Category: News and Politics
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Aetna locked in legal battle over ACA pullout
An interesting lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania last week against Aetna Inc., a Connecticut-based insurance company that has been one of the nation’s largest alternate insurance choices for decades. Aetna pulled out of the individual health insurance markets in 11 states claiming that this was a business decision to prevent the company from losing money.…
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Five health care strategies for small businesses in 2017
Only hours past the point where we thought that Republican leaders in Washington DC had reached an agreement on minimalist proposal to begin “repeal and replace” of Obamacare, the measure known as “skinny repeal” (covered in my last blog post) has been defeated. Many of us went to bed last night thinking that the healthcare…
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“Skinny Repeal” explained
The lowest common denominator Obamacare repeal and replacement plan is said to get rid of the "O" and keep the "bamacare". It is specifically designed as the most likely health care bill that could gain the support of the required 5o Republican senators. It is called "skinny repeal" because it would only repeal the requirement…
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The five “D”s of opposing political opinions
1. Deny: It’s a total lie, it never happened, it’s fake news. 2. Dismiss: Ok, it happened, but it’s not a big deal. 3. Downplay: Ok, it might be a big deal only because of the other side’s fanatics, but it’s not illegal. 4. Deflect: Ok, it’s illegal, but the other side did something worse, so…
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5 things we know about the Republican health care reform plan
We know more about the Republican plan to reform national health care policy now that the Senate has released its ‘secret’ plan. These are a few things that are all but certain at this point: Obamacare will not be repealed or replaced. Both the House and Senate reform bills keep most features of the prior…
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How will you fare under the Senate health bill?
Summary of Senate health bill’s effect on small businesses: eliminates requirement to be insured protects insurers in the marketplace shifts but retains tax credits lowers the number of people eligible for free or reduced price coverage cuts taxes for the wealthy suspends the ‘Cadillac Tax’ strips federal funding from Planned Parenthood is surprisingly light-weight; only about…
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Outrage over Senate’s health care reform bill spreads
US Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey joined with many health care advisers, including myself, in expressing his outrage over the secretive process used to draft the replacement bill for health care reform that is apparently designed to hide the details from public scrutiny. I’ve been an advocate of health care reform and an active…
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A Crime Against Humanity
There is a concept in the law known as “last clear chance”. This means that even if you didn’t create a problem, you are still liable if you had the last clear chance to avoid a catastrophe but chose to not do so. For example, if you are driving down the highway and see a child…
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Obstruction of Justice!
I know you thought this would be about President Trump. It’s not. It’s about me. I was once threatened with a charge of obstruction of justice. My lawyer later explained that law enforcement has wide latitude in applying this charge and that they probably would have prevailed in bringing the criminal charge against me had…
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Are you a financial revolutionist?
A revolutionist is someone who wants to change the world — not just sitting around talking about it, but actually doing something to bring about change. If that describes your approach to personal financial management, then I’d love to have a conversation about what you are doing now and what else can be done to improve…