She told me: "I was you, on that show." I realize how quick it is.

*I'm curious what it's like for older actors who are cast as characters on the cusp of death. Do you sense that it's difficult for them at all?* 

I think a lot of them aren't in a position to choose if they want to work. They need to keep their health insurance. They take what they get, period. 

But with "Getting On," we've heard time and time again that they're so happy that these are real parts, that they're actual human beings. It's not just an old woman there to say, "Where's the beef?" [laughter]. Or "I'd hit that!" Just some dumb stuff. 

They're so happy to be playing these fully realized characters and showing the reality of aging. So the women that are there are thrilled to be there.

*Has filming spurred any emotional experiences for you?*

In the pilot, a woman passes. She expires. I'm holding her hand and the character dies and I have to place her teeth in her mouth. They got a woman who had no teeth and I actually had to put her teeth back in her mouth. The whole thing was just so surreal and so disturbing, and reminiscent. 

I had been through it with my grandmother a few years before. I was close with her. She was a Holocaust survivor, escaped, came to the States with nothing to her name, with a daughter, and made it work and survived. She was a fighter and she was funny. Really, the Miss Swan character that I do is a direct rip-off of her; it's just stolen. So her death was very hard, and really after the fact I realized how hard it was on me losing her. That was a real blow. That messed me up for a long time.*Did you learn anything from coping with that loss?*

I just ate a lot. So that's a good coping mechanism. [laughter] I immediately, after she passed, felt like, "What the fuck am I waiting for? Why don't I start a family?" That was definitely -- I knew I always wanted to have kids, but her passing made me really realize what I could possibly be missing.

The last things that she said -- anything that mattered had to do with her children and her grandchildren. There was no thought of anything else. No celebration of her triumphs in her career or anything. All that mattered was the family she started and the people she cared for and they cared about her.

This is always in your face. You hear it and you see greeting cards. You see commercials. You go to weddings. You know that. You know it. But it really hit home and made me realize, "What am I doing? I've got to hurry up."

*I've heard you talk about growing up with some hardships, having hemophilia and other things that led you to comedy.*

The reality is, in the grand scheme of things, I did not have hardships. I had a cakey, easy, wonderful life. I've got two parents that have cared for me, been housed, been fed -- way too well. [laughter] My parents had jobs. We were lucky enough to have medical insurance and stuff, and there's a lot of people who don't. So really, I mean the hemophilia was something to deal with, but I'd hardly say a hardship.  

I do try to instill this with my kids, the value of things. It's something that I try to do a lot. My son is starting to get a sense that everything is disposable. It really bothered me. I want him to understand that you can't just always get what you want. So I've been trying to lay that on him a little heavier, that you can't. If he wants something, I say, "Let's go home and we'll save up our money and we'll come back and get it, if you still want it."

I'm terrified for him to just grow up thinking he can get anything he wants. And of course it's always the easier route, shut your kid up in the store and just get him the candy that he wants, but you pay the price later.

So I make him do chores every day and time-outs when he's acting like a dick. I try to have consequences to his actions and to delay his gratification. That's the biggest thing I'm trying to do, delayed gratification.


Happy "Yom Ha Aba" to the most loyal, trustworthy man in my life. Your gifts keep giving. @ijbijb #HappyFathersDay pic.twitter.com/FPP6Alfw0v

— Alex Borstein (@AlexBorstein) June 21, 2015

*I wanted to ask a bit more about hemophilia because I know it's something you've been very focused on.*

Hemophilia is like diarrhea of the blood. [laughter] If you get injured -- not so much a shaving cut or a scrape, but more internal bleeding, like if you're playing basketball and you jam your finger -- it's not just going to go away. It's going to swell and swell. There's going to be internal bleeding, and if you don't deal with it, the joints will be damaged permanently.

So people with hemophilia are missing the clotting factors in their blood. The one that's in our family is hemophilia A, and there's also hemophilia B, and there's Von Willebrand's disease. 

They have different clotting factors you can take -- you inject, give yourself transfusions, and it will help your body coagulate and clot and stop the bleeding, but it's really expensive. It's one of the most expensive diseases in the world. And because it's such a small number of people have it, it's not as cost effective to develop treatments for as something that's prevalent.

A lot of kids growing up with hemophilia now are having such a different experience than my brother did or my uncle did back when treatments weren't as streamlined. A lot of the products then were tainted, there was a bad batch in the 80s not being screened for hepatitis and HIV. A huge population was killed with tainted product. There's amazing documentaries on this, and the industries knew that it was tainted and still let it out. It's really awful. 

But now things are really different. Everything is screened really well. A lot of the treatments now are not even made from human blood. They're derived in different ways, so it's much safer. It's incredible what they've done. 

But there's still no cure, and people in countries that don't have access, and even within the United States, many don't have access to the treatment -- for them, it's horrendous. It's still a really, really serious, terrible, debilitating problem, living with a bleeding disorder.

I've been trying to be really active with the National Hemophilia Foundation to help get the word out. It's funny, foundations and disorders and diseases, unfortunately they have to be branded. Like "Stand Up for Cancer" and "Autism Speaks". So these things are branded and people start learning about it and when it becomes part of the public consciousness, people start caring more, people will donate more. Education is key, so that's what I wanted to do.

I've been doing a comedy show for them I produce every Halloween called "What's So Bloody Funny?" -- get it? We do it in New York every year to benefit NHF, and really the hope is just to get awareness out there.

Hemophilia is mainly expressed in boys. The second I became pregnant with my son, I was terrified. I went to the National Hemophilia Foundation website and started getting involved in chat rooms with other moms and finding out, what will I really be dealing with?

It was so different from when my brother was a kid. I could talk to my mom and my dad about how they dealt with it, but it was so different that I wanted to know now. And NHF was so helpful and it was such a great organization. My son ended up not being a hemophiliac and I felt like I dodged a bullet. But I wanted to help out. And then low and behold, my daughter is one. 

*  *  *

Transcription services by Tigerfish; now offering transcripts in two-hours guaranteed. Interview text has been edited and condensed.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 6 hours ago.

Progress for Children's Health

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Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey show the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is working and helping get people health coverage. This is a welcome stark contrast to new census data showing children remain our poorest age group and the younger they are the poorer they are. Clearly the ACA has had positive effects on the uninsured. There were 8.8 million more people insured in 2014 than in 2013 and the percentage of people without health insurance coverage decreased from 13.3 percent to 10.4 percent. In 2014 nearly 1 million more children gained health coverage and 93.8 percent had health insurance coverage although they were covered at a lower rate than seniors. Adult gains in coverage mean extra gains for children because when parents are covered children are more likely to be covered and receive needed preventive care too. The high rate of coverage for children is also evidence that Medicaid and CHIP are working for children and should be preserved as we work to expand protections for children in private coverage.

Although progress was made for large numbers of children, some lag behind. Hispanic children were more likely to be uninsured than children of other races and ethnicities and the uninsured rate for noncitizen children in 2014 was 20.8 percent—about 3.5 times greater than the uninsured rate for native-born citizen children. Assuring universal coverage for children requires providing coverage to undocumented children and to citizen children of undocumented parents who fear deportation if they seek health coverage for their children.

This summer, California took an historic leap towards providing health coverage to every child – the culmination of more than a decade of relentless advocacy by the Children’s Defense Fund’s California office and other child health and immigrant advocates. Led by state Senator Ricardo Lara, the legislature and Governor expanded Medicaid coverage to all income eligible children regardless of immigration status. Starting May 1, 2016, more than 170,000 undocumented children will gain access to health coverage they need to survive and thrive and grow up ready to contribute fully to California’s workforce and economy. The progress in California reflects a bipartisan recognition that the state is stronger when everyone has access to health care including immigrant children and families. California child advocates know the fight is not over and are continuing the “Health for All” effort to ensure all Californians — adults and children — health coverage. With its recent advances California joins Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Washington State and Washington, D.C. in covering undocumented children. Every state should do so.

States that have taken the Affordable Care Act’s option to expand Medicaid to more low- and middle-income adults also saw important strides in 2014. Although all 50 states and Washington, D.C. had a decreasing number of uninsured people between 2013 and 2014, the greatest gains were in the states that took the ACA’s option to expand Medicaid. The uninsured rate in Medicaid expansion states was lower than in states that did not expand Medicaid. The largest drop in the uninsured rate was in a Medicaid expansion state, Kentucky (5.8 percent). Massachusetts had the lowest rate of uninsured people (3.3 percent); Texas, a non-Medicaid expansion state, had the highest (19.1 percent).

We can increase this good news for all who need health coverage. We need to push hard for Medicaid expansion in all 50 states and push all states to follow California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Washington State and Washington, D.C. in covering undocumented children. The progress made on reducing the number of uninsured people should inspire us to keep going until every child and adult has needed health coverage.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 2 hours ago.

Colorado health cooperative says feds reneged on promised payment

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Colorado's nonprofit health cooperative says its future has been jeopardized by an unexpectedly low payment from a federal program intended to help more people acquire health insurance. Reported by Denver Post 49 minutes ago.

Horizon BCBSNJ: New Survey Reveals 75 Percent of New Jersey Residents Believe Health Care Costs Are Too High

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Nearly half of respondents support tiered network products

Newark, NJ (PRWEB) October 03, 2015

A new survey released today by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ) and TargetSmart Communications finds that a majority of New Jersey residents, 75 percent, believe that the price of health care in New Jersey is too high.

By a margin of nearly 3-to-1, survey respondents also support Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey’s effort to introduce tiered health plans offering lower premiums and the ability to save on out-of-pocket costs by seeking care at certain, but not all, network hospitals and doctors.

New Jersey residents pay the second highest health care costs in the country. In addition, New Jersey’s health care costs are rising 25 percent faster than the national average.

“We commissioned this survey after hearing the concerns raised by legislators and others following the announcement of the OMNIA Health Alliance,” said Robert A. Marino, chairman and CEO of Horizon BCBSNJ. “As part of our ongoing efforts to respond to what consumers tell us they want, we felt it important to validate what we’ve heard from our customers – rising health care costs are unsustainable.”

Horizon BCBSNJ plans to offer new tiered health plans with significantly lower monthly premiums and lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers seeking care at certain hospitals and doctors across the state.

According to the survey, New Jersey residents find high premiums and deductibles most dissatisfying about their current health plans. When asked about tiered health plans that offer lower monthly premiums and lower out-of-pocket costs when seeking care at “certain, but not all, doctors and hospitals in Horizon’s networks across New Jersey,” 44 percent of respondents said they would support such plans as compared to16 percent who would not.

“The results of this survey are not surprising. New Jersey businesses need more options for quality, affordable health insurance, and we have been asking for it for years,” said Jeffrey Scheininger, President of Flexline Inc. and former chairman of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. “I applaud Horizon BCBSNJ and the other members of the OMNIA Health Alliance for responding with a solution that rewards high-quality care, a better patient experience and lower total costs for New Jersey residents and businesses.”

Learn more by visiting: http://www.WhatHealthCareCostsNJ.com/Listening.

For a monthly premium that’s

###

About Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the state's oldest and largest health insurer is a tax-paying, not-for-profit health service corporation, providing a wide array of medical, dental, and prescription insurance products and services. Horizon BCBSNJ is leading the transformation of health care in New Jersey by working with doctors and hospitals to deliver innovative, patient-centered programs that reward the quality, not quantity, of care patients receive. Learn more at http://www.HorizonBlue.com. Horizon BCBSNJ is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association serving more than 3.8 million members.

TargetSmart Communications designed and administered this interactive voice response (IVR) survey. Telephone numbers were randomly selected from registered voters on the voter file. The survey reached 1331 adult respondents who matched records on the voter file, including respondents who participated on wireless phones. The survey data was down-weighted to an effective sample size of 600 for a representative sample of likely voters. The overall margin of error is 4.0%. The margin of error for demographic subgroups varies.

The survey was conducted September 30th through October 1st, 2015. Reported by PRWeb 9 hours ago.

Police Department Accepting Lateral Transfers

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Police Department Accepting Lateral Transfers Patch Andover, MA -- Danvers offers a liberal benefits package including educational incentive pay, vacation, holiday, and personal time, and health insurance. Reported by Patch 1 day ago.

Aetna and Humana merger a bad deal for Texas, physicians warn

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The Texas Medical Association, the largest state medical society in the nation, is urging federal officials to put the brakes to a pending merger two major insurers — Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. TMA officials contend that such a merger would reduce competition and potentially raise health insurance premiums. In addition, the association, which represents more than 48,000 physician and medical student members, has warned the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division that the pending merger also… Reported by bizjournals 1 day ago.

What to Watch for in Tuesday's Debate

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AP Photo/Steven Senne

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton listens during a forum on substance abuse, Thursday, October 1, 2015, in Boston. 

This article originally appeared at The Huffington Post. 

Tuesday's Democratic debate is a very big deal, especially for frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders will probably exceed expectations because many viewers will be seeing him for the first time, certainly for the first time against Clinton. The other three candidates will likely find themselves far back—this is narrowing to a two-person contest.

Clinton needs to get out of a self-infecting cycle of bad publicity, in which everything she does is dismissed as calculating and contrived, even when it represents creative movement on issues. Sanders merely needs to take care to come across as fighting for the forgotten American on the issues, as he nearly always does, but not too radical in his personal style.

In the past few weeks, Clinton has made several dramatic moves in Sanders's direction. She has broken with the administration on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, on the Keystone Pipeline, and on the so-called Cadillac Tax on high quality health plans (she is for repeal; the White House is not). She is out-flanking Sanders to the left on gun control, and she is at least as comfortable talking about race.

These positions are attractive to the Sanders constituency. One can expect that Clinton is saving one or two more headline-grabbing surprises for the debate—quite possibly something on workers' wages. The question is whether viewers and pundits will credit her for this movement, or just discount it as mere posturing.

There are also some popular issues where Clinton simply can't get to Sanders's left, such as his proposal to break up the big banks. That's simple and clear. Clinton, who gets a lot of Wall Street support, is for tighter regulation, a position that quickly degenerates into wonky detail.

Clinton, in short, is necessarily playing a much more complex game than Sanders. Much of her posture is directed at a potential candidate who will not be on stage—Joe Biden. A great deal of her positioning is aimed not just at Sanders, but at dissuading Biden from getting into the race.

Unlike Clinton, Biden as sitting vice president cannot break with Obama on the TPP, the pipeline, or the health insurance tax. By moving in Sanders's direction on all these issues, she not only appeals to his constituency, but jams Biden.

In the inside game, Clinton needs to persuade the activists associated with the Democratic Party, especially the labor movement, that she can be as much their champion as Sanders can. She needs to reassure her own core supporters (who might be tempted to defect to Biden) that her candidacy is not fatally damaged by recent missteps.

In the outside game, Clinton needs to persuade ordinary voters that she is a better bet to beat any Republican than Sanders or any other Democrat. And in the horse-race optics, she needs to persuade the media that she beat expectations. In short, she has a much tougher job than Sanders, who can just be himself.

One key question is just how tactical ordinary Democratic viewers will be in their perceptions of the debate. Will they go with their gut, or base their support on who they think will be the strongest candidate against any Republican?

Logically, that should be Clinton. As she runs more as a pocketbook progressive, in principle she should be able to take some of Sanders's appeal without being tarnished by his seeming radicalism. She ought to be the stronger nominee in the general election.

However, this is far from an ordinary year. In both parties, the disgust with a political system that seems paralyzed and with an economy of, by, and for the one percent, leaves radicalism far more attractive the usual.

This is also a very unusual year in another respect. The Republicans now hold a larger majority in the House of Representatives than at any time since the 1920s. Because of gerrymandering and the concentration of Democratic support in heavily blue districts, the conventional view is that only about 15 House seats will be in play in 2016. It will take a complete implosion of the Republican Party and a landslide for the Democrats for them to pick up the 30 seats they need to regain control of the House.

However, the Republicans might be setting themselves up for just such an implosion. The GOP presidential field is a circus. At the rate things are going, Donald Trump could well be the nominee, because all the primaries after March 15 award their delegates on a winner-take-all basis. With the rest of the field splintered, Trump only needs to hold his roughly 25 percent share and he wins most delegates.

With Trump having alienated women, immigrants, minorities, and voters who actually follow issues, it's hard to imagine the Democrat not winning in a landslide.

(On the other hand, one has to recall a famous incident attributed to Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 campaign, in which a gushing supporter told him, "Governor, you will have the support of every thinking person." To which he replied, "Madame, that's not enough, we need a majority.")

If the Republican presidential contest were not a sufficient zoo, the anarchy in the House of Representatives trumps even Trump. But with the House elected district-by-district, the question is whether the leaderless House and the ability of some 40 fringe Tea-Party Republicans to hold the whole institution hostage will tarnish the Republican brand in a way that helps Democrats.

That, it seems to me, is partly a question of the ability of the Democratic standard-bearer to lead and to define the stakes. So Tuesday's debate, first and foremost, is not just a contest over positioning on the issues, but an audition to determine who would be the most effective candidate against an increasingly insane Republican Party. Reported by The American Prospect 1 day ago.

Colorado health exchange wants to make interim CEO Patterson permanent

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Colorado's health insurance exchange wants its interim chief executive to keep the job. Reported by Denver Post 1 day ago.

AIS, InComm Partner to Present Complimentary Webinar on Health Plan Engagement Strategies for Customers Without Bank Accounts

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Executives from InComm and CVS/pharmacy will explain how to enroll and serve insurance consumers who do not have a bank account, in a complimentary webinar from Atlantic Information Services and InComm Healthcare & Affinity.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) October 13, 2015

CVS/pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Health, and InComm Healthcare & Affinity have developed valuable new strategies for enrolling and serving insurance consumers who do not have a bank account, which makes it more difficult for them to obtain health insurance and pay monthly premiums. In “Health Plan Engagement Strategies: The ABCs of Serving Consumers Who Don’t Have Bank Accounts,” the upcoming Oct. 21 complimentary webinar from Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) and InComm Healthcare & Affinity, executives from InComm and CVS/pharmacy will present innovative, proactive retail enrollment and premium payment strategies to serve the “unbanked” and “underbanked” market segment.

Over the course of this one-hour program, David J. Graziano, Marketing Manager at CVS/pharmacy, and David Vielehr, Senior Vice President at InComm and General Manager for InComm Healthcare & Affinity, will answer the following questions of strategic importance:· What is the demographic profile of the so-called “unbanked” or “underbanked” marketplace? What strategies are successful in engaging this class of consumers?
· How can health plans design retail enrollment strategies that can be executed with no cost to the member and minimal cost to the insurer? To what extent do convenient payment options improve member retention and satisfaction?
· Are unbanked/underbanked households more likely to be uninsured and eligible for subsidies? How should this factor into a health plan’s consumer engagement tools?
· How can health plans make retail engagement a major member communication channel? How should insurers and retailers use retail strategies to collaborate on wellness and incentive programs?

Additionally, the speakers will offer strategies for engaging members in wellness activities, such as accessing over-the-counter medications and supplements.

A concluding 15-minute Q&A session will offer participants the chance to pose questions to the speakers.

Visit https://aishealth.com/incomm-102115 for more details and registration information.

About InComm Healthcare & Affinity
InComm Healthcare & Affinity is a wholly owned subsidiary of InComm Holdings, Inc., created in 2012 through InComm’s acquisition of Medagate. The acquisition included Medagate’s point-of-sale and defined-spend payments capabilities, the Enhanced Payment Platform and the OTC Network. Combining InComm’s distribution and redemption network with Medagate’s point-of-sale benefit and reward platform created a powerful new offering: InComm Healthcare & Affinity (IHA). Learn more at http://www.incommhealthcareandaffinity.com.

About AIS
Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) is a publishing and information company that has been serving the health care industry for more than 25 years. It develops highly targeted news, data and strategic information for managers in hospitals, health plans, medical group practices, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, websites, looseleafs, books, strategic reports, databases, webinars and conferences. Learn more at http://www.AISHealth.com. Reported by PRWeb 16 hours ago.

Jeb's Obamacare Repeal-And-Replace Plan Is More Repeal Than Replace

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Jeb Bush on Tuesday will introduce a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

But “replace” may not be quite the right word.

The Bush plan calls for a familiar mix of conservative ideas on health care, according to campaign documents obtained by The Huffington Post. It would eliminate the coverage scheme of “Obamacare” -- the tax credits, regulations on insurance, and individual mandate that have led to a historic reduction in the number of uninsured Americans.

In its place, Bush would introduce a new kind of financial assistance for people buying insurance on their own -- specifically, tax credits pegged to age but not to income, and not designed to guarantee access to the same level of coverage as Obama’s health care program does.

The Bush plan also would give control of Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans, over to the states.

What would this all mean in practice? It’s impossible to say with any precision, at least without more details about the dollar amounts involved.

Still, the outlines of Bush plan look a lot like like some other plans now in circulation on the right, like the so-called 2017 Project Plan and a proposal from Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.). These plans envision less government spending and regulation, but would likely result in some combination of fewer people with insurance and less financial protection for people who have coverage. Experts contacted by The Huffington Post said they expected Bush's plan, if enacted, would play out in a similar way.

Here’s why. The basic concept of the Affordable Care Act, like all universal health care plans, is to set some basic standards for private insurance, then provide financial assistance to people who cannot afford such policies on their own. Those standards include requirements that all plans include “essential benefits” -- in other words, not just hospitalization, but also services like rehabilitation, mental health, prescription drugs, and maternity care.

The Affordable Care Act also prohibits insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums for people with pre-existing conditions. In addition, it sets limits on out-of-pocket spending -- with even tighter limits for people with lower incomes, on the theory that the working poor simply don’t have the money to absorb high out-of-pocket costs.

These regulations are why the insurance plans that people buy through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges can be so much more expensive than the plans many people bought before the law existed -- and why, under the Affordable Care Act, the government must spend so much subsidizing coverage for people who can’t pay those higher premiums.

The Bush plan would weaken those standards on insurance: People buying coverage would have more freedom to buy less-generous policies that cover only catastrophic costs. And the tax credits that Bush would provide, by design, guarantee access only to these catastrophic policies.

That’s cheaper than subsidizing the “silver” plans that the Affordable Care Act treats as its standard -- a result conservatives would certainly cheer. But without ACA levels of assistance, poorer people who want more comprehensive coverage probably wouldn’t have the money to buy it.  Once they got sick, they’d be stuck with more punishing out-of-pocket expenses.  And because these are people with lower incomes, they’d have less money to cover those costs.

“Repealing Obamacare and replacing it with fixed tax credits would hurt low-income folks who finally just got decent insurance,” Len Nichols, a former Clinton administration official and widely respected health economist at George Mason University, told The Huffington Post.

Bush’s designs on Medicaid would likely have a similar effect. While the campaign has not specified how much money the states would get under Bush’s scheme, conservative plans to hand control over to the states generally call for less spending on the program. Medicaid is already under-funded. If states had even less money with which to manage it, they’d almost surely have to restrict eligibility or cover fewer services -- either of which would mean less financial protection, in this case for the very poor. (This briefing by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains in more detail.)

One more key footnote to the Bush plan is its protection for people with pre-existing conditions, which is different from the guarantee in the Affordable Care Act. The Bush plan calls for guaranteeing access, but only for people with "continuous" coverage. That means people whose insurance has lapsed -- say, because they lost a job and couldn't afford premiums for a few months -- could be subject to denial because of their current medical problems.

The Bush plan has some noteworthy and interesting wrinkles, befitting a politician who has promoted himself as the most serious policy candidate in the GOP race. (His plan may not have much detail, but it's considerably more substantive than what his rivals have produced.) Among other things, Bush calls for establishing targets and incentives for states to improve medical outcomes.

In addition, Bush calls for replacing the Affordable Care Act’s “Cadillac tax” with a cap on the tax exclusion for employer insurance. It’s a more direct and efficient way of accomplishing the same goal as the Cadillac tax, although -- as Phil Klein of the Washington Examiner has noted -- Bush would design the cap in such a way that it would affect fewer plans, at least initially.

A debate over the Cadillac tax seems likely in the next Congress, with calls for its repeal strong on both sides of the partisan aisle. Bush’s proposal may indicate one way that Republicans, and maybe even some Democrats, would prefer to reform it.

But the most important part of the Bush plan is its changes to the coverage scheme -- and it’s likely that more Republican candidates will call for similar changes before the campaign is over.

“There seems to be an emerging consensus among Republican candidates for how to approach health care, beyond repealing Obamacare,” Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, said on Monday night. “It centers around more limited protections for people with pre-existing conditions, health insurance tax subsidies that don't vary with income, scaling back the tax subsidy for employer-based health benefits, and capping Medicaid. It means less regulation, and also less direct help for lower income people with their health needs.”

Sam Stein contributed reporting.

*Also on HuffPost:*
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.

N.Y. health insurance marketplace shaken by company's closing

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The shutdown of Health Republic Insurance of New York, which offered some of the least expensive health insurance in the stat -More-  Reported by SmartBrief 12 hours ago.

Why Viagra Keeps Going Up: Pfizer's CEO On The Drug Pricing Controversy

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The price of Viagra--and other older drugs--is going up. Pfizer's Ian Read insists the problem is health insurance, not pharma. Reported by Forbes.com 13 hours ago.
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