Archive for January 13th, 2010

Want to opt out of ObamaCare? … Declare yourself Amish.

January 13, 2010

This is getting nuttier by the day. 

States have to pay for extended Medicaid — except Nebraska. 

Seniors lose Medicare Advantage — except in Florida. 

Cadillac health insurance plans face a 40% excise tax — unless the insured is in a union. 

And now, everybody must buy healthcare insurance — unless they’re Amish — since the Amish have a religious objection to insurance. 

Anybody know how to become Amish?

Hmmm.  What if you’re just allergic to insurance?

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Sourced from Watertown Daily Times: Amish families exempt from insurance mandate, Jan. 9, 2010

Federal health care reform will require most Americans — but not all — to carry health insurance or risk a fine. People with religious objections can opt out

For example, Amish families  are free from that requirement.

They, as well as some other religious sects, are covered by a “religious conscience” exemption, which allows people with religious objections to insurance to opt out of the mandate.  The provision is in both the House and Senate versions of the bill, making its appearance in the final version routine unless there are last-minute objections.

Amish people generally rely upon a community ethic that disdains government assistance. Families rely upon one another, and communities pitch in to help neighbors pay health care expenses.

Lawmakers reportedly included the provision at the urging of Amish constituents, although the legislation does not specify that community and the provision could apply to other groups as well, including Old Order Mennonites and perhaps Christian Scientists.

Congressional aides said the exemption is based on a carve-out the Amish have had from Social Security and Medicare taxes since the 1960s. Whether Amish businesses, however, would fall under the bill’s mandates is still an open question.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who was a key negotiator on the Senate bill, supports the religious exemption, and called the provision a “no brainer.”

Note: the Amish do buy vehicle insurance. 

Hmmm.  Must be for buggies since they don’t drive cars.

Source article:
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20100109/NEWS02/301099964

Posted in Health Care / Medical Insurance | 2 Comments »

The new GM figures out that trucks are profitable and green cars aren’t … no kidding.

January 13, 2010

Excerpted from WSJ: Back to the Future: GM Bets on Trucks, Jan. 13, 2010

GM now is trying to boost revenue and return to profitability in a bid to repay the $6.7 billion in cash it owes the U.S. government. The Treasury Department also invested roughly $50 billion more in GM that was converted into a 60% stake in the auto maker.

The government has pushed GM, Chrysler — which also restructured in a federally financed bankruptcy — and other auto makers to produce smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, including battery-powered cars.

But, GM announced that it is using freed up cash to fund a major update of its full-size pickups, a bet that consumers and businesses will resume buying trucks after a long lull in sales.

GM, which had relied on full-size pickups such as the Chevrolet Silverado for a major portion of its U.S. revenue and operating profit, had put off redesigning the trucks as its finances collapsed and it underwent a government-backed bankruptcy reorganization last year.

Trucks sales sagged in the past two years after gasoline spiked to $4 a gallon in 2008 and home sales — a big driver of truck purchases by contractors and builders — collapsed amid the recession.

Until the past few years, full-size pickups had been a big business for Detroit car companies. They often sell for $30,000 and more and generate thousands of dollars in operating profit each.

“When the housing industry starts to pick up, you will see truck sales increase immediately and companies will need to have fresh products out there,”

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126334663717427135.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTWhatsNews

Posted in Autos - Travel | Leave a Comment »

Looking for a low-cost marketing research tool? Twitter may be your answer.

January 13, 2010

TakeAway:  In need of real-time consumer feedback?  Well, look no further.  Twitter evolved its search capabilities to allow “searchers” to not only track the volume of tweets, but also to assign a sentiment to those tweets.

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Excerpted from, WSJ, “Follow the Tweets,” By Huaxia Rui, Andrew Whinston, and Elizabeth Winkler, November 30, 2009

There’s a new tool that can help companies predict sales for the coming weeks, or decide whether to increase inventories or put items on sale in certain stores. It’s Twitter.

Social-media sites such as Twitter have made it increasingly easy to find out what consumers think and want without the limitations and bias associated with older market-research tools … With Twitter, users broadcast what they are doing or thinking via “tweets” … People can “tweet” about anything at any time … which allows for word-of-mouth to spread at astonishing speed. Anyone can follow a user’s messages, and tweets are easily searchable using keywords …

Executives can make accurate predictions about sales trends by analyzing tweets that mention their products or services … essentially companies can monitor their “buzz” …

Imagine a company is releasing a new product into the marketplace and has spent a lot of money on advertising to create “buzz” … the company can track the buzz, determine whether the overall opinion is positive or negative and focus on specific areas of the country. The company could track the progression of tweets during and after the product’s launch to determine whether there are shifts in opinion, giving the company a chance to react quickly if there is a problem …

If executives notice a sudden surge of tweets in New York City, signaling that people will go out and buy their product over the weekend, they may want to make sure stores in the area have enough stock. Inversely, if they notice that the buzz about the product is dying out, they may decide to put the product on sale, eliminate inventory and come up with something new.

There are some challenges inherent in collecting and sorting tweets in “real time,” or as they are being sent. Twitter returns only the most recent 1,500 tweets for each keyword-search query, so if there is a sudden surge of tweets containing your keywords, you could miss some messages …

Twitter’s advanced-search feature is capable of identifying tweets as either positive or negative … Twitter determines whether a tweet has a positive or negative attitude based on “emoticons” …

Here are a few ways companies are successfully using Twitter:  1) Take note of complaints that may help improve the next generation of products and offer customer service. Listen to what Twitter users are saying about the competition and the industry in general … 2) Identify influencers … Reaching out to these Twitterers can be a key strategy for companies when launching a new product, building a new campaign or just collecting opinions … 3) Pay attention to shifts in opinion … or emoticons … 4) Follow trending topics. Twitter has recently added a trending topics section to its home page, showing the 10 most discussed topics at the moment …

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Full Article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204731804574391102221959582.html

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Posted in Internet - Soc Networking, Mktg - Consumer Behavior, Polls & Surveys | Leave a Comment »