Medicare for All

Posted on 14 September 2017 by eehines

Senator Bernie Sanders (I, VT) is beating that drum, again, and has support from some Progressive-Democratic Party Senators.

The health proposal, dubbed Medicare for all, would offer the same suite of medical benefits required for some insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act and eliminate most out-of-pocket costs. Mr Sanders argues that although taxes would likely rise to support the new system, families would save money by no longer needing to purchase health coverage. The government, he says, could also secure lower prices for medical services.

This is a preview of Medicare for All. Read the full post (413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

State’s Obligations

Posted on 13 September 2017 by eehines

These are the flip side of the 10^th Amendment States Rights mantra that State government personnel are starting to tout. And that makes State governors’ and legislators’ objections to the Trump administration’s moves to clip the intrusive wings regarding investment advice to retail investors and who should be permitted/required to give it a bit ridiculous.

[T]he Obama Labor Department’s fiduciary rule requires brokers to act in the best interests of retirement savers rather than sell products that are merely suitable and potentially more lucrative for the brokers.

This is a preview of State’s Obligations. Read the full post (301 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

Republicans and Obamacare

Posted on 5 September 2017 by eehines

Too many now are begging for surrender on repeal and replace.

[F]ew congressional Republicans have signaled they are ready to let the health-care market deteriorate while their constituents are still battling higher premiums and fewer insurers to choose from on the individual marketplace.

This means those Republicans are signaling that they don’t have the stomach to repeal Obamacare at all, which would be the ultimate deterioration of it.

This is a betrayal of their constituents along two dimensions: the cynical destruction of their promise to repeal and replace, and their decision to continue inflicting Obamacare with its steadily increasing premiums and fewer insurers to choose from on their constituents.

This is a preview of Republicans and Obamacare. Read the full post (266 words, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

Sale of a Stock Exchange

Posted on 30 August 2017 by eehines

Good idea?

The Chicago Stock Exchange wants to sell itself to Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group, a Chinese conglomerate whose parent is CHX Holdings Inc. Never mind that this would be a camel’s nose of the People’s Republic of China into our financial system and expose it to PRC hacking, disruption, theft, etc, etc, etc.

Fortunately, a collection of Congressmen persuaded the SEC to indefinitely delay the sale and purchase. Unfortunately, the deal hasn’t been killed altogether.

Casin…says it is independent of the Chinese government.

Of course it is. In a nation that is increasing its autocratic control over its economy and the businesses in it. Sure.

This is a preview of Sale of a Stock Exchange. Read the full post (264 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

My New Book Is Out

Posted on 28 August 2017 by eehines

Titled A Conservative’s View of the Conduct of Just Wars, it’s available in Kindle format here. It presents this Conservative’s view of the proper conduct of a just war: when it’s appropriate to join one, how it should be fought once joined (regardless of how or why it was joined), and importantly, what should be done with the nation that unjustly attacked.

Since St Augustine of Hippo’s exegeses of the early 5th century, Western thinkers have attempted to define Just War in their recognition that war is a part of the human condition. Through this, they hoped to limit the onset and scope of war and its damage to those innocently caught in it.

This is a preview of My New Book Is Out. Read the full post (396 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Congress Has 12 Days

Posted on 21 August 2017 by eehines

There are 12 days left after their 5 September return from vacation, driven by the Obamacare requirement for health plan providers to commit by 17 September to selling their health plans for the next year or withdrawing, for Congress to pass a potful of legislation.

Two proposals regarding Obamacare are in the offing. One would shore up the funds transfer of Federal dollars to those providers who are losing money in ObamaMart, and the other instead would send that money as grants to the States to help them generate their own health coverage plan programs. This one also would eliminate the Individual Mandate.

This is a preview of Congress Has 12 Days. Read the full post (316 words, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)

Obamacare and Drug Abuse

Posted on 18 August 2017 by eehines

From a Wall Street Journal op-ed, come a couple of very telling statistics regarding the opioid addiction epidemic.

…overdose deaths per million residents rose twice as fast in the 29 Medicaid expansion states—those that increased eligibility to 138% from 100% of the poverty line—than in the 21 non-expansion states between 2013 and 2015.

And

There were also marked disparities between neighboring states based on whether they opted into ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion. Deaths increased twice as much in New Hampshire (108%) and Maryland (44%)—expansion states—than in Maine (55%) and Virginia (22%). Drug fatalities shot up by 41% in Ohio while climbing 3% in non-expansion Wisconsin.

This is a preview of Obamacare and Drug Abuse. Read the full post (159 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

We’ll See

Posted on 15 August 2017 by eehines

In an unprecedented move against North Korea, China on Monday issued an order to carry out the United Nations sanctions imposed on the rogue regime earlier this month.

Of course, in the days immediately following the first meeting between President Donald Trump and the People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping, just after Trump’s inauguration, the PRC acted like it was going to start honoring then-existing sanctions against northern Korea.

That turned out to be just an act. Is the present “order” serious, or is it just another empty gesture?

We’ll see, indeed.

This is a preview of We’ll See. Read the full post (127 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)

Collapsing Obamacare

Posted on 5 August 2017 by eehines

These data are from the Kaiser Family Foundation. There was such hope by the health care coverage providers at the start; then the realities of the “market” place hit, and hit hard. Following the early expansion of coverage providers into ObamaMart, the drop-off in companies between 2016 and 2017, and the resulting collapse of choice—in too many counties, even of any availability at all—is stark. It’s expected to get worse in 2018 and 2019, too.

The State-by-State drop off is presented in the table below, constructed from KFF‘s table at the link. The average drop-off across all States is nearly 23%.

This is a preview of Collapsing Obamacare. Read the full post (508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Rule of Law

Posted on 4 August 2017 by eehines

The DC Circuit Court stacked by President Barack Obama (D) seems to be iffy on the thing. In an appeal concerning whether the monies the Federal government pays to health care plan providers as subsidies so the plan providers will hold down premiums and deductibles can actually be paid—the funds never were appropriated by Congress, so the payments aren’t legitimate, ruled the trial court—the Circuit Court ruled in part:

The States have shown a substantial risk that an injunction requiring termination of the payments at issue here…would lead directly and imminently to an increase in insurance prices, which in turn will increase the number of uninsured individuals for whom the States will have to provide health care[.]

This is a preview of Rule of Law. Read the full post (281 words, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

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