Archive for December 21st, 2009

Key provisions of the Senate healthcare bill ..

December 21, 2009

Below is the WSJ’s summary.

Big deals:

  • Roughly $50 billion per year each from tax increases and Medicare cuts
  • Massive expansion of Medicaid … estimated 1/2 of the newly insured
  • Roughly 10 million “young healthies” who self-insure mandated to buy insurance
  • .9% increase in Medicare taxes if over $250,000
  • Excise tax on Cadillac insurance plans (except for longshoremen)
  • $10 billion for community health centers

Ken’s Favorite: 10% tax on tanning salons

Pay-offs for votes:

  • Nebraska, Louisiana, Vermont and Massachusetts are getting more federal help with Medicaid than other states. In the case of Nebraska — represented by Sen. Ben Nelson, who’s providing the critical 60th vote for the legislation to pass — the federal government is picking up 100 percent of the tab of a planned expansion of the program, in perpetuity.
  • Florida’s beneficiaries of Medicare Advantage plans — the private managed-care plans within Medicare —  will have their benefits grandfathered in thanks to a provision tailored by Sen. Bill Nelson.
  • Longshoremen were added to the list of workers in high-risk professions who are shielded from the full impact of a proposed new tax on high-value insurance plans.

 From the WSJ: 

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http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-enlargePic07.html?project=imageShell07&bigImage=wsj_healthpol091220.gif&h=569&w=959&title=WSJ.COM&thePubDate=20080826

Posted in Health Care / Medical Insurance | Leave a Comment »

Can’t blame Bush for this one …

December 21, 2009

The politics of healthcare reform are simply amazing. 

Over 3/4s of Americans are reasonably satisfied with their healthcare insurance and the healthcare they receive — and they expect taxes to go up, insurance premiums to go up, and healthcare to get worse with longer waits and more denied services. 

Still, the Senate passed — on a straight party line vote — a law that roughly 2 out of 3 Americans oppose. 

Now they — the Democrats in general and Pres. Obama specifically — “own” the healthcare system.  Rightly or wrongly, every premium increase, every delayed doctor’s appointment, every service denied, etc., will be chalked up to ObamaCare.  Turnabout is fair play !

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Excerpted from RCP: Democrats Risk Another Jacksonian Moment, December 21, 2009

Democratic leaders are courting disaster with this health care bill. With it, they’ve moved their questionable wheelings and dealings from the margins to the center of American life. Consider some of the special deals:

– Nebraska, Louisiana, Vermont and Massachusetts are getting more federal help with Medicaid than other states. In the case of Nebraska — represented by Sen. Ben Nelson, who’s providing the critical 60th vote for the legislation to pass — the federal government is picking up 100 percent of the tab of a planned expansion of the program, in perpetuity.

– Florida’s beneficiaries of Medicare Advantage plans — the private managed-care plans within Medicare —  will have their benefits grandfathered in thanks to a provision tailored by Sen. Bill Nelson.

– Longshoremen were added to the list of workers in high-risk professions who are shielded from the full impact of a proposed new tax on high-value insurance plans.

We might be on the verge of another Jacksonian moment: a time when the people awake from their slumber, angrily exercise their sovereign authority, and mercilessly fire the leaders who have for too long catered to the elites rather than average people.

In true Jacksonian fashion, the country fired the Republicans in 2006 and 2008 because they bungled the war in Iraq and allowed the economy to sink into recession.

The people might soon have another Jacksonian moment, and fire these equally useless Democrats for hampering the recovery, exploding the deficit, and playing politics with health care.

The fact that the President can’t find a single Republican vote out of more than 200 potential supporters is a strong indication that this is a bad bill.

Ben Nelson sits in the middle of the Senate. He could be a Democrat or a Republican. If he were a Republican, but everything else about him were the same, would he have voted for this? Of course not. That should tell you everything you need to know about this bill: partisanship and pay-offs. 

Full article:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2009/12/democrats_risk_another_jackson_1.html

Posted in Health Care / Medical Insurance | Leave a Comment »

What’s the best part of this story? … “Drunk 4-Year-Old Steals Christmas Presents”

December 21, 2009

Here are the choices:

  1. Beer in hand
  2. Wearing a dress
  3. Dad in jail
  4. Safety devices on doors
  5. Jacked the presents
  6. “An honest mistake
  7. Add your own …

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Source: WTVC-TV, Chattanooga, Tenn.,  December 16, 2009

A 4-year-old boy, beer in hand, is accused of stealing Christmas presents from his neighbors.

April Wright, 21 years old, is currently going through a divorce with her husband who is in jail. 

She says she is not sure how her 4-year-old managed to get out of the house, open a beer, and steal the neighbors presents from under their tree. 

Now she’s just glad he’s okay and says she won’t let it happen again.

The child, Hayden, was found at 1:45 am Tuesday, wandering the streets of his neighborhood.  In a police reports, officers said he was wearing a little girl’s dress and drinking a beer. The police report says the child had to be taken to the hospital to be treated for alcohol consumption.

Wright says she woke up that night at 1:45 am and panicked when she discovered Hayden was gone.  She says she put safety devices on all the doors so her kids couldn’t get out, but Hayden was able to break the safety device off the doorknob and get outside.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office report says Hayden rang the doorbell a few houses down and the neighbor answered, finding the child holding a partially consumed 12-ounce beer.

But it doesn’t stop there. The report said Hayden then snuck into a neighbor’s house through an unlocked front door, and stole five wrapped Christmas gifts.  One was a girl’s brown dress which Hayden was wearing when police found him.

“Kids do things like this and it’s out of your control. You can do the best you can as a mother, but everyone makes mistakes. It was an honest mistake,” Wright said.

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/year-987196-old-christmas.html

Thanks to Lo for stringing the lead

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Avatar … a guaranteed hit … well, maybe not “guaranteed”.

December 21, 2009

TakeAway:  Success in the movie industry is a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. 

Movie houses must spend money on marketing in order for consumers to know about the movie; however, movie houses do not want to spend too much money on marketing because it eats into their profits. 

Now, the movie industry has access to ratings based on buzz and word-of-mouth ratings to help inform its ongoing marketing investments and gauge the potential success of a movie.

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Excerpted from WSJ, “‘Avatar’ Seeks Out a Mega-Audience,” By Lauren A.E. Schuker and Ethan Smith, December 11, 2009

Market research suggests mixed levels of interest among potential audiences for the extravagant 3-D sci-fi picture “Avatar,” raising the stakes for the backers of one of the most expensive movies ever made.

Twentieth Century Fox says it is counting on strong word-of-mouth and positive reviews from critics to recoup its investment in the movie, which hits theaters next Friday.

The film, which uses pioneering 3-D technology and computer graphics, is one of the most highly anticipated releases to come out of Hollywood in years.

But production costs on “Avatar” … are likely to exceed $300M … Fox is spending around $150 million more on marketing the movie globally …

 

That means that the movie has to be nothing short of a mega-blockbuster in order to make its money back. As a result, there’s hyperfocus on the latest advance research, or “tracking,” of potential audiences.

Nielsen’s tracking data … indicate that “Avatar” is hewing closely to patterns established by successful films …

 

While male audiences are showing increased interest and awareness in “Avatar,” female moviegoers are less enthusiastic, with negative attitudes toward the film growing among women under 25.

One distinct bright spot for “Avatar” is that many key metrics—including “unaided awareness” of the movie—have improved as the movie’s release date approaches …

Studios use tracking research, which polls domestic audiences on their awareness of and interest in seeing movies, in order gauge the effectiveness of marketing efforts. The data can be helpful in forecasting a given movie’s opening weekend performance. But predicting a movie’s ultimate box office total is much more difficult.

If a film generates strong word-of-mouth buzz and positive reviews from critics, it can often outperform early estimates …

In some areas, the Nielsen research … shows “Avatar” coming in below similar sci-fi action movies. For instance, roughly a week before release, the data show audiences are demonstrating slightly less “definite interest” in the film than they did at the same point with “Iron Man,” which grossed nearly $100 million opening weekend and more than $300 million at the domestic box office.

“Avatar” is currently scoring slightly behind 2007’s “Transformers” in the crucial “unaided awareness” category. “Transformers” took in $70 million on its opening weekend.

In comparison, tracking data for the movie “2012,” released last month, showed strong interest among both women and men. That film went on to gross $150 million in the U.S. and more than three times that internationally.

“Tracking is light for a title of this magnitude,” says Jeff Bock, a box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, referring to “Avatar.”

That said, Mr. Bock adds, “If the reviews are good, that will help encourage older audiences that aren’t quite sold on 3-D yet…. Then you can get that older demographic to see the film, that’s what Fox and Jim Cameron need to make this a hit across the board.”

In the first U.S. review of “Avatar,” posted online Thursday evening, the Hollywood Reporter raved, predicting “Fox will see more than enough grosses world-wide to cover its bet on Cameron.”

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Full Article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704193004574588421216055200.html

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