GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Dec. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Like a real-life game of telephone, the communication of sensitive data that combines personal information from tax systems and health insurance information is a potential security nightmare. It is also the reality many employers must...
Reported by PR Newswire 12 hours ago.
Affordable Care Act's Two-Headed Monster: Tax Forms and Health Insurance Information
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Personal Accident and Health Insurance in the UK, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2019
LONDON, Dec. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- SynopsisTimetric's 'Personal Accident and Health Insurance in the UK, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2019' report provides detailed analysis of the market trends, drivers, challenges in the UK personal accident and health insurance segment.It provides...
Reported by PR Newswire 10 hours ago.
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I Was In A Planned Parenthood Watching Coverage Of Yet Another Mass Shooting
This past summer, I left my position as Deputy National Editor of this publication to go "follow my dreams before it's too late etc" in Mexico. Cutting ties with HuffPost meant walking away from a health plan that I'd been taking for granted for the past 5 years, thinking of it mainly as a minor annoyance that required me to listen to 20 minutes of bad hold music every time I had a question about coverage or how to dispute a charge.
The fellowship that justified my Latin American adventure provided health insurance, and I'd seen the dentist and the gynecologist recently enough. So I got a couple shots and left the country without thinking too hard about anything else health care-related.
Six months later, my fellowship ended, and I decided to continue my journey southward. Officially without coverage, I poked around on the Obamacare website to learn about what's available for those sort-of-expats who have no permanent address and have spent much of the year as insured, income tax-paying U.S. residents.
Turns out there's no official government handbook for that demographic, but after a few hours of reading various fine prints, I learned that I was indeed eligible for Covered California, the answer to Obamacare in my home state. For someone at my income level, which this month is a random and paltry patchwork of freelance assignments, the cheapest plan would cost $250 a month not including copays. Eventually I'd have to remember to mail in some form of residency proof to some office somewhere. Not a huge inconvenience, especially because more Americans than ever are now accessing the care they need, but perhaps not the most efficient system out there, either.
So I did a little more research to see what other options might be available to people who, through no fault of their own, might not be as fortunate to have the kind of access I was randomly selected to be born into having.
I called a couple local physicians that came up high on Yelp searches to see how much they'd charge someone without insurance for an annual visit. The cheapest ones said they cost multiple hundreds of dollars. I looked up free clinics. A number of customer reviews warned I couldn't make an appointment in advance and might get stuck waiting in line all day to be seen.
Then I called Planned Parenthood. I wasn't treated to any hold music, and an amicable customer service representative told me they had an appointment slot available that very same morning. The modest income I earned this month qualified me for a year of free visits, hardly any questions asked. I didn't even have to show my ID.
The visit itself was painless and clean, during which I had some informative real-talk with the warm and approachable nurse practitioner, who was around my age. On my way out, I donated the equivalent of what the visit would have cost a patient with a higher monthly income. Given the millions of people living in America who truly need and rely on services like this, it didn't seem fair otherwise.
The TV in the waiting room was turned to a local newscast. While the receptionist ran my credit card, I heard the anchorwoman say something about a mass shooting. All anyone knew at the moment was that it had happened at a center for people with disabilities in Southern California, and more than a dozen individuals had allegedly been hit by bullets. Less than a week ago, some monster did the same thing at a Colorado branch of the convenient and compassionate organization that had just helped me.
I looked around the room as the news unfolded on KPIX, the rattled reporters masking their discomfort with their stoic search for facts, the "here we go again"s starting to trickle into my Facebook feed. A nurse practitioner took a patient's weight. The receptionist helped someone make an appointment. A technician carried a urine sample in her white gloves. Life was still moving forward here. Patients were still being helped.
Planned Parenthood is the kind of health care provider that should be available to anyone, at any time, on any part of this planet. Pleasant, quick, thorough, affordable and honest.
Instead, we're at the mercy of the opinions of a bunch of very powerful old white dudes (and a few very powerful old white women) who are abusing Planned Parenthood's existence as a bid for even more power. Their poisonous words and actions makes it easier for angry men like Robert Dear Jr. to feel justified in committing horrific acts within Planned Parenthood's walls and elsewhere.
I'm not going to rant further about the dangerous rhetoric that gets force-fed to Americans on a 24-hour basis, or about gun control or Donald Trump or women's rights, or about how yesterday's heartbreaking tragedy has become the new normal, or about how everything about everything right now feels like we're all live-blogging this dystopian society that's unraveling before our very eyes and smartphones. My story, like bazillions of other moments happening all the time all around us, will illustrate all of that much more clearly.
*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 9 hours ago.
The fellowship that justified my Latin American adventure provided health insurance, and I'd seen the dentist and the gynecologist recently enough. So I got a couple shots and left the country without thinking too hard about anything else health care-related.
Six months later, my fellowship ended, and I decided to continue my journey southward. Officially without coverage, I poked around on the Obamacare website to learn about what's available for those sort-of-expats who have no permanent address and have spent much of the year as insured, income tax-paying U.S. residents.
Turns out there's no official government handbook for that demographic, but after a few hours of reading various fine prints, I learned that I was indeed eligible for Covered California, the answer to Obamacare in my home state. For someone at my income level, which this month is a random and paltry patchwork of freelance assignments, the cheapest plan would cost $250 a month not including copays. Eventually I'd have to remember to mail in some form of residency proof to some office somewhere. Not a huge inconvenience, especially because more Americans than ever are now accessing the care they need, but perhaps not the most efficient system out there, either.
So I did a little more research to see what other options might be available to people who, through no fault of their own, might not be as fortunate to have the kind of access I was randomly selected to be born into having.
I called a couple local physicians that came up high on Yelp searches to see how much they'd charge someone without insurance for an annual visit. The cheapest ones said they cost multiple hundreds of dollars. I looked up free clinics. A number of customer reviews warned I couldn't make an appointment in advance and might get stuck waiting in line all day to be seen.
Then I called Planned Parenthood. I wasn't treated to any hold music, and an amicable customer service representative told me they had an appointment slot available that very same morning. The modest income I earned this month qualified me for a year of free visits, hardly any questions asked. I didn't even have to show my ID.
The visit itself was painless and clean, during which I had some informative real-talk with the warm and approachable nurse practitioner, who was around my age. On my way out, I donated the equivalent of what the visit would have cost a patient with a higher monthly income. Given the millions of people living in America who truly need and rely on services like this, it didn't seem fair otherwise.
The TV in the waiting room was turned to a local newscast. While the receptionist ran my credit card, I heard the anchorwoman say something about a mass shooting. All anyone knew at the moment was that it had happened at a center for people with disabilities in Southern California, and more than a dozen individuals had allegedly been hit by bullets. Less than a week ago, some monster did the same thing at a Colorado branch of the convenient and compassionate organization that had just helped me.
I looked around the room as the news unfolded on KPIX, the rattled reporters masking their discomfort with their stoic search for facts, the "here we go again"s starting to trickle into my Facebook feed. A nurse practitioner took a patient's weight. The receptionist helped someone make an appointment. A technician carried a urine sample in her white gloves. Life was still moving forward here. Patients were still being helped.
Planned Parenthood is the kind of health care provider that should be available to anyone, at any time, on any part of this planet. Pleasant, quick, thorough, affordable and honest.
Instead, we're at the mercy of the opinions of a bunch of very powerful old white dudes (and a few very powerful old white women) who are abusing Planned Parenthood's existence as a bid for even more power. Their poisonous words and actions makes it easier for angry men like Robert Dear Jr. to feel justified in committing horrific acts within Planned Parenthood's walls and elsewhere.
I'm not going to rant further about the dangerous rhetoric that gets force-fed to Americans on a 24-hour basis, or about gun control or Donald Trump or women's rights, or about how yesterday's heartbreaking tragedy has become the new normal, or about how everything about everything right now feels like we're all live-blogging this dystopian society that's unraveling before our very eyes and smartphones. My story, like bazillions of other moments happening all the time all around us, will illustrate all of that much more clearly.
*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 9 hours ago.
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Feds: so far 5,471 Delawareans renew, sign up for Obamacare
In Delaware, 5,471 people signed up for coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace Only two weeks remain before the December 15 enrollment deadline Over two million consumers selected a plan in the Federally Facilitated Marketplace as of N
Reported by Delawareonline 9 hours ago.
Reported by Delawareonline 9 hours ago.
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Why mid-size Oregon companies are cutting out the insurance middle man
LAIKA animation studio, the creative firm R2C Group and Oregon Anesthesiology Group may not appear to have much in common, other than their Portland-area addresses. But the three are part of a growing trend among mid-size companies. Faced with mounting costs and rate hikes for traditional “fully insured” employee health insurance plans, the three have transitioned to funding their plans themselves. So far, the shift has held down costs for LAIKA and Oregon Anesthesiology. R2C became self-insured…
Reported by bizjournals 6 hours ago.
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2015 in Review: Oregon's 9 most important health care stories
The first year of health reform under the Affordable Care Act, 2014, was tumultuous for Oregon, thanks in large part to the implosion of the Cover Oregon health insurance exchange. This past year proved even more so. A volatile health insurance market led to $127 million in losses through the end of September, the demise of one health insurer and questions about the financial health of Moda Health Plan, which took a $140 million hit because of a shortfall in the federal government’s risk corridors…
Reported by bizjournals 6 hours ago.
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Nucleus CEO, attorney named to Bevin's cabinet
Another prominent Louisville business leader has been appointed to Kentucky Gov.-elect Matt Bevin's cabinet. Vickie Yates Brown Glisson, an attorney with the Louisville office of Frost Brown Todd LLC, has been named secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. The cabinet manages most of Kentucky's human services and health care programs, including Medicaid, the Department for Public Health and Kentucky's health insurance exchange, Kynect. It is one of the state's largest departments,…
Reported by bizjournals 5 hours ago.
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Deadline looming for 2016 health coverage
With 10 days to go before the Dec. 15 deadline to sign up for health insurance coverage effective Jan. 1, 2016, enrollment through Virginia's federally facilitated marketplace stood at just under 90,000, according to the most recent figures released by the federal government.
The numbers reflect... Reported by dailypress.com 3 hours ago.
The numbers reflect... Reported by dailypress.com 3 hours ago.
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New York State's health exchange is hardest to use, study says
New York's online health insurance exchange has been rated the hardest to use by a national health consumer advocacy group.
Reported by Newsday 2 days ago.
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The $1.1 trillion spending bill strikes another big blow to Obamacare
REUTERS/Carlos BarriaThe $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill headed for approval in the House on Friday contains yet another GOP blow to the Affordable Care Act. This one blocks administration efforts to bolster a special fund created under the law to compensate insurance companies for excessive losses due to a disproportionate share of very sick or elderly enrollees.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) led a group of Senate and House Republicans have sought to prevent additional billions in funding for the so-called risk corridor program. It could also help cripple the national health insurance program Republicans have vowed to repeal and replace. Indeed, the tactic is having an effect as roughly half of the 23 non-profit insurance plans created under the 2011 Affordable Care Act at a cost of $2.4 billion have announced they will close their doors by the end of this year, largely because of inadequate compensation for unexpected losses.
Rubio, a GOP candidate for president, has denounced the rate corridor program as a costly corporate bailout that cannot be justified. *“*Everyone running wants to dismantle Obamacare,” Rubio told The New York Times. “I’ve actually done something toward achieving that goal.”
Alice Rivlin, a former White House budget director and head of the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday that the new congressional action is “very unfortunate” and will further damage the health insurance program.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria
“It’s forcing the government to renege on its promise to share the risk, and it has been damaging to weaker insurance companies and especially the co-ops – some of which have gone under already,” she said. “So extending [the funding restriction] for another year will just mean that companies that expected to have the government share in their risk if they underpriced their product will not get as much help, and it may discourage entry into the market.”
Jay Courtney, a spokesperson for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a leading health insurers advocacy group, said, “The latest budget deals do nothing to address the recent funding shortfall with the risk corridors program or make up for the losses facing health plans in the exchanges.”
The program originally was conceived as an insurance policy of sorts for major insurers who miscalculated in projecting how many of their enrollees would be young and healthy – and thus unlikely to make big demands on their coverage – and older and sicker enrollees who would require costly medical attention and prescription drugs.
The approach was intended to minimize the risk that insurers faced in setting their premiums and deductibles while complying with ACA requirements to accept enrollees with pre-existing medical conditions and adhere to other constraints on their profits. Rivlin, a policy expert with the Brookings Institution, recalled that during deliberations over the Obamacare legislation, insurance companies “were a little reluctant, because they weren’t familiar with this population of people who hadn’t previously had insurance.”
REUTERS/Carlos BarriaThe insurers would be required to pay into a pool if their revenues and profits far exceeded their projections while the federal government would pay in when insurers’ revenues lagged far behind their projections. This was one way the Obama administration enticed insurers to take part in Obamacare, even though Rubio and others said it was an inappropriate guarantee.
A similar risk corridor program was set up to protect the pharmaceutical industry when the administration of President George W. Bush pushed through enactment of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program in 2003.
Last year, the insurance companies paid just $362 million into risk corridor program while submitting $2.87 billion in claims for reimbursement. But the Republicans amended a spending bill to prevent the Department of Health and Human Services from transferring discretionary funds to bail out the program. The fiscal 2015 budget package approved last year specified that payments made to insurers under the risk corridors could not exceed collections. That is why the DHH’s payouts this year were equivalent to just 12.6 percent of the claims.
The new omnibus spending bill awaiting final approval by Congress this week once again bars the Obama administration from shifting funds to beef up the risk corridors program. A GOP summary of the spending package praised last year’s action for being able to save over $2.5 billion from potentially being transferred out of priority HHS discretionary spending. It also said that Congress will continue to insist that the risk corridor fund be kept “budget neutral” – meaning no shifting of funds.
The omnibus spending bill also imposes a two-year delay in implementation of a new tax on high-end, employer provided health insurance plans and a tax on the medical devices industry and postpones for one year another tax on health insurers.
NOW WATCH: 5 signs you're going to be extraordinarily successful Reported by Business Insider 2 days ago.
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Quirky ads are paying off for this NY health insurance company
Oscar Health Insurance, the two-year New York company known for its quirky ads and slick mobile app, has used its simplicity message to more than double enrollment to 100,000-plus from 40,000 in eight months, The Post has learned. Much of the increase has come form a mad dash by individuals to apply for 2016 coverage...
Reported by NY Post 2 days ago.
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The Gross Oversight in the Fed's Decision to Raise Interest Rates
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen closes her notebook after holding a news conference in Washington, Wednesday, December 16, 2015, following an announcement that the Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by quarter-point, heralding higher lending rates in an economy much sturdier than the one the Fed helped rescue in 2008.
This article originally appeared at The Washington Post.
The Federal Reserve’s decision Wednesday to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006 highlights a glaring weakness of conventional economic analysis: its failure to understand the role that power plays in shaping the economy.
By all the usual metrics, wages should be bounding upward now that unemployment has been reduced to 5 percent and 13 million jobs have been added to the economy since the depths of the Great Recession. It’s to counter the inflationary pressures that such wage increases would engender that the Fed finally decided to hike rates.
The only problem with this analysis is that wages are not bounding upward, and inflation has remained below—not above—the Fed’s preferred rate of 2 percent. In essence, the Fed decided to act on mainstream economists’ theories—wages and inflation should be increasing, dammit—rather than observable facts.
A similar preference for theory over empiricism has informed one argument that many economists have made for the “Cadillac tax,” a levy on more costly health insurance policies that is scheduled to take effect in 2018, but whose implementation will be delayed if the congressional budget deal unveiled Tuesday night is enacted. Employees whose coverage is scaled back as a result of the tax, the argument goes, shouldn’t fret, since employers will pass along the savings to them in the form of wage increases.
What the Fed’s decision and this argument supporting the Cadillac tax both miss is that the traditional theories of how wages rise have been negated by major structural changes to the U.S. economy. Time was when tightened labor markets and increases in employers’ retained revenue did lead to wage increases, but that time is clearly long gone.
What the conventional theories have failed to factor in is power: the fact that workers have lost their ability to bargain with employers, the fact that major shareholders have gained the ability to compel corporate executives—often, on penalty of losing their jobs—to funnel all available revenue to them. A cursory glance at, or in-depth survey of, U.S. business shows that companies are engaged in bargaining aplenty—not with their employees, however, who, with the rate of private-sector unionization reduced beneath 7 percent, have no means of bargaining. Rather, they’re contending with “activist investors,” who are reshaping the economic landscape by successfully pressuring companies to buy back their shares and merge with competitors, in the cause of enriching themselves.
Well before the current rise of income and wealth inequality, however, there were dissident American economists who recognized the crucial role that power plays in the distribution of wealth and income. Foremost among these was John Kenneth Galbraith, whose 1952 book American Capitalism painted a picture of an economy dominated by major corporations, whose power was offset by the countervailing power of other businesses, unions, and government regulations. Precisely because Galbraith stressed the crucial role of power relations rather than the mathematical beauty of free markets, his work was dismissed by many mainstream economists. Today, however, it’s a far better guide to what’s happened to our economy than the work of his critics.
What’s happened, of course, is that the countervailing powers that Galbraith identified have largely been crippled. Unions have been eviscerated. Consumers have lost much of their legal ability to seek redress from corporate misconduct, as courts have upheld compulsory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. Decades of government neglect of its antitrust obligations have enabled the rise of monopoly power in Silicon Valley, of Walmart’s ability to compel consumer-goods manufacturers to offshore their production to cheap labor markets, and of a record wave of mega-corporate mergers.
The consequences of the decades-long decimation of unions were made abundantly clear by the Pew Research Center’s report, released last week, on the waning of the U.S. middle class. In 1970, when unions were large and powerful, middle-income households commanded 62 percent of the nation’s household income; by 2014, that had declined to 43 percent, while upper-income households saw their share rise from 29 to 49 percent.
To be sure, genuine full employment would boost workers’ ability to secure better pay, but the globalization of U.S. corporations, the deterrent effect of monopoly power on new business formation, the chronic under-consumption by underpaid U.S. workers and the underinvestment of the public sector in necessary and job-generating projects all make full employment ever more improbable.
So—wage increases? Wage inflation? Please remove noses from textbooks, dear Fed governors, and look around you. American workers won’t win raises until they win back their power. Reported by The American Prospect 2 days ago.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen closes her notebook after holding a news conference in Washington, Wednesday, December 16, 2015, following an announcement that the Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by quarter-point, heralding higher lending rates in an economy much sturdier than the one the Fed helped rescue in 2008.
This article originally appeared at The Washington Post.
The Federal Reserve’s decision Wednesday to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006 highlights a glaring weakness of conventional economic analysis: its failure to understand the role that power plays in shaping the economy.
By all the usual metrics, wages should be bounding upward now that unemployment has been reduced to 5 percent and 13 million jobs have been added to the economy since the depths of the Great Recession. It’s to counter the inflationary pressures that such wage increases would engender that the Fed finally decided to hike rates.
The only problem with this analysis is that wages are not bounding upward, and inflation has remained below—not above—the Fed’s preferred rate of 2 percent. In essence, the Fed decided to act on mainstream economists’ theories—wages and inflation should be increasing, dammit—rather than observable facts.
A similar preference for theory over empiricism has informed one argument that many economists have made for the “Cadillac tax,” a levy on more costly health insurance policies that is scheduled to take effect in 2018, but whose implementation will be delayed if the congressional budget deal unveiled Tuesday night is enacted. Employees whose coverage is scaled back as a result of the tax, the argument goes, shouldn’t fret, since employers will pass along the savings to them in the form of wage increases.
What the Fed’s decision and this argument supporting the Cadillac tax both miss is that the traditional theories of how wages rise have been negated by major structural changes to the U.S. economy. Time was when tightened labor markets and increases in employers’ retained revenue did lead to wage increases, but that time is clearly long gone.
What the conventional theories have failed to factor in is power: the fact that workers have lost their ability to bargain with employers, the fact that major shareholders have gained the ability to compel corporate executives—often, on penalty of losing their jobs—to funnel all available revenue to them. A cursory glance at, or in-depth survey of, U.S. business shows that companies are engaged in bargaining aplenty—not with their employees, however, who, with the rate of private-sector unionization reduced beneath 7 percent, have no means of bargaining. Rather, they’re contending with “activist investors,” who are reshaping the economic landscape by successfully pressuring companies to buy back their shares and merge with competitors, in the cause of enriching themselves.
Well before the current rise of income and wealth inequality, however, there were dissident American economists who recognized the crucial role that power plays in the distribution of wealth and income. Foremost among these was John Kenneth Galbraith, whose 1952 book American Capitalism painted a picture of an economy dominated by major corporations, whose power was offset by the countervailing power of other businesses, unions, and government regulations. Precisely because Galbraith stressed the crucial role of power relations rather than the mathematical beauty of free markets, his work was dismissed by many mainstream economists. Today, however, it’s a far better guide to what’s happened to our economy than the work of his critics.
What’s happened, of course, is that the countervailing powers that Galbraith identified have largely been crippled. Unions have been eviscerated. Consumers have lost much of their legal ability to seek redress from corporate misconduct, as courts have upheld compulsory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. Decades of government neglect of its antitrust obligations have enabled the rise of monopoly power in Silicon Valley, of Walmart’s ability to compel consumer-goods manufacturers to offshore their production to cheap labor markets, and of a record wave of mega-corporate mergers.
The consequences of the decades-long decimation of unions were made abundantly clear by the Pew Research Center’s report, released last week, on the waning of the U.S. middle class. In 1970, when unions were large and powerful, middle-income households commanded 62 percent of the nation’s household income; by 2014, that had declined to 43 percent, while upper-income households saw their share rise from 29 to 49 percent.
To be sure, genuine full employment would boost workers’ ability to secure better pay, but the globalization of U.S. corporations, the deterrent effect of monopoly power on new business formation, the chronic under-consumption by underpaid U.S. workers and the underinvestment of the public sector in necessary and job-generating projects all make full employment ever more improbable.
So—wage increases? Wage inflation? Please remove noses from textbooks, dear Fed governors, and look around you. American workers won’t win raises until they win back their power. Reported by The American Prospect 2 days ago.
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Lax Auditing Encouraged Overcharging By Medicare Advantage Plans
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley says federal government has to "get it right" and pursue full refunds for overpayments to companies that offer Medicare Advantage health insurance.
Reported by NPR 2 days ago.
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Working Abroad--and Facing Abuse
"Maria," a Ugandan worker, paid $400 in 2013 to an agency in the United Arab Emirates that promised her a job in a mall in Dubai. Instead, the agency placed her as a domestic worker with half the salary she had been promised. Maria told me that her employer took her passport and phone, made her work from 5 a.m. to the middle of the night with no day off, beat her, kept her hungry, and paid only a fraction of the wages she was owed. When she finally fled, she said, the Ugandan embassy assisted her on her visits to the immigration department, but did not offer her safe shelter.
On December 18, International Migrants Day, all governments, including Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia should commit to better protection for the growing numbers of migrants like Maria that face abuse in the Middle East.
Maria was among 99 women I interviewed in late 2013 for the Human Rights Watch report "I Already Bought You: Abuse and exploitation of female migrant domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates," issued in October 2014. At the time, countries like Uganda and Kenya were relatively new to sending domestic workers to the Middle East, which had typically recruited from India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, media reports of abuse of Kenyan and Ugandan domestic workers have increased. Like their counterparts from Asia, their woes include unpaid wages, long working hours with little or no rest, confinement to the household, passport confiscation, inadequate food, poor living conditions, and physical and sexual abuse.
It is no mystery why the estimated 2.4 million domestic workers in the Gulf often face abuse. While some employers treat them well, major gaps in labor laws in the gulf countries coupled with unethical recruitment in home countries foster exploitation and violence. Under the visa sponsorship, or kafala, system, domestic workers cannot transfer employers before the end of their contracts without their employer's consent.
Both Uganda and Kenya have experimented with banning migration of domestic workers to the Middle East. But previous experience shows that when labor-sending countries try to protect their citizens through bans on migrating, unscrupulous recruiters instead route migrants desperate for jobs through unregulated channels. Or they turn to other countries with fewer protections. In fact, they turned to Kenya and Uganda when some other countries barred their workers from going. Saudi Arabia has reportedly recently started recruiting from Somalia.
Governments in East Africa should learn from other labor-sending countries that have spent years dealing with cases of abused workers. The most promising practices include strong and consistent monitoring of recruitment agencies, bilateral diplomatic efforts at the highest political levels, ensuring that domestic workers know their rights and where to get help, and expanding the staff and resources of embassies to provide emergency shelter and to address legal and social protection for migrant workers.
In October, a Kenyan Foreign Affairs Ministry official told me that they are proposing labor attaches for consulates, working on an exit visa system for domestic workers, and seeking to increase punishments for malpractice by recruitment agencies. Last week, the National Assembly committee on Labour and Social Welfare called for "a special fund to the missions in the Middle East, especially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia...including setting up a safe house." It is important for these proposals to turn into concrete actions.
Uganda has also initiated some changes. In July, the government signed a memorandum with Saudi Arabia to entitle domestic workers to an eight-hour working day, a return air ticket, decent accommodation, identity cards on arrival, health insurance and a monthly minimum wage of 750 Saudi Riyals (around 710,000 Ugandan shillings or US$200). The government is reportedly seeking similar agreements with Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.
But often these bilateral agreements are weak and difficult to enforce if there are poor national protections. They will do little to safeguard migrant domestic workers, however good the stated conditions. As such, labor-sending countries should also press the gulf countries to reform the kafala system to allow migrant workers to change employers, and to bring their labor laws in line with the International Labour Organisation's Domestic Workers Convention. They should avoid unhealthy competition with other labor-sending countries and work together to demand a set of minimum standards, including a minimum wage, for all migrant domestic workers.
Kenya and Uganda are at a turning point. They know that many of their citizens seek to improve their fortunes abroad, but they have not set up basic safeguards to protect them. Instead of repeating the cycle in other countries, that have been shocked by egregious cases of abuse of domestic workers, they should act decisively now.
Maria, like tens of thousands of women, seized what she thought was an economic opportunity. But without real reforms in the Middle East, and better protections from her own government, there will be many more Marias who are deceived, abused, and denied justice.
-- 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 days ago.
On December 18, International Migrants Day, all governments, including Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia should commit to better protection for the growing numbers of migrants like Maria that face abuse in the Middle East.
Maria was among 99 women I interviewed in late 2013 for the Human Rights Watch report "I Already Bought You: Abuse and exploitation of female migrant domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates," issued in October 2014. At the time, countries like Uganda and Kenya were relatively new to sending domestic workers to the Middle East, which had typically recruited from India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, media reports of abuse of Kenyan and Ugandan domestic workers have increased. Like their counterparts from Asia, their woes include unpaid wages, long working hours with little or no rest, confinement to the household, passport confiscation, inadequate food, poor living conditions, and physical and sexual abuse.
It is no mystery why the estimated 2.4 million domestic workers in the Gulf often face abuse. While some employers treat them well, major gaps in labor laws in the gulf countries coupled with unethical recruitment in home countries foster exploitation and violence. Under the visa sponsorship, or kafala, system, domestic workers cannot transfer employers before the end of their contracts without their employer's consent.
Both Uganda and Kenya have experimented with banning migration of domestic workers to the Middle East. But previous experience shows that when labor-sending countries try to protect their citizens through bans on migrating, unscrupulous recruiters instead route migrants desperate for jobs through unregulated channels. Or they turn to other countries with fewer protections. In fact, they turned to Kenya and Uganda when some other countries barred their workers from going. Saudi Arabia has reportedly recently started recruiting from Somalia.
Governments in East Africa should learn from other labor-sending countries that have spent years dealing with cases of abused workers. The most promising practices include strong and consistent monitoring of recruitment agencies, bilateral diplomatic efforts at the highest political levels, ensuring that domestic workers know their rights and where to get help, and expanding the staff and resources of embassies to provide emergency shelter and to address legal and social protection for migrant workers.
In October, a Kenyan Foreign Affairs Ministry official told me that they are proposing labor attaches for consulates, working on an exit visa system for domestic workers, and seeking to increase punishments for malpractice by recruitment agencies. Last week, the National Assembly committee on Labour and Social Welfare called for "a special fund to the missions in the Middle East, especially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia...including setting up a safe house." It is important for these proposals to turn into concrete actions.
Uganda has also initiated some changes. In July, the government signed a memorandum with Saudi Arabia to entitle domestic workers to an eight-hour working day, a return air ticket, decent accommodation, identity cards on arrival, health insurance and a monthly minimum wage of 750 Saudi Riyals (around 710,000 Ugandan shillings or US$200). The government is reportedly seeking similar agreements with Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.
But often these bilateral agreements are weak and difficult to enforce if there are poor national protections. They will do little to safeguard migrant domestic workers, however good the stated conditions. As such, labor-sending countries should also press the gulf countries to reform the kafala system to allow migrant workers to change employers, and to bring their labor laws in line with the International Labour Organisation's Domestic Workers Convention. They should avoid unhealthy competition with other labor-sending countries and work together to demand a set of minimum standards, including a minimum wage, for all migrant domestic workers.
Kenya and Uganda are at a turning point. They know that many of their citizens seek to improve their fortunes abroad, but they have not set up basic safeguards to protect them. Instead of repeating the cycle in other countries, that have been shocked by egregious cases of abuse of domestic workers, they should act decisively now.
Maria, like tens of thousands of women, seized what she thought was an economic opportunity. But without real reforms in the Middle East, and better protections from her own government, there will be many more Marias who are deceived, abused, and denied justice.
-- 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 days ago.
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One Palafox Place Announces New Anchor Tenant McMahon & Hadder Insurance in the Pensacola Historic District
One Palafox Place consists of a newly-reimagined 4.5-acre city block in the Pensacola Historic District that features seven buildings and two historic Pensacola landmarks – the century-old Blount and Brent buildings.
Pensacola, Fla. (PRWEB) December 18, 2015
A well-known, independent insurance company will soon be moving to the Moulton Building at One Palafox Place, located at 3 W. Garden St. in historic downtown Pensacola.
McMahon & Hadder Insurance, Inc., will move from its existing office on North Ninth Avenue to the ground floor, 6,500-square-foot suite space at One Palafox Place in the spring of 2016. The building is currently undergoing renovation and is expected to be complete in March.
McMahon & Hadder provides comprehensive personal, commercial and health insurance services throughout Northwest Florida. The agency is headquartered in Pensacola with an additional office in Destin, Florida.
"Location plays a pivotal role in the success of service-oriented businesses, and One Palafox Place's premier location, progressive redevelopment and high visibility were among the factors that attracted McMahon & Hadder,” said Billy Lovelace, Leasing Agent for One Palafox Place. “We expect them to enjoy great success here.”
One Palafox Place consists of 4.5-acre city block in the Pensacola Historic District that ranges from Palafox to Baylen streets and Garden to Romana streets. The block features approximately 200,000 square feet of commercial space under the roofs of seven buildings, which includes two historic Pensacola landmarks – the century-old Blount and Brent buildings.
In November, Cowork Annex was announced as the first new anchor tenant coming to the Brent Annex in the newly reimagined One Palafox Place. The unconventional and flexible shared workspace environment is an attractive amenity that no other local commercial real estate development offers.
This week, large-format signs have been installed around the exterior of One Palafox Place with renderings depicting forthcoming renovations. The public is invited to see what the future of One Palafox Place will become.
The landmark property, led by managing partner Robert Switzer, is currently undergoing major renovations — including a modernization of the exterior, first-floor lobbies, vestibule entrances, bathrooms, all common interiors, exterior courtyards and soon to be available retail, residential and additional office.
Lovelace added “Aside from the historical significance, this is a unique property in that it allows both small, mid-sized and larger tenants to have a significant presence in a premier office asset with ample parking and immediate access to major thoroughfares, such as Interstate 110 and U.S. 98.”
For general information, contact Giffney Nagel at (850) 433-2845 or info(at)onepalafoxplace(dot)com. For leasing information, contact Billy Lovelace at (850) 572-2023 or billylovelace1(at)gmail(dot)com.
About One Palafox Place
One Palafox Place, LLC is a historic redevelopment of a century-old landmark property located in the epicenter of downtown Pensacola, Fla. The reimagined and redeveloped city block will become a mixed-use community where restaurants, retail shops and offices will work in partnership with residential living and public gathering areas. This unique collaboration will create an “urban village” where people will live, work and play in a premiere location and make One Palafox Place the focal point of downtown Pensacola’s remarkable revival.
For more information on One Palafox Place, go to http://www.onepalafoxplace.com. Reported by PRWeb 2 days ago.
Pensacola, Fla. (PRWEB) December 18, 2015
A well-known, independent insurance company will soon be moving to the Moulton Building at One Palafox Place, located at 3 W. Garden St. in historic downtown Pensacola.
McMahon & Hadder Insurance, Inc., will move from its existing office on North Ninth Avenue to the ground floor, 6,500-square-foot suite space at One Palafox Place in the spring of 2016. The building is currently undergoing renovation and is expected to be complete in March.
McMahon & Hadder provides comprehensive personal, commercial and health insurance services throughout Northwest Florida. The agency is headquartered in Pensacola with an additional office in Destin, Florida.
"Location plays a pivotal role in the success of service-oriented businesses, and One Palafox Place's premier location, progressive redevelopment and high visibility were among the factors that attracted McMahon & Hadder,” said Billy Lovelace, Leasing Agent for One Palafox Place. “We expect them to enjoy great success here.”
One Palafox Place consists of 4.5-acre city block in the Pensacola Historic District that ranges from Palafox to Baylen streets and Garden to Romana streets. The block features approximately 200,000 square feet of commercial space under the roofs of seven buildings, which includes two historic Pensacola landmarks – the century-old Blount and Brent buildings.
In November, Cowork Annex was announced as the first new anchor tenant coming to the Brent Annex in the newly reimagined One Palafox Place. The unconventional and flexible shared workspace environment is an attractive amenity that no other local commercial real estate development offers.
This week, large-format signs have been installed around the exterior of One Palafox Place with renderings depicting forthcoming renovations. The public is invited to see what the future of One Palafox Place will become.
The landmark property, led by managing partner Robert Switzer, is currently undergoing major renovations — including a modernization of the exterior, first-floor lobbies, vestibule entrances, bathrooms, all common interiors, exterior courtyards and soon to be available retail, residential and additional office.
Lovelace added “Aside from the historical significance, this is a unique property in that it allows both small, mid-sized and larger tenants to have a significant presence in a premier office asset with ample parking and immediate access to major thoroughfares, such as Interstate 110 and U.S. 98.”
For general information, contact Giffney Nagel at (850) 433-2845 or info(at)onepalafoxplace(dot)com. For leasing information, contact Billy Lovelace at (850) 572-2023 or billylovelace1(at)gmail(dot)com.
About One Palafox Place
One Palafox Place, LLC is a historic redevelopment of a century-old landmark property located in the epicenter of downtown Pensacola, Fla. The reimagined and redeveloped city block will become a mixed-use community where restaurants, retail shops and offices will work in partnership with residential living and public gathering areas. This unique collaboration will create an “urban village” where people will live, work and play in a premiere location and make One Palafox Place the focal point of downtown Pensacola’s remarkable revival.
For more information on One Palafox Place, go to http://www.onepalafoxplace.com. Reported by PRWeb 2 days ago.
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hCentive Expands Partnerships With Insurance Carriers and Benefits Administrators to Participate In WebInsure™ Benefits Marketplace
RESTON, Va., Dec. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- hCentive, the leader in health insurance exchange solutions, announced today that the company has added new health and ancillary insurance carriers and benefits administrators to its WebInsure Benefits marketplace. WebInsure Benefits is a...
Reported by PR Newswire 2 days ago.
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Triple-dipper: East Bay politician making $370,000 a year balks at paying for health insurance
When he applied to head Kensington's small police department, Kevin Hart said he didn't need health insurance; days after being hired he said that was a mistake.
Reported by San Jose Mercury News 2 days ago.
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House Passes $1.15 Trillion Spending Bill: Here Is What's In It
Moments ago, the House of Representatives just passed the $1.15 trillion spending bill that includes a $680 billion package of tax-break extensions, in a 316 to 113 vote, and will now move to the Senate, where its passage is likewise assured and will be signed by the president over the next few days.While there was clearly no risk of the Omnibus not passing, this particular portion of pork is relevant, because as Richard Breslow notes, "fiscal policy may begin to emerge from hibernation. The spending and tax bills Congress is in the process of passing today is something that probably couldn’t have happened last year. Ryan and Pelosi working together to pass a bill that has White House support gives rise to holiday optimism. The Federal government is actually expected to boost GDP growth next year."
How the market reacts to Congress becoming the driver of the market economy, instead of the Fed's monetary policy, is still unclear although it will likely not be an enthusiastic handoff.
For those wondering what are the main components of the spending bill, here is a quick summary.
From Goldman Sachs.
*KEY POINTS:*
*1. A broad year-end spending and tax deal has been reached*. Congressional negotiators finalized their year-end agreement on spending for FY2016 and a long-term extension of tax provisions early this morning. The bill -- particularly the tax components -- includes several changes of interest to the market, as described in more detail below. Details of those changes can be found here and here. We provided background on many of these issues in a US Daily last week.
*2. We expect this legislation to become law.* While each party opposes certain aspects of the deal, overall we expect there to be sufficient support to get majorities in both chambers. Although the White House has stated opposition to certain changes in the bill, such as the repeal of the oil export ban, they appear to have been careful not to have threatened a veto, and we do not view a presidential veto as a major risk to enactment at this point.
*3. The bill would provide a small fiscal boost in 2016. *As the bill is over 2000 pages long and formal budget estimates of the spending totals and tax provisions have not yet been released, we will wait to assess the fiscal impact. However, in general we expect the legislation to provide a boost to spending in 2016 that is in line with the increase in the spending caps enacted last month. On the tax side, we expect the legislation to be slightly stimulative in 2016, but will wait until formal estimates are released before making a more detailed assessment.
*4. The repeal of oil export ban and extension of renewable incentives made it into the final version.* The ban on US crude oil exports would be repealed, and the administration would be prohibited from restricting exports except in national emergencies and similar circumstances. Also, as part of the agreement on oil exports, the production tax credit (PTC) for wind power installations would be extended through 2019, with a phase-down from 2017 through 2019. The investment tax credit (ITC) for solar installations would be extended for three years, through 2019, at the current rate and would then be phased down through 2021, expiring in 2023 (note that the deadline has also been changed, so that it now applies to projects where construction has started by the expiration date, rather than being put into service by expiration). This represents a significant win for the renewable sector, as discussed in our recent report. Refiners, which are negatively affected by the oil export ban, would get limited consolation from a tax benefit for independent refiners. The bill would also extend the existing biodiesel credit for two years, through 2016, but it does not appear to shift it to a “producer” credit as the Senate had proposed.
*5. Delay in ACA-related taxes slightly more generous than expected. *Implementation of the “Cadillac tax” (40% excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health premiums) would be delayed from 2018 to 2020. The tax would also be made deductible as a business expense, easing the burden on employers who might eventually pay the tax. However, in light of widespread opposition to this tax (its delay had just as much Democratic support as Republican) we would expect further changes in years ahead. The existing 2.3% tax on medical device sales would be suspended for two years, so that it would not apply to sales in 2016 and 2017. The existing tax on health insurance premiums would be suspended for one year, in 2017. To generate a small amount of budget savings, the bill would limit the Medicaid payment for durable medical equipment to the Medicare rate starting 2019 and would make changes to payments for imaging. To provide relief for Puerto Rico, hospitals there would receive payments at 100% of the US rate, rather than a blend of 75% US and 25% PR. As expected, the bill also extends last year's requirement that CMS implement the "risk corridor" for plans in ACA exchanges on a budget-neutral basis, which will limit CMS's ability to make the full payments.
*6. Real estate provisions largely as expected, but with relief for pending transactions. *The restrictions on REIT conversions proposed last week by Ways and Means Chairman Brady were largely maintained in the final version. However, REIT transactions that were pending as of December 7, 2015 are allowed to proceed, provided there was already a formal ruling request with the IRS by that date. The final bill includes the relaxation of restrictions on foreign investment in US real estate under FIRPTA, which would allow foreign pension funds to more freely invest in US real estate assets, including but not limited to REITs.
*7. Permanent R&D credit and small business expensing, bonus depreciation extended four years. *The bill would permanently extend the R&D tax credit and “Section 179” expensing for small businesses, with thresholds in the latter indexed to inflation starting in 2016. 50% bonus depreciation would be extended four years, through 2019.
*8. Stimulus-related personal tax incentives were made permanent. *Enhanced refundable tax credits for low-income earners originally enacted in the 2009 stimulus legislation have been scheduled to expire in 2017, reverting back to less generous levels. The bill would make the enhanced versions of the child tax credit (CTC), earned income tax credit (EITC), and American opportunity tax credit (AOTC) permanent.
*9. Miscellaneous items of potential interest. *Income from gains on timber sales for C corporations (i.e., not REITs) would be taxed at 23.8% in 2016. Heating and air-conditioning would become eligible for small business expensing (Section 179), increasing the tax incentive to install new systems. Reported by Zero Hedge 1 day ago.
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Teamsters Support Omnibus Spending Bill That Protects Worker Rights, Health Care
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Teamsters back a $1.1 trillion spending bill approved today by Congress for fiscal year 2016, saying it ensures workers retain their rights to organize on the job and will continue to receive comprehensive health insurance from...
Reported by PR Newswire 1 day ago.
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AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia Rated Highest Among District of Columbia Medicaid Plans
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia, a Medicaid managed care plan serving the District of Columbia and part of the AmeriHealth Caritas Family of Companies, is the highest-rated Medicaid plan in the District of Columbia, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA’s) Medicaid Health Insurance Plan Ratings 2015–2016. “AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia is committed to making quality health care, and particularly preventive care, access
Reported by Business Wire 1 day ago.
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