Chicago, Ill., Apr 21, 2017 / 06:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A promise from the governor of Illinois to veto an abortion funding bill drew the gratitude of Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, who called it a “principled stand.”

“Abortion is a controversial issue in this country, but using public money to provide abortions should not be,” the cardinal said April 19. “The federal government prohibits the practice, and polls show a substantial segment of the American public reject it.”

Governor Bruce Rauner had pledged to veto Illinois House Bill 40. The legislation would fund elective abortions throughout pregnancy for any reason through the Medicaid and employee health insurance programs. It would also make a symbolic commitment to maintain legal abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the decisions mandating legal abortion nationwide.

A spokesperson said last week the governor is committed to protecting current abortion law but recognizes the “sharp divisions of opinion” on taxpayer funding of abortion, the Associated Press reports.

“I thank him for this principled stand,” Cardinal Cupich said of the governor. “I pray that this divisive issue will be put behind us and our government officials will now concentrate on the many difficult challenges facing Illinois.”

He stressed the importance of unity in seeking a budget “that serves all our people” and pledged help for this effort.

Gov. Rauner, a Republican, actively campaigned as a supporter of legal abortion. He and his wife are listed as $50,000 sponsors of a Planned Parenthood of Illinois fundraiser next week marking the abortion organization’s 100th anniversary, the Chicago Tribune reports.

  Reported by CNA 9 hours ago.

A group believed to be members of pro-NPP vigilante group, Invincible Forces, Friday stormed the district National Health Insurance Authority office at Zabzugu and locked it up. Reported by Myjoyonline 8 hours ago.

Waiting period is the time duration to be passed after applying for medical insurance before one can avail it. This is a term that one has to treat with trepidation and usually puts the customer through so much angst when he/she requires immediate coverage. There are three types of waiting periods, which are: i. Exclusionary Waiting Period (Pre-existing condition): If it is proved that the insurer had one of the diseases listed in the specified list of diseases, 6 months before the day the insurance came into effect, he/she cannot get the coverage. ii. Employer Waiting Period (1 - 3 months): Applicable mostly to the newly-joined in any organization, this is a means to stop the person from... Reported by WorldNews 8 hours ago.

Infrastructure as a Service for ReliaCloud and colocation services included in examination.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (PRWEB) April 21, 2017

Today, OneNeck® IT Solutions announces the completion of an independent examination of its HIPAA and HITECH compliance attestations. As part of the examination, OneNeck had essential elements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Security Rule of 2003 (HIPAA) and the Health Insurance Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) reviewed.

Included in the examination were OneNeck’s physical and administrative security controls. Specifically, the examination evaluated OneNeck’s colocation services at their top-tier data centers in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa (Des Moines), Minnesota, Oregon and Wisconsin. In addition, as part of the examination, OneNeck also had their Infrastructure as a Service for ReliaCloud® reviewed.

The findings confirmed that OneNeck has implemented and maintains the following:·     Administrative safeguards
·     Physical safeguards
·     Technical safeguards
·     Breach notification

“Attaining HIPAA and HITECH attestations is in line with our commitment to our customers,” said Clint Harder, CTO and senior vice president at OneNeck. “For our healthcare clients, it reassures them we have the tools in place to protect and secure their patient data, which allows them to focus on security and administrative controls at the application and data layer.”

The examination was performed by Shellman & Company, Inc., an independent CPA firm with extensive IT service provider experience. Following completion of the examination, Shellman & Company issued an opinion confirming the description of OneNeck’s information security program was fairly presented and that OneNeck has adopted the essential elements of the HIPAA Security Rule and HITECH requirements.

Completion of the HIPAA and HITECH examination follows recent announcements, by OneNeck, that they have also completed the Type 2 SSAE 16 (SOC 1) and (SOC 2) examination and PCI Data Security Standard validation.

In addition to managing and operating top-tier data centers, OneNeck also offers a full suite of hybrid IT solutions in order to provide customers with the right applications, on the right cloud, at the right time. For more information, visit oneneck.com.

OneNeck IT Solutions LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, employs nearly 550 people throughout the U.S. The company offers hybrid IT solutions including cloud and hosting solutions, managed services, ERP application management, professional services, IT hardware and local connectivity via top-tier data centers in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon and Wisconsin. OneNeck's team of technology professionals manage secure, world-class, hybrid IT infrastructures and applications for businesses around the country. Visit oneneck.com.

TDS Telecommunications Corporation (TDS Telecom/TDS®), headquartered in Madison, Wis., operates OneNeck IT Solutions LLC and BendBroadband, which is part of TDS Broadband Service LLC. Combined, the company employs more than 3,400 people. Visit tdstelecom.com.

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS], a Fortune 500® company, provides wireless; cable and wireline broadband, TV and voice; and hosted and managed services to approximately six million customers nationwide through its businesses U.S. Cellular, TDS Telecom, OneNeck IT Solutions LLC, and TDS Broadband Service LLC. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago, Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. employs 10,300 people. Visit tdsinc.com. Reported by PRWeb 7 hours ago.

Many lag in reviewing communication plans, eligibility requirements

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 21, 2017

Employers whose benefit sign-up periods take place in the first quarter of 2018 are making slow progress toward their open enrollment goals, according to the latest Employee Benefit Adviser Open Enrollment Readiness Benchmark.

For this group of employers, which represents nearly 70% of all U.S. organizations, February’s overall OERB score stands at 44—unchanged from January.

“Employers face some big obstacles, particularly when it comes to planning employee communications programs and reviewing benefit compliance and eligibility requirements,” said John McCormick, Editorial Director of SourceMedia’s Employee Benefits group, which includes EBA and Employee Benefit News.

The Open Enrollment Readiness Benchmark is a data-based performance benchmark that gauges how prepared employers are for their annual employee benefits enrollment periods. The Benchmark is sponsored by ADP. To produce the Benchmark, SourceMedia Research and EBA survey more than 400 HR and benefits executives working in organizations of various sizes and across multiple industries. Respondents rate their progress for each of 26 distinct activities on a scale of 1 to 100, with a score of 100 signifying the employer’s full preparation for that activity.

Other highlights from the first quarter Benchmark report:· Smaller companies with 50 to 150 employees lag their larger brethren when it comes to benefit plan design, and nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to wellness program selection. In February, a whopping 30% of smaller companies reported that they had made no progress in this area compared with 10% for all other companies.

· Mid-size companies with 151 to 999 employees are further ahead of both smaller and larger employers in terms of choosing a benefits adviser and selecting a health plan for their next enrollment period.

· Large companies struggle to manage their enrollments. For example, in February, only 3% had completed their employee benefits communications plan, compared to 13% and 14% of small and mid-size employers. Likewise, when it comes to documenting enrollment processes and procedures, only 15% of large companies had completed this task, compared with 21% of small and 18% of mid-range employers.

Employee Benefit Adviser’s Open Enrollment Readiness Benchmark was developed by SourceMedia Research and EBA’s editors. Each month, SourceMedia Research surveys 400-plus prescreened HR and benefits executives of various sizes and across multiple industries. Respondents’ scores for the 26 individual activities are aggregated and used to produce a readiness mark for each of the four critical phases of open enrollment—benefit plan design, preparation, employee enrollment and post-enrollment analysis—as well as an overall composite score. A complete analysis of the most recent OERB data is available here.

About Employee Benefit Adviser
Employee Benefit Adviser (EBA) is the information resource for employee benefit advisers, brokers, agents and consultants. In an era of tremendous change and challenge, EBA is the benefits broker's digital roadmap, providing the current awareness and perspective advisers need to optimally serve their clients, anticipate changes in the marketplace, and run their businesses. EBA covers a broad range of critical content, including comparative market data, legal and regulatory updates, the latest products and services, and best practices in benefits delivery — including health insurance, vision and dental insurance, voluntary products and services, and retirement benefits. The benefits broker community relies on EBA to stay connected, through its website comment forums, its social media communities, and live events.

About SourceMedia Research
SourceMedia Research is a full-service B2B market research service that draws upon SourceMedia’s market expertise and proprietary database of engaged executives to develop information and insights for clients. SourceMedia Research provides research solutions for marketers, agencies and others targeting sectors such as banking, payments, mortgage, accounting, employee benefits and wealth management.

About SourceMedia
SourceMedia, an Observer Capital company, is a business-to-business digital marketing services, subscription information, and event company serving senior-level professionals in the financial, technology and healthcare sectors. Brands include American Banker, PaymentsSource, The Bond Buyer, Financial Planning, Accounting Today, Mergers & Acquisitions, National Mortgage News, Employee Benefit News and Health Data Management.

About ADP
Powerful technology plus a human touch. Companies of all types and sizes around the world rely on ADP’s cloud software and expert insights to help unlock the potential of their people. HR. Talent. Benefits. Payroll. Compliance. Working together to build a better workforce. For more information, visit http://www.adp.com.

For more information, please contact:

Dana Jackson
dana.jackson(at)sourcemedia(dot)com
212-803-8329                        

John McCormick
john.mccormick(at)sourcemedia(dot)com
212-803-8509 Reported by PRWeb 7 hours ago.

The top government lawyers from 19 states are telling President Donald Trump and the Republican leaders of Congress not to pass health insurance changes that would stop the flow of federal drug treatment money.A letter sent Friday... Reported by New Zealand Herald 3 hours ago.

To help its customers live healthier lives, Max Bupa Health Insurance has announced an exclusive tie up with GOQii, a fitness technology player and global reinsurer Swiss Re. Max Bupa proposes to offer its consumers ready access to GOQii’s unique personalised wellness engine which is equipped with solutions such as health coaching and health management tools. Swiss Re will provide technical assistance to Max Bupa in creating relevant products and expertise to create risk assessment models for future. “GOQii, with its rich expertise in the digital wellness space, provides an ideal platform that will help us penetrate deeper into this segment and serve the large uninsured population in the country,” said Ashish Mehrotra, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Max Bupa, Reported by BGR India 2 hours ago.

Representative Dave Brat (R-Va), a Freedom Caucus member who voted against the first TrumpCare bill, appeared on CNN earlier this morning to suggest that he may be ready to support a new version of the bill that allows individual states to opt out of certain components of Obamacare that require minimum coverage levels and restrict insurers from charging more to patients with pre-existing conditions.  Per The Hill:



"It's not really a new bill — it's the same fundamental bill, *but a few pretty significant amendments to it,*" he said during an appearance on CNN's "New Day."

 

He said the new plan, the text of which has not been written yet, would lower the cost of health insurance and return responsibility to individual states.

 

*Changes to the new bill would let states apply for waivers for certain ObamaCare regulations*, *such as a provision preventing insurers from raising an individual's premium based on that person's health.*

 

*"It just allows states to opt out of some of the [regulations] to bring down price. And so those are two of the big pieces.* A couple little pieces on the regulatory framework, and then I think we can all get to yes," said Brat, who came to Congress after defeating former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a primary.





.@RepDaveBrat: New health care plan in GOP pipeline "the same fundamental bill" as one that faltered last month https://t.co/kK1lWALm5T

— New Day (@NewDay) April 21, 2017



 

Meanwhile, Trump, who is increasingly anxious to post some wins in his first 100 days, implied on Thursday that he was optimistic that Congress would be able to hold a vote on healthcare next week, as well as prevent a government shutdown.  *"We're doing very well on healthcare,”* he said at a news conference. *"We will see what happens, but this is a great bill. There's a great plan, and this will be great healthcare. It is evolving."*



No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2017



 

All that said, Democrats will undoubtedly argue that the recommended changes could make it more difficult for some people to get healthcare, and GOP aides have said the changes may make it difficult for centrists in the GOP conference, who also opposed the first bill, to back this one.

Of course, one should never underestimate the Republican party's uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  As John Boehnor recently pointed out, Republicans always seem to find a way to act as their own worst enemy.



*"In the 25 years I served in Congress, Republicans never, ever, not one time agreed on what a healthcare proposal should look like.  Not once.  The perfect always becomes the enemy of the good."  *

Reported by Zero Hedge 1 hour ago.

Trump administration officials offered little reassurance to health-insurance executives Tuesday on the future of payments for low-income customers, saying the insurers should take up the matter with Congress if they hope for a clearer commitment. Reported by Wall Street Journal 3 days ago.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A simple question — should adults who are able to work be required to do so to get taxpayer-provided health insurance? — could lead to major changes in the social safety net. The federal-state Medicaid program for low-income and disabled people covers more than 70 million U.S. residents — about 1 in […] Reported by Seattle Times 2 days ago.

Voicing concern about safe staffing, fair pay, and respect in the workplace, registered nurses at Kindred Hospital San Gabriel Valley in West Covina (an LA suburb) voted by 90 percent Wednesday night to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United.

The final vote, a secret ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, was 37 to 4 to join CNA.

“We are thrilled to join our union coworkers at Kindred Westminster and Baldwin Park,” said Kindred San Gabriel RN Nieva Castigador. “In the coming weeks we will be electing our bargaining team and are looking forward to bargaining our first contract to improve working conditions for our patients and ourselves.”

CNA, California’s largest RN organization with more than 90,000 members, now represents RNs at three Kindred Healthcare facilities ― Kindred Baldwin Park, Kindred Westminster, and now Kindred San Gabriel Valley, where CNA will represent 100 RNs.Baldwin Park RNs voted to join CNA last November and are currently in talks with hospital officials on their first collective bargaining agreement.

In the lead up to the election, the Kindred San Gabriel Valley RNs expressed a strong desire for a collective voice to improve RN staffing standards for patients, sufficient medical supplies and equipment for patient care, and strengthened standards for nurses, including guaranteed wage increases, lower health insurance premiums, and an improved retirement plan.

Other Kindred San Gabriel Valley health workers are also considering unionization through the CNA-affiliated Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union. Hospital employees at Kindred Baldwin Park are currently CHEU members.

"I'm excited that the RNs have chosen to join CNA, and I hope our coworkers will join us by building support in CHEU, said Kindred San Gabriel RN Jovy Mendoza. “We will be stronger together to improve conditions for our patients and ourselves."

*Peter Dreier is professor of politics and chairs the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His most recent book is *The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame (Nation Books).

-- 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 1 day ago.

by Ashley BalcerzakWith President Trump’s 100th day looming, he’s struggled to check off some of the big initiatives on his to do list, such as getting rid of Obamacare and overhauling the tax code. These hefty projects invite companies and other groups with something at stake to frantically lobby the government, hoping the legislation can turn in their favor.

Eight high-rollers stayed in the top 10 spenders list from last year, with some jostling among the ranks. In addition, AT&T and Novartis joined the top spenders, after being No. 11 and 22, respectively. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Realtors predictably stayed at Nos. 1 and 2, with the business federation spending $24.8 million, almost $2 million more than in the same quarter of 2016, and NAR at $10.2 million, about $2 million less than the first quarter in 2016. (NAR uses a filing method that includes its local and state lobbying, which is part of why it always ranks so high.)The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug companies’ trade group, showed the highest leap in spending by far, jumping 34.9 percent to $8.1 million from just under $6 million in the first three months of 2016. That catapulted the trade group from No. 5 a year ago to No. 3 now — and it was the biggest-spending quarter for the organization since the start of quarterly reporting in 2008.

A PhRMA spokesperson declined to discuss the surge in the group’s efforts. But after drugmakers came under harsh criticism from GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump (who said they were “getting away with murder“) as well as many in Congress in 2016 for its pricing policies, the trade group in January began spending tens of milliions of dollars in a “Go Boldly” television ad campaign touting industry breakthroughs in science and indicated it would mount an extensive lobbying campaign. Its new lobbying report indicates it weighed in on a wide range of issues, including provisions dealing with intellectual property, reimportation, the drug approval process, nominations to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration, opioid abuse and more. It also showed that PhRMA had hired six new lobbyists, though several others are gone.

Once in office, Trump met with CEOs of major drug firms, as well as the CEO and six board members of PhRMA. In a statement after the meeting, CEO Stephen Ubl wrote “We need to reform existing laws and regulations that are currently preventing private companies from negotiating better deals and paying for medicines based on the value they provide to patients and our health care system.”

PhRMA, the American Medical Association and Blue Cross/Blue Shield seem to historically compete for spots three through five, and this quarter was no different, with all three focusing resources on the Obamacare overhaul, among other topics.

The American Medical Association rejected Congress’s attempt to replace the Affordable Care Act, stating the changes to Medicaid would threaten coverage and make it difficult for states to act nimbly. “And critically, we urge you to do all that is possible to ensure that those who are currently covered do not become uninsured,” wrote James Madara, the CEO of the trade group, to Congress.

Health insurance group Blue Cross also wrote to lawmakers in March that the proposed repeal-and-replace Obamacare bill could lead to huge losses in coverage by reworking Medicaid from an open-ended entitlement program, and asked to drop the “premium surcharge” for those who let their insurance lapse.

Dow Chemical increased its first quarter spending by 9.3 percent, investing $450,000 more in the first three months of 2017 than the previous year. Some of that may due to trade association dues related to lobbying, which must be reported.But Dow has made itself heard on policy issues in recent weeks: The chemical company sent letters to three federal agencies asking the Trump administration to ignore government studies that found a family of pesticides made by Dow are harmful to critically threatened species, saying the studies are flawed. That appeal came after EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt rejected a petition asking the agency to ban all uses of Dow’s chlorpyrifos pesticide, one of those critiqued in the studies. Dow also listed lobbying on its proposed $130 billion merger with DuPont, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, which faces regulatory hurdles. The possible union, announced at the end of 2015, is due to encounter close scrutiny, and a little lobbying on mergers never hurts.

And Dow is working hard on being cozy with the new administration: The company gave $1 million to help fund Trump’s inauguration, and its CEO Andrew Liveris leads a manufacturing working group in the White House. (Liveris also got the pen Trump used to sign an executive order that looked to cut back government regs.)

Surprisingly, some of the biggest stakeholders in a controversial congressional resolution that Trump signed didn’t expend more this quarter than the equivalent period last year. SJR 34 blocked a Federal Communications Commission rule that intended to ban Internet service providers from selling consumer data (like your browsing history and even sensitive info) to others. Trump overturned the rule, which had not yet taken effect, using the Congressional Review Act, which also blocks other rules on internet privacy from being issued. (Here’s more detail on how this came to be and where industry money went to those who voted for the resolution.)

ISPs such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon clearly had skin in the game, but that wasn’t evident from the spending shown in their lobbying reports. AT&T (always a top lobbying spender and No. 8 in the first quarter) only spent $100,000 more in 2017’s first three months compared to the same timeframe in 2016. *(Though AT&T ranked No. 11 last year this quarter, so the company did increase among the ranks.)* Comcast saw no change, and Verizon actually decreased its spending, from $3.6 million to $2.9 million. All three of the companies in various ways listed internet privacy as a topic of concern.

For more on how these persuasive powerhouses have shifted their spending over the years, check out our chart below:Senior researcher Dan Auble contributed to this report. 

-- 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 23 hours ago.

As President Donald Trump barrels toward his 100th day in office, the administration is returning to the primary ethos of his campaign: Just win.

Really, any win will do, as long as the veneer of progress comes with it. But the problem for Trump and congressional Republicans is that they’re still far off from “winning” on any number of legislative fronts. If anything, Trump’s desire to achieve a flurry of victories next week risks several high-profile setbacks.

The White House’s primary focus still appears to be the revival of health care reform discussions, with administration officials pushing forcefully for a vote on refined Obamacare repeal and replace language in the upcoming week. But House GOP aides, themselves highly eager to get something out of their chamber, acknowledged that they’re not yet at the point of even whipping votes ― there isn’t even legislative text to consider. 

The White House continued to tout what it framed as solid progress, suggesting on Friday that Senate Republicans were also entertaining health care legislation. But Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was rumored to be in discussions with House conservatives, said no such talks had taken place, and a top Senate GOP aide threw cold water on the idea that they’d have their own bill.

“We’re not drafting anything,” the aide said. “We’re looking at and reviewing the language of the House bill but nothing beyond that.”

As health care reform remained in limbo, Trump also announced he would drop a major tax reform plan next week, saying it would include “massive” cuts. But as Reuters reported, “the news came as a surprise to lobbyists and congressional aides who had no idea what Trump’s announcement might include.” Indeed, few Republicans on the Hill expect tax reform to happen anytime soon, not only because it is predicated on health care’s passage but also because Trump has not embraced leadership’s border adjustment proposal.


SCOOP: Trump #tax plan likely will NOT include controversial border adjustment plan, senior official tells Bloomberg's @JenniferJJacobs

— Laura Litvan (@LauraLitvan) April 21, 2017

Once hopeful for a bill being passed by August, Republicans now expect that action will take place well beyond then.

The one “accomplishment” that Trump and Congress actually need before the first 100 days ends is a government funding bill. But even that feat may be more modest than Republicans had hoped. A senior GOP aide told The Huffington Post on Friday that the possibility that Congress would have to pass a short-term funding bill next week to extend current spending, instead of a larger omnibus bill that would fund new priorities, was “not insubstantial.”

That would mean that Congress still needed more time after passing multiple continuing resolutions to extend a government funding deadline that first began in October, and after Trump implored Republicans to pass another CR in December so they could write a more conservative funding bill. And even if Republicans were able to get an omnibus spending bill done next week, it would likely include few wins for Republicans.

The administration’s hope is to find a way to use the government funding bill as a vehicle for securing money for the president’s infamous border wall. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has offered Democrats $1 in disputed Obamacare subsidy funding for health insurance companies for every $1 in wall funding. But both Democratic and GOP aides told HuffPost this week that they expected money to go only toward border security and not physical wall construction. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office scoffed at Mulvaney’s offer.

“The White House gambit to hold hostage health care for millions of Americans, in order to force American taxpayers to foot the bill for a wall that the President said would be paid for by Mexico is a complete non-starter,” said Schumer’s spokesman, Matt House. “The U.S. government is supposed to take care of its citizens and, according to the President, Mexico is supposed to pay for the wall. If the administration would drop their 11th hour demand for a wall that Democrats, and a good number of Republicans oppose, Congressional leaders could quickly reach a deal.”And so, the White House is staring down the possibility that it could hit the 100-day marker in the midst of a government shutdown — or, less severe, with few legislative accomplishments for the president to champion. Trump seemed to brush off the severity of the latter when he spoke to reporters on Friday afternoon.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s next week,” he said of health care. “Next week doesn’t matter.”

But it’s clear that the possibility of a bare legislative cupboard is bothering Trump. He has bemoaned the arbitrary nature of the 100-day marker and preemptively criticized the media for its coverage of it. And he’s continued spending copious amounts of time holding public signing ceremonies for executive orders.

Those orders, however, are largely if not wholly symbolic, often just directing federal agencies to review current practices and then eventually draft a memo to Trump recommending changes.

The “Buy American” order that Trump signed this week, for instance, directs federal agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of the government’s current efforts to favor U.S. firms in the procurement process ― in which the government spends hundreds of billions per year buying goods and services from private companies. Then, the agencies will make recommendations to the secretary of Commerce within 150 days, and the secretary will write a report for the president.

Arthur Delaney contributed reporting.

-- 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 23 hours ago.

We'd like to boldly add a new disease's definition to the political lexicon. We feel this is necessary since Donald Trump seems to have caught a rather drastic case of "100 Days Envy." Symptoms are a tendency to flail around looking for a legislative win you can brag about, and an unnatural fear of being called a loser by the entire planet's media for not even coming close to fulfilling pretty much any of the grandiose promises you made for your first 100 days in office.

The only cure for such a malady is time. Give it a few more weeks, and the media will probably forget all about how much fun it is to mock your lack of achievements. It'll all get better soon, but you're going to have to take your medicine while it happens, sorry about that.

Heh. To put all of this another way: next week's scheduled "100 Days Schadenfreudefest" has already begun, here at Friday Talking Points headquarters.

We have to wonder, given Trump's masochistic fascination with Saturday Night Live, if this all wasn't spurred on by Alec Baldwin's Trump portrayal last week, during which he asked that the list of his 100-days accomplishments be read to him. The list consisted of: "1. Confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court," and nothing else. This is but a harbinger of the coming flood of "100 days" stories written in the next week, all of which will conclude exactly the same thing: Trump has absolutely squandered any political capital he might once have had. He got a Supreme Court justice confirmed, and that is indeed the extent of his major accomplishments. Which is one of the big reasons why he's now less popular than United Airlines.

This is all the more schadenfreude-y because Trump himself promised so much for his first 100 days. Here's but one of his tweets with a list of things he'd accomplish. Note well -- only one thing on that list has actually even been attempted. It then failed spectacularly (the "repeal and replace" fiasco in the House). And remember all that talk about how we'd "get tired of winning" and beg Trump to slow down with all the winning because we couldn't take it? With one week to go, is anyone now tired of Trump's incessant winning? Didn't think so.

Panic is reportedly setting in over at the White House. The new idea is to try to jam through the "repeal and replace Obamacare" bill once again. A quick review -- this bill had an artificial deadline set originally (by Paul Ryan), was so hastily constructed that the final version didn't even get a chance to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office, and did not have the support of enough Republicans to get passed. This was due to two groups, one of which thought the bill was pretty awful because it kicked 24 million people off health insurance, and the other that (incredibly) thought that that the bill wasn't awful enough.

Now the White House is setting its own artificial deadline (pass it before Trump's 100 days are up, so he's got something to brag about), it is being so hastily constructed that the final version will not have enough time for the C.B.O. to score it, and (amazingly) has been tailored to be even more awful than the first go-round, in order to tempt Tea Partiers to vote for it. This is going to lose even more centrist Republican votes, and is likely doomed to failure even in the House.

Wow. It's like déjà vu all over again (as Yogi Berra famously said). Here's Trump, predicting victory: "The plan gets better and better and better, and it's gotten really good, and a lot of people are liking it a lot. We have a good chance of getting it soon. I'd like to say next week, but we will get it." This is, of course, fake news. The plan is actually getting worse and worse, and a lot of people are hating it a lot -- a lot of Republican people, even.

And they're going to attempt to do all this in the midst of a looming deadline of a government shutdown if a continuing resolution budget bill doesn't pass. Good luck, guys!

But because at this point it's hard not to feel sorry for Trump, we'd like to offer up a suggestion to both the White House and the Republicans running Congress. Why not pass a single-page "We hate Obamacare" resolution? Just fill it up with all the "Obamacare is bad... mmm'kay?" stuff you want (with apologies to Mr. Mackey). However, the one-page bill wouldn't actually change anything, it would just be a way for you to express your displeasure to the world.

See, Trump doesn't really care what he signs, as long as he gets to sign something. This is obvious -- compare what he said he wanted to do on healthcare before he got elected with the garbage-fire that is the Ryancare bill. Trump doesn't care, so just pass some meaningless "sense of the Congress" resolution about how much the GOP hates Obamacare. Kind of like all those dozens and dozens of bills the House passed back when they knew Obama would veto them.

This way, everybody wins. Trump gets to sign something, he gets to brag about it, Republicans get to vent, but (crucially) nobody's health insurance gets taken away. The perfect solution!

In keeping with this reach-across-the-aisle (with tongue firmly in cheek) attitude, we'd now like to say something positive about a Donald Trump photo-op. No, really! Trump went up to a Snap-On tools factory to announce a crackdown on H-1B visas, and we honestly have to admit that even we were impressed by the backdrop -- an American flag mosaic made entirely of Snap-On tools. Now that was a nice flag! Maybe it's a "guys who love tools" thing, we don't know, but we were indeed impressed with whoever had the initiative to put such a cool thing together for a presidential visit. Well done! And, incredibly enough, even on message for Trump's speech! Somebody at Snap-On deserves a raise....

Also pleasant to see on television last week was the news that Bill O'Reilly will not be appearing on television anymore. Yep, Bill-O has finally been dumped by Fox News. Only a decade or so after the world learned what a complete and utter pig he is -- on a regular basis -- towards women he wants to have sex with (no matter what they thought of the prospect). Really, this should come as no surprise to anyone, since we've had the transcripts for a long time now. But when advertisers started dropping Bill like a hot potato, Fox finally acted. "About time" doesn't even begin to cover it. Like Glenn Beck before him, Bill O'Reilly got the boot because he was starting to affect the company's bottom line and attracting massive protests right outside their front door. The one iron-clad law of working for a corporation has always been: "Everybody can be replaced -- even you." Especially when the company's trying to buy Europe's Sky News network.

Hey hey, ho ho, Bill O'Reilly's got to go.

To close on a more positive note, we would like to point out that this weekend is the second in a string of three where anti-Trump protests are happening, so we'd encourage everyone to attend the nearest march for science this weekend. Technically, this one is not so much "anti-Trump" as "anti-anti-science" -- fighting the tide of politicians refusing to believe the data in front of them, on all sorts of important issues. So it's not an "anti-Trump" rally so much as an "anti-Republican idiocy" rally, really. Hopefully all the marches all get good weather and overwhelming turnout!

A special House election happened in Georgia this week. Democrat Jon Ossoff got a whopping 48.1 percent of the vote, in a "jungle primary" that had more candidates on the ballot than the Republicans put up for president last time around. Ossoff's nearest competitor was a Republican who pulled in just under 20 percent of the vote.

That's impressive -- a 28-point margin win! Especially considering this is Newt Gingrich's old House seat. Which is why Jon Ossoff is easily our *Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week* this week.

Ossoff beat expectations handily, since most polls showed him with support in the 41-45 percent range. He did five points better than his polling average, which can only be called extremely impressive in such a red district. This also showed the Democrats' turnout was much better than anyone expected, and the Republican turnout was down from what they'd expected. This is all to the good.

However...

...Jon Ossoff also failed to gain an absolute majority of the vote (by two points), which means there will be a runoff election in June where he faces off against a single Republican opponent.

That was very disappointing to a whole lot of Democrats, which is why we've also got to hand Ossoff the *Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week* award as well.

If Ossoff had cleared the 50-percent bar and won the seat outright (no runoff necessary), then Democrats across the country would have rejoiced and proclaimed the inevitability of a "wave election" coming in 2018 which would sweep the Republicans out of power in at least one house of Congress. Whether this would become true or not, this would have energized the party's faithful by giving them a clean win in a previously staunch Republican district to crow about. By falling short, Democrats now have to pin their hopes on either the Georgia runoff or a special House election in Montana where they think they have a good shot at another upset.

Ossoff still has a chance, of course. There were other Democrats in the race, who (together) pulled in about a single percent of the vote. This means 49 percent of the people who voted in the special election voted for a Democrat. So all Ossoff might have to do to win in June would be to pick up a single additional point -- putting the race squarely in the "tossup" category.

But for the next two months, Ossoff won't have the luxury of being able to stay largely above the fray, as he did in the primary phase (when all the Republicans were mostly focused on attacking each other). Now it will be a one-on-one partisan race, meaning Ossoff's going to have to go on the offense a lot more. We'll see if he can maintain his sunny atmosphere throughout.

Bazillions of dollars from both sides have already been spent on this race, and that flood of money and advertising is only going to increase. We feel sorry for anyone attempting to watch television for the next few months in Atlanta, that's for sure.

The contest will very likely become a referendum on Donald Trump. Trump's not very popular even with Republican voters in this district, so his performance over the next two months will likely influence the race.

But the big disappointment this week was clearly that we have to go through this phase at all. If Ossoff had pulled in two percent more last Tuesday, he'd be on his way to being sworn in right now, because no runoff would have even happened. For that disappointment, Ossoff becomes the winner of both the *MIDOTW* and the *MDDOTW* -- a convergence which has only happened three previous times in this column's history.

[Jon Ossoff is currently a candidate for office, and it is our longstanding policy not to provide links to campaign sites. Therefore, to either commiserate with or congratulate Jon Ossoff, you'll have to search out his contact information on your own, sorry.]

[Editorial note: For the record, the three previous dual award winners were: Joe Biden won both awards in FTP 223 (8/17/12) for two remarks he had made that week; Eric Holder in FTP 144 (10/22/10) for settling a decades-old case brought by Native Americans against the federal government but also for weighing in (unethically, if not illegally) on the side of defeating California's first attempt (Proposition 19) at legalizing recreational marijuana; and Hillary Clinton way back in FTP 22 (3/7/08), for winning the Rhode Island, Ohio, and Texas primaries, but also for how she campaigned in these states (which saw the first airings of the infamous "3:00 A.M." ad) -- and for blowing the line: "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night" in her SNL appearance. This column was even subtitled "Hillary Sweeps The Awards!" which is why we're pointing out the relative rarity of such an occurrence -- only the fourth time in 433 Fridays!]

*Volume 433* (4/21/17)

Another mixed bag of talking points this week. Which includes a fun one towards the end, where you get to make up your own conspiracy theories! So without further ado, let's just get right to it.

* Maybe Matt Lauer can help?*This is already a running joke on late-night television.

"Perhaps Donald Trump should appoint Waldo to run the Navy. Maybe he could find where our aircraft carriers are in all of that ocean. No, wait -- I've got a better idea! Let's get Matt Lauer on the case. He could fly around the world and broadcast 'Where in the world is the U.S.S. Carl Vinson' segments! Now that'd be good television -- or at least better than the White House clown show we saw over the past few weeks on the issue."

* Like a lead balloon*More bad news for Trump from Gallup.

"In the past month, Donald Trump's poll numbers have taken quite a few major hits. On the question of whether Trump keeps his promises or not, he fell from 62 percent believing he kept his word to only 45 percent in one month's time. This drop was across the board -- among women, men, millennials, baby boomers... pretty much everybody. Among independents, the drop was from 59 percent to 43 percent. But that's not the only metric where Trump's numbers are tanking -- once again, it's pretty much across the board. 'Strong and decisive leader' went from 59 percent to 52 percent. 'Trump can bring about changes this country needs' went from 53 percent to 46 percent. He's really in the toilet on 'honest and trustworthy,' which went from 42 percent to a dismal 36 percent. And we're not even at 100 days yet, so those numbers can fall even further! Donald Trump is definitely going to set all kinds of records for 'most unpopular president ever,' that's for sure. No wonder he's so worried that he hasn't done much of anything in his first 100 days...."

* Who's gonna pay? Mexico!*So it goes, in Trump's fantasyland.

"Remember when Donald Trump used to give rallies and call out to his audience: 'Who's gonna pay for the wall?' and they'd scream back: 'Mexico!' at the top of their voices? Well, if indications are correct, Trump is about to threaten to shut down the government if he doesn't get what he's asking for -- which is forcing American taxpayers to pay for his wall to nowhere. He went from guaranteeing Mexico would pay for his folly to now throwing a tantrum if Congress doesn't force all of us to pay for it, because he never had a plan to make Mexico pay for it in the first place. That's a pretty stunning broken promise, and Trump's only going to call attention to his hypocrisy if he chooses to have this fight next week."

* Headline of the week*Nothing like showing our best... um, face... to the world.

"Donald Trump announced he's going to name none other than Scott Brown to be America's ambassador to New Zealand. This prompted one of the biggest newspapers in New Zealand to run one of the best headlines I've seen in a long time: 'Man tipped for US ambassador role in NZ a former nude model who supports waterboarding.' That about sums it up, don't you think?"

* Want to save a quick billion?*This isn't going to happen any time soon, but sooner or later someone's going to notice it on Capitol Hill.

"Congress is about to tackle the budget, tax reform, and if rumors are true they're also going to revisit healthcare reform. They should really check out a recent study which shows how they could save a cool billion dollars a year on Medicaid alone. All they'd have to do for these savings to appear would be to approve medical marijuana. That's it. Prescriptions for pain pills would go down, life would get better for patients, and the federal government could pocket a billion dollars a year in savings. Just by making this one change."

* He's Hillary's love child!*Open the floodgates! Release the conspiracies!

"While much more media attention was paid to Bill O'Reilly being forced out of a job, we found the news from Representative Jason Chaffetz even more interesting. Chaffetz chairs the House committee whose duty it is to oversee government, and he sure had a fine old time investigating Hillary Clinton within an inch of her life last year. However, since Trump has taken over, Chaffetz has been refusing to investigate anything Donald Trump does. So he's stepping down from the committee, and now it seems he might even just quit Congress before his term is up, ostensibly to run for governor of Utah. But it only seems appropriate that conspiracy theories are now popping up for why Chaffetz is abruptly stepping down. After all, he never met a Hillary conspiracy story that wasn't worth the committee's time to investigate, so turn-about is indeed fair play. There are already unfounded rumors that he's secretly gay or is being blackmailed somehow by the Russians, but surely we can do better than that! Maybe he was raised by Bigfoots! Bigfeet? Whatever... or perhaps he gets regularly probed by aliens on invisible spacecraft? No, wait -- I've got it! He's the secret love-child of Orrin Hatch and Hillary Clinton! I think that's worth investigating, don't you?"

* Shooting the....*The Washington Post had an amusing article this week on the (ahem) oratory style of the new head of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez. It would have been a lot more amusing, though, if they had run it with a more-accurate title, such as: "Tom Perez Talks Some Shit." Perez was asked about his use of this particular word, and responded very candidly. In fact, our talking point from Perez consists of the only quotes from the article which don't actually contain rough language (you'll have to read it for yourself to see what else he had to say!). Speaking of his penchant for vulgarity, Perez responded:

Talk about ridiculous. I grew up in Buffalo. We're a blunt community. We tell it like it is. I think folks want to hear the straight skinny; they don't want double-talk.

When asked about the Democratic mantra of "when they go low, we go high," though, Perez showed some real backbone -- which is really why we're highlighting his comments this week:

They consistently went low, and you know what? It's a great aspiration to want to turn the other cheek. But my first goal is to make sure we're standing up for our values. And in today's toxic politics, it was clear from Day One that Mitch McConnell's one goal was making Barack Obama a one-term president. We have to fight with a similar relentlessness.

Chris Weigant blogs at:

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com

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By Christian Raaflaub

Fitness watches, navigation apps and discount cards are well-known means of tracking and monitoring specific user data. The Swiss government now wants patient information to also be compiled electronically and centralised, but concerns remain about data protection issues.

From the middle of next year, the government would like the first Swiss patients to have the option of opening an e-patient dossier. Fans of such electronic records say patients in Switzerland would then no longer have to hand over their personal data every time they move between different hospitals and health centres. Their e-patient medical records would contain everything that doctors, nurses and healthcare staff need to know in order to make decisions about healthcare and treatments.

“But the challenge will be to build a system that is as secure as possible so that the patient can decide who can access his data, and so unauthorized persons cannot use it,” Beat Rudin, the Data Protection Officer of canton Basel City, told swissinfo.ch. The canton currently runs a pilot project.

“Hackers are no longer just IT experts trying to break into computer systems – they are hacking for commercial reasons. In this respect, hackers are being given instructions to get hold of specific data,” he warned.

Over the past twenty years, transparency has become a buzzword as new technologies push citizens to hand over more and more personal data. But this development can raise unanticipated problems. Here is a brief overview.

*Health data*

Fitness watches, bracelets and mobile phone apps promise us better health. However, at the same time they are compiling data and sharing it with third parties – that is if you don’t do anything about it in your security settings. In an interesting development last year, Switzerland’s leading health insurance firm CSS announced a discount on annual private health schemes for those willing to hand over personal fitness data. Anyone using an electronic pedometer that sends data to the insurance company receives a discount of up to CHF150 ($150) a year on their premium – if they reach more than 10,000 steps a day.

“We often believe that things will get a little cheaper if we hand over data. The question of whether it really is cheaper if we complete 10,000 steps a day, or whether it becomes much more expensive if we don’t do them, needs to be looked into,” said Rudin, who is also president of Privatim, the Association of Swiss Data Protection Commissioners.

*Location data*

If you use a navigation device or app, you usually – depending on the settings – send information about your movements automatically to the manufacturer or to a third party. The same applies to mobile phones, cameras and video cameras with a GPS function. Hackers can use this information to recreate an individual’s precise movements.

“There is a danger that people can get hold of data that can be used against you. From your profile, they could find out where you normally go every Thursday evening. For example, perhaps no one might be at home,” said Rudin.

*User data*

The so-called ‘internet of things’ – connected smart devices – also hoovers up huge amounts of personal data. According to a recent report on Swiss public television, SRF, only one in three car owners realize that new vehicles are connected to the internet and transfer driver data to manufacturers. Many drivers only notice the improved technological security measures to combat theft.

“The main question is: who does this data belong to? To my car, to me, or does it belong to the manufacturer? Can the manufacturer claim responsibility for extracting the data, or even hand it over to the police? I should be able to choose which data I make available. Today, data is often processed without my agreement,” said Rudin. Reported by Eurasia Review 18 hours ago.

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) told the mother of a service industry worker who has benefitted from the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion that her son should get a better job if he wants decent insurance when Obamacare is repealed.

The woman, a constituent of Davidson’s in former House Speaker John Boehner’s old district, explained to Davidson at a town hall in Enon, Ohio on Tuesday night that her grown son lacked health insurance for four years, because his job in the service industry did not provide it. He received coverage through Medicaid when Obamacare expanded the program by offering to pick up almost all of the costs for states that lowered their eligibility thresholds.

She is now worried about President Donald Trump’s plan to rollback the landmark law’s Medicaid expansion, fearing it will leave her son with the bare-bones catastrophic health insurance, which, she said, is “basically no insurance at all.”

“Can you explain why my son and millions of others in his situation are not deserving of affordable, decent health care that has essential benefits so that he can stay healthy and continue working?” she asked.

Her son’s best route to getting decent insurance without Medicaid is to find work in an industry where employers provide it, according to Davidson. 

“OK, I don’t know anything about your son, but as you described him, his skills are focused in an industry that doesn’t have the kind of options that you want him to have for health care. So, I don’t believe that these taxpayers here are entitled to give that to him. I believe he’s got the opportunity to go earn those health benefits,” he responded, eliciting boos from the crowd.
*You can watch their full exchange at the 37-minute mark in the video above.*

The woman’s reference to “essential benefits” alludes to the fact that House Republican leaders at one point tried to win over hardline conservatives by removing federal regulations requiring insurance plans to cover 10 basic benefits, including trips to the emergency room, as well as maternity and newborn care. In lieu of these benefits, low-premium, high-deductible catastrophic plans could cover even fewer procedures than they do now.

But Davidson implied that finding a better plan was as simple as shopping for a higher-quality consumer product like a cellphone. 

“If he doesn’t want a catastrophic care plan, don’t buy a catastrophic care plan. If you don’t want a flip-phone, don’t buy a flip-phone,” Davidson said, eliciting loud groans from the audience.

“I’m sorry, health care is much different than a cell phone and I’m tired of people using cell phone analogies with health care,” the woman responded, before walking away from the microphone.Davidson’s metaphor resembled remarks by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who suggested in March that people should not buy iPhones if they wanted the money to pay for health insurance.  

But as Davidson’s constituent noted at the town hall ― and many observers pointed out when Chaffetz said it ― buying health insurance is completely different than shopping for everyday consumer products.

Consumers do not have the same power to command lower prices for health care, since it is not a product they can choose to not have. People also often lack the information and resources to choose a health care provider based on its cost value.

Those are just a couple reasons why health insurance is wildly more expensive than paying for a phone bill ― and obtaining coverage would remain perilously out of reach for millions of Americans without help from the government.

That’s a big deal, because unlike phones, Americans’ lives would be at risk if they did not have health care.

Although President Trump and House Republicans have already failed to negotiate an Obamacare replacement bill at least twice, the White House is dead-set on trying again as part of negotiations to continue funding the government. The latest idea floated by budget director Mick Mulvaney would involve trading Democrats a dollar in Obamacare funding for every dollar they approve for construction of the wall.

[H/T ShareBlue]

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Most Australians don't know what the lifetime health cover loading is or where it goes, despite the fact it could one day nearly double their health insurance premiums. Reported by Brisbane Times 6 hours ago.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump warned Democrats on Sunday that Obamacare was in trouble and would die without government funding, apparently referring to the possibility of ending federal subsidies to help lower-income people buy health insurance. Reported by Reuters 7 hours ago.

President Donald Trump warned Democrats on Sunday that Obamacare was in trouble and would die without government funding, apparently referring to the possibility of ending federal subsidies to help lower-income people buy health insurance."Obamacare is in serious trouble.... Reported by Newsmax 5 hours ago.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday declined to say whether he will share extremely valuable information about his huge network of supporters ― including their email addresses and other personal information ― with the Democratic Party, as Hillary Clinton did earlier this month.

“Well, right now, John,” the progressive champion told CBS News’ John Dickerson, “our focus is building up a strong progressive movement in this country. And I think the people who donated want us to focus on electing the most progressive people that we possibly can and bringing our people together to oppose this disastrous Trump agenda, which calls for tax breaks to billionaires while at the same time he wants to throw 24 million Americans off of health insurance, defund Planned Parenthood, and raise premiums for older seniors.”

“So our job right now is to build the progressive movement,” he added. “And we are making some pretty good success. All over the country, we’re seeing progressives running for office and beginning to win.”

“Some Democrats are going to hear that and think, ‘Well, he’s not totally committed to the whole Democratic Party idea here,’” Dickerson responded.

“Well, there’s very few people who have been running around the country quite as much as I have been, trying to bring people into the party,” Sanders countered, arguing Democrats needed to compete in red states in order to grow the party.

Sanders’ team has been reluctant to give the list to the Democratic National Committee out of fear that it will be misused in their hands, HuffPost’s Daniel Marans reported in February. They also argue that the individuals on the list did not sign up as Democrats but as supporters of Sanders. The Vermont senator says he identifies as a Democratic Socialist. 

The fate of Sanders’ list is yet another bone of contention between Democrats and the party’s grassroots base. A “Unity Tour” embarked upon last week by Sanders and DNC Chair Tom Perez across the country did little to mend divisions between progressives and moderates. In fact, it exposed them further.

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