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Jeff Voudrie, a Financial Planner In Tennessee Raises Alarm About The Coming Insurance Company Bailout

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The Affordable Care Act includes a provision to bailout the health insurance companies if things don’t work out as expected. “Unless the program is successful in getting young, healthy Millenial’s to sign up we may be facing another government bailout on the scale of that used to bail out the banks in 2008,” says investments management specialist Jeff Voudrie.

Johnson City, TN (PRWEB) January 16, 2014

Whether or not someone agrees with the basic premise of Obamacare, they should know that the entire scheme to insure all Americans is based on a very tricky formula. If insurance companies are going to make any money by participating in Obamacare, they need about four in ten of the people who sign up for coverage to be young and relatively healthy, according to a recent article from Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

If this equation breaks down, as it likely will, many companies could go bankrupt—unless the U.S. government bails them out. Still smarting over the bailout of several mammoth banks in 2008, taxpayers should howl in protest over the next possible use of tax money for several reasons, says investments management specialist Jeff Voudrie, president of Common Sense Advisors.

For starters, it simply increases the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the average American. “The government bailed out the banks from 2008 on and have made the wealthy even wealthier, a boon to the top shareholders that write large campaign checks,” Voudrie noted.

Secondly, it ensures that taxes will not be decreasing anytime soon, given the huge amount of money needed to keep health insurance companies afloat. “Now, Obamacare is going to do the same to the insurance industry. Once again we are going to see big industry bailed out and paid for by the broken backs of the middle-class--the 99%,” Voudrie added. "And overwhelming majority of today's (and tomorrow's) retirees are in the 99%."

Once the average American realizes that this coming bailout is not only already written into law but quite likely to proceed, Voudrie believes that the public will respond forcefully. He cited one tangible way that taxpayers could protest this possibly unlimited financial help to insurance companies, urging all of his readers and clients to sign a petition protesting this hidden provision, which was artfully tucked into the law that approved Obamacare. The hard numbers in the law state that if health insurance companies’ costs became higher than anticipated (an almost sure bet, at present), then the government would cover up to 80% of their losses.

Make your voice heard before it’s too late. The last blow that most people nearing retirement need is another tax increase to pay for a federal program with loads of built-in problems, Voudrie concluded.

A financial services industry veteran with more than 20 years’ experience, Jeff Voudrie is a new breed of private money manager. Using sophisticated electronic monitoring and software, combined with his 20 years’ experience as a money manager, Jeff works with you to create a personal investments management portfolio that reflects your lifestyle goals and risk tolerance. He specializes in stable growth and prudent profits while applying a robust, patented risk management processes. When you work with Jeff, you have the security of knowing that your life savings is getting the attention it deserves.

Jeff Voudrie, a financial planner in Johnson City, TN has been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, CBS MarketWatch, The London Financial Times and the Christian Science Monitor. He is a former syndicated newspaper columnist and the author of two ground-breaking books: How Successful Investors Tripled the Return of the S&P 500 and Why Variable Annuities Don’t Work the Way You Think They Work. He accepts a limited number of new clients in his personal investments management practice. He and his wife Julie live with their seven children in Johnson City, TN. He is heavily involved in his local church and has done missionary work in Hungary and Cambodia.

Contact Information:
Common Sense Advisors
105 Keeview Court
Johnson City, TN 37615
877-827-1463
Jeff(at)CommonSenseAdvisors(dot)com Reported by PRWeb 4 hours ago.

Softheon to Host Webinar to Provide An Insightful Look Into What's Ahead In the Era of Health Insurance Marketplaces

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STONY BROOK, N.Y., Jan. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Softheon, Inc., a leader of health insurance marketplace integration and business operation, announced today that it will be hosting a live webinar featuring Gartner titled "A Look into What's Ahead In the Era of Health Insurance... Reported by PR Newswire 3 hours ago.

State Health Coverage Sign-Ups Paint A Complex Obamacare Picture

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Health insurance markets vary across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each one is implementing the health law with varying degrees of failure, success, enthusiasm and hostility. The differences in sign-ups tell the tale. Reported by NPR 3 hours ago.

We Need A New Supply Side Economics — Here Are 8 Things We Can Do

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We Need A New Supply Side Economics — Here Are 8 Things We Can Do For the last five years, the top goal of economic policy has been stimulating demand. This has been the right goal, and because conservatives don't believe the government can do anything productive in this area, the left has held most of the right policy answers.

Demand stimulation remains the right goal today, but it's not going to be the right goal forever. As the economy returns to "normal," the special rules of the last five years won't apply: the labor market won't be so slack that it doesn't matter if you pay people not to work; the federal government won't be able to borrow and spend without crowding out private activity.

We're going to need a new supply side economics that encourages people to work, invest and innovate.

That doesn't mean conservatives' agenda of tax cuts and federal deregulation, which aims at problems that were addressed in the 1970s or never existed at all. But it also doesn't mean an agenda of small-bore and meddlesome initiatives designed to promote specific industries, particularly manufacturing, as often described by President Barack Obama.

Instead, it should mean an agenda like the following. These are policies that would would encourage more investment and job creation while supporting rises in standards of living for people with low and moderate incomes. In most cases, these policies don't have to wait: They could be implemented today, alongside demand-side policies that are still needed for now, such as emergency extended unemployment insurance.

*1. Invest in smart infrastructure, ideally without building much.* Republicans show little interest in infrastructure spending. Democrats favor it, but have fallen into a bad habit of talking about it as a demand-side measure that creates construction jobs.

A good infrastructure project should mainly produce benefits on the supply side by making it easier for people to get to jobs, go to school, and start companies. And while a demand-side approach to infrastructure policy favors spending lots of money, a supply-side infrastructure agenda should favor high-efficiency improvements, ideally ones that increase the usefulness of existing facilities with minimal construction.

Stephen Smith's ideas about better using existing facilities at New York Penn Station are one example of an infrastructure improvement that would require little construction. Congestion pricing for roads, especially in Manhattan, is a second. Smarter airport facilities allocation (through advanced air traffic control technology and market pricing of takeoff slots) is a third.

Sometimes, we really will need big construction projects as part of the infrastructure agenda. To that end, we should figure out what allows continental European countries to build rail infrastructure so much more cheaply than we do — and emulate their practices so we can build more of it. And we should focus on providing transit connections between low-income neighborhoods and job centers, because transit access is a key driver of income mobility.

*2. Reform means-tested entitlements without soaking the poor.* Today, the key driver of high unemployment and low labor force participation is employers' lack of interest in hiring. That was even more true in 2009. When there are three applicants for every job opening (like now) or six (like at the depth of the recession), it doesn't matter very much for aggregate employment if a few people are content to collect unemployment checks until their benefits run out. Means-tested entitlement policy is not a very important driver of unemployment today.

That's going to change. As the labor market continues to tighten, it will become a larger problem that means-tested entitlement programs penalize poor and near-poor people for earning more income. In some cases, the working poor face effective marginal tax rates near 100% because of benefits that phase out as they earn more wages. This is a disincentive to work, and in a normal economy it raises unemployment and depresses market incomes.

The talking point that "people want a job, not a handout" is not just wrong, it's insulting. We wouldn't impose a tax rate near 100% on people with moderate or high incomes and expect them to work anyway. Most low-wage jobs are not intangibly rewarding; people do them because they get paid. Except, if your marginal tax rate is near 100%, you don't really get paid at the margin. Why would a poor person do such a job (or work more hours at it) when doing so adds little to his or her income?

We haven't been able to have a productive conversation about this poverty trap issue because conservatives mostly raise it as a pretext for cutting benefits to the poor, even at a time when jobs are scarce and economic distress is high. But it is a problem for which there are constructive policy solutions that do not involve soaking the poor. You just have to be willing to spend money to make them work.

One such solution is already being implemented: Under Obamacare, unemployed people who take low-wage jobs will no longer be faced with the prospect of losing health insurance. This is a pro-work reform. In this spirit, we should adjust means-tested programs holistically so their benefits phase out as gradually as is feasible and nobody feels like they worked more and got little in return. This may involve raising benefit spending overall.

Some of Michael Strain's ideas about reforming unemployment insurance (such as wage subsidies for the long-term unemployed and bonuses for unemployed people who go back to work) would encourage work and raise family incomes. We should also reform our disability insurance system to encourage firms to accommodate workers with disabilities and encourage the disabled to remain in or re-enter the workforce if they can; David Autor and Mark Duggan have a proposal along these lines.

*3. Move the deregulatory agenda down to the state and local level.* In the 1970s, the big deregulation fights were properly at the federal level. Then the government deregulated airlines and trucking. Though technological change, regulation has become less important in broadcasting and telecommunications. Bank deregulation has been a mixed bag over this period; people talk about it as a cautionary tale, but some of the deregulations (such as ending the limit on savings account interest and allowing interstate banking) have served consumers very well.

The big federal regulatory fights that remain are in mostly areas where the federal government properly uses a heavy hand: banking and securities, and environmental protection.

The next round of big deregulation fights should be at the state and local level. Governments impose pro-incumbent regulations on a variety of industries from barbering to interior design to medicine to restaurants. These rules raise incomes for existing practitioners, but they make it difficult for new practitioners to enter the fields, and they raise consumer prices.

State and local governments should stop doing this.

In the interest of promoting interstate commerce, the federal government should pre-empt many of these regulations. For example, states should be forced to allow a broad scope of practice for nurse practitioners so they can serve as independent primary care providers. This would reduce doctors' incomes, but it would reduce the cost of health care, raise patients' real incomes and help to control government expenditure.

*4. Deregulate America's most overregulated industry: real estate.* In some ways this is a subset of (3), but it's important enough to get its own bullet. Local governments destroy economic value by preventing the construction of buildings in the places where they are most demanded: Already-dense urban neighborhoods. There is enormous economic value to be unlocked simply by letting people live near where they work and work near where other people work.

Tight real estate regulation also leads to urban inequality and gentrification: New York and San Francisco are highly desired places, and when you use public policy to limit how many housing units can exist there, people of the greatest means will bid up their price. The best thing Bill de Blasio can do to alleviate the problem of "two New Yorks" and make this city less economically polarized is to allow the construction of many more apartments in Manhattan.

Deregulating the land will have positive effects on both the supply side and the demand side. One problem with the government trying to stimulate the economy through construction is it often builds things that aren't very useful. Upzoning of urban land (and of land that should be urban, in places like Silicon Valley) can unlock a construction boom without requiring the government to figure out exactly what to build.

*5. Reform intellectual property — by weakening it.* IP laws are arbitrary: By deciding what inventions can be made exclusive and for how long, the government decides what share of the benefits of innovation will accrue to inventors and what share will accrue to users. In some cases, IP laws divert creative energy from developing new ideas into figuring out how to exploit existing patents.

In the last decade, we've enjoyed a natural experiment where the IP protections for news and entertainment content have been weakened not by policy but by technological change. The result has been a rise in standards of living. Yes, content producers are distressed, the affected industries are undergoing rapid change, and some people are making less money. But content itself is better and cheaper than ever. That's meant a rise in real incomes for people who consume content, which is great.

Entertainment firms have generally sought stronger IP protections in response to these technological changes. Policymakers should instead see that the sky didn't fall and look for ways to strategically weaken IP protection in other areas of the economy.

Patents and copyrights generate rents for owners of capital. For decades, the labor share of GDP has been declining and capital's share has been rising. Weaker IP is one way the government can lower the capital share of GDP and raise the labor share without redistributive fiscal policy.

*6. Improve education, somehow.* This bullet is really a placeholder. Education is a sector with surprisingly low innovation and we could probably do it better. But I don't really know what to do about it.

American expenditure on education is already extremely high. We spend more per pupil on K-12 education than any OECD country save Norway, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and by far we spend more than anyone else on higher education. This makes me wary of throwing more money at the problem. Efforts to improve educational outcomes through competition and choice have produced disappointingly mixed results. The for-profit sector, which might theoretically be an engine for innovation, has mostly produced a lot of ripoffs.

I'm optimistic about the Common Core curriculum standards. Some state university systems are starting to do good things with providing cost-effective degrees that are better tailored to the job market. But overall, it seems like there should be bigger ways to improve educational outcomes, and therefore long-run income growth.

*7. Admit more high-skill immigrants.* There are lots of well-educated people elsewhere in the world who would like to come here and work. Immigration is a boon to the economy overall, but high-skill immigration is especially valuable and has more clearly positive distributional effects. It could negatively impact wages in some high-skill fields, like medicine and engineering, but by lowering consumer prices and promoting economic growth it would raise real wages for people with low and moderate incomes.

*8. Make taxes more progressive.* This isn't a supply-side reform; in fact, it is likely to discourage investment and economic growth at the margin. But it's the most effective way to offset rising pre-tax income inequality, and a revenue source will be needed to pay for some of the above reform ideas, especially (2) and (3). The necessity of raising taxes at the top over time, and the negative economic effects that will have, make it all the more important to pursue a broad agenda of promoting investment and growth through non-tax policies.

Join the conversation about this story »

 
 
 
  Reported by Business Insider 3 hours ago.

Why Our Emergency Care System Is Failing

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The state of emergency medical care in the United States is pretty terrible, and it has been getting worse.

A report released by the American College of Emergency Physicians gave the United States an overall grade of D+. That's down from a C- in 2009. The researchers behind the report determine the grade by looking at five categories:

1. Ease of access to emergency care
2. The quality and safety of the emergency room
3. Medical liability and insurance availability
4. Overall public health
5. Disaster preparedness

Here's how the United States ranked in each of the categories in 2009 compared to 2014:

The report also gives each state a grade. No state earned an A, and the highest grade for 2014 is B-. Wyoming is a disaster with the only failing grade in the country.

Naming names, here's the top ten worst and best states.

So why is the country's grade so abysmal? Here are some of the reasons from the report.

*1. Widespread practice of "defensive medicine."* Defensive medicine happens when doctors are extra cautious because of the potential liability and backlash of uninsured or underinsured patients — frequenters of emergency rooms. Emergency room doctors are also more likely to be sued for malpractice because of their fast-paced environment and the seriousness of the medical problems that patients come in with — treatment for more serious health problems is more likely to go wrong.

*2. Not enough prescription drug monitoring.* In 2011 there were 1.5 million emergency room visits due to prescription drug misuse. The report argues that emergency care providers need better access to patients' prescription drug histories, and prescription drugs (especially those that are typically misused) should be better regulated.

*3. There aren't enough doctors trained to be emergency physicians.* Based on the 2010 numbers, only about 4% of all practicing physicians are emergency physicians. This small number of physicians handles 28% of all acute care cases, 11% of all outpatient care cases, and two-thirds of uninsured patients.

*4. There's not enough room for everyone.* The CDC reported that the number of emergency departments has declined 11% from 1995 to 2010, while the number of people using emergency departments has been growing. Lack of funding and increasing demand means fewer doctors for more patients and longer waits.

*Obamacare may not help*

The report argues that the problem only going to get worse if no real changes are made. Emergency rooms are now giving the kind of care that used to be provided in physicians' offices, and the researchers think the Affordable Care Act will only worsen the trend.

"As more Americans become insured under the Affordable Care Act, many for the first time, emergency departments are likely to play a more pivotal role and to become more stressed," they state in the report. A recent study indicated that people with health insurance visit the ER more often, not less.

The researchers also suggest that the aging Baby Boom generation will end up in the ER more and more as they get sicker and older.

The researchers say that emergency medical care in the United States needs reformed liability laws, the development of more specialized emergency care services, more federal and state funding, and more emergency medical care education programs.

However, Forbes reported that the Affordable Care Act could expand insurance coverage to about half of the 60 million uninsured Americans. This increased coverage could take some of the financial burden off emergency care facilities, which are often uncompensated when uninsured patients are treated there. More insured patients would mean more money for emergency departments, which could be used to improve the state of emergency care.

*SEE ALSO: The 7 Strangest Reasons People End Up In The ER Over The Holidays *

Join the conversation about this story »

 
 
 
  Reported by Business Insider 3 hours ago.

Zane Benefits Publishes New Information on the Pros and Cons of Defined Contribution

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The Number One Advantage for Small Businesses is Controllable Costs

Park City, Utah (PRWEB) January 16, 2014

Today, Zane Benefits, the #1 Online Health Benefits Solution, published new information on the Pros and Cons of Defined Contribution.

According to Zane Benefits’ website, small business all over the US are evaluating how to offer employees health insurance coverage, and considering alternative solutions such as "pure" defined contribution. With "pure" defined contribution healthcare, the employer offers employees a healthcare allowance to use on their choice of individual health insurance, instead of offering group health insurance.

Zane Benefits outlines some of the pros and cons for businesses taking this approach to healthcare.

Pros for Small Businesses: The four main pros of defined contribution for small businesses are: controllable costs, more time, tax savings, and employee recruiting and retention.

Pros for Employees: The three main pros of defined contribution healthcare for employees are: cost savings, choice of plans, and plan portability.

Cons for Small Businesses: The two main perceived cons for small businesses are a change in how benefits are administered and limited tax benefits for some owners.

Cons for Employees: The two main perceived cons for small businesses are that employees pay directly for their policy and are then reimbursed and that change of any kind is hard.

Click here to read the full article.

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About Zane Benefits
Zane Benefits, the #1 Online Health Benefits Solution, was founded in 2006 to revolutionize the way employers provide employee health benefits in America. We empower employees to take control over their own healthcare, while helping employers recruit and retain the best talent. Our online solutions allow small and medium-sized businesses to successfully transition to a health benefits program that creates happier employees, reduces costs and frees up more time to serve their customers. For more information about ZaneHealth, visit http://www.zanebenefits.com. Reported by PRWeb 2 hours ago.

Startup grabs nearly 50% of SHOP exchange market share

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New Mexico Health Connections, the state’s startup health plan, has captured nearly 50 percent of the market on the state’s small business health insurance exchange. As of Jan. 15, 368 people had purchased insurance through New Mexico’s SHOP (Small Business Health Options Program) exchange for small businesses. Of those, 170, or 46.1 percent, had bought Health Connections plans, according to statistics from the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico… Reported by bizjournals 2 hours ago.

State Health Insurance Marketplaces Boost Outreach Efforts

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State Health Insurance Marketplaces Boost Outreach Efforts Reported by ajc.com 1 hour ago.

Photos: RWJ Hamilton provides in-person health insurance help

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RWJ hospital in Hamilton provided in-person assistance to help people understand their health insurance options enroll in coverage under the Affordable Care Act Tuesday. Reported by NJ.com 12 hours ago.

Omnibus Bill Passage Brings Rare Truce In Fiscal Wars

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WASHINGTON (AP) — After last fall's tumultuous, bitterly partisan debt ceiling and government shutdown battles, a sense of fiscal fatigue seems to be setting in among many Washington policymakers as President Barack Obama prepares for his fifth State of the Union address later this month.

A declining U.S. budget deficit, still-accommodative Federal Reserve and a small-bore budget deal negotiated last month — given final approval Thursday in Congress — are helping to temper partisan rhetoric in the short term as attention in Washington shifts to the approaching midterm elections. The recovery from the deep recession of 2007-2009 has been one of the slowest in history and still has a ways to go, especially in terms of regaining lost jobs. That was driven home by a Labor Department report last Friday that U.S. employers added just 74,000 jobs last month, far fewer than had been forecast and the smallest monthly gain in three years.

The overall jobless rate dropped to 6.7 percent from 7 percent in November, the lowest level since October 2008. Much of the decline came from Americans who stopped looking for jobs and are no longer being counted by the government as unemployed. Meanwhile, a growing number of baby boomers are retiring.

Still, economists are generally predicting a pickup in economic growth in 2014 amid a continued favorable climate of low inflation, falling oil prices, a housing recovery and the Fed sticking to its plan to only slowly pare back the hundreds of billions of dollars in financial stimulus it has pumped into the economy over the past four years.

Meanwhile, recent polls show rising public distaste for brinkmanship and dysfunction on both sides of the political divide in Washington. In a recent poll, conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 70 percent said they lacked confidence in the government's ability "to make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014."

Last October, GOP conservatives forced a 16-day government shutdown with their failed attempt to defund Obama's health insurance overhaul. But any public relations advantage Democrats may have reaped from that episode may have been eroded or lost in the problem-plagued rollout of the health care program.

Leaders of both parties are expressing frustration over the recent bouts of gridlock that come from divided control of government, with Democrats now controlling both the executive branch and the Senate and Republicans ruling the House. Neither party wants to bear the blame for the perceived dysfunction — while both sides are quick to blame the other for it.

And both sides are trying to better position themselves as they calculate strategy with a close eye on potential midterm wins and losses.

The $1.1 trillion spending compromise grew out of an agreement negotiated last month by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. — leaders respectively of the House and Senate Budget committees. It funds the government through Sept. 30, eases across-the-board government mandatory spending cuts and eliminates, for now, the likelihood of an election-year government shutdown.

The measure passed the House 359-67 on Wednesday and the Senate 72-26 on Thursday. Obama was expected to sign it.

It was a modest agreement, not the grand bargain some had hoped for. But for once, at least, the two sides were roughly on the same page and debate, for once, was mostly muted.

"It's bipartisan, bicameral. We did it because we listened to each other and functioned with maximum respect," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "No one wants to shut the government down on either side," Sen. Richard Shelby of Arizona, the committee's top Republican, told colleagues.

The volume of the rhetoric may be lowered a bit, for now, but it's not clear how long the pause will last.

"The Republicans certainly didn't want to put themselves in the position they did with respect to the government shutdown," said Thomas E. Mann a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution. "And the (Ryan-Murray) agreement was important in terms of setting budget ceilings for two years and giving a fighting shot at getting appropriations bills for next year done. But I don't think that stretches or moves on to other things."

"The differences are still stark," he said.

The two parties, for instance, are squabbling now over Obama's request to Congress to temporarily restore extended unemployment benefits for about 1.4 million longer-term unemployed workers who lost them when the program expired on Dec. 28. And another battle to raise the nation's borrowing authority — when the current debt limit debt is reached, probably sometime in March — also looms.

Rich Galen, a GOP consultant and former top aide to Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, suggests the now-raging controversy over the rocky health-insurance rollout is transitory and likely to fade with time.  "Remember, in 2000 it took us 36 days to find out who the president was," he said, referring to the razor close victory of Republican George W. Bush over Democratic Vice President Al Gore.

"Certainly during the shutdown Republicans got very poor publicity and it shows in the polls," said James Thurber, a former congressional legislative assistant who has advised Obama on ethics and lobbying rules.

But during the health care rollout "Democrats lost momentum," said Thurber, currently director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University.

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Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum

  Reported by Huffington Post 11 hours ago.

IPA Family, LLC Seeks to Fill Area and Regional Leadership Roles in Orlando, Florida

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Health insurance career opportunities with IPA are now available in select markets, and qualified candidates have the ability to participate in wealth accumulation plan.

Tampa, FL (PRWEB) January 17, 2014

Due to record-breaking growth, IPA Family, LLC (IPA), an American Independence Corp. company and member of The IHC Group, is pleased to announce that additional business opportunities are now available nationwide. To accommodate this surge, IPA hopes to fill area and regional leadership positions in select markets as soon as possible.

IPA President and Chief Operating Officer David Keeler attributes the company’s strong performance to its integrity-driven sales force and leadership team. “For us it is about serving others while earning significant wealth for today, tomorrow, and well into retirement,” Mr. Keeler said. “At IPA you have a true opportunity to be in business for yourself but not by yourself.”

Qualified candidates will possess the following skill-set: a minimum three years of industry experience and current possession of a life, accident, and health insurance license; decision-making and problem-solving abilities; active listening skills; critical thinking skills; experience influencing and motivating sales teams; sales experience; strong time-management skills; and a highly ethical predisposition. Selected candidates will be provided with a complete and comprehensive leadership package that promotes their personal and professional success.

This leadership package includes, but is not limited to, the following:
➢ Compensation programs with overwrites
➢ Residual income and monthly bonuses
➢ Lifetime vesting schedules
➢ Wealth accumulation plan
➢ Free sales leads and lead-management systems
➢ Ongoing training and business education using state-of-the art technologies
➢ Many other performance-based programs and incentives

“We believe integrity is the first step to true greatness. At IPA, honesty and integrity come above everything else. They are the core values of our company, and are the most important assets we have,” said Roxanne Huggins, who currently serves on IPA’s board of directors and leads its Heartland Center of Excellence as Area Performance Leader.

To be considered for one of the select area or regional leadership positions and participate in a professional and confidential interview process, please direct inquiries with resume to IPA Family, LLC through their website contact page.

Due to a culture of continuous growth and market expansions, IPA is currently accepting inquiries for existing and new markets. For more information about IPA Family and the companies it represents, visit http://www.ipafamily.com or call 800-772-8667 and indicate you saw our press release.

About IPA Family, LLC (IPA)
IPA Family, LLC is a national marketing organization that distributes major medical insurance plans and other health insurance plans and consumer benefit association membership programs across the nation. IPA’s trained professional sales associates, referred to as the “IPA Family,” provides information and a product portfolio that can meet the needs of most small business owners and self-employed individuals and families. Headquartered in Tampa, Fl., IPA is accredited and has an excellent reputation with the Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) and is a member company of The IHC Group.

About American Independence Corp.
AMIC, through Independence American Insurance Company and its other subsidiaries, offers pet insurance, non-subscriber occupational accident, international coverages, and short-term medical. AMIC provides to the individual and self-employed markets health insurance and related products, which are distributed through its subsidiaries IPA Family, LLC, healthinsurance.org, LLC, IPA Direct, Inc. and IHC Specialty Benefits, Inc. AMIC markets medical stop-loss through its marketing and administrative company IHC Risk Solutions, LLC.

About The IHC Group
The IHC Group is an organization of insurance carriers and marketing and administrative affiliates that has been providing life, health, disability, medical stop-loss and specialty insurance solutions to groups and individuals for over 30 years. Members of The IHC Group include Independence Holding Company (NYSE:IHC), American Independence Corp. (NASDAQ: AMIC), Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York, Madison National Life Insurance Company, Inc. and Independence American Insurance Company. Each insurance carrier in The IHC Group has a financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) from A.M. Best Company, Inc., a widely recognized rating agency that rates insurance companies on their relative financial strength and ability to meet policyholder obligations. (An A++ rating from A.M. Best is its highest rating.) Collectively, the companies in The IHC Group provide insurance coverage to more than one million individuals and groups. For more information about The IHC Group, visit http://www.ihcgroup.com.

We encourage you to visit us on the following social media sites:
Facebook: Simply search IPA Family
YouTube: TheIPAFamily
Twitter: Subscribe to us @IPA_Family Reported by PRWeb 11 hours ago.

Annual Industry Survey Discloses New Healthcare Business Imperatives for 2014

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A new independent HealthLeaders Media survey, supported by Conifer Health Solutions, explores the state of the healthcare industry and how healthcare leaders are navigating the shift from volume- to value-based care. Industry Survey 2014: Forging Healthcare’s New Financial Foundation outlines the strategies executives are employing to support systemwide collaboration and adapt to the new clinical and financial challenges imposed by healthcare reform.

Danvers, MA (PRWEB) January 17, 2014

Is the healthcare industry rising or sinking? While healthcare leaders are more optimistic about the industry than they were two years ago, fewer than half (47%) say their organizations’ financial forecast is positive for 2014.

A new independent HealthLeaders Media survey, supported by Conifer Health Solutions, explores the state of the healthcare industry and how healthcare leaders are navigating the shift from volume- to value-based care. Industry Survey 2014: Forging Healthcare’s New Financial Foundation outlines the strategies executives are employing to support system wide collaboration and adapt to the new clinical and financial challenges imposed by healthcare reform. The research is based on data drawn from the 7,000-member HealthLeaders Media Council, plus independent expert analysis. It is available for free download now at healthleadersmedia.com/intelligence.

Among the findings of this exclusive survey: The next twelve months are positioned to be the most transformative in the history of the healthcare industry. Organizations must restructure their care delivery models to prepare for increased risk-sharing, even while coping with decreased reimbursements. The vast majority (91%) of healthcare leaders identify declining reimbursements as an immediate threat to revenue, and they will attempt to buffer the impact through new cost containment efforts.

Other areas of concern are increasing competition for market share, fragmentation along the care continuum, and the uncertain availability of analytics resources needed to manage population health imperatives. Despite the imperative to reduce costs, 54% of healthcare organizations plan to invest in analytics technology in 2014 for this purpose.

“It’s going to be hard for you to manage populations if you don’t have … the analytics required and if you don’t have access to bioinformatics and other data that allows you to look at [healthcare] outcomes in a robust way with a very robust database,” says Michael T. Burke, senior vice president, vice dean and corporate CFO of the New York University Langone Medical Center, and an advisor to the HealthLeaders Industry Survey.

The survey reveals new sentiments about how earlier technology investments are panning out, turning previous conceptions of “best practices” on their head. “A lot of people have put in an electronic medical record only to find they have to replace it with something that really works,” Burke says. Nearly one-third (27%) of respondents report that their investment in EHR was largely a waste of money.

Other compelling statistics from the survey include:·     Consensus on healthcare reform success factors is strong: 89% rank clinical care continuum relationships as an area of top opportunity, followed by health information exchange (76%), population health management (75%), and primary care redesign (74%).
·     Nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents believe the industry can make the shift from volume-based reimbursements to value-based care—but 28% do not.
·     Analysts insist that data analytics is key to reducing costs and implementing population health management—but 25% of respondents say their analytics team is weak or very weak.
·     More respondents today feel the industry is on the right track than just two years ago (31% vs. 25%), yet fewer than half (47%) say their financial forecast is positive or strongly positive.

HealthLeaders Media also developed a companion breakout report on CEO survey data, Industry Survey 2014 CEO Report: The Winners and Losers of Healthcare Reform. With responses from more than 100 CEOs, this report digs into perspectives of top leadership on how healthcare reform is shaking out amid new concerns around readmissions and clinical staff performance.

“Readmissions is not as much of a care issue as the government would like to think it is,” says Charles Hart, MD, MS, president and CEO of Regional Health in Rapid City, S.D., who served as advisor for the CEO Report. “It’s social. Social issues are the major reason for readmissions.”

Top findings from the CEO Report include:

·     CEOs plan to fuel top-line growth over the next five years by expanding outpatient services (66% of respondents) and strategic marketing campaigns to highlight existing services (65%).
·     Many more CEOs now see health insurance exchanges as an opportunity compared to 2013 (56% vs. 45%).
·     Only 52% of CEOs rated their physician staff performance as strong or very strong—a 14-point drop from 2013.

“This year’s survey will give you a sense of the innovation our industry is contemplating to achieve the full promise of an outcomes-based care delivery system while managing costs and meeting the increased demand for healthcare services from newly empowered patients,” says Stephen Mooney, President & CEO of report sponsor Conifer Health Solutions. The report is available for free download at http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/intelligence/detail.cfm?content_id=299650&year=2014.

In addition to the complimentary reports, two extended versions are available for purchase, containing in-depth analysis and additional features: the Premium version, which may be purchased at http://www.hcmarketplace.com/industry-survey-2014-premium, lets readers segment data according to their needs and provides recommendations and discussion questions for healthcare leadership teams; and the Buying Power version, which is available for purchase at http://www.hcmarketplace.com/industry-survey-2014-premium-buying-power, is designed for healthcare industry suppliers and includes detailed drill-down data on purchasing trends and projections to aid sales strategies.

HealthLeaders Media

HealthLeaders Media, is a leading multi-platform media company dedicated to meeting the business information needs of healthcare executives and professionals. As an integrated media company, HealthLeaders Media includes HealthLeaders magazine, HealthLeadersMedia.com, the HealthLeaders Media Intelligence Unit, HealthLeaders Media Live events, HealthLeaders Media Breakthroughs reports, and California HealthFax. All these platforms may be found online at http://www.healthleadersmedia.com. Reported by PRWeb 10 hours ago.

The Penultimate Watergate Baby

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The 1974 midterm elections, held in the wake of Watergate, were a Democratic landslide. The party increased its strength in the House of Representatives by more than 50 new members, many from suburban districts that had previously elected Republicans.

The Watergate Babies, as the new members were called, were a different breed of Democrat than the veterans who represented more urban districts. They were not only more liberal on cultural issues and more committed to environmental causes than many more senior Democrats, but many of them were also less committed to the kind of bread-and-butter New Deal economic policies with which the party had been identified. In 1974, Jerry Brown was first elected governor of California preaching that the nation had entered an “era of limits,” by which he meant, limits to social spending. Gary Hart was first elected senator from Colorado, disparaging the politics of old labor Democrats.

Today, just two Watergate babies remain in Congress, both from California. Yet neither one has ever been the kind of neo-liberal that came to typify the Class of ’74. Henry Waxman, from Los Angeles’ Westside has spent his career strengthening the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and expanding Medicaid coverage, even during the Reagan years. George Miller, from a working-class suburb of San Francisco, was, with Waxman, one of the leading congressional authors of the Affordable Care Act (and a longtime proponent of single-payer healthcare as well). He steered the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have made it far easier for workers to join unions, through the House in 2009, though it couldn’t clear the 60-vote hurdle in the Senate. He also steered the 2007 hike in the federal minimum wage through Congress, and today is the co-author, with Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, of legislation that would raise that wage to $10.10 an hour.

This week, Miller announced he wouldn’t seek re-election later this year. He’d call it quits, he said, after 40 years in the House.

Harkin, too, has announced he won’t run for re-election this year, but Miller is optimistic that their final major piece of legislation—the minimum wage hike—will pass before the term is over. “Today, lots of people—people I went to school with—they all know people who are being paid the minimum wage,” Miller told me earlier this week. “People with college degrees are not in the jobs they are trained for. People are saying—and it’s showing up in the polls—that no one can live on the minimum wage. I didn’t hear this in 2007 [the last time Congress raised the wage].”

Miller’s commitment to a more egalitarian economy has its roots in postwar California’s distinct mix of working-class and middle-class progressivism. Both Miller and Waxman were a special subset of Watergate Babies: They were protégés of Phil Burton, the brilliant San Francisco representative who was the House’s leading liberal in the 1970s, and an acknowledged genius at getting environmental, labor, and social welfare legislation through even conservative congresses. In a larger sense, they were products of a 1960s California liberalism that mixed social welfare concerns with the antiwar and culturally liberal politics of the 1960s.

The one other Burton protégé still serving in the House (though not a Watergate Baby herself) is the member who represents his old district: Nancy Pelosi. Miller is not just Pelosi’s consigliere, but it was he who first suggested that Pelosi could one day lead the House, and who, working with an unlikely crew of House liberals and not-so-liberal congressional leaders impressed by Pelosi’s abilities, helped her win the party’s top post—and, in time, the Speakership.

Pelosi’s ascent is emblematic of what Miller sees as the biggest change in politics since he first came to Congress in the mid-Seventies. “The diversity we’ve seen for some time in California is now entering national politics in full force,” he says. “There were just a handful of women in the House when I came here. Now, you look at the recent Democratic freshman classes, they’re really in sync with the rest of America. And, unfortunately, this change is part of the reason for a lot of the acrimony in political life today. The old white guys have been in control for a long time, and they’re not crazy about ceding authority. This is a backdrop, too, to the struggle over the role of government that we’ve been having in Congress.”

As my Washington Post colleague E.J. Dionne has noted, Miller has long been able to combine his fierce commitment to liberalism with an ability to reach across the aisle to get legislation passed. In recent years, the cross-aisle reach has grown harder to accomplish. The problem, he says is that, “Republicans have made ‘government’ a pejorative term. They’ve convinced themselves that there’s no value added by government, so there’s no harm if we get rid of scholarships for minorities or defund cancer research. This is completely at odds with American history—with government’s role in everything from highways to public universities—but that’s the zone that Republicans are in today.”

For Miller, government’s role is to provide the security that individuals—and the nation—need to succeed. “The people now covered under the Affordable Care Act,” he says, “won’t lose their health insurance because they’ve lost their job or are divorced or widowed, or because they want to go out and start a small business. That’s the greatest gain in economic security in the past 50 years.”

“When I first ran for Congress in 1974, I ran to stop the Vietnam War and get single-payer health care. When President Obama signed the ACA, a signal went off inside me that it might be time to leave. I’d been one of the three principle authors in the House, and I didn’t know how I could make a greater contribution.”

Miller is known for sharing his Capitol Hill townhouse/crashpad with other congressional Democrats—in recent years, Senators Dick Durbin and Charles Schumer. But it’s his 40 years of cross-country weekend commutes to his district and back that give his tenure the quality of an odyssey. “United tells me I have 5 million miles with them,” Miller says. “When I go home, though, I get my batteries charged. It’s always given me the energy to come back. But at 40 years, it gets a little tougher.” Reported by The American Prospect 10 hours ago.

Diversified Commercial Insurers Now Hiring New Agents

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Colorado’s industry leading commercial insurance brokerage is hiring new agents in an effort to provide it customers with the best service in the market.

Aurora, Colorado (PRWEB) January 17, 2014

Local Service and strong personal relationships is more important than ever in today’s insurance industry, which is why representatives with Diversified Commercial Insurance announced today that they are now hiring new agents.

"Aggressive hiring of new independent brokers is critical to our growth strategy for 2014,” said John Sentena, owner and president of Diversified Commercial Insurers, a company that was among the Pinnacol Assurance Circle of Safety Award Winners during 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Sentena explained that the new independent brokers’ presence in their own community allows the company to offer a much more localized customer experience, “which we feel is lacking with larger Insurance organizations."

Diversified Commercial Insurers, according to the company spokesman, offers a variety of policy options from commercial property insurance to workers compensation lines.

"Our goal is to be Colorado's largest network of Independent Insurance Brokers,” Sentena said, before adding, “Our team and the support we provide them in marketing at the local level is ultimately what will help us achieve this goal."

Diversified Commercial Insurers offers business, personal, life and health insurance.
It offers insurance coverage for business, such as general liability, auto and fleet, property, workers compensation, bonds, employee benefits and more.

When it comes to personal insurance, Diversified Commercial Insurance, provide personal insurance needs, including auto, RV, motorcycle, home, mobile rental, boats, and life.

As for how the general pubic rate the company when it comes to quality, one customer said, “DC Insurers offered me a better car insurance policy than I previously had at a much better price. The agents there are a great group to deal with and are very knowledgeable when it comes to the insurance business. They take care of my needs promptly and are always helpful and friendly. I would recommend DC Insurers to anyone.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.dci-ins.com/colorado-business-insurance/ and http://www.dci-ins.com/colorado-personal-insurance/
About Diversified Commercial Insurers

Diversified Commercial Insurers (DCInsurers) is a group of Colorado Insurance Brokers who pride themselves on providing exemplary service and savings to Colorado residents for over 20 years.

Like any state, Colorado has myriad laws and regulations which effect most types of insurance policies. It takes a knowledgeable and experienced Colorado Insurance Broker to navigate this complex system and ensure that customers receive the maximum possible benefits at the most affordable price.

At DCInsurers, our mission is just that – maximum benefits and the lowest possible price.

Contact Details:

DCInsurers

2228 S. Fraser St Unit #2
Aurora, CO 80014

Tel: (303) 693-9343

Source: Diversified Commercial Insurers (DCInsurers)

### Reported by PRWeb 9 hours ago.

Obamacare by Olympics, Rappers, and Hollywood Elites, Oh My!

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The Olympic size marketing of Obamacare is ready to reach you by TV, Tweets, and posts.
That's if you are from the generation of the young and healthy.

Let's face it; the government badly needs young and healthy Americans, so-called Invincibles, to enroll in Obamacare to defray the costs for those older and in need of health care. Health and Human Services (HHS) is attempting to stop the implosion that may happen in this economic model of health care management. At least 40 percent must be enrollees in the 18- to 34-year-old age group. Simply put, the only way for this to work is for more participants to pay, as opposed to people who draw from insurance and subsidies.

Holiday pajama discussions and AARP postcards encouraging family enrollment did not yield targeted results. Without the Invincibles enrolling and paying into the plan, the money will need to come from... somewhere. Either premiums will skyrocket or tax dollars will need to provide risk assistance to insurance companies, period. Built into Obamacare is a "risk corridor" that is gaining steam. This is a bailout provision, a safety net for the insurance industry paid for by American taxpayers.

Young Americans have been called unpatriotic and out of touch with their civic duties, choosing to pay tax penalties instead of purchasing health insurance. They claim that is much more affordable than to pay the premiums and high deductibles.

Washington finds it necessary to target market Obamacare during some of the most expensive and exclusive air time, the Winter Olympics in Russia.

HHS has not disclosed how much they will spend on marketing or how often over the three weeks of the Winter Olympic games, February 7 through 23, 2013. But what we do know, according to HHS spokesperson Joanne Peters, they are "ramping up education and outreach efforts to drive enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace as part of a sustained, aggressive campaign for the duration of open enrollment."

HHS won't confirm the advertising statistics but it is clearly our right to know.

A cost estimate: Olympic advertising air time is an estimated average of $725,000 for a 30 second spot in the prime advertising time (based on 2012 statistics).

The National Football League was offered the opportunity to market Obamacare. They collectively declined but the Baltimore Ravens have decided to play, getting paid $130,000 by the Maryland Health Care Exchange taxpayers. They will tweet, post, and advertise the benefits of Obamacare on their website. They also have a post-season option. The Pittsburgh Steelers and former players plan to sign on as well.

There is a rap parody by the group "Get Covered" funded by Get Covered America, arm of Enroll America, a formal website that links to Obamacare enrollment. Iman Crosson, a President Obama lookalike raps..."So don't stand and diddle, my healthcare's the 'shizzle' It's chock full of top notch healthcare 'provizzles' We'll cover all you're 'vizzles,' your 'dizzles,' AND your 'tizzles Now while you figure that out, it's back to that 'chorizzle'"

"When I'm in the Oval Office
"Call me President Barack, President Barack, President Barack
"When my critics get an attitude
"I tell 'em to stop, I tell 'em to stop, I tell 'em to stop
"And if you need that new health care
"Sign up 'cause it's hot, sign up 'cause it's hot, sign up 'cause it's hot."
http://revealingpolitics.com/blog/video/the-obamacare-rap/Will this help the millennials to decide whether to purchase healthcare or pay a penalty?

I'm advisin':

"The truth will be known with statistics to come, don't want to hurt your feelin"
"I'm sayin' weigh your options and deductibles"
"It may affect your bears and bulls"
"Just sayin' My name is Baby Boom, call me Boom, I said Boom"Despite no reported basis for health care expertise, many Hollywood elites are tweeting, posting, and touting the benefits of Obamacare. Celebs include Jennifer Hudson, Olivia Wilde, Lady Gaga, John Legend, Amy Poehler, Marlon Wayans to name a few. Not sure how they have become health care experts but they are marketing their health care "expertise" nonetheless.

Health and Human Services has finally released long awaited statistics from the end of the year 2013.
• Only 18 percent of the goal of 2.7 million young and healthy (ages 18 to 34) has been reached. This is required for stable premiums and subsidies.
• 80 percent of the enrollees received financial assistance.

It is clear, the HHS needs significantly more paying customers by the extended deadline of March 31. The "risk corridor" option may gain steam soon.

Truth in advertising laws are clear and particularly tough on health care marketing. Any one of these alleged experts could and should be challenged on their marketing material. It is just the right thing to do when spending the $684 million marketing budget to the American people. "Just sayin', Boom." Reported by Huffington Post 6 hours ago.

Many employers investing in NMHIX’s higher-end plans

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New Mexico small businesses that have signed up on the state’s health insurance exchange are being rather generous to their employees. Just more than 40 percent of those businesses have chosen plans in the two top tiers, gold and platinum, according to statistics from the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange. Gold tier plans pay 80 percent of medical costs, while platinum plans pay 90 percent. The top-tier plans generally have higher premiums and cost employers more. As of Jan. 15, 621 employers… Reported by bizjournals 6 hours ago.

HHS No. 2 doesn't recall elevating...

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WASHINGTON (AP) ? An Obama administration official says the second-in-command at the federal Health and Human Services department doesn't recall reporting concerns about the troubled health insurance website to higher-ups. Reported by WTNH.com 6 hours ago.

Experient Health Explains Employee Discount Programs In Latest Blog Post

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Experient Health, the health insurance arm of the Virginia Farm Bureau, is headquartered in Richmond, Va. and uses its blog to educate the community on health, wellness, insurance and health care reform.

Richmond, Va. (PRWEB) January 17, 2014

Employee discount programs are increasingly becoming an offering at businesses and in its latest post in a series on understanding benefits, Experient Health explains how employers can start and employees benefit from discount programs.

Experient Health, the health insurance arm of the Virginia Farm Bureau, is headquartered in Richmond, Va. and uses its blog to educate the community on health, wellness, insurance and health care reform.

"Employee discount programs are voluntary benefits offered by an employer to help you save money," Experient Health wrote. "Employers contract with vendors and merchants to offer you promotions, discounts and group rates. Each discount program is unique to the employer that offers it, and, through the program, you will have access to a variety of products and services at reduced rates."

Discounts might include items employees usually buy, such as groceries and cellphone service, or access to more specialized purchases such as concert tickets and hotel stays.

"The advantage of a discount program is that it saves you money simply for being an employee of your company," according to the blog post.

The types of products and services that might be offered through a discount program vary widely, often including both special and everyday items and services.

Common product services may include:· Fitness center or gym membership
· Mobile phone group rates
· Lower loan or bank account fees
· Health-related services, such as acupuncture or chiropractic care
· Computer hardware or software
· Childcare services
· General discount programs, which may include:

Programs can also be set up via payroll deductions.

For most discounts, especially programs like gym membership rates, employees identify themselves as an employee of the company at the beginning of the transaction.

Read more about employee discount programs on the Experient Health blog.

About Experient Health:

For years, Experient Health, a Virginia Farm Bureau company, has helped people find the right insurance coverage and get the most for their health care dollars. The Richmond, Va.-based group is dedicated to providing high quality health insurance options to customers in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC. As a result, its consultants, with an average of more than 20 years experience, are intimately familiar with the states’ provider networks, products and regulations.

Representing the top national insurance carriers, Experient Health provides customers with multiple policy options designed to meet wellness needs and financial requirements.

Experient Health grew out of Virginia Farm Bureau and is a “hometown agency” in that it operates a network of more than 100 offices. However, it boasts the resources and technology of larger firms.

Consultants are available online, via phone and through their offices.

Learn more at http://www.experienthealth.com, utilize the online health insurance quote calculator or contact a consultant directly at 855.677.6580. Reported by PRWeb 5 hours ago.

Watch the Epic ObamaCare Dance Off Between Contortionist, Nathan Barnatt and Richard Simmons

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So who knew that the "Tell a Friend - Get Covered" ObamaCare campaign held a six hour live streaming telethon, yesterday? I sure didn't.

In case you missed it, the event was advertised to “include stories, tips, helpful information and other details related to national health care options” with the goal of enticing young invincibles to buy health insurance. 

Apparently one of the highlights of the six hour show was a dance-off between Richard Simmons and contortionist Nathan Barnatt, and featuring  Hannah Hart, the star of an internet show about drunk cooking.

Via Red Alert Politics: 



“What’s he doing?” Simmons exclaimed as Barnatt began to shake his body wildly.

“He’s extending his livelihood! That’s what he’s doing!” Hannah Hart, your host and creator of My Drunk Kitchen, responded in an endorsement of cardio.


I'm guessing this part of the show comes under the heading of "other details." 

I don't know if the reaction to that was supposed to be hysterical laughter, or an impressed "wowwwww" - it's way too meta for me - but in my case, it was hysterical laughter.

The entire broadcast can be seen at Red Alert Politics.
 
 
 
  Reported by Breitbart 4 hours ago.

Obamacare Official: No Idea How Many Have Paid for Health Plans

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Startling congressional testimony on Thursday revealed the Obama administration does not know how many people have Obamacare coverage because it has yet to build the systems necessary to determine the number of individuals who have paid their premiums to activate coverage.

During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS) asked Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) deputy administrator and director for the Center's Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight division Gary Cohen how many people have activated their Obamacare coverage by making their first premium payment. Cohen said no one knows, because that part of the Obamacare system has not been built yet.

“The most important number, as has been reported by many news outlets, is whether individuals have paid. Does the administration collect this information?” asked Harper.

“Right now we’re not, but we will be,” said Cohen.

“When?” asked Harper.

“As soon as that functionality is built,” said Cohen.

"So we don't know at this point how many people have paid for coverage?" Harper asked.

"That's right," said Cohen.

Health insurance plans purchased through Obamacare only kick in once a customer pays his first month’s premium. The Obama administration claims over two million people have “enrolled” in Obamacare, but Cohen’s testimony makes it clear the administration lacks even the ability to know how many of those who put insurance plans in their “shopping carts” actually completed their purchase and paid their premiums.

Reports by the Wall Street Journal have suggested that numerous insurers have only received payments from half of those who signed up for Obamacare. 

 
 
 
  Reported by Breitbart 3 hours ago.
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