Lewis Black Says It
FYI
Survey: One in 11 employers plan to drop health coverage
By Parija Kavilanz | CNNMoney.com – Tue, Jul 24, 2012 3:42 PM EDT
One in 11 employers is planning to drop health insurance coverage for workers over the next three years because of the high expense, according to a report from consulting firm Deloitte.
While Deloitte’s 2012 survey of employers — conducted before the Supreme Court’s ruling in June to uphold health reform — showed that 9% of them planned to stop offering health care coverage, 81% of companies polled said they would continue providing the benefit as a means to attract and retain employees.
That’s good news for more than 160 million people — more than half the U.S. population — who currently get health insurance directly through their employers.
Another 10% of employers polled in the Deloitte survey indicated that they hadn’t yet made up their mind.
Among those employers who indicated that they wouldn’t dump health coverage, most plan to make workers pick up more of the cost associated with it through higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles.
The survey also showed that smaller businesses — those with fewer than 50 employers — view health insurance exchanges more favorably than bigger companies.
Under health reform, states are mandated to set up health insurance exchanges — online marketplaces where consumers can buy subsidized health plans — by 2014.
These exchanges are geared toward making health insurance affordable to underinsured and uninsured individuals.
By 2014, companies with 50 or more full-time employees must start providing health insurance or face penalties.
For most small businesses, that means a new way to shop for less-expensive health insurance on the exchanges where they can buy plans for their workers.
Deloitte’s online survey, conducted between February and April, polled 560 randomly selected companies with 50 or more workers that offer health.
I Wanted You to See an Add for Romney
Never say I don’t play fair.
Forget the debate over outsourcing.
The Problem Isn’t Outsourcing. It’s that the Prosperity of Big Business Has Become Disconnected from the Well-Being of Most Americans
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Robert Reich
Yah, Me Too
The New Democracy
This UPS Driver Saved A Wandering Alzheimer’s Patient
Lifelong Raleigh, N.C. resident and 25-year UPS veteran Kenneth Donleycott was driving his route a few weeks ago when a police officer pulled up and asked him if he’d seen an elderly man walking a white dog. The man had been reported missing from his home. In a smooth North Carolina twang, Donleycott — who, in addition to driving a delivery truck, also serves as the co-chair of the safety committee at UPS’s Raleigh office — related his story. “I hadn’t seen him, but on my way out, I saw a lot of police canvassing the neighborhood. Not too much later, I saw an older guy walking his dog and figured it was him.The first thing I noticed that wasn’t right was that he had a bunch of rocks stuffed into both of his pockets. I asked him where he was going and he pointed in a direction that was different than the direction he was going.So I asked him what he did for a living and he said he was a retired marine. I told him my father-in-law was a retired marine and he started talking. What he said was kind of garbled and he seemed confused. So I called 911.” Donleycott said that the police arrived within 15 minutes of his call, and that the man, who they said has Alzheimer’s and a propensity toward heat stroke, had wandered pretty far from home. Raleigh police had considered calling a “silver alert” — the code for a lost elderly person — when Donleycott called in to report that he had found the man. They called Donleycott later in the day to confirm that the man had been reunited with his family. UPS wasted no time posting Donleycott’s picture and a synopsis of the story on the company’s Facebook page, quickly racking up 5,490 comments, 6,616 shares, and 217,680 likes. Most of the comments are positive, but Donleycott said that a few accused UPS of staging a publicity stunt.
What can brown do for you? Well, track down and monitor a wandering Alzheimer’s patient, for starters.
Raleigh police were looking for an elderly man with Alzheimer’s, but it was a delivery man who ultimately found him. We talked with the UPS driver who found the old gentleman and kept him company until police showed up to take him home.
“There were too many comments for me to respond to a lot of them, but this was real, not a publicity stunt. It really did happen. But I think credit should go to the officer who told me [the man was lost]. If he hadn’t told me, I would have driven right past the guy.”
JALOPNIK
Bring Jobs Home Act fails. Remember in November.
These are the U.S. Senators who voted today against a bill that would eliminate tax breaks for sending U.S. jobs overseas:
Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), John Barrasso (R-WY), Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Boozman (R-AR), Richard Burr (R-NC), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Dan Coats (R-IN), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Bob Corker (R-TN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), John Hoeven (R-ND), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), James Inhofe (R-OK), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Ron Johnson (R-WI), John Kyl (R-AZ), Mike Lee (R-UT), Richard Lugar (R-IN), John McCain (R-AZ), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rand Paul (R-KY), Rob Portman (R-OH), James Risch (R-ID), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Richard Shelby (R-AL), John Thune (R-SD), Pat Toomey (R-PA), David Vitter (R-LA), Roger Wicker (R-MS).
The bill failed in the Senate. Taxpayers will continue to subsidize corporations that move American jobs to China.
Remember in November.