Four years ago on November 6, 2012, millions of potential millennial voters were missing in action -- or, more accurately, were missing from action. Why? Only 46 percent of 18-35 year-olds eligible to vote actually got themselves to a polling place -- the nonvoters could have drastically changed the results of any election. It's a vicious cycle -- too many young would-be voters don't vote and consequently too few elected officials pay attention to their needs.

This election must be different. Here are 10 compelling reasons to mobilize millennial voters -- starting with yourself.
*Reproductive health and bodily autonomy.* You want your personal beliefs to be respected when making decisions about your own body, and your boss's personal beliefs left out of the equation entirely. You want the option to obtain birth control through your health plan, regardless of who provides your insurance. You don't want to worry about your health center being forced to close because a lawmaker doesn't like it. And, if you decide to seek abortion care, you want it to be affordable, accessible, and provided without interference from politicians.

*Affordable health insurance.* If you work for an employer who doesn't offer health insurance or are part of the gig economy where it is not available -- or if you are over 26 and kicked off of your parents' plan -- you want Congress and the president committed to keeping affordable, comprehensive health insurance available. (Check out healthcare.gov today to find a health plan that meets your needs and see if you qualify for financial assistance through the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare.)

*A higher minimum wage.* You need a $15 minimum wage -- even if you expect to make more than $15 per hour, employers peg entry level wages to the going minimum wage rate. So if the minimum wage goes up, so do the wage rates just above it.

*Affordable higher education.* Without a college education you will earn one million dollars less over your lifetime -- starting now. If that seems hard to believe, median earnings for those between 25-34 years of age with only a high school degree are $30,000 a year -- with a bachelor's degree or higher, $52,000. The disparity holds true for women and men of every background.

*Paid leave.* If you're planning on having a baby or adopting a child, you'll most likely require paid parental leave (a concept familiar to every other industrialized country other than ours). Yet, most jobs don't offer paid leave, viewing it a luxury perk rather than every family's necessity. And you definitely need paid sick days should you or a family member be ill -- already enacted in 5 states, 29 cities, 2 counties, and Washington, DC -- but not nationally.

*LGBTQ rights.* If you care about ensuring respect for different gender and sexual identities, we're guessing that you want to keep the civil rights recently won after decades of struggle, and see passage of a federal law barring discrimination against LGBTQ folks. You believe everyone, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation should be able to live a healthy life free from violence, with dignity and fair treatment under the law.

*Common sense gun policy.* Between 2010 and 2014, an average of 32,964 people living in the US died in homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings - more than 91 deaths each day and more than 3 deaths each hour. Of these, 20,511 committed suicide. On average, 78,815 people were treated each year in hospital emergency departments for non-fatal gunshot wounds. For your own safety and security on campus, in your neighborhood, your local movie theater, favorite night club, or shopping mall, you want common sense background checks for everyone who buys a gun. Plain and simple.

*A criminal justice system focused on justice.* No matter your race, religion, or national origin, you want police brutality to end, and for black lives to matter in the eyes of all of our police officers. You want a system that ends mass incarceration and racial disparities at every level, and focuses on rehabilitation and restorative justice.

*The Supreme Court.* You expect the US Supreme Court to protect your constitutional rights, including your right to make personal decisions about your own body. You want a president that will fill court vacancies with judges and justices committed to ensuring voting rights, putting people above corporations, and preserving religious liberty.

*Our planet's health.* And last but certainly not least -- you want a planet that remains viable and healthy into the very distant future and a government that helps that happen, not one that makes failure inevitable by denying the science of climate change. After all, we want to be around long enough to see real social progress happen.

-- 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 11 hours ago.

As annual enrollment opens for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, Hampton resident Gaylene Kanoyton wants to dispel myths about the program also known as "Obamacare."

As is the case with many employer-offered health care plans this year, some ACA premiums will go up, but only between... Reported by dailypress.com 9 hours ago.

Donald Trump has been bashing Obamacare a lot lately. This week, he did so in a state that’s become a major focus of his presidential campaign ― Michigan.

“It’s just been announced that Michigan residents are going to experience a massive double-digit premium hike,” Trump said Monday during a speech in Warren, a working-class suburb north of Detroit. “It’s been a disaster.”

The crowd roared with approval ― partly because you can’t really go wrong denouncing Obamacare at a Trump rally, and partly, one assumes, because some Michiganders are genuinely angry about how the Affordable Care Act is playing out in their state.

Overall, premiums for people buying coverage on their own, rather than through employers, are rising by 17 percent in Michigan ― a double-digit increase, just as Trump said. Although the majority of consumers are eligible for tax credits that would offset the higher prices, others make too much money to qualify for financial assistance. If they can’t switch plans, they’ll pay more for their insurance next year.

But Michigan’s market isn’t melting down. Far from it. With open enrollment for 2017 underway, consumers shopping for coverage on healthcare.gov will find an array of plans, many of them relatively cheap even before subsidies kick in. Meanwhile, the number of Michiganders without coverage has plummeted to a historic low.

This says something important about the debate over health care, which has taken on a more prominent role as the presidential campaign nears its end. We tend to talk about Obamacare like it’s one program, but it’s really more like 51 different programs ― one for each state, plus one for the District of Columbia. In some states, like Arizona, the insurance marketplaces for individual consumers look like actuarial train wrecks, and some residents are going to struggle as a result. In other states, like California, the marketplaces are functioning more or less as intended ― and the law is achieving most of its primary goals.

Michigan is a lot more like California than Arizona. In fact, it’s a case study in how the law works when favorable conditions exist. And better still, it offers hints as to what those conditions are.

Obamacare in Michigan, by the numbers

It’s easy enough to assess the Affordable Care Act’s impact in Michigan. The law took full effect in early 2014, and over the next two years, the share of Michigan’s population without health insurance fell from 11 percent to 6.5 percent. That’s based on 2015 census data, so the percentage is probably even lower now. Whatever the case, that’s a lot of people who now have access to health care and protection from sometimes crippling medical bills.

That development is hardly unique to Michigan. The ranks of the uninsured have fallen everywhere, particularly in states, like Michigan, that participated in Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. But in Michigan, like every other state, there have also been trade-offs.

The new requirements on insurers ― to ignore pre-existing conditions, and to sell policies with a full spread of “essential benefits” like mental health and maternity care ― caused insurers to raise underlying premiums, or in some cases eliminate policies altogether. Subsidies offset the higher premiums, but not for everybody. In all likelihood, some of the Michiganders cheering on Trump this week were a few of the lucky people who had those old policies ― and who remember, bitterly, President Barack Obama’s promise that “if you like your plan, you can keep it.”

This “rate shock” has been a source of anger since the law took full effect in 2014. The new wrinkle ― which has given Trump an opening to focus on Obamacare these past two weeks ― is this year’s increases. Obamacare has basically been hit with a perfect storm. Insurers everywhere expected healthy people to sign up in greater numbers than they did. And a key program designed to protect insurers from losses in the program’s early stages expires this year.

As a result, insurers across the country are raising prices and, in some highly publicized cases, pulling out of markets altogether. In Phoenix, premiums are rising by 145 percent. A 40-year-old non-smoker ineligible for subsidies there will pay $507 a month, one of the highest rates in the country.

Michigan’s insurers have seen some of these problems, too.

“We expected the market to be bigger, with more people and more younger people than we enrolled,” Rick Notter, director of the exchange business for Michigan Blue Cross Blue Shield, told me recently.

The state’s insurers say they are particularly worried about “persistency” ― the extent to which people may be buying coverage during open enrollment or because of a qualifying life event like divorce, and then dropping it after getting a few expensive medical services.

“One of the biggest challenges in this market is that individuals aren’t staying enrolled for 12 months,” said Marti Lolli, senior vice president for commercial markets at Priority Health. ”A lot of people are staying enrolled just for three or four months.”

But while Michigan’s insurers are raising rates this year, they aren’t freaking out.

“We’re scheduled to break even in 2017, and 2016 was close to that,” Lolli said. “We did not experience the kinds of losses they had elsewhere, not even close. We’re on a good path and we think we can be in this for the long haul.”

The offerings on the marketplace reflect this confidence. Nine different insurers plan to sell coverage in Michigan next year, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. And in most parts of the state, inexpensive policies remain easy to find.

In and around Detroit, for example, a 40-year-old non-smoker can buy the second-cheapest “silver” policy, which the law treats as its benchmark, for just $237 a month. (Silver policies cover 70 percent of a typical person’s medical expenses.) That’s almost exactly what it cost to get the second-cheapest silver plan in Detroit last year ― and that’s without the tax credits, available to people with low to medium incomes, that can make coverage much cheaper or nearly free.

This year’s benchmark plan comes from Molina, a national insurer that has traditionally focused on low-income populations. Like most of the company’s plans around the country, the benchmark Molina plan offers a “narrow network” of doctors and providers. It also has a high deductible. But lower-income people get extra financial assistance to reduce the deductible, and the network includes well-regarded teaching hospitals like Harper University Hospital and Detroit Children’s. Doctor supply doesn’t seem to be a problem, either. The Huffington Post reached out to several physician practices on the official provider list, and each one confirmed that it was taking new Molina patients.

As for people who want smaller deductibles or more provider choices, they can choose policies that come with moderately higher premiums. Priority offers a silver-level HMO with a $2,500 deductible for $312 a month ― and again, that’s before subsidies on premiums and out-of-pocket costs. The plan’s network includes every major teaching hospital in the area and, according to Lolli, the vast majority of physicians as well. Overall, Detroit-area residents can choose from 83 different plans, with roughly half the plans in the silver category that the majority of consumers use.

As in the rest of the country, Michigan has rural patches with fewer, largely more expensive options. People who don’t get subsidies and stay with their current plans will pay more. But it’s also not hard to find residents like Amy Lynn Smith, a Detroit-area freelance writer with diabetes who said the law is saving her hundreds of dollars a month in premiums.

“It’s a huge step forward,” Smith told HuffPost. “Even though rates are going up in 2017 I’m still paying far less than I was before for the same comprehensive coverage.”

What Michigan got right ― and other states didn’t

Why is Michigan one of the states where Obamacare is having an easier time? In places like California, where Obamacare is working best, support from state officials has been a huge factor.

That appears to be the case in Michigan as well. Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is in some ways a throwback to a previous generation of Republicans ― business-oriented pragmatists who reliably fell on the conservative side of economic policy, but who didn’t hate the welfare state and who would work with Democrats to expand social programs if they saw it as a chance to help citizens at a reasonable cost.

That’s exactly what Snyder did. When Obamacare became law, he reasoned that the state would benefit by making Medicaid available to all low-income residents, as the law envisioned, because the federal government would be picking up most of the cost. It would mean more people with insurance, yes, but it would also mean more money for the state and its businesses. Snyder wanted Michigan to run its own version of the law’s marketplaces, because he figured state officials knew the local insurance markets well ― and would be in a position to smooth the transition to a new health insurance system, with more widely available coverage.

Snyder ran into resistance from conservative Republicans in the state legislature, and it took years of negotiation ― and lobbying from consumer and corporate interests ―  to win approval for the Medicaid expansion. He never did win the marketplace fight. But the Medicaid expansion has allowed hundreds of thousands of people to gain coverage. And Snyder and his allies probably helped stabilize the marketplaces by having Medicaid pick up some patients with expensive medical needs who would have otherwise driven up premiums if they were buying private coverage.

Another big factor in Michigan ― again, common to the states where Obamacare is working best ― seems to be the health care landscape that existed even before the law took effect. As Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation, explained to me recently, local and predominantly nonprofit insurers like Blue Cross, HAP and Priority dominate the state. The only national insurers that have thrived in Michigan are companies like Molina that specialize in insuring Medicaid patients and have done so for years.

What the Michigan-based and Medicaid insurers have in common, Udow-Phillips said, is that both have a lot of experience constructing networks of physicians and hospitals that will keep costs down. She noted that Michigan generally hasn’t had the sort of network problems seen in other states ― where patients sometimes get hospital care and discover they have surprise bills because out-of-network doctors were part of their medical teams.

A hidden factor in all of this, Udow-Phillips said, has been the influence of organized labor and its ability to demand good insurance for members.

“We’ve always had health plans that had better networks than in most places,” she said. “When labor unions were really strong here, they insisted on good networks of providers. And they [insisted] upon reasonable prices too.”

It also helps, Udow-Phillips says, that so many of Michigan’s insurers are nonprofits with histories of citing the public good as part of their missions.

Yet another element of Michigan’s success may be the way doctors and hospitals have responded to these demands ― and the way they’ve adapted in a market where the people paying for care (not just insurers, but employers and unions as well) have for years pushed for more efficient ways of delivering medical care.

“Michigan has been an innovative state for a long time,” J. Mario Molina, physician and CEO of the eponymous insurance company, told HuffPost. “In some states, it’s just ... let’s churn through patients, see how much money we can make. This state, it’s more sophisticated ― for example, when it comes to working on quality. Doctors understand that part of their compensation will depend on whether they provide quality of care, not just lots of care.”

Reforming Obamacare, in Michigan and beyond

Of course, a functioning market in Michigan doesn’t mean much for consumers in places like Arizona, North Carolina or Tennessee, where the problems are far more severe and may yet get worse ― resulting in higher prices for some people, and fewer choices for nearly everyone. On Wednesday, yet another national insurer, Anthem, warned that it will start scaling back its presence ― just as Aetna and UnitedHealth have ― if it doesn’t see better returns from its exchange products.

And even in Michigan, insurers say, Obamacare needs work. The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced changes to the law’s “special enrollment periods,” which were designed to make sure people could still get coverage after a major life event but which people may be exploiting in order to buy insurance only after they get sick. Michigan’s insurers cited these changes as an improvement, but they say the program needs further revisions ― particularly when it comes to a formula under which the plans that have relatively healthy customers subsidize the plans that don’t.

In theory, these sorts of reforms should not be difficult to enact. But some of the most important ones require legislative action, and Republicans in Congress have refused to discuss changes short of outright repeal.

They say that’s because the program is fundamentally broken. It’s the same argument Trump makes. But Michigan is one of the states that prove otherwise ― that Obamacare can work, especially if public officials will support it.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly
incites
political violence and is a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-911_565b1950e4b08e945feb7326"> style="font-weight: 400;">serial liar, href="http://www.huffingtonpost
.com/entry/9-outrageous-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-latinos_55e483a1e4b0c818f618904b"> style="font-weight: 400;">rampant xenophobe,
racist, style="font-weight: 400;">misogynist and href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-birther_us_57e31b1be4b0e80b1ba04348?7i5ir4bn4b1emi">>birther who has
repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from
entering the U.S.

-- 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.

Throughout the third and final presidential debate, Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump disagreed on nearly every issue, but they did agree on one thing: the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not affordable. And that is a huge problem.

In the recent Texas Medical Center Nielsen survey, 96 percent of Texans said having health insurance was important, but still about 17 percent remain uninsured, which puts Texas' number of uninsured as highest in the nation. We found that respondents said cost was the major barrier to having health insurance, and 87 percent of uninsured who visited the health marketplace exchange could not afford insurance. For example, an individual making $22,000 per year (200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level) could not afford to purchase a plan in the marketplace that required him or her to pay a $6,400 premium before insurance kicks in. That equals about 28 percent of that individual's income. Estimates of what is considered "affordable health care" vary from two to eight percent of an individual's income, but surely not 28 percent!

So how do we attack the problem that individuals just don't have the money to pay for health insurance, i.e. without the help of a large employer footing most of the bill? There really is only one way to solve it: decrease the cost of health care.

Step one should be dramatically decreasing the waste in health care. In the U.S., one third of our health care dollars are wasted. Shocking, isn't it? When I first heard this number, I was skeptical that it's accurate, until I read how Dr. Donald Berwick, a highly respected health economics expert, analyzed the numbers. Of $3 trillion a year in health care expenditures in the U.S., about $910 billion, or 30 percent, is wasted. Of this, we waste $192 billion on overtreatment, i.e. doing procedures and tests that are unnecessary. In West Virginia, for example, a patient is seven times more likely to have a heart procedure than in San Francisco, but the patients in West Virginia are no sicker and do not have better results, implying that many in West Virginia did not need the procedure in the first place and were "overtreated." There are a number of possible reasons for this overtreatment, but a prominent one is that the doctors doing these procedures are paid per procedure--the so called "fee-for-service" model of health care.

The largest payer in the U.S., the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), recognizes this fact and has committed to paying physicians at least 50 percent using a value-based payment. This "value-based health care" model--by very definition not fee-for-service--will reimburse for quality of health care instead of quantity of procedures by the end of 2018. The most sensible way to deliver value-based care is to pay physicians a salary. In some of the best health care systems in the U.S.--Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Kaiser Permanente--physicians are paid a salary, in most cases with an additional bonus based on quality metrics like patient satisfaction or positive outcomes like reducing readmissions to the hospital.

The future of health care depends on getting all interested parties on board with a transition to value-based care. Some payers worry that when physicians are paid a salary, they will see fewer patients. The solution here is to pay a quality bonus based on standards set by physicians. The other side of the coin is that physicians worry their incomes will fall. On the contrary, salary can be quite high, even the same as what a physician earns now, in the value-based model. To ensure adequate and fair pay for physicians who are just ramping up their practice, we could develop a compensation system for those in their first years of practice to incrementally increase over five years until it reaches the current salary for that type of physician in the region. The savings reaped to the system from a reduction in unnecessary tests, procedures and hospitalizations (overtreatment) far exceeds what it will take to pay physicians higher salaries and quality bonuses.

What needs to happen to make affordable health care a reality?

1. *The savings must be monitored and captured*, which is no small feat. Paying physicians a salary could cut 10 - 15 percent of the nation's cost of health care, and that savings of $300 million a year could be passed on to individuals in the form of reduced premiums, making the ACA more affordable.

2. The commercial payers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, over the next five years should *require that health plans salary their physicians* with added quality bonus. This would cover the vast majority of physicians who practice medicine in the U.S. For independent physicians and small group practices, this method may be more difficult to implement and fee-for-service may continue long into the future, though.

Why does this matter to patients? The number of unnecessary tests, procedures and hospitalizations--each carrying some risk--will markedly decrease. And by focusing on delivering high quality care instead of high volume of care, physicians will have more time to see patients, and the in-and-out, eight-minute visit with your doctor will be a thing of the past.

-- 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.

WASHINGTON ― The share of Americans who don’t have health coverage fell below 9 percent during the first half of this year, the lowest percentage ever recorded, according to survey results published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday.

The uninsured rate held steady from the end of 2015, slightly declining to 8.9 percent, or 28.4 million people, the CDC report says. The share of uninsured Americans fell more than 5 percentage points since 2013, the year before the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion took effect.

This latest survey of the uninsured population underscores what the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has achieved in its first three years of being fully online. The uninsured rate had hovered around 15 percent in previous years, until the health care reform law’s expansion of Medicaid to poor adults, and introduction of subsidized private health insurance for low- and moderate-income families became available.

Twenty million previously uninsured Americans gained coverage since President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services reported in March.

The American public hasn’t gotten the message, however, even though surveys from the CDC, the Census Bureau, Gallup and other sources have consistently shown a dramatic drop in the uninsured rate in recent years. A poll the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation conducted in September found that just over one-quarter of Americans were aware that the uninsured rate has never been lower. Nearly half thought it hadn’t changed ― and more than 20 percent believed it had increased.

The decline in the ranks of the uninsured in the past three years occurred among working-age adults and children, across all income levels, and among all racial and ethnic groups, the CDC report shows. The survey also found sharp decreases in the share of Americans who were uninsured at any point in the previous 12 months and in the share of people who lacked health coverage for at least a year.

Among adults aged 18 to 64, 12.4 percent were uninsured at the time they were surveyed, as were 5 percent of children. People 65 years old and older are almost always eligible and enrolled in Medicare, so the uninsured rate for this population consistently is close to zero.  

The largest gains in health insurance coverage were seen among young adults, poor and near-poor individuals, and Hispanics, the CDC found.

The 2017 open enrollment period on the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchange marketplaces began Tuesday and runs through Jan. 31. The Department of Health and Human Services expects 13.8 million people will enroll in private health insurance policies during the sign-up campaign, an increase of 1.1 million from this year’s enrollments.

The uninsured rate appears likely to remain steady next year, rather than significantly decline, similar to the trend from 2015 to the first half of 2016. Those uninsured people most eager to sign up for private plans or Medicaid already have done so, and the Department of Health and Human Services predicts just 3.5 million 2017 exchange plan customers will come from the ranks of the uninsured.

Higher premiums for health insurance exchange plans stand to make the current enrollment period more challenging than the first three, especially among those with incomes too high to qualify for generous tax credit subsidies that reduce premium costs.

Using census data released earlier this year, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 43 percent of the remaining uninsured qualify for subsidized private health insurance, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program or other government health programs.

Ten percent would qualify for Medicaid, but live in the 19 states that have refused federal funding to adopt the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of the program and aren’t eligible for any assistance. Eleven percent could buy health insurance from an exchange, but don’t qualify for subsidies. Sixteen percent are offered health benefits by their employers, but don’t accept it. And 20 percent of those who still have no health coverage are undocumented immigrants, who aren’t legally permitted to purchase health insurance from an exchange or receive coverage from government programs.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has proposed a slate of new health care policies to build on the Affordable Care Act, including the creation of a government-run public option plan that would compete with private insurers. Republican nominee Donald Trump, and House Republicans, favor repealing the Affordable Care Act and implementing more modest reforms, which would result in approximately 20 million currently insured people losing their coverage and becoming uninsured.

-- 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 4 hours ago.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's legacy health care law has reduced the number of Americans going without health insurance to historically low levels, but continued progress threatens to stall this year, according to a new government report. The study released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests the law may be reaching a limit to its effectiveness in a nation politically divided over the government's role in guaranteeing coverage. The findings come from the National Health Interview Survey, which has queried more than 48,000 people so far this year. Since the health care law's big coverage expansion in 2014, millions have gained coverage each year. Democrat Hillary Clinton has a list of ideas for making insurance more affordable and covering more people, but as president she'd need willing Republican partners in Congress and the states. The CDC survey defines high-deductible coverage as insurance that requires patients to pay at least the first $1,300 of annual medical expenses for an individual plan, or $2,600 for a family. Reported by SeattlePI.com 9 minutes ago.

Celeste Middleton, of State Farm, joins the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Rutherford County.

Murfreesboro, TN (PRWEB) November 03, 2016

State Farm Agent Celeste Middleton is proud to announce she was recently named to the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Rutherford County. “I started working with the Boys & Girls Clubs because of its stellar reputation and the care it shows for the community and its children,” said Middleton. “The Boys & Girls Clubs is a great place for kids to get involved in after school because it offers so many different programs, as well as homework help, character development skills and sports.”

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Rutherford County concentrates on academic success, healthy lifestyles and good citizenship. The life skills and values learned while being involved in the club are skills that will help its young members in adulthood.

“I have been impressed with this organization and the powerful impact it has on our local youth for some time now,” concluded Middleton. “Furthermore, there is a lot of positive energy and excitement with the board and I am excited to be a part of the team.”

To get involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Rutherford County or to sign up to volunteer, please visit http://www.bgcrc.net/get-involved.aspx. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Rutherford County HolidayFest Gala at Stones River Country Clubs is on Saturday, November 12, 2016, at 6 p.m. Single tickets and tables are available at http://bgcrc.net/news-events/holidayfest.aspx. All proceeds from the event will benefit the over 2,800 children who are proud members of the Boys & Girls Clubs in Murfreesboro and Smyrna.

About Celeste Middleton, State Farm
In addition to auto, home, life and long-term health insurance, Celeste Middleton, State Farm Agent, offers annuities and financial products. This agency focuses on customers who relocate and move to Tennessee from other states. Some people may believe insurance is boring and automated, but at Celeste Middleton’s agency, they create a positive and energetic atmosphere that will leave their clients with a smile. For more information, please call (615) 895-2700, visit http://www.celestemiddleton.com, or follow Celeste on Facebook.

About the NALA™
The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers through new media. As a single-agency source, the NALA helps businesses flourish in their local community. The NALA’s mission is to promote a business’ relevant and newsworthy events and achievements, both online and through traditional media. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361. Reported by PRWeb 1 day ago.

President Barack Obama's legacy healthcare law has reduced the number of Americans going without health insurance to historically low levels, but continued progress threatens to stall this year, according to a new government report. Reported by Newsmax 19 hours ago.

In its second year, the 2016 Expat Review Volume 2 uncovers new findings on relocation challenges and provides a better understanding of life as a foreigner in the United States.

WOODBURY, NY (PRWEB) November 03, 2016

The 2016 Expat Review Volume 2 is the second study of the expatriate community in the United States conducted by expat provider International AutoSource. In 2016, over 1,500 expats who had relocated to the U.S. answered questions about their experiences moving to the country, and the challenges and successes that followed. The Expat Review reveals the findings of the survey and is available for free download online.

International AutoSource used the data and findings collected from the 2015 Expat Review to create the 2016 survey. The questions were designed to probe deeper into the world of an expatriate, and the results proved successful. The findings of the 2016 Expat Review are broken down into five parts: demographics, planning, transportation, challenges, and "what the Expats wish they knew."

The expatriates surveyed were customers of International AutoSource and members of the Expat communities, British Expats and Expat Exchange. The participants relocated from around the world, but the most common countries of origin were the United Kingdom, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, and India. The majority (92.9%) had relocated to the U.S. on a work assignment.

Perhaps the most insightful part of the 2016 Expat Review is the section titled "what the Expats wish they knew." Featured throughout the study are testimonials from expatriates, sharing what information they wish someone had told them before they moved. Topics range from health insurance and tax implications to cultural differences. Suzanne W. from the United Kingdom wrote that she wished she knew “how culturally different the UK & US was…seems so similar from films/TV but it’s not.”

Expatriates and relocation specialists alike will find that the 2016 Expat Review is a great tool for learning more about the expatriate community in the United States. The study can be downloaded online from International AutoSource.

About International AutoSource

For over 20 years, International AutoSource has been providing value added services and benefits specifically designed for expatriates and the global community for short and long-term assignments. Their programs offer full-service personal transportation solutions for financing, purchasing, leasing and rental without a local credit or driving history. Through outstanding service, value and support IAS strives to make assignments into a foreign country as seamless as possible while saving customers valuable time, money and resources. For more information, please contact International AutoSource at 516.496.1816, email at intlauto(at)intlauto(dot)com or visit their website http://www.intlauto.com. Reported by PRWeb 20 hours ago.

-TOP STORIES-
*BREXIT NO MORE? “*England’s High Court ruled on Thursday that the British government requires parliamentary approval to trigger the process of exiting the European Union, a major upset for Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans for Brexit. Sterling rose on the news, with many investors taking the view that lawmakers would temper the government’s policies and make an economically disruptive ‘hard Brexit’ less likely.” [Reuters]

*THE DROUGHT IS OVER *The Chicago Cubs have finally won their first World Series title in 108 years in an epic 10-inning game 7, following being down in the series 3-1. Chicago’s President of Baseball Operations, Theo Epstein, has been crowned king, Jason Heyward’s rain delay speech will go down in history, Bill Murray might be the happiest man on Earth, and all of America (except for Cleveland and pockets of Cardinals country) rejoiced in the win. But the best video of all is this one of Wrigley Field ERUPTING into cheers upon news of the win. Try to watch that and not feel for the city of Chicago. [Ron Dicker and Chris D’Angelo, HuffPost]

*FIVE DAYS TO GO... *HuffPost Pollster shows that Hillary Clinton is still leading in tight states, as does the latest New York Times/CBS News pollreleased this morning. President Barack Obama took issue with the FBI’s handling of the email scandal on the campaign trail. And here’s what to watch for as Bernie Sanders and Melania Trump hit the trail, as well as “five possible hacks to watch for.” [Natalie Jackson, HuffPost]

*SUSPECT IN IOWA POLICE OFFICER KILLING CAPTURED *The community is mourning the two slain officers, who were known for their public service. [Alana Horowitz Satlin, Andy Campbell, Sebastian Murdock and Willa Frej, HuffPost]

*PRESIDENT OBAMA: REROUTING THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE IS A POSSIBILITY *“My view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans.” [Reuters]

*MORE THAN 90 PERCENT OF AMERICANS HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE *Putting the uninsured rate at an all-time low. [Jeff Young, HuffPost]

*‘THIS IS HOW A SPECIES GOES EXTINCT’ *Warning: some of these photos are graphic. [Nick Visser, HuffPost]
-WHAT’S BREWING-
*SOMEHOW THE COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS SCORED BEYONCE *Talk about crossovers. Watch the performance (and find out who, you know, actually won the awards at the CMAs). And don’t miss how wonderful the Final Five looked, along with Taylor Swift’s surprise appearance! [HuffPost]

*ALL OF YOUR DREAMS ARE COMING TRUE *Netflix is working on making sure you can watch its content offline, making it possible to finally complete “House” without banging your laptop in agony as soon as you board the airplane. Not that that ever would happen to anyone... [HuffPost]

*TAYLOR SWIFT PULLED IN SOME $170 MILLION LAST YEAR* If we wear a I
*INSTAGRAM JUST MADE IT EASIER TO SPEND MONEY *Because those targeted Facebook shopping ads weren’t enough to break your wallet. [HuffPost]

*DISNEY ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED THE GLOBAL BOX OFFICE THIS YEAR *The giant has already set an annual record with $5.85 billion ... and it’s November 3. [Variety]

*88 PERCENT OF USERS WHO PLAY THE HUFFPOST SWING STATE GAME WIN FOR HILLARY *Who will win when you play? [HuffPost] 
-BEFORE YOU GO-
~ We, like the rest of the internet, are completely baffled by Lindsay Lohan’s new accent.

~ We have our first images of Emma Watson as Belle in “Beauty and the Beast,” and we love their imagining of that classic yellow ballgown. 

~ This piece from The Washington Post destroys your belief in coincidences with statistics.

~ If you haven’t played with our We The Tweeple tool to compare the Twitter bios of all the Clinton and Trump supporters, you haven’t done 2016 right.

~ Are you a perfectionist? Do you like clean things? Happy Thursday with this video of a whisk cleaner. Yes, a whisk cleaner. 

 

Send tips/quips/quotes/stories/photos/events/scoops to Lauren Weber lauren.weber@huffingtonpost.com.

Follow us on Twitter *@LaurenWeberHP*. Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter?
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-- 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 19 hours ago.

As we get close to the election, it's clear that something should be done, at the federal or state level or both, to address the shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act.

The news that premiums on the so-called Obamacare benchmark health plans will be 25 percent higher on average next year came on the heels of earlier reports that people in most states will have considerably fewer health plans to choose from.

The health care consulting firm Avalere, which tracks insurer participation in the Obamacare exchanges, says the number of insurers offering Obamacare coverage has fallen from an average of more than five last year to just 3.2 next year. While most of the nonprofit health plans are sticking with Obamacare, three of the biggest for-profit insurance corporations--Unitedhealthcare, Aetna and Humana--have announced that they're pulling out of many markets.

Hillary Clinton has pledged to fix what ails Obamacare while Donald Trump, like just about every other Republican, has pledged to get it repealed.
*
Don't hold your breath*

Regardless of which one makes it to the White House, don't expect much of anything to actually happen, at least in Washington. Odds that the law will either be repealed or fixed in any meaningful way are very slim. That's because neither party is expected to have a big enough majority in Congress for any legislation of consequence to reach the president's desk.

If Clinton becomes president and Democrats regain control of the Senate, it's possible that some fixes could be made during the budget reconciliation process, but there are numerous restrictions on what could be considered.

For the record, Clinton says she would address rising premiums by limiting the amount of money Obamacare enrollees have to pay for coverage to no more than 8.5 percent of their income. The current limit is 9.66 percent.

She also wants Americans to have access to a "public option"--a government-run health plan that would compete with private insurers. Here Clinton is supporting a proposal that private insurers hate but that was so popular among most Democrats back in 2009 that the House version of Obamacare contained language that would have created such a health plan. But even though the Democrats controlled both the House and Senate back then, the insurance industry called in enough chits to ensure that the public option language was stripped out of the final Senate bill, and it was the Senate version that reached Obama's desk. You can rest assured that the industry would be just as motivated to keep a public option from being born during a Clinton administration as it has been during the Obama administration.

Keep in mind that Obama also supported a public option. He still does, but can't get Congress to create one.

*Magical thinking*

As for Trump, he says that after he gets Obamacare repealed (that's not going to happen, but let's suspend disbelief for a moment), he would "allow" health insurers to sell policies across state lines, encourage more people to enroll in health savings accounts and change the way Medicaid is administered by giving states almost total control over the program through block grants.

Democrats are not keen on any of those ideas, which Republicans have supported for years, and will continue to block them. The only way they'd have a chance of becoming law would be for Republicans to way outnumber Democrats in the next Congress, and that's not expected to happen.

Even if Republicans do retain control of both the House and Senate next year, don't look for Obamacare to be repealed. That's because, when push comes to shove, Republicans will not vote to strip 20 million Americans of coverage they have gained because of the law. Here's another reason it will not be repealed: the insurance industry won't allow it. Despite the complaints some insurance corporations have made about losing money on their Obamacare enrollees, they have thrived overall under the law.

The share price of most of the big for-profit insurers has more than tripled since the law went into effect. Those companies are actually making record profits under Obamacare. Remember that Obamacare makes it illegal for most of us to be uninsured. Without a public option, Americans who are not eligible for a government-run program like Medicare or Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) have no choice but to buy coverage from a private insurer. Look at it this way: If you were a business owner, wouldn't you be delighted if Congress passed a law requiring people to buy the stuff you sell? (That's why I told members of Congress during the health care reform debate that if they passed a law without a public option, they might as well call it "The Health Insurance Profit Protection and Enhancement Act.")

But even if Trump could deliver on his campaign promises, "allowing" insurers to sell policies across state lines simply won't work. He would have to force them to do so, and also force state insurance regulators to go along with the idea.
*
Chickens and eggs, eggs and chickens*

Selling coverage across state lines is already possible, and some states have even tried it. Georgia, for example, formally invited insurers from neighboring states to come in and set up shop a few years ago. There were no takers. Not a single one. That's because the barriers to enter a new health insurance market are incredibly high.

It's a chicken-and-egg kind of thing. To be able to get people to enroll in their health plans, insurers have to offer competitive premiums and offer a pretty good provider network. To pull that off--to be able to price their policies competitively--insurers have to get hospitals and other health care providers to give them decent discounts. But if an insurer doesn't already have a lot of enrollees, health care providers have little if any incentive to offer it much of a discount. Bigger and well-established health plans with a lot of enrollees have much more clout at the negotiating table with doctors and hospital executives than out-of-state plans with no enrollees.

It is extremely difficult for a new entrant in any health insurance market to achieve sufficient market share to turn a profit. That's why most of the co-op health plans authorized by the Affordable Care Act have already gone out of business. They couldn't get to the point where they weren't bleeding red ink. Again, the chicken-and-egg thing.
*
Trump would make shady insurers happy and rich*

The only way insurers would be interested in Trump's idea of "getting rid of the artificial lines around states" would be if Congress got rid of all the consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act and allowed insurers to set up operations in whatever state has the fewest coverage mandates and regulations.

Shady, profit-obsessed companies would actually love that. They'd be able to go back to charging women more than men and older folks five to ten times as much as younger folks for the exact same policy. They'd be able to once again charge people with pre-existing conditions more than healthier people. And they be able to sell risky, bare bones policies in every state, even if lawmakers and regulators in the other states objected to insurers being able to sell such junk insurance within their states' borders. In other words, what Trump believes is a good idea is something that insurance regulators in just about every state think is a terrible idea. Great for shady insurers, awful for the rest of us.

What all this means is that, unless Democrats and Republicans can set aside their ideological and political differences and agree on how to "fix" Obamacare, which is highly unlikely, we shouldn't expect either Clinton or Trump to get much of anything done. If any progress is to be made in the foreseeable future, it undoubtedly will have to be at the state level.

This has also been published by HEAL California. If you believe money should not be a factor in one's health, join HEAL California to make a difference.

-- 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 17 hours ago.

Medical students are becoming strong advocates all over the country for expanded and improved Medicare for All. Spurred on by their increasing awareness of the restricted access, unaffordability, and inequities keeping many Americans from necessary health care, they are organizing and making their voices heard about the urgency of real health care reform.

With the co-sponsorship of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA), White Coats for Black Lives, and many regional and local groups, a good example of their activism was the Halloween Day event in Boston a few days ago, which they dubbed #TreatNotTrick. Donning their white coats, often with Halloween costumes, they staged a public demonstration and call-in asking Rep.Mike Capuano to co-sponsor the single-payer bill in the House, H. R. 676. Their message is that private health insurance is a trick, and that they just want to treat patients in a fair system of universal coverage of health care for all Americans. (Kirchner, E. Let's treat our patients, not trick them with private insurance. Common Dreams, October 27, 2016)

The Boston event was part of the Second Annual Medicare-for-All National Day of Action put on by Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP), the student arm of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). Similar events were held from California to Minnesota to Tennessee on no fewer than 33 medical campuses. In Ohio, medical students visited Sen. Sherrod Brown's office urging him to sponsor a single-payer bill in the Senate. In Philadelphia, they rallied to memorialize the lives lost because of being uninsured or underinsured. Their message is clear--private health insurance is a trick that erects barriers to care. (Ibid)

Today's medical students, altruistic as so many are, see a medical profession caught up in a medical-industrial complex controlled by large corporations ranging from the insurance industry to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. The business model prevails--profits and revenue for corporate CEOs and their shareholders call the tune. Medical students are seeing that almost two-thirds of physicians are now employed by big organizations, mostly expanding hospital systems. They see the decline of small group practice and the professional autonomy of earlier years diminished. They see an increasingly fragmented system with erosion of continuity of care amidst frequent changes of insurance coverage, narrowed and changing networks, and patients losing choice of physicians and hospitals. And they hear about earlier retirements and increasing burnout of physicians trying to keep up with the paperwork and bureaucracy of today's multi-payer, largely for-profit system.

Medical students and their colleagues in other health professions are looking for a simplified system with universal access for all Americans to necessary care based on the principle that health care is a human right. That approach has been adopted for many years, in one way or another, by almost all advanced countries, while the U. S. remains by far the most expensive system with worse access and quality of care than most of these countries.

A sizable majority of Americans have favored national health insurance for many years, usually including about three of five respondents to national surveys. A 2008 survey of more than 2,200 U. S. physicians in 13 specialties also favored NHI. (1) Activist positions for single-payer NHI have been taken in recent years by a growing number of professional organizations, including the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Women's Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, and the American Nurses Association. Jean Ross, co-president of National Nurses United, recently had this to say about the rapidly increasing insurance premiums in 2017 under the Affordable Care Act:
The [just announced] premium increases are outrageous and just the
most recent sign of a broken, dysfunctional healthcare system. (2)
Medical students and other young health professionals are right in calling single-payer national health insurance (NHI), or Medicare for All, an urgent need. They are the future of health care in this country. Those of us in older generations welcome their empathy and caring in leading toward health care reform. NHI, as soon as it is enacted, will deliver a better system for both patients and health professionals--one based on a service ethic that will transition over 15 years to a not-for-profit system. It would have simplified administration allowing physicians and other health professionals more time for direct patient care, the essential purpose of the medical profession.

John Geyman, M.D. is the author of The Human Face of ObamaCare: Promises vs. Reality and What Comes Next and How Obamacare is Unsustainable: Why We Need a Single-Payer Solution For All Americans

visit: http://www.johngeymanmd.org

1. Carroll, AE, Ackermann, RT. Support for national health insurance among U. S. physicians: five years later. Ann Intern Med 1481: 566-6-567, 2008
http://annals.org/aim/article/716921/support-national-health-insurance-among-u-s-physicians-national-survey

2. Queally, J. 'Get the insurance companies the hell out' of our health care system. Common Dreams, October 25, 2016
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/25/get-insurance-companies-hell-out-healthcare-system

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

Advocates and opponents are gearing up for a life or death battle over a problematic Affordable Care Act in 2017, and the idea of a government option in health insurance is gaining some traction among Democrats. Reported by Wall Street Journal 10 hours ago.

Millions of Americans are finding out this month that the price of their health insurance is going up next year -- as it did this year, last year, and most of the years before that. Reported by Newsmax 11 hours ago.

With a critical election approaching, millions of Americans who buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges are getting smacked by sticker shock this week: premiums for benchmark Silver plans will rise an average of 25% next year.

The publicity around the 13 million exchange customers obscures an even bigger problem. When measured against inflation, family coverage premiums for 156 million Americans who get insurance from their jobs are growing faster than they were in the five years before the law. In response, employers are shifting premium costs to employees and hiking copays and deductibles.

Whether covered on the exchange or on the job, 43% of insured Americans say it is difficult or impossible to afford their deductibles, and medical expenses have driven more than 11 million Americans into poverty. New Republican proposals to tax job-based benefits will make it worse.

Why hasn't this been fixed? Too many "experts" think costs are out of control because we use too much health care. The solution? "Skin in the game" -- make us all pay more so we use less.

Unfortunately, these "experts" have it all wrong. Americans already have the second highest of-pocket costs in the world and we visit our doctors and go to the hospital less often than people in other countries.

The problem isn't us, it's the prices we pay to health care corporations that are becoming so powerful they can charge whatever they want. New studies show that we pay an average of nearly $1,900 more for the same services in places dominated by one hospital system than in areas with real competition. And every few months, another scandal like EpiPen reminds us that drug companies are so powerful they can also dictate prices.

Rather than take on these powerful corporations and fix the ACA, the Republicans have decided that we really are the problem. Speaker Paul Ryan's "Better Way" budget proposes a punitive tax on employer-based health insurance to try to force us to pay even more and use even less.

This isn't the first try to tax health care. The ACA included a 40% excise tax on so-called "Cadillac" health care plans. But the tax didn't target Cadillac owners - it would affect the people who clean your hotel room, prepare your in-flight meal, feed your college students and serve your drinks at the casino. They're members of our union: low-wage workers, almost all women, who have sacrificed literally billions of dollars in wage raises over the past thirty years so they can build some of the best, highest-quality and most affordable family health care in America.

Our members spoke out last year and convinced Congress to delay the Cadillac tax, and they've gotten Secretary Clinton to pledge a full repeal. The odds are good that this tax will go away early next year.

But just as one tax scheme fizzles out, another pops up. This time, the taxes are tucked into Speaker Paul Ryan's "Better Way" budget. His plan would raise the cost of employer-sponsored benefits of 156 million Americans and further discourage employers from offering decent, affordable health insurance. It's an even worse idea than the Cadillac tax and we need to stop it cold.

The ACA has provided health insurance to millions of people, given hope to people with pre-existing conditions and made insurance fairer for women. So of course the Republican mantra "repeal and replace" is just another phrase for stripping coverage from millions of people and turning corporate health care monopolies loose to charge even more outrageous prices.

But let's be clear - the ACA is broken and needs major fixes. Congress and the new President have to get rid of the idea that ordinary Americans are the problem and stand up to the billion-dollar industries that put ever-higher prices on our health. There is a lot of work to do to fix the ACA, but step one isn't complicated: Don't tax our health care.

D Taylor is General President of UNITE HERE International Union, the 270,000 member union for North American hotel, food service and gaming workers. UNITE HERE's non-profit health benefit funds, operated in partnership with industry, are widely recognized as leaders in innovative delivery system design, quality-driven purchasing and patient education.

-- 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 10 hours ago.

Remember Howard Dean―the former long-time Vermont Governor and single-payer health insurance advocate? These days he's quoted briefly or interviewed in the media for his political observations. But behind the scenes, he has become a wealthy lobbyist for the drug industry. Blandly called a "senior advisor" to the giant corporate law firm Dentons, along with Newt Gingrich, Dean is an all-purpose wheeler-dealer from working to influence state attorneys general, state, regional, municipal and other government bodies, to developing the notoriously wasteful, unaccountable public-private partnerships dominated by profiteering corporatism.

Readers of articles containing comments by Mr. Dean are not told of the "other Dean", now opportunistically opposing single payer healthcare or full Medicare for all with free choice of doctor and hospital, that he once called "by far the most economically efficient system." They are led to believe by reporters or editors that Dean is simply a political observer reflecting his experience in state government and as a presidential primary candidate in 2004.

Readers would not be aware that he has another profitable agenda when he lambastes Bernie Sanders' single-payer health care plan. The media is derelict in not identifying him as a full-time corporate lobbyist for the interests of the drug and health insurance companies and their trade associations. Law firms like Dentons, which has recently hooked up with Dacheng―an influential Chinese law firm―provide convenient, velvet glove cover for monetized pitchmen like the turncoat Dean.

The media often falls for this misidentity trap and fails to inform its readers, viewers and listeners who the persons being interviewed really are beholden to for their bulging paychecks. For example, lawyer Philip Howard, who writes op-eds for the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal critical of the law of torts and the civil justice system, is described as founder of the non-profit group The Common Good. Remarkably, he is not identified as a partner in the corporate law firm of Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C. Giant Covington is a no-holds barred law firm for the drug, tobacco, chemical, energy and other big industries that want the courtroom door blocked or difficult to open for wrongfully injured persons seeking their full day in court with a right of trial by jury under our Constitution.

A few years ago I challenged Philip Howard to a public debate. He took quite a while to respond. When he did, it had one proviso--that there be no mention of his being a partner at Covington and Burling. I denied his precondition.

So, for the mass media―identify the occupational affiliations of these camouflaged apologists for corporate and other commercial interests. Your readers, viewers and listeners have a right to know. Moreover, the questions by reporters are likely to improve as a result.

-- 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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Melania Trump delivered a strong condemnation of online bullying, while Donald Trump continued posting “ur an idiot” on the universe’s Facebook page. Eric Trump said white supremacist and Louisiana Senate candidate David Duke deserves “a bullet,” exhibiting an attitude the Trump children typically reserve for endangered animals. And Mitch McConnell said, “if America votes like Kentucky, we’ll be fine,” which is something we would make fun of, but we’re too busy developing a line of T-shirts saying just that. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, November 3rd, 2016:

*MELANIA TRUMP: STOP BULLYING* - Up next, her “Grab Her By The Nothing, Politely Ask Her How She Is Doing And Be Mindful Of The Patriarchy” campaign: Eliot Nelson: “*Melania Trump** returned from political exile on Thursday by making a rather eyebrow-raising claim: as first lady, she would combat bullying. That anti-bullying campaign, however, likely wouldn’t extend to her husband*. ‘Our culture has gotten too mean and too violent,’ the wife of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told a crowd here in the suburbs of Philadelphia. ‘It is never OK when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied or attacked. It is terrible when that happens on the playground and it is unacceptable when it’s done by someone with no name hiding on the internet.’ …  ‘We’ve seen this already,’ ‘Melania Trump said Thursday. ‘As adults, many of us are able to handle mean words, even lies.’ (This very week, a social media campaign, #ImWithTur, has sprung up as a defense of NBC News reporter Katy Tur, whom the Republican nominee singled out for mockery during a speech in Miami on Wednesday.)” [HuffPost]

We asked Kellyanne Conway before the speech whether Melania would discuss the allegations against her husband. “The nice thing about the First Amendment is you can ask rude questions,” she replied. Thanks, Kellyanne!

*MITCH COMES OUT OF HIS SHELL -* How many terms does he think Trump should get, though? Adam Beam: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made his strongest statement yet on his party’s presidential nominee, telling a rally in his home state Wednesday that *‘we need a new president, Donald Trump, to be the most powerful Republican in America.’* … While McConnell has not been eager to discuss Trump, he has had plenty to say about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.” [AP]

*Eliot will be participating in a Reddit AMA tomorrow at 11:00 am*. He’ll be discussing the election, his book The Beltway Bible, and what it’s like to attend all four major political conventions and not want to jump into a volcano. [/r/politics]

*STOP READING POLLS, YOU LUNATICS - *Calm down. We all get to find out in a few days who won the election anyway. Natalie Jackson: “The polls do show that some states are close. But the level of panic that threatened to ensue if one poll showed Trump up in one state was baffling ― especially considering the other high-quality polls out on Wednesday. It shows just how uncertain politicos think this election is. Yet Clinton is in a better place than Barack Obama was at this point in 2012. In the HuffPost Pollster chart, Obama widened his lead to just 1.5 percentage points over Mitt Romney nationally ― but that was good enough for Simon Jackman’s HuffPost model and Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight model to give Obama a 91 percent chance of winning. Obama’s odds in the states were good enough that he was predicted to get 332 electoral votes (which is what he got). *Clinton is currently about 6 points ahead of Trump in the HuffPost Pollster national chart, and our predictions give her 341 electoral votes.*” [HuffPost]

*Like HuffPost Hill? Then order Eliot’s new book*, The Beltway Bible: A Totally Serious A-Z Guide To Our No-Good, Corrupt, Incompetent, Terrible, Depressing, and Sometimes Hilarious Government

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It’s free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

*TRUMP MAY BE LYING ABOUT MONEY, YOU GUYS -* Many people are saying he’s full of crap. Russ Beuttner: “Mr. Trump has repeatedly held out his financial disclosures as a justification for breaking with tradition and refusing to release his personal tax returns. ‘You don’t learn that much from tax returns,’ he said in September during his first debate with Hillary Clinton. ‘You learn a lot from financial disclosure. And you should go down and take a look at that.’ But an examination of his tax appeals on several properties, and other documents obtained by The New York Times through Freedom of Information requests, shows that what Mr. Trump has reported on those forms is nowhere near a complete picture of his financial state. The records demonstrate that large portions of those numbers represent cash coming into his businesses before covering costs like mortgage payments, payroll and maintenance. *After expenses, some of his businesses make a small fraction of what he reported on his disclosure forms, or actually lose money. In fact, it is virtually impossible to determine from the forms just how much he is earning in any year.*” [NYT]

*STUNNING THAT THIS CONSTITUTES NEWS - *Congress does not, in fact, have a PreCrime unit. Laura Barron-Lopez: “S*enate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) earlier this week called recent talk of impeaching Hillary Clinton if she is elected ‘premature.’* The election is five days away, but a number of Republicans have already begun floating the idea of impeaching the Democrat if she wins the White House…. ‘Well, I think that’s premature myself, to be talking about that because of course she hasn’t been elected or sworn into office,’ Cornyn said. ‘And unless there is some additional evidence that the FBI director and the [Justice Department] would take to a grand jury, then she is not likely to be convicted of a crime.’” [HuffPost]

*MEGYN KELLY DETAILS HARASSMENT FROM AILES IN NEW BOOK* - Again, that’s Roger Ailes, Donald Trump confidante. Emily Peck: “In a forthcoming memoir, Fox news anchor *Megyn Kelly describes in detail the repeated sexual advances of her disgraced former boss at Fox News, Roger Ailes, according to a report on RadarOnline.* Kelly writes that Ailes made inappropriate comments and even tried to grab and kiss her, threatening her job if she did not comply, per the outlet. RadarOnline says it got an early look at Kelly’s book, ‘Settle for More,’ and that the 45-year-old only recently added the details on Ailes behavior. Ailes was ousted from the top spot at Fox this summer, after several women there came forward alleging sexual harassment. The new details seem to confirm earlier reports that Kelly had told investigators at Fox that Ailes sexually harassed her. Kelly’s bombshell comes just as the popular anchor is negotiating a new contract with Fox. The network reportedly is offering her $20 million a year to stay. “ [HuffPost]

*ERIC TRUMP INNOCENTLY OFFERS FREE AMMO TO DAVID DUKE -* Political correctness has gotten so bad. Christina Wilkie: “Eric Trump, son of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said Thursday that former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke deserves ‘a bullet.’ *‘The guy does deserve a bullet,’ he told Denver radio host Ross Kaminsky*, agreeing with Kaminsky’s suggestion that Duke, an unabashed racist and long-shot Senate candidate, should be shot in the head.” [HuffPost]

*TOOMEY: **LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU LA LA LA* - Sometimes, you can’t spend your WHOLE day pretending to be on your BlackBerry. Samuel Levine: “With just days until election day, *Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) still won’t say whether he’ll vote for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump*. Toomey, who is fighting to save his Senate seat in a tight election race, dodged the question repeatedly last month during a debate with his Democratic opponent, Katie McGinty. He narrowly trails McGinty ahead of Tuesday’s election. So it’s no wonder he was coy again on Thursday. ‘Like a lot of Pennsylvanians and a lot of Americans, I am very disappointed with the choice that we have and I can’t vote for Hillary Clinton under any scenario,’ he said in an interview on WTXF. ‘I have a lot of problems with Donald Trump. I have been very public about my criticisms when I’ve disagreed with him, and I’ve said so.’ Toomey added that he could see some benefits from a Trump presidency.” [HuffPost]

*WOULD BE NICE IF COMEY COULD JUST SAY THIS, TOO -* Ryan J. Reilly: “If Daniel C. Richman, an adviser to James Comey, were writing this story about the FBI director’s recent disclosure that the bureau was reviewing newly discovered emails in the Hillary Clinton probe, it would include a sentence like this right up top: *‘We don’t know what’s in them, and it’s entirely possible that there’s nothing in them. Don’t change your assumptions based on complete uncertainty.’*” [HuffPost]

*IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH THEY DON’T WANT BLACK PEOPLE TO VOTE - *Julia Harte: “This year’s highly charged presidential contest between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump has stoked accusations by both parties of political meddling in the scheduling of early voting hours in North Carolina, a coveted battleground state with a history of tight elections. *In emails, state and county Republican officials lobbied members of at least 17 county election boards to keep early-voting sites open for shorter hours on weekends and in evenings - times that usually see disproportionately high turnout by Democratic voters. *Reuters obtained the emails through a public records request. The officials also urged county election boards to open fewer sites for residents to cast ballots during early voting that began on Oct. 20 and ends on Saturday. [Reuters]

*JUDGE BARS PARANOID RACISTS FROM PHILLY POLLING PLACES - *Well, at least the ones who don’t actually live in Philadelphia. Christina Wilkie: “Efforts by Pennsylvania Republicans to send poll watchers to minority neighborhoods to guard against ‘voter fraud’ were dealt a serious blow Thursday, when a federal judge rejected a lawsuit seeking permission to send poll watchers anywhere in the state. *Under Pennsylvania law, poll watchers may only observe voting in the county where they are registered to vote.*” [HuffPost]

*NATHAN DEAL TIME TRAVELS FROM THE ‘50s TO SCOLD MINORITIES - *Nice talk, sugar mouth. Amanda Terkel: “Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) went after opponents of an education ballot measure known as Amendment 1 in a speech last month, saying if they wanted to help ‘colored people,’ this measure was a good place to start. *‘The irony of some of the groups who are opposing doing something to help these minority children is beyond my logic. If you want to advance the state of colored people, start with their children,’ Deal said* in an Oct. 3 speech, Fox 5 in Atlanta reported Wednesday. [HuffPost]

*OBAMA SEEMS TO KNOW HE’S OVERSEEN THE END OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY - *If he’s so upset about all this, why didn’t he leeeeaaad??? Cristian Farias: “*President Barack Obama let Republicans have it Wednesday for their change of tune on how they might deal with Supreme Court vacancies*…. ‘Now keep in mind, the reason they said they wouldn’t have a hearing or vote for my Supreme Court nominee, bucking all of American history, was because, “We thought the American people should decide the next Supreme Court justice,”’ Obama said. ‘Now they’re saying, “Well, if they don’t decide the way we want them to decide, maybe we won’t even do that.”’” [HuffPost]

*YEAH, YEAH THE MEDIA IS TERRIBLE BUT COME ON - *Human beings with lives and families shouldn’t be put in danger for Trump’s shitty applause lines. Michael Calderone: “GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump recklessly singled out NBC News correspondent Katy Tur on Wednesday afternoon during a recurring riff about how the media supposedly won’t show the size of his audiences…. *Despite Trump’s onstage outrage, it is ‘factually untrue’ to say members of the media don’t cover his crowds ― and the candidate knows it, Tur said on MSNBC Wednesday night. ‘This is a shtick that he does to rile up his base,’ she said.* ‘It’s to give them an excuse for polls that might not be in his favor. It’s to give them an excuse to berate somebody other than Donald Trump, and to blame somebody for something that doesn’t look as good as they want it to look.’” [HuffPost]

*THE TRUTH ABOUT OBAMA’S SINISTER PLAN TO ALLOW POOR PEOPLE TO SEE DOCTORS -* Jeffrey Young: “*The share of Americans who don’t have health coverage fell below 9 percent during the first half of this year, the lowest percentage ever recorded*, according to survey results published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday…. This latest survey of the uninsured population underscores what the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has achieved in its first three years of being fully online. The uninsured rate had hovered around 15 percent in previous years, until the health care reform law’s expansion of Medicaid to poor adults, and introduction of subsidized private health insurance for low- and moderate-income families became available.” [HuffPost]

*HERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY BELIEVE IN - *Yamiche Alcindor: “It didn’t take long for Jack Morris to regret voting for President Obama. A few months after Mr. Morris, a lifelong Republican, cast his first vote for a Democrat in 2008, he learned that the carpet company where he worked planned to lay off 36 people in Pennsylvania and move his job to Maryland…. Mr. Morris is one of a small subset of voters who supported Mr. Obama in 2008 and have now embraced Mr. Trump, attracted by his vow to shake up the political status quo and restore lost jobs…. *Interviews with Mr. Morris and more than a dozen others show a common theme: The message of change that inspired them to vote for Mr. Obama is now embodied by Mr. Trump*, whom they see as a brash outsider unconnected with Washington bureaucrats and the big-money donors funding Democratic and Republican candidates.” [NYT]

*NO MATTER WHO WINS, GOLDMAN SACHS WINS -* Zachary Warmbrodt: “*Donald Trump is signaling that he wants to appoint his campaign finance chairman, Steven Mnuchin, as Treasury secretary*, according to a person close to the campaign. Trump’s preference for the Goldman Sachs alumnus is the latest evidence that the GOP presidential nominee would be inclined to hire officials with experience in the business world should he win next week’s election, despite the anti-establishment tone that has dominated the campaign.” [Politico]

*K STREET IS COMING FOR YOUR FACEBOOK - *Catherine Ho: “*Many K Street leaders view social media and digital advocacy, not traditional lobbying, as the fastest-growing segments of the influence industry*, according to a recent survey of Washington lobbyists, lawyers, association executives and think tank leaders. When asked about the next five years, the greatest percentage of respondents, 38 percent, said they expect organizations to increase social media to influence policymakers, according to an October survey of 202 Washington “insiders” by the opinion research firm Prime Group.” [WashPost]

*BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR *-  Here’s an adorably old Cubs fan adorably reacting to the team’s victory last night.

*SOAK UP THESE OBAMA ZINGERS NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN - *DGAF Obama is fun to watch. Paige Lavender: “*’This isn’t a joke. This isn’t “Survivor.” This isn’t “The Bachelorette,”’ Obama said at a rally in Florida. ‘This counts.’* Obama continued with his television riff, questioning if Trump could handle the presidency if he can’t even handle being joked about on NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live,’ referring to Trump’s annoyance at actor Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of him over the last month. ‘Come on, man,’ Obama said.” [HuffPost]

*COMFORT FOOD*

- A nifty online kaleidoscope.

- Bill Murray had a distinctly Murrian reaction to the Cubs’ victory.

- Here’s a rendition of Toto’s “Africa” on a harp.

*TWITTERAMA*

@igorbobic: 80 degrees in DC in November. Need someone to throw a snow ball on the Senate floor right now.

@elisefoley: I suppose Melania Trump said it’s bad when people bully on twitter without their names, and Donald does it with his name, so maybe it’s ok?

@MEPFuller: Maybe the Trumps will *finally* hold a unity rally with David Duke now.
You know, to apologize.

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-- 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.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton addressed supporters in Greenville, North Carolina, on Thursday. She called for new efforts to fight climate change, support small farms, and improve health insurance options for Americans. Watch her full remarks. Reported by CBS News 9 hours ago.

Cisco's executive shuffle continues, as the company's massive 25,000-person engineering team undergoes another reorg.

As planned and announced at the start of 2016, Pankaj Patel, Cisco former executive vice president, chief development officer and head of global engineering under previous CEO John Chambers, officially left at the end of October. 

On Thursday, the company revealed the financial terms of Patel's departure. 

Meanwhile the guy that seemed destined to replace him, Zorowar Biri Singh, the networking giant’s chief technology officer and CEO Chuck Robbins first big hire, also left at the end of October, after only 15 months. Singh was charged with figuring out a cloud strategy for Cisco. He had come from HP, where he was also for a short time involved with HP's cloud strategy. (HP officially quit the public cloud business entirely a year ago, a few months after Singh left for Cisco.)

This follows a patch where other long-time Cisco engineering leaders have left the company, including the enterprise engineering leader Robert Soderbery, who left last month, and Cisco's most famous quad of legendary engineers, Mario Mazzola, Prem Jain, Luca Cafiero and Soni Jiandani, who quit in June. 

Robbins told employees last August that the company would be doing its largest layoff in history, with 14,000 positions cut. Robbins reorganized in March, which was after Cisco went through a previous massive reorg of engineering under Chambers in 2014. 

*Golden parachute*

Cisco formally released Patel's termination letter on Thursday, detailing the financial terms of the exec's exit.

That includes:

· $1,041,250 in severance pay (he gets half now and half in six months).
· A cash bonus payment of $1,498,298
· 99,758 stock units that were initially restricted under the condition that he continued to work for Cisco through September, 2017. At $30 a share (about Cisco's current share price), those are worth $2,992,740
· Retirement vesting of another 474,310 stock units that were initially restricted under the condition he continue to work for Cisco through 2019. Those will vest as planned. At $30 a share, those are worth $14,229,300
· A lump sum payout of $12,209.57 to cover 17 months of his health insurance under COBRA.
· And a chance to exercise stock options that have come due to him.

All in all, he'll walk with over $5.5 million  between cash and stock, excluding the 17 months of cash to cover his COBRA, with more stock earmarked for him.

Cisco has not yet named a new chief of engineering to its public executive roster.

*SEE ALSO: Now Facebook plans to eat the $500 billion telecom equipment market*

Join the conversation about this story »

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