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NewsWatch: Health-insurance costs rise by nearly 5%, latest CPI data shows

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Reported by MarketWatch 9 hours ago.

How a Sanders Medicare-For-All Plan Can Be Affordable and Appeal to Republicans

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The New York Times recently ran a story entitled "Left-Leaning Economists Question the Cost of Bernie Sanders's Plans." The article featured the views of economists who are, I believe, predominantly supporters of Hillary and would, I presume, like to work in her Administration.

I'm not a Sanders supporter. This said, I don't think political economists, by which I mean politically affiliated economists, can provide impartial analysis. Indeed, political economists working for people in both parties have badly served the profession. Consequently, when I see political economists attack the economic plans of political opponents, I immediately worry if they are putting their politics ahead of their economics.

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan is a good example. It was quickly dismissed by left-of-center economists as highly regressive. In fact, the plan embedded two significant wealth taxes and was far more progressive than these economists or Cain, himself, understood. Nancy Pelosi would likely have applauded Cain's 9-9-9 plan had it featured explicit rather than implicit wealth taxes, i.e., if the same plan had been conveyed with different words.

When I read the attacks on Herman Cain's tax plan, I wrote a column for Bloomberg.com to set the record straight. Doing so didn't mean I liked Cain as a candidate. On the contrary, he wasn't remotely qualified to become President. But he deserved to have his tax plan properly vetted.

Whether Sanders is qualified to be President depends, in part, on whether he can convert his high-minded objectives into policies that the country can afford and that the vast majority of Americans, which includes plenty of Republicans, will accept. When it comes to Medicare for All, the answer is yes, provided Medicare for All is correctly designed.

The Hillary-leaning economists featured in the NY Times article who roundly derided Sanders's Medicare for All plan as far too expensive might have pointed out these facts. Other developed countries provide universal healthcare at a national cost that is a 6 to 8 percentage-point lower share of GDP than what we spend. Furthermore, the quality of their care, as measured by health outcomes, is often higher.

These economists could have also prefaced their remarks by saying, "Gee, if we just run our healthcare system like the Swiss run theirs and call it Medicare for All, we could certainly pull off what Bernie is advocating."

They didn't do this and the NY Times reporter failed, it seems, to ask them about the Swiss or any other healthcare system that delivers excellent care at the far lower price that Sanders is referencing. And for those concerned about too much government, most of these foreign health care systems use private-sector provision, rather than having the government micromanage each and every health-sector decision.

This is important. When Sanders references a single payer system, many of the public equate this with a total government takeover of our healthcare sector. That's not what Sanders is proposing. Furthermore, the U.S. already has, to a large extent, a single-payer system. When you add up all the direct government payments for Medicare, Medicare, and Obamacare and include the huge tax subsidy to employer-based health care, you find that roughly 60 cents of every healthcare dollar spent in this country comes out of Uncle Sam's pocket, either directly or indirectly.

Before outlining a Sanders's Medicare for All plan that both the Democrats, including Sanders, and the Republicans, including, say, Donald Trump, should love and that is highly affordable, let me point out that we now have two versions of Medicare in place -- a version designed by Democrats and a version designed by Republicans. The Democrat's version is traditional Medicare (Parts A, B, and D). The Republican version is Medicare Part C, also known as Medicare Advantage.

Traditional Medicare is fee for service. You get the service and Uncle Sam pays the fee, or most of it. The problem with traditional Medicare is that no one stops you from using as many healthcare services as your heart desires. My mom is 96. If she wants (she doesn't) to see 5 docs and have 10 expensive tests every day, day in and day out, no one will stop her and Washington will keep paying. This is the system that isn't affordable in its current, let alone an expanded state.

Republicans don't like traditional Medicare in large part because of its escalating costs, which, over the decades, have grown much more rapidly than GDP. Notwithstanding a welcome Medicare-growth slowdown in the past few years, the Kaiser Foundation predicts growth in real (inflation-adjusted) Medicare per capital benefits of over 4 percent per year in the next decade, which exceeds projected growth in U.S. real per capita GDP by over 2 percentage points.

The Republican version of Medicare, Part C, pays private insurance companies to do what traditional Medicare would otherwise do -- ensure the participant against health expenses. But it does so at a set annual cost. Democrats don't like Medicare Part C because they think private insurance companies are inefficient and overcharge for their insurance. Furthermore, when people get really sick, the private insurers can structure their coverage and services to induce exit back to traditional Medicare (Parts A, B, and C). This, of course, is a form of cherrypicking. Finally, the set annual cost rises each year with the cost of traditional Medicare. So if the costs of traditional Medicare are running out of control, the cost of Part C will do the same.

Here's a plan that Sanders, Trump, Clinton, Cruz, Kasich, Rubio, Bush, and Carson (Did I miss anyone?) should like. I won't call it the Medicare for All plan, which Sanders would like, or the Medicare for None plan, which Cruz might like. I'm calling it the Purple Health Plan, a title reds and blues can both like since purple combines both colors.

If you go to www.thepurpleplans.org, you'll find that the Purple Health Plan has been endorsed by five Nobel Laureates in Economics and a slew of other top economists, none of whom has a political ax to grind. The plan has two hot-button words. One is single-payer, which Blues love and Reds hate. The other is voucher, which Reds love and Blues hate. I'm using these words as bait -- to, on balance, keep both sides reading. But please don't get too hung up on those words. If you don't like them, substitute their, say, Russian equivalents and focus on the following principles and features of this incredibly simple plan:

*Principles of Healthcare Reform*

1. All Americans need a basic health plan and should be free to purchase supplemental health insurance coverage.

2. Healthcare should be privately provided with people free to choose their doctors and hospitals.

3. All who can pay for their health plans should do so through a combination of existing tax payments and health plan co-payments.

4. The government's projected healthcare costs must be strictly capped and fiscally affordable on a long-term basis.

5. Health plans should be affordable regardless of one's pre-existing health conditions or risk.

6. The system must provide strong incentives to prevent overuse of healthcare services and discourage bad healthcare behavior.

7. Medical malpractice reform is needed to keep providers from engaging in unaffordable defensive medicine.

The vast majority of Americans would surely agree with this list of principals. Ok, but how do we implement them? Here's the answer.

*The Purple Health Plan*

1. All Americans receive a free voucher each year to purchase, in full, the Purple Plan (which provides all basic medical coverage) from the insurance company of their choice.

2. There in only one Purple Plan. It covers the same medical services and drugs for everyone. This will turn the provision of basic health insurance into a basic commodity (like wheat) and produce intense competition among insurance companies to provide this commodity.

2. The vouchers are individually risk-adjusted (By the way, such risk-adjustment software already exists.) to fully protect those with pre-existing conditions; those with higher expected healthcare costs, based on documented medical conditions, receive larger vouchers. Since the poor are in worse health than the rich, this makes The Purple Health Plan highly progressive.

3. While the vouchers will ensure that insurers have no incentive to turn anyone away, they will be also be formally prohibited from denying coverage to anyone.

4. Each year a panel of doctors sets the coverages of the standard plan subject to a strict budget, namely that the total cost to the government of the vouchers not exceed 10 percent of GDP. Switzerland and Germany, by the way, spend 11 percent of their GDP for all healthcare. Hence, 10 percent is a huge number. The panel can, each year, expand as well as limit what's covered under the Purple Plan to strictly adhere to their 10 percent of GDP budget.

5. Insurance companies providing the Purple Plan contract with private providers to cover their plan participants.

6. Americans choose doctors and hospitals included in their insurance company's network.

7. Plan providers compete and provide incentives to improve participants' health and limit bad personal health practices. Since they are paid a fixed amount by Uncle Sam each year, they have no incentive to overtreat patients. But if they undertreat patients, they won't get return customers and will lose their profit margin that is included in the calculation of the voucher.

8. Plan providers offer supplemental plans to their participants and cannot deny supplemental insurance coverage to their participants.

9. Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and all tax breaks to employer-based health insurance are eliminated. Employer-based health insurance will disappear over time since everyone will receive free basic coverage under The Purple Plan.

10. Pending passage of the Purple Tax Plan, funds now used to finance Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare as well as the additional revenues from eliminating the tax exclusion of employer-provided health insurance premiums, are used to finance the vouchers. If additional revenues are needed to cover the costs of the vouchers prior to the passage of the Purple Tax Plan, the ceiling on the FICA payroll tax would be raised.

-- 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 8 hours ago.

Krugman Attacks Sanders for Economic Study Produced by Clinton Supporter

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Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist, Nobel laureate, and defensive linebacker for Team Hillary, is accusing the Sanders campaign of voodoo economics. He attacks an independent economic analysis of the Sanders agenda produced by economist Gerald Friedman. That questionable study shows incredibly high gains in jobs, employment and income.

Krugman fails to mention that Friedman is a declared Clinton supporter!

That's is either bad faith or bad journalism or both.

Good journalism and good economics requires an open debate about the key issue driving the Sanders revolt: Runaway Inequality

In 1970 a top 100 CEO earned $45 for every dollar earned by the average worker. That means if a worker could afford one car, a top 100 CEO could afford 45 cars.

Today the pay gap is an obscene $844 to $1.

The American people believe this is grossly unfair and many are flocking to the Sanders campaign because of it.

So instead of arguing about bogus studies put out by Team Hillary economists, let's debate the real issues:
· Should higher education be free at public colleges and universities?· Should we enact a financial transaction tax on Wall Street speculation?· Should healthcare be a right for all and delivered through a single-payer system?· Should we rebuild the infrastructure so that there will be no more Flint poisonings of our kids?· Should we reduce the prison population so that we no longer lead the entire world in the number of prisoners?· Should we enact a $15 an hour minimum wage so that no longer lead the developed world in childhood poverty?· Should we tax the $21 trillion of wealth that is hidden off shore by the super-rich and large corporations?· Should we break up the big banks and create public state banks like the Bank of North Dakota?
We are the richest country in the history of the world. We have the resources to eliminate poverty, rebuild our infrastructure, provide decent paying jobs for all willing and able to work. But we can do so only if we take on our financial and corporate elites.

If Krugman wants to do battle with a credible economist who support the Sanders approach, he should have a go at Thomas Piketty who recently wrote:
"Sanders' success today shows that much of America is tired of rising inequality and these so-called political changes, and intends to revive both a progressive agenda and the American tradition of egalitarianism. Hillary Clinton, who fought to the left of Barack Obama in 2008 on topics such as health insurance, appears today as if she is defending the status quo, just another heiress of the Reagan-Clinton-Obama political regime.

Sanders makes clear he wants to restore progressive taxation and a higher minimum wage ($15 an hour). To this he adds free healthcare and higher education in a country where inequality in access to education has reached unprecedented heights, highlighting a gulf standing between the lives of most Americans, and the soothing meritocratic speeches pronounced by the winners of the system."

Les Leopold, the director of the Labor Institute in New York is working with unions, worker centers and community organization to build a national economics educational campaign. His latest book, Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice (Oct 2015), is a text for that effort. All proceeds go to support this educational campaign.

-- 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 13 hours ago.

What Donald Trump's Win In South Carolina Says About The Republican Party

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WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump comfortably defeated his Republican presidential rivals on Saturday in South Carolina's GOP primary.

Trump's resounding victory isn’t simply a boon to his prospects for winning the Republican presidential nomination, an outcome once thought impossible that is looking increasingly more plausible. It is also an embarrassing repudiation of conservative orthodoxy that has dominated Republican politics for decades. It suggests that the party's intellectual leaders, who organized the base around the National Review/Weekly Standard consensus -- small government, free trade, pro-Israel, deregulation, low taxes, social conservatism and an aggressive foreign policy -- have been generals of a phantom army.

The troops, instead, are marching with Trump, who bested his rivals in South Carolina by campaigning against nearly everything the Bush family, the Republican Party and neoconservatives who supported military interventions advocated for. Among his many breaks with the elite consensus, Trump declared that former President George W. Bush had lied about weapons of mass destruction to march the country to war; blamed Bush for the 9/11 attacks, arguing that he ignored intelligence community warnings; defended Planned Parenthood; boasted that he was the only Republican who would not cut Social Security or Medicare; said he approved of the individual mandate in Obamacare; and promised to slap onerous tariffs on companies who outsource jobs.

And where Washington and New York-based GOP leaders pledge outreach to immigrants, moderate Muslims and other minorities, the reality TV star plays more overt racial politics than any national candidate since George Wallace. Trump's brand of nativist, nationalist isolationism marked the path to victory. Rival candidate Jeb Bush is a dead man.Conventional wisdom said that Trump was going to have a difficult time in the Palmetto State. After all, the brash real estate mogul failed to sway evangelicals in Iowa, a key group that is similarly prevalent across South Carolina. The thinking further went that Trump would also face an uphill climb with many veterans in the state, who are drawn to a candidate ready to assume the sober responsibilities of commander-in-chief. More than anything, however, Trump was expected to hit a wall named George W. Bush. The former president remains overwhelmingly popular among the state’s Republican voters, but not even he could convince enough South Carolinians to support his forlorn brother.

In the weeks leading up to the primary, Trump incessantly mocked Jeb Bush for relying on the aid of his famous family -- first his mother, Barbara, and later his brother. He gleefully tweeted that Bush “desperately needed mommy to help him. Jeb --- mom can't help you with ISIS, the Chinese or with Putin.” Bush campaign officials spun the jabs as a personal affront against the former first lady in hopes of winning votes, but Trump kept rising in the polls anyway.

During last week’s presidential debate in Greenville, South Carolina, Trump unloaded on George W. Bush’s presidency in a tirade that earned him plaudits from anti-war groups like Code Pink. He insisted that the former president “lied” to America about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in order to start a war there and claimed that he lost “hundreds” of friends during the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"How did he keep us safe when the World Trade Center came down?" Trump asked, referring to the GOP refrain that “Bush kept us safe” in the aftermath of the attacks, a line that helped him win re-election in 2004. He further stirred the pot after the former president re-emerged on the campaign trail on behalf of his brother, posing the question, “is he fair game for questions about World Trade Center, Iraq War and eco[nomic] collapse? Careful!"

The New York businessman had even harsher words for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a defense hawk who is considered a powerful politician on the South Carolina scene, after he endorsed Bush. To Trump, Graham is merely a "disgrace" and "one of the dumbest human beings I’ve ever seen."

"He knows nothing. That’s why we’ve been in there for 15 years," added Trump about Graham, in reference to the nation's involvement in the Middle East.

The attacks were especially jarring because they didn’t come from a Democrat or anti-war liberal still sore about George W. Bush’s presidency -- but from someone leading the race for the GOP nomination.

Beltway pundits confidently projected that Trump’s performance at the debate would cost him votes of South Carolina Republicans still loyal to the presidential family. But once again, his poll numbers held steady, offering up yet another stinging rebuke to the Bush legacy. In the end, Trump capitalized on a structural weakness of Jeb Bush’s campaign that no amount of money could fix -- his last name. It turns out far more Americans are divided on issues like the Iraq War and whether George W. Bush truly “kept us safe” than Republican leaders believed.

Trump violated another core Republican Party standard on the eve of the primary when he vowed to stay “neutral” in conflicts between Israel and Palestine, with hopes of negotiating a deal between the two sides during his presidency. “You understand a lot of people have gone down in flames trying to make that deal," he said in an interview on MSNBC this week. "So I don’t want to say whose fault it is -- I don’t think that helps.” That statement was at odds with the rest of the Republican presidential field, and the GOP more broadly, which offers largely knee-jerk pro-Israel rhetoric to appeal to evangelicals across the American South.

The businessman followed up on Thursday during a CNN town hall by suggesting that he would preserve a health insurance mandate -- such as the one that's part of the Affordable Care Act -- and then reversing himself on the matter a day later.

Added to his promises not to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, and his populist rhetoric against trade and Wall Street, it's a wonder GOP elites and their wealthy donors haven't done more to stop Trump's rise -- especially now this caucus victory gives him the chance to run the table in coming primaries across the South on his way toward the nomination. In the end, Republican elites found that in South Carolina, they couldn't beat something with nothing.

Editor's Note: Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.

*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 6 hours ago.

What Was Left Of The Moderate Republican Party Just Died In South Carolina

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With former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dropping out of the Republican presidential contest and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) finishing either second or a close third in South Carolina's primary, you’re going to hear a lot about Rubio consolidating support among moderate Republicans.

And maybe that’s how it really will work out. In a three-way race against Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and real estate mogul Donald Trump, Rubio might be the most attractive alternative to the voters who were supporting Bush -- and who can’t abide Cruz’s stridency or Trump’s explosiveness.

But don’t for a second believe that Rubio is a moderate. In fact, the real takeaway from South Carolina is that, with Bush exiting the race and Ohio Gov. John Kasich likely to follow sometime in the not-distant future, what was left of the GOP’s moderate wing is officially dead.

Consider something that happened late last week, although it got relatively little attention amid all the other campaign news. In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Rubio confirmed that, if elected, he would rescind President Barack Obama’s executive action protecting so-called Dreamers from deportation -- and that he would do so on his first day in office.

Dreamers are undocumented residents who were brought here as children and, in many cases, have spent nearly their entire lives in the U.S. -- going to school, working at jobs and fully integrating to American life. As HuffPost’s Elise Foley and The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent noted, the announcement was a shift. Previously, Rubio had given no timetable for when he’d rescind the executive action -- and suggested that he would probably wait, because deporting the Dreamers right away would be so “deeply disruptive.”

Whatever Rubio’s reversal says about his consistency, or lack thereof, it speaks volumes about the ideological direction of the Republican Party now that South Carolina has apparently winnowed the presidential field. Cruz, Rubio, Trump -- all three want insanely large tax cuts for the rich, all three want to take health insurance away from millions, all three oppose same-sex marriage and now all three have taken up extremely conservative positions on immigration.

The candidates still have their differences, of course. One (Cruz) is a true-believing conservative, one (Rubio) is an ideological shape-shifter, and one (Trump) is a nativist bomb-thrower. But they’re all embracing policies at the far right end of the American political spectrum, leaving the middle without a champion among the leaders in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

*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 3 hours ago.

7 Concerning Findings About Benefits for Pastors and Church Staff

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I recently spoke with a pastor who was tearfully concerned about his health insurance. He had just received notice of a large premium increase that he could not afford. With a diabetic child, he did not know what to do. Reported by Christian Post 14 hours ago.

Harmful Economic Policy Poisoned Flint Before Lead Did

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The national spotlight is on Flint, Michigan as it struggles with a contaminated public water system that has been poisoning its people over the past two years. This happened because a state emergency manager appointed by Governor Rick Snyder ordered a change in the water supply to save money for the cash-strapped city.

As the full scope of this avoidable human and economic crisis in Flint becomes clearer -- one must ask how such an iconic and historically vibrant American city -- could have been plunged into such extreme jeopardy?

How did Flint become "cash-strapped"? How did it lose its own local government control to a state appointed czar? What combination of events caused Flint's population to be cut in half -- with thousands of manufacturing jobs disappearing, the city's tax base decimated, even police and fire protection reduced to skeletal levels?

The steep decline of America's industrial cities like Flint over the past twenty years was driven by earlier wrong-headed federal government policy actions that badly wounded our country.

Key federal decisions between 1992 and 2000, in particular, sharply accelerated the de-industrialization of America -- driving millions of middle class American jobs overseas to other countries. These mistaken policies have destroyed countless families, ruined lives and communities and helped drive Flint into such severe economic distress that it now faces a contaminated water supply imposed by a state mandated financial czar -- in the name of "cost-saving."

*Flint's Downhill Slide Was Triggered in the 1990s*

Looking back to 1992, one sees that Flint and other manufacturing communities in the industrial Midwest were thriving economically before a series of destabilizing events occurred in national policy. These destructive national policies were put in place from 1992 to 2000 -- by three major Clinton Administration economic policy initiatives at that time.

These major destructive national policy initiatives were, (1) The North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA, (2) The near complete deregulation of Wall Street, with the repeal of the Glass-Steagall law, and (3) Punitive welfare reform, which reduced vital income assistance to low-income families -- creating its worst damage in minority communities -- particularly among African-Americans.

Adding further to the economic stress imposed by these three hurtful policies was the devastating failure to enact a national health insurance program in 1994 at a time when job loss was eliminating employment based health insurance coverage.

*North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) *

NAFTA was falsely sold as program to reduce trade deficits and increase U.S. jobs, but this Clinton economic initiative badly hurt Flint and the rest of America's manufacturing base. Since NAFTA's enactment in 1993, over one million U.S. jobs have been out-sourced to foreign countries and some 60,000 U.S. manufacturing facilities have been shut down. GM, Ford and Chrysler have all built auto plants in Mexico and moved the U.S. jobs there.

In the U.S., the jobs replacing these well-paying manufacturing jobs were generally low-skilled service sector jobs that do not provide a living wage. NAFTA put severe downward pressure on U.S. wages, which served to further increase economic inequality within America.

Since NAFTA, it is not surprising that the top one percent has seen its share of national income increase by 40 percent. The super rich in America have benefitted greatly from the outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing jobs to foreign countries. It is fair to say that no community was hurt more by NAFTA than Flint.

*Damaging Repeal of Glass-Steagall and Derivatives Deregulation *

The Depression-era Glass-Steagall law separated the activities of commercial and investment banks in response to the speculation which helped cause the Great Depression. For many decades it kept the U.S. financial system safe and strong. In 1999, President Clinton worked with the Republicans in the Congress to "modernize" financial regulation by repealing Glass-Steagall, and then also deregulated financial derivatives.

This reckless elimination of financial regulations triggered the greatest speculation binge in Wall Street history -- that would ultimately push the nation's financial system to the brink of complete collapse in 2007. It also permitted the Wall Street elite to earn and keep billions in income -- before the system caved in from its own excesses. During this Great Recession the Wall Street crash created massive damage on Main Street. Flint's unemployment rate rapidly doubled from 8 percent to 17 percent -- with the Flint unemployment rate among young black males now among the highest in America.

*Punitive Welfare Reform Hit Very Hard *

The Clinton Administration also worked in 1996 with Congressional Republicans to "change welfare as we know it." The changes enacted were very punishing. The existing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program was replaced by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which had stringent work requirements and time limits on assistance determined by the states. In Michigan the benefits now cover only 20-30 percent of the poverty line, representing a 30 percent decline in the benefits paid since TANF was enacted. Today, the Michigan program provides less than $5 per day per person in benefits.

At a time when jobs were rapidly disappearing in Michigan, TANF was a major blow to the increasing number of families needing public assistance, particularly single mothers and their children. Every dollar of reduced assistance also had a major negative economic impact on the entire Flint community. This Clinton initiative severely hurt low-income families -- most especially black families facing other challenges.

Today, the poverty rate in Flint is over 40 percent, with 66 percent of its children living in poverty. African Americans make up 56 percent of the Flint population, with whites making up 37 percent. The only other city of similar size with more poverty than Flint is Youngstown, OH, another manufacturing center hard hit by NAFTA -- and the punishing Clinton welfare reform program.
Unnecessary Health Insurance Failure. The Clinton Administration failed to enact a health insurance program for all Americans when it refused to work with a bi-partisan group of Senators who had prepared a compromise health plan that could pass Congress. This failure of what was referred to as "Hillarycare" came at a time when communities like Flint urgently needed health insurance to replace coverage lost as jobs disappeared and for those who were uninsured. It would be 16 long painful years before another opportunity would come for Democrats to enact the health insurance program known as "Obamacare."

During these 16 years, the people of Flint experienced untreated illness and disease, and without question, many deaths occurred that could have been avoided if health insurance and proper treatment had been available. The absence of health insurance also placed more economic stress on a community that was overwhelmed with needs -- but lacked the jobs and income and tax base -- to meet these basic human needs.

All of this happened long before the poisoned water system crisis of the past two years.
The Poisoning of Flint's Economic Future

Before Flint's 100,000 citizens had their water poisoned, their economic future was being poisoned by these detrimental and badly mistaken national economic policy failures. Had this policy poison not been set loose on its economy in the 1990s, Flint's budget crisis and the undemocratic state take-over of its management would likely never have occurred.

The poisoning of the city's water would never have been permitted by its own locally elected officials. The state government applied a plantation mentality to the people of Flint -- putting cost savings above any serious concern for the people and the public health. This would not have happened, however, if Flint's economic footing had not been shattered by harmful national economic policies of the 1990s.
*
What Flint Needs Now*

Until there is a safe water delivery system in Flint and its citizens receive the remedial health care they need, Flint will remain trapped in an economic Neverland. New national economic and trade policies are essential if Flint is to fully recover -- once the water problem is fixed. We need to elect a President that is committed to reversing the ruinous national policies created 20 years ago in Washington, DC that set off the downward economic spiral for Flint -- and supports the actions needed to again restore the economic vitality of Flint and other U. S. manufacturing communities.

-- 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.

Connect for Health Colorado may hand some operations over to feds

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State health insurance portal is in talks to hand some operations over to the feds. Reported by Denver Post 24 minutes ago.

The MAP Recovery Network Welcomes Grace’s Way Recovery

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MAP Recovery Network members are committed to collecting outcomes data which gives them the ability to demonstrate their treatment success rates.

Palm Beach, FL (PRWEB) February 23, 2016

MAP Health Management, facilitator of the MAP Recovery Network, announced today that Grace’s Way Recovery has joined the Premier Outcomes-Driven Provider Network. Grace’s Way differentiates itself in the addiction treatment space with a treatment culture dedicated to stopping the cycle of relapse, which coincides with the mission of MAP Recovery Network members.

The MAP Recovery Network is an alliance of more than 70 addiction treatment providers dedicated to collecting outcomes data on their discharged patients and reporting the rates of treatment success. The field of behavioral health is in transition. Potential patients and their health insurance companies are demanding to see treatment success rates, which is the standard in other forms of chronic disease management. Recovery Network members are leading the way with both responsive and proactive initiatives.

Salima Patel, the Director of Business Development and family clinician at Grace’s Way has focused her doctoral research on the role of family in addiction treatment and conceptualizing addiction as a family disease. She says: “At Grace’s Way we believe that sustained recovery IS possible even for individuals facing insurmountable challenges. Treating each suffering addict/alcoholic with love and compassion, and embracing them into our family helps clients AND their families begin the healing process. This family approach to addiction treatment is what I have found to be most fulfilling at Grace’s Way, both professionally and personally.” In reference to working with MAP Salima said: “Membership in the MAP Recovery Network provides more opportunities for Grace’s Way to make a long-lasting difference in the lives of those battling this chronic disease.”

Membership in the MAP Network provides members with the ability to access a wide array of addiction treatment resources including MAP’s renowned post-treatment Recovery Support Services. In the first year following treatment the risk of relapse is high and post-treatment support helps patients successfully transition from the short-term recovery experienced during addiction treatment to long-term recovery following treatment. The advancements in telehealth provides Recovery Network members the ability to offer professional, extended recovery support to their patients who have recently completed treatment.

“The MAP Recovery Network provides opportunities to improve addiction treatment outcomes”, commented Jacob Levenson, MAP Health Management CEO. “Our members utilize telehealth to measure and demonstrate empirical data on their discharged patients. We take post-treatment support seriously because this is a critical variable in the difference between those who maintain recovery and those who do not. The Recovery Network will soon add 1,200 professional counselors to support our members with post-treatment resources.”

By embracing telehealth services and extended recovery support, Grace’s Way embraces the entire continuum of care for their patients. Membership in the MAP Recovery Network gives quality treatment providers access to the latest technologies in an increasingly data-driven space. Grace’s Way is paving the path for continued success in the battle against addiction.

About Grace’s Way Recovery
Grace’s Way is a small, intimate, family-style treatment program founded on a vision by a grateful mother and her son in recovery. Using evidence-based therapeutic modalities and individualized treatment approaches, Grace’s Way has shown clients that a purpose-driven life IS possible for any individual seeking long-term recovery from addiction. With programs emphasizing relapse prevention, trauma-informed therapy and family wellness and recovery, Grace’s Way strives to provide their clients with excellent and individualized care. An integrative approach to healing the mind, body and spirit starts in heart and this philosophy is echoed throughout this organization. At Grace’s Way the belief is that the cycle of relapse stops here. For additional information please visit http://www.gracesway.com.

Grace’s Way Recovery
2200 N Florida Mango Road # 201
Palm Beach, FL 33409
Salima Patel
888-317-2350

About The MAP Recovery Network
The MAP Recovery Network, The Premier Outcomes-Driven Provider Network, is comprised of quality addiction treatment providers committed to measuring outcomes data. MAP Network members differentiate themselves to behavior healthcare consumers and health insurance payers by demonstrating treatment success rates. MAP’s dedicated teams of research analysts, clinical directors, recovery advocates, technology professionals and billing experts work to improve patient outcomes, empower treatment providers with data, reduce costs and drive facility revenue. For more information see http://www.MAPNetwork.com and http://www.ThisisMAP.com. Reported by PRWeb 2 days ago.

Halfpricesoft.com has Released a New Cutting Edge ez1095 Software to Process ACA Forms

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ez1095 software has just been released by Halfpricesoft.com to print or efile Affordable Care Act Forms 1095 C, 1094 C, 1095 B & 1094 B. Test drive the 30 day no cost or obligation trial at http://www.halfpricesoft.com.

Detroit, MI (PRWEB) February 23, 2016

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Founded in 2003, Halfpricesoft.com has established itself as a leader in meeting the software needs of small businesses around the world with its payroll software, employee attendance tracking software, check printing software, W2 software, 1099 software and barcode generating software. It continues to grow with its philosophy that small business owners need affordable, user friendly, super simple, and totally risk-free software. Reported by PRWeb 2 days ago.

The Labor Prospect: Harry Reid's Backchannel Turnout Machine in Nevada

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(Photo: AP/John Locher)

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid speaks at a Latino get-out-the-caucus event on February 16, in advance of the February 20 Democratic caucus.

Welcome to The American Prospect's weekly roundup highlighting the best reporting and latest developments in the labor movement.

(Compiled by Justin Miller—Edited by Harold Meyerson)

-GOTCV—Getting out the casino vote-

Hillary Clinton won a decisive victory in Nevada on Saturday, quelling concern that her campaign operation in the state had sprung a leak. Her victory also provides critical insight into how she will fare in other states with strong organized labor.

In both Iowa and Nevada, labor unions rolled out major turnout operations with similar results. Clinton won 54 percent of Nevada caucus-goers with at least one union member in their family; Sanders earned 43 percent of that support. In Iowa, Clinton beat Sanders on that front 52 percent to 47 percent.

Some Clinton critics say that her campaign got a crucial boost from a get-out-the-vote ploy. Clinton had been banking on an endorsement from Culinary Local 226, the UNITE HERE union that represents more than 55,000 (mostly Latino) employees at Las Vegas’s hotels and casinos. But the political powerhouse decided to remain on the sidelines, not wanting to wade into the Democratic battle while in the midst of its own tense contract negotiation battle, and after having been burned when the “Cadillac tax,” which would damage the health insurance it has won for its members, was pushed by President Obama, whose candidacy the union backed in 2008.

The Clinton campaign was concerned that tens of thousands of Latino workers wouldn’t turn out for her without the local’s mobilization machine. That is, until Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada stepped in. Last week, Reid (who has yet to endorse a presidential candidate) called up UNITE HERE’s president D. Taylor. In a subsequent interview with The New York Times, Reid said that Taylor had “been extremely cooperative. Probably 100 organizers will be at the caucus sites and in hotels to make sure people know what they’re doing.”

Then, Reid employed his political sway in the state to convince Vegas casino executives to give workers paid time off to attend the caucus on Saturday. It worked. Hundreds of workers showed up to caucus on the strip, and Clinton won all six casino caucus sites—earning Clinton 109 delegates to Sanders’s 52. The turnout ultimately helped Clinton carry Clark County.

“The story of the Nevada caucus is that a lame-duck senator and a self-neutered union conspired to revive the Clinton campaign in a remarkable bit of backroom maneuvering that helped Madame Secretary crush Sanders in Clark County, the key to winning almost any statewide election,” Nevada political columnist John Ralston wrote in a scathing post-caucus column. “Despite their common public neutrality, Taylor and Reid surely believe, as do most Democratic power brokers, that a Sanders nomination would be a disaster. Reid knew that Taylor would get his swarms of organizers to turn out mostly Latino workers, who would likely vote for Clinton.”

Then again, having employers give their workers time off to vote is a goal that Democrats long have sought, and Sanders’s campaign has not raised any objections to Local 226’s GOTV efforts.

The Nevada campaigns did produce their share of back-and-forth allegations from unions. Each campaign accused the other’s union supporters of what might be called candidate cross-dressing. Clinton staffers were said to be impersonating members of National Nurses United, which is Sanders’s strongest union supporter. The union’s executive director, RoseAnn DeMoro, tweeted a picture of Clinton staffers changing their shirts from blue to a red hue similar to the nurses union’s campaign garb. “Photo of Clinton campaign pretending to be [National Nurses United] in Nevada caucus. More deception,” DeMoro tweeted. The union’s leaders said this was an attempt to convince caucus-goers that the nurses supported Clinton, not Sanders. A Clinton aide told TIME that this was all nonsense.

Sanders’s campaign, for its part, was harshly reprimanded by the Culinary Local when its staffers were caught wearing the union’s buttons in order to gain access to employee dining rooms in Vegas hotels and distribute literature.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a major Clinton ally, also took fire for distributing literature that said Clinton was supportive of the Fight for $15’s call for a $15 minimum wage and union rights. However, Clinton has rejected a $15 federal minimum as too high a national standard, opting rather for a $12 federal minimum that would allow states and cities to set a higher rate. Politico asked SEIU if the literature was misleading. “Hillary Clinton was the first candidate who came and met with workers and said she supported our movement,” SEIU’s Nevada state director, Brian Shepard, said. “The fight for $15 is about creating a movement of people to talk about the inequality in America. That’s been the focus of the fight for $15.” Then again, its focus has also been advocating for a $15 minimum wage—which Sanders supports at the federal level—in a range of cities and states.

In an interview with the Prospect before the Iowa caucus, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry said, “Our fight is not about a minimum wage; our fight is about a living wage and a union. … For us, Hillary Clinton’s willingness to champion the $15 and union demand for home care, child care, and fast food has been a way to fuel our belief that she can fight, win, and deliver on this broad agenda and that’s how we made our decision. We welcome the skepticism and are willing the engage the debate, because it’s happening inside our union as well as the broader progressive community.”

 

-The AFL-CIO as Switzerland-

Just days before the Nevada caucus (and its executive council meeting), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released a statement saying that the labor federation will withhold a primary endorsement in 2016. The statement indicated that Clinton still lacked the required two-thirds support of the federation’s unions (each union is assigned a numerical weight in this process equal to the number of its members for whom it pays fees to the federation). If the two biggest unions that have backed Clinton—the National Education Association and SEIU—belonged to the federation, the votes would likely have been there for a Clinton endorsement.

Perhaps as a result of Sanders’s long history of opposition to trade deals, the United Auto Workers and United Steel Workers are among the major unions that have refrained from endorsing Clinton, while National Nurses United, the Communications Workers of American, and the National Postal Workers Union have all endorsed Sanders. The Federation’s decision, or non-decision, is good news for the Sanders campaign, as an AFL-CIO endorsement would have been the final seal of labor’s approval for Clinton and would have unleashed a significant amount of resources on her behalf. 

While Bernie’s supporters say the AFL-CIO’s refusal to endorse is a sign that the labor movement truly is split, a coalition of 20 unions supporting Hillary released a statement saying that support for Clinton within their respective membership rolls is strong. These unions’ leaders pushed back on the notion that there’s significant labor support for Bernie. “The A.F.L.-C.I.O. virtually never endorses in primaries,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten told The New York Times. “Because there’s now a story where there should not have been one—certain people in the Bernie camp wanted to take advantage of it—the unions that endorsed Hillary want to make really clear to people that we are incredibly supportive of her.”

As the Times pointed out, however, the AFL-CIO endorsed Walter Mondale in 1983, Al Gore in 1999 and John Kerry in 2004. In 2008, it waited to endorse until Obama essentially had the nomination locked in around June. 

Though the largest labor federation in the country will stay neutral in the primary, it’s already preparing for the general election. As Politico Morning Shift reported, the AFL-CIO is in the early stages of forming a super PAC that could reportedly require a $1 million contribution from participating unions. Notably, the super PAC will include non-member unions like SEIU, and will be able to spend unlimited amounts of money to support the Democratic nominee in the general election.  

 

-Must-Reads-

As Josh Eidelson reports for Bloomberg Business, Walmart is the target of a lawsuit that argues the company violated the Civil Rights Act because its refusal to extend health benefits to same-sex couples is a form of gender discrimination.

Meanwhile, Walmart is rolling out a more flexible scheduling system for its workers, likely in response to persistent pressure from worker advocates.

Lydia DePillis reports for The Washington Post on how West Virginia, once a bastion of unionized labor, fell hard and fast—most recently passing right-to-work legislation and repealing its prevailing wage law.

An Associated Press investigation finds that the National Right to Work Committee likely violated campaign-finance law when it illegally coordinated with candidates in 2010 elections across five states—Montana, Nevada, Kentucky, Iowa, and Indiana.

Uber is reportedly using its customer service representatives to pitch to drivers why a union “wouldn’t make sense.” Reported by The American Prospect 2 days ago.

United Benefit Advisors Announces New Partner Firm, Fredriksen Health Insurance

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UBA’s Global Network of Independent Employee Benefits Advisory Firms Welcomes First Idaho Partner Firm

Indianapolis, IN (PRWEB) February 23, 2016

United Benefit Advisors (UBA), the nation’s leading independent employee benefits advisory organization, welcomes Fredriksen Health Insurance as its latest Partner Firm. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Fredriksen Health Insurance is a locally-owned, family business that has been servicing that state for more than 35 years.

“We are thrilled to become a Partner of United Benefit Advisors,” says Eric Fredriksen, Partner at Fredriksen Health Insurance. “Through this partnership, Fredriksen Health Insurance will continue to provide the fantastic service only a local brokerage can offer that is now coupled with the horsepower of a national employee benefit corporation. The Idaho market is ready for a local brokerage to provide this level of service and expertise.”

Known as a leader in the health insurance marketplace in Idaho, Fredriksen Health Insurance specializes in employee benefit plans, individual health and life insurance, and Medicare supplements. Their employees also have a high level of expertise in financial management and accounting and they are very active in the community via nonprofit board service and civic organizations.

“As the only UBA Partner Firm in Idaho, I’m especially pleased to know that their clients are being served locally, yet with the support of a national benefit advisor presence,” says UBA CEO Les McPhearson. “I’m also pleased that the input of Partners from Fredriksen Health Insurance will provide a unique perspective from that state.”

As the newest Partner Firm of UBA, Fredriksen Health Insurance joins a network of employee benefits advisory firms that serve employers of all sizes across the United States, Canada, and Europe. As a combined group, UBA’s annual employee benefit revenues rank it among the top five employee benefit advisory organizations in the U.S.

ABOUT Fredriksen Health Insurance
At Fredriksen Health Insurance, we think of ourselves as more than an employee benefits broker. We are an ideas and solutions company locally owned and operated for over 35 years. We seek to be the leader in helping our clients, large and small, implement and execute targeted and effective human resource solutions. So a partnership with Fredriksen Health Insurance isn't about buying health insurance. It’s about building a relationship with a knowledgeable, trusted, committed source; adding value to your business; and actively contributing to your success in the marketplace. Whether you are looking for an employee benefit plan on a tight budget or would like to implement a rigorous HR package, we will ensure you succeeded on time and on budget. For more information, visit http://www.fredhealthins.com.

ABOUT UNITED BENEFIT ADVISORS
United Benefit Advisors® (UBA) is the nation’s leading independent employee benefits advisory organization with more than 200 offices throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. UBA empowers more than 2,000 Partners to both maintain their individuality and pool their expertise, insight, and market presence to provide best-in-class services and solutions. Employers, advisors and industry-related organizations interested in obtaining powerful results from the shared wisdom of our Partners should visit http://www.UBAbenefits.com.

# # # Reported by PRWeb 2 days ago.

New AIS Report Offers an Inside Look at SCAN Health Plan and Express Scripts’ High-Performing Pharmacy Network

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How High-Performance Pharmacy Networks Can Improve Outcomes: A Case Study of SCAN Health Plan and Express Scripts — the latest report in Atlantic Information Services’ Management Insight Series — takes a look at the Quality Network Program created by Express Scripts and SCAN Health Plan, and outlines steps other health plans should take to create a pay-for-performance pharmacy network.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) February 23, 2016

Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS), is pleased to announce publication of the latest report in AIS’s Management Insight Series, How High-Performance Pharmacy Networks Can Improve Outcomes: A Case Study of SCAN Health Plan and Express Scripts. The report offers an inside look at the Quality Network Program, a partnership between Medicare Advantage (MA) insurer SCAN Health Plan and pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts, which has been successful in reducing high-risk medication use and improving compliance with diabetes treatment guidelines.

The new report explains how the Quality Network Program is achieving such impressive results, and outlines steps other health plans should take to create a pay-for-performance pharmacy network. It details:· How SCAN and Express Scripts selected the pharmacies for the Quality Network Program.
· Which data Express Scripts shares with the pharmacies to aid their efforts and what obstacles it has encountered.
· How SCAN and Express Scripts selected the measures to focus on to assess the pharmacies’ performance.
· How an initiative like the Quality Network Program could affect MA plans’ star ratings in the future.
· How the pharmacies have fared so far on the chosen performance measures, and how many of the gains are due to the sentinel effect alone.
· The financial benefits participating pharmacies stand to gain.
· How the Quality Network Program might change in the future, and how it may differ when Express Scripts uses the concept with other insurers.

For more information on How High-Performance Pharmacy Networks Can Improve Outcomes: A Case Study of SCAN Health Plan and Express Scripts, including a full table of contents, visit https://aishealth.com/marketplace/high-performance-pharmacy-networks.

AIS’s Management Insight Series is designed to provide practical solutions to complex business challenges with the help of the industry’s most insightful advisors and managers. See a full list of titles in this series at http://aishealth.com/marketplace/insight-series.

About AIS
Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) is a publishing and information company that has been serving the health care industry for nearly 30 years. It develops highly targeted news, data and strategic information for managers in hospitals and health systems, health insurance companies, medical group practices, purchasers of health insurance, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, databases, websites, looseleafs, strategic reports, directories, webinars and virtual conferences. Reported by PRWeb 2 days ago.

Remembering Ted Kennedy

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Yesterday, George Washington's birthday, is also mine. It was Ted Kennedy's as well. And so in the last decade of his life, after we became friends, we would call each other.

As ever, he was always ready to laugh, including at himself. On one such day, we agreed that our birthday had been a great day for America - if only because we had George Washington to fall back on. On another, Ted toasted me at a birthday dinner. Noting that we shared the day with our first president, he remarked that, "For a long time, I took that as a sign that the presidency really could work out for me." He paused, grinning, and concluded, "Well, Ric, I guess now it's up to you."

In some ways, it's a curious thing to become friends with a man whose life, by then, had been so integral to the national consciousness for almost 40 years. I experienced the great bulk of his life - the many achievements, the seemingly endless tragedies, his impassioned political vision, his missteps and recovery - only as millions of others did. Many knew him much better and longer than I . As to many of the most critical events in his life, and how he felt about them, I claim no special insight.

And that life was rich in triumph and pain and perseverance. F Scott Fitzgerald said that " there are no second acts in American lives"; Ted Kennedy proved how wrong he was. By my reckoning, Ted had at least four acts which teemed with every kind of human experience.

There were the early years of his life before 1968, the year that the last of his three brothers was murdered. By then, he had already lost Joe and Jack and his sister Kathleen - one to war; one to assassination; one to an airplane crash. He had watched as another sister, Rosemary, was incapacitated. He had endured the lonely childhood of the youngest in a large and busy family, frequently changing schools, often without the attention of his mother or father. He had been dismissed from Harvard, served in the Army, then come back to finish college and then law school.

In the face of criticism that he was trading on the family name, he gained election to the Senate at the age of 30. He nearly died in an airplane crash. He became a collegial and effective senator, and father to Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara. As his brother Robert reached for the presidency, he relied ever more on Ted's support. In 1968, a stage of life which held out such promise ended with Bobby's assassination.

The next 12 years were marked by that tragedy - and others. Ted turned down the chance to run in Bobby's place. He threw himself into his role as senator, his disciplined work habits at odds with an increasingly roiled personal life which seemed driven by a need to escape.The tragedy at Chappaquiddick which took the life of a young woman marked him as a man, and as a public figure.

His son Ted Jr. lost a leg to a potentially lethal cancer, then was restored to a full life with his father's unstinting love and encouragement. His wife Joan was plagued by alcoholism. His career as a senator was filled with legislative achievement. In 1980, he finally reached for the presidency, challenging a fellow Democrat, Jimmy Carter. And lost.

The 12 years thereafter were even more accomplished and fraught. Ted and Joan divorced. Turning away from the presidency, he rededicated himself to his work as a senator - among many achievements helping to pass the Americans With Disabilities Act. He took a dangerous trip to South Africa to support the anti-- apartheid movement. He made ever more friends across the aisle. Yet, for many, his scathing attack on Robert Bork made him a polarizing symbol of partisan ferocity. His personal life was ever more troubled by excess.

His reputation suffered .Though the respect and affection of his colleagues remained constant, his standing among his constituents slipped.In 1991, he confronted the obvious: "I am painfully aware that the criticism directed at me in recent months involves far more than disagreements with my positions... I recognize my own shortcomings - the faults in the conduct of my private life. I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and I am the one who must confront them."

He did that. And then he met and married Victoria Reggie, beginning what - and this much I know from my own observation- were by far the most peaceful and happy years in a long, tumultuous and uniquely accomplished life.

With a tough and determined campaign, he beat back his one serious electoral challenger, Mitt Romney, saving his political career. He sailed a lot. He savored his family, and his role as stepdad to Vicki's son and daughter. He became the one indispensable senator, standing on a decades - long foundation of laws addressing immigration, cancer research, health insurance, apartheid, disability discrimination, AIDS, civil rights, mental health benefits, children's health insurance, and education. Concluding that he had "amassed a titanic record of legislation affecting the lives of virtually every man, woman and child in the country" ,Time magazine named Edward Kennedy one of the "10 Best Senators" in American history.

It was during that richly fulfilling final act that I got to know him. Though ours was not a long friendship , I spent time with him in his homes in Hyannisport and Washington DC, in his Senate office and among his peers, on Martha's Vineyard and, of course, sailing. He called me when my dad died. He gave my oldest son - who learned a lot and shared it with me - a summer job in his office. He advised me about my political novels, and we shared our observations about his world - his consistently keen and perceptive, mine a good deal less so.

So, all in all , I could grasp the man he always had been, and also had become. When he died, I understood what those closest to him had lost. For all that he had endured, Ted was such a vivid and life - affirming presence that his absence was more deeply felt.

I met him in the best possible way - through Vicki, with whom I served on a non-- profit board. If a man's choice of a partner is a window on his qualities - at least if made in his maturity - then Vicki would have commended Ted Kennedy if his surname had been Smith.

Smart, capable, hard-working and passionate about the issues, Vicky cared about every aspect of Ted's life. Her quick wit and irreverence were an antidote to worry. Early in their relationship, Ted mentioned over dinner that his approval ratings in Massachusetts had fallen to 48%. "That's a relief," Vicki replied, "because I never go out with anyone whose approval is less than 47%."

As in the best of marriages, they made a real difference in each other's lives . By the time I met him, the hard living had long since ended, and a deep contentment had settled in. It helped that Vicki and he had a shared history-the Reggies had been Kennedy allies for decades. So that Vicki understood in a deeper way the life that Ted had lived, the source and depth of his commitment to public life, and the issues to which he had dedicated his career.

More than most couples , they were partners in every aspect of life - the personal, the political, the people they cared about and the things they enjoyed. At Hyannisport, she judiciously interspersed the pictures of his lost family members with bright ones of the new generation. This, it seemed, captured the renewal Ted had found.

The man I saw engaged in life wholeheartedly. He loved spending time with Ted, Patrick and Kara, and adored his grandkids. He was a passionate sailor - when he was on the Cape, his hard - working staff prayed for good sailing weather, some relief from his incessant demands for information . He loved music - when he conducted the Boston Pops on one occasion, his exuberance filled the place. He painted - well, as it happens - a peaceful respite. The talk he sparked at the Kennedy dinner table was spirited and wide-ranging, his guests drawn from every kind of pursuit. Whether in conversation or reading, he was deeply curious, always wanting to know more.

Ted was ever attentive to family, not least those who his brothers left behind. His office knew to reach him immediately if a family member called. When his nephew John died in yet another plane crash, he held the sprawling Kennedy clan together.

One incident in particular drove home how deeply he felt his inherited responsibilities. On a summer weekend in Hyannisport, we were going to a Tony Bennett concert. When I went outside I saw an elderly woman in a wheelchair, obviously incapacitated, attended by a nurse. To my astonishment, I found out that she was Ted's sister Rosemary.

For whatever reason, I had thought her dead. Of course I knew of the emotional difficulties which had led Joe Kennedy to have her lobotomized in her youth, the ravages of that decision. Despite this, I learned, Rosemary loved music, and responded to it with great happiness. So Ted had arranged for her to see Tony Bennett.

The joy she felt that night was written on her face. Later on, I learned that Ted used music to share time with Rosemary in a way that always reached her. On one occasion, he showed her a video of him conducting the Boston Pops. When he saw her delight, they sat through it over and over.

We shared one family experience in common - becoming step- dads. Ted was great at it. He had a keen sense of how to support both Curran and Caroline. He never tried to replace their dad, and let them come to him. His reward, and theirs, was a deep immersion in their lives.

He went to their games, parent-teacher conferences- anything important. He was a constant booster, proud of their achievements. Without making a show of it, in critical ways he filled the role of dad. Perhaps, I thought then, he remembered being a lonely kid who sometimes fell through the cracks. Whatever the reason, Ted helped make sure they never felt a void.

Discovering that sailing made Curran seasick , Ted re- engaged with his stepson's favorite sports , baseball and football. After becoming ill, he insisted on flying to Connecticut to watch Caroline play college soccer . If Curran or Caroline had a difficult time, or some vexing challenge, they would often come to Ted - sometimes for advice on how to break the bad news to the family disciplinarian. For Vicki, grateful for Teds' engagement, the division of labor worked out fine.

Ted's empathy for others informed his private and public lives. Accompanied by Vicki or Ted Jr - who himself had transcended disability - Ted routinely visited wounded veterans at Walter Reed. He called every family of Massachusetts service members who had lost their lives in war, and tried to go their services at Arlington. After 9/11, he reached out to all the families in the state whose loved ones had died in the attacks. Returning from a cancer treatment during his final illness, he and Vicki stopped at the homes of two soldiers who had died in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ted was deeply responsive to humanitarian requests - as one example, helping to rescue Jews from the former Soviet Union. Alan Dershowitz told me about one such case - a Jewish infant trapped in Moscow with a grave medical condition which required treatment in America. Ted used his contacts to arrange a medical exit visa and came with Alan to the airport to meet the baby and her family. 18 years later, Alan bought her - by then a Brandeis student - to meet her rescuer. When they hugged, tears came to Ted's eyes.

I know of many such acts, large and small, almost all of them unpublicized. Between his memorial service, his funeral, and the opening of the Kennedy Institute for The Senate, Nancy and I spent hours in line with other people - most often ordinary citizens - who admired him. What struck me is how many had a personal story of some kindness or service he had done them, often unasked. A reporter at his funeral, free to move about, discovered that such stories were legion.

His staff was devoted to him, and Ted to them. He was a great encourager, and mentor - the opening of the Institute drew hundreds of successful men and women whose talents he had nurtured and whose careers he had advanced. For Ted Kennedy, loyalty was a two-way street.

My point In all this is not to enlarge Ted beyond his due, or to elide his well-known failings in the years before I knew him. It is simply this: the facts of his public life, whether difficult or uplifting, did not fully capture the man.

As to his life as a senator, what struck me was how hard he worked, how committed he was, and how tirelessly he labored to achieve whatever good he envisioned. Every time I saw him he was deeply engaged in some legislative pursuit , typically to help improve the lives of people without the advantages he had always enjoyed. He viewed his career as dedicated to civil rights in the broadest sense - racial equity, to be sure, but also access to healthcare and education, as well as workers rights, women's rights, and gay rights. His quest was to "make America America" - the country it should be.

A lifetime spent on the water caused him to view sailing as a template for achieving this. For once, a sporting metaphor made perfect sense. From childhood, he learned that winds could shift abruptly, currents change, waters turn choppy, and sunshine give way to winds and rain. To win a race, one had to plan for - and adapt to - the vicissitudes of fortune. Above all, you had to be patient, but always with an eye on the finish line.

So he was in Congress. Here his appreciation of all sorts of people helped - a senator can't sail alone. He understood his colleagues and their imperatives. He shared credit, and found compromises which still advanced his goals. His word was good, and everyone knew it. He wasn't there for show, but to advance the greater good as he saw it. He was that rare breed we miss so badly now - a man of the Senate in the best sense.

Toward the end of his life, he was still reaching for the future. One incident stays with me. For several summers, he and Vicki celebrated their anniversary by sailing over to Martha's Vineyard, and the four of us would have dinner. On the last such occasion, in 2007, I incautiously remarked that Barack Obama - then a presidential aspirant - seemed to be inspiring young people in somewhat the same way as had Jack and Bobby.

A shadow crossed Ted's face . At once I understood that I had stepped in it - for him, no one compared to the brothers he had lost, and for whom he would always grieve. Though I quickly shifted the subject, I later confessed to Vicki how terrible I felt. It was a bad moment, enough so that I never forgot it.

I don't know whether Ted did. But when we were talking on the phone very early in 2008, he told me that he'd been thinking about Obama- including how much he seemed to inspire John Kennedy's daughter Caroline and her kids. That was how he wanted the next generation to feel, he said, and so he had decided to back Barack Obama for president.

Perhaps that conversation was a kindness to me; perhaps Ted had forgotten all about my careless remark. But when he endorsed Senator Obama three days later, with Caroline at his side, it marked a pivotal turning point in Obama's drive for the Democratic nomination. His last illness struck shortly thereafter. That August, by then gravely sick, Ted spoke at the Democratic convention in support of his friend, the party's nominee, and lived to attend the inaugural of our first black president.

But one memory sticks with me above all. On September 10, 2001, I flew back to Washington to get Ted's advice on a novel about gun violence and the political power of the gun lobby. He gave me two hours of thoughtful and fascinating advice, supplemented by research carried out by his staff. At the end he said, " Everyone knows how I feel about guns. Maybe you ought to talk to John Edwards, who has to deal with the problem in a southern state."

I'd actually thought of that, I told him, but didn't know Senator Edwards or his staff. "Don't worry," Ted assured me, "I'll take care of it."

The next morning I was dictating my notes of Ted's advice in my hotel room, with CNN on in the background. Abruptly I looked up - within minutes one hijacked plane hit the Twin Towers, then another. Like everyone else, I was stunned and sickened. As I struggled to absorb the implications of terrorism at home and on this scale, it gradually dawned on me that my research trip was over. Amidst a national tragedy and, quite possibly, a national emergency, official Washington would have no time for me.

That was Tuesday. But I was stuck there - the airports were closed. Then, Thursday morning, my hotel phone rang.

"This is John Edwards, "my caller said. "Ted Kennedy told me to call you, and I always try to do what Ted tells me to do."

Would that Ted Kennedy were here to tell them now.

-- 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.

Einstein Used a Tax Pro, Should You?

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With last week's validation of Albert Einstein's 100-year old prediction of Gravitational Waves, it is clearer than ever he was one of the most brilliant men that ever lived. So what were his views on income taxes? Well, let me tell you.

Einstein said to his Tax Pro, "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax," yet he predicted 100 years ago that one day we would be able to prove Gravitational Waves. Therefore, it's no wonder that the average taxpayer might struggle through filing their taxes. Furthermore, if you believe the adage that "time is money," another reason to consider hiring a tax pro is that IRS estimates the average taxpayer needs about 22 hours to prepare their 1040 return; maybe a few less hours if you are Einstein-like. Based on that IRS estimate, you can kiss that extra day this month goodbye if you plan to do your own taxes. Also, remember that estimate doesn't include locating and organizing all your paperwork or finding, loading, and learning to use that software if you do it yourself, and then there is hunting down all the deductions and credits you are eligible to take. If you have a tax question or issue arise, add that time on too. Moreover, since your income taxes are likely the largest financial transaction you will have this year, they probably deserve some expert attention. And all that said it's also no wonder that many very smart people hire a tax pro these days. So how do you know if you need a tax pro or if your situation is "so simple" that you can go it all alone?

Answering the following questions can help you decide whether to hire a tax pro and how to find the best one for you:· What is your income-level? Lower or moderate income can lead to a host of tax benefits that you are eligible for. However, if you have high income or a complex tax situation, there are many areas where the deductions or credits you might qualify for may be limited.· Do you own your own business or do contract work? Filing a Schedule C, which is required for most businesses, can be complicated. Combine that with assets that can be depreciated or expensed and you may want to find a tax pro that specializes in small business. A tax pro can also help you find all the write-offs if you are self-employed.· Do you have investment income or loss? Stocks, bonds, and rental property are nice to have, but the tax implications can be very complicated. Different tax rates may apply and different reporting procedures may be involved based on whether the income is considered ordinary or a capital gain. Determining your basis in the assets so you can calculate your gain or loss is another area of complexity.
· Did you experience a life change, like getting married, buying a house, or moving, this year? There are many tax opportunities generated by these life changes and it can be easy to miss one, which can cost you to leave money on the table. Moreover, if you have health insurance through the marketplace then life changes may change the coverage or savings you are eligible for.
· Have you received a letter from the IRS concerning any previous years? If you haven't filed a return in a while, owe the IRS, or received a letter about last year's return, then don't delay - contact a tax pro right away. A good tax pro can help you file previous returns, make arrangements to pay what you owe, and explain any letters the IRS has sent and help you get back on track as quickly as possible.· Do you have the time, information, and inclination to prepare your own return? If you are already overwhelmed with your daily schedule, then adding hours of tax preparation work probably isn't worth the stress. Rushing to complete your tax return may lead to overlooked deductions or missed benefits and trust me the IRS is not going to find them and send you extra money.
Reducing your single largest financial transaction of the year to five minutes on a cell phone makes for a great TV commercial and is kinda funny, but in reality you deserve better and your finances deserve more consideration than that.

I am not saying every tax return needs a tax pro every time, but you certainly should consider hiring one if your situation warrants it. A good tax pro should offer a free consultation, listen to and answer your questions, and be able to build a rapport with you. The best tip for hiring the right tax pro for you is to suggest you interview at least two people that you are referred to - and not your aunt or brother-in-law, unless they are in fact a tax professional. That way, if the time comes that you have complex tax questions or the IRS contacts you, you already have a tax pro in your contact list.

The IRS page Choose Your Tax Preparer Wisely offers some tips and great resources that can also help you.

-- 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.

VC-backed health care startup Gravie cuts 25 percent of workforce

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Health care startup Gravie has cut 21 employees, citing weak capital markets and a need to conserve cash for future investments. The staff reduction was concentrated in Minneapolis and amounted to 25 percent of the company's workforce, CEO Abir Sen said in an interview. "It's a bad market out there and we need to invest in growth," he said. Gravie guides businesses' employees through the process of enrolling in individual health plans. The company's revenue during the most recent health-insurance… Reported by bizjournals 2 days ago.

Zoom+ slashes health insurance rates 11% in bid to grab market share

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Zoom+ Performance Health Insurance debuted with some of the highest group insurance rates for 2016. That’s about to change. Zoom landed regulatory approval for a rate cut averaging 11 percent. “We came into the marketplace last year with a pretty competitive rate, and the commissioner re-set the rates and placed us highest for the small business marketplace,” said Dr. Dave Sanders, Zoom’s co-founder and CEO. Zoom appealed and was able to convince the Insurance Department that it could… Reported by bizjournals 1 day ago.

NY health insurance exchange enrolls more than 2.8 million

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Reported by syracuse.com 1 day ago.

CVS plans to restrict $1,000 toenail fungus drug Jublia

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CVS Health Corp. plans to restrict the use of a toenail fungus drug from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., as part of a plan to cut spending on dermatology treatments. In April, the drug benefit manager will institute a program that limits the use of Valeant’s Jublia, Chief Medical Officer Troyen Brennan said Monday. Jublia retails at about $1,000 for an 8-milliliter bottle, according to the website GoodRx, and patients in CVS’ program will have to try and fail to have their condition cured by other, less-expensive toenail fungus drugs. The program will be optional for CVS’ health insurance and employer clients. “We are putting into place a specific plan for the toenail fungus products, and we are actively assessing the various challenges facing payers across the broader dermatology category,” David Whitrap, a spokesman for Express Scripts, said in an email. According to GoodRx, an online drug price comparison website, a 8-milliliter bottle of Jublia costs about $1,000, while a 4-milliliter bottle costs more than $500. By comparison, a 12-week supply of a generic version of Lamisil, another toe fungus drug, costs $20 or less at many drugstores, according to GoodRx. Jublia has minimal side effects, according to the drug’s website, while Lamisil has been linked to gastrointestinal symptoms, liver test abnormalities and rash, according to the drug’s label. Reported by SFGate 1 day ago.

Member Benefits Selected to Gator100

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Member Benefits was ranked #17 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 74.41%.

Gainesville, FL (PRWEB) February 24, 2016

Member Benefits was named to the University of Florida’s 2016 Gator100 during a ceremony Feb. 19 at UF’s J. Wayne Reitz Union Grand Ballroom.

Sponsored by UF, the Warrington College of Business and the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center, the Gator100 recognizes the 100 fastest-growing businesses owned or led by UF alumni. Ernst & Young calculated each company’s compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past three years to generate the ranking.

Member Benefits was ranked #17 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 74.41%.

Member Benefits is an insurance broker and third-party administrator that specializes in providing unique member benefits products and services to associations and affinity groups. It has seen rapid growth through the acquisition of several new association clients and through the release of its unique health insurance exchange technology for associations and employer groups.

“I am very happy to be part of such a prestigious list of entrepreneurs,” said Member Benefits CEO Earl “Chip” Trefry, Jr. “To have the hard work of everyone at our company recognized by my alma mater is a distinct honor.”

In addition to the CEO, Member Benefits’ COO and University of Florida graduate, Nicklaus Trefry was also recognized as a Gator100 honoree.

“The Gator100 is an important initiative that recognizes entrepreneurial excellence,” said Dr. Michael Morris, the Academic Director of the entrepreneurship program at UF. “It is open to any and all companies founded or run by Gator alumni, and recognizes those who are achieving growth, innovating, and making a difference in their communities.”

To qualify for the Gator100, companies must have been in business for five years or more as of Oct. 1, 2015, and have had verifiable annual revenues of $250,000 or more in 2012. Additionally, a UF alumnus or alumni must have met one of the following three leadership criteria:
1. Owned 50 percent or more of the company from Jan. 1, 2012, through Oct. 1, 2015; or
2. Served as company’s chief executive from Jan. 1, 2012, through Oct. 1, 2015; or
3. Founded the company and been active as a member of the most senior management team from Jan. 1, 2012, through Oct. 1, 2015. Reported by PRWeb 23 hours ago.
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