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<p>WASHINGTON — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Lee Scott joined one of his toughest critics, labor leader Andrew Stern, on Wednesday to unveil a political campaign to promote universal health care coverage.</p> <p>The two longtime antagonists are helping lead a coalition of labor and business leaders urging Congress to end the nation's reliance on employer-backed health insurance and develop a system for providing universal low-cost coverage within five years.</p>

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2007 – The war on terrorism has cost $545 billion to date, the department’s top budget official said today. Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas told reporters in the Pentagon that Congress has appropriated $452 billion for the war on terrorism via emergency supplemental budget measures. Another $3 billion has been appropriated for Operation Noble Eagle, the mission providing a combat air patrol over the continental United States and security at airports that started after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she said. The comptroller said DoD is asking for another $93.4 billion as part of the...

Pennsylvania has a new blueprint for how death might become a less painful and uncomfortable experience for its residents. The Rendell administration today is expected to release a 40-page report called "Improving End-of-Life Experiences for Pennsylvanians," which has been two years in the making. A wide-ranging group of health professionals, social service leaders, consumer advocates and others produced 160 recommendations covering how to expand hospice and palliative care, advance directives, medical training and more aspects related to patients' late-life treatment. "The current health care system evolved to provide care for acute illnesses, but it is poorly prepared to provide comprehensive,...

SACRAMENTO — Democratic leaders want to impose union-driven prevailing wage rules on new school construction projects despite a critical state report that says enforcing the rules previously has cost tens of millions in taxpayer funds. State regulators spent about $70 million in taxpayer funds during the past three years to recover just $3 million to $4 million in underpaid private workers' wages, according to state documents released last week. Legislative Analyst Liz Hill said in her recent study on the use of voter-approved bond funds that the Industrial Relations Department's Labor Compliance Program spent $18 to $23 for each $1...

Cost of burying slain child adds to parents' trauma By Jocelyn Wiener - Bee Staff Writer Last Updated 12:27 am PST Thursday, January 11, 2007 Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1 Print | E-Mail | Comments (27) Asia Williams, left, comforts Kwanay Smith, during a memorial service in 2004 for their friend ShaTavia Westbrook at Florin High School. Westbrook was killed in a drive-by shooting. Some experts say insurance can ease the pain of a grieving family that struggles to pay for the funeral. Sacramento Bee file, 2004/Carl Costas See additional images At 15 years old, ShaTavia Westbrook...

COLLEGE COSTS can be daunting. A year at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst costs Massachusetts residents more than $17,000. A year at a private college can run more than $45,000. At those prices, some students fall into a tuition gap. Even with financial aid, they do not have enough money to pay all their college bills, according to a report from the state's Board of Higher Education. In Massachusetts, the average size of that gap is $4,500 -- a cold reminder that having money matters. Some wealthy schools provide relief. At Harvard, families with earnings of $60,000 or less are not...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday he will appoint a bipartisan commission to study the growing cost of funding state public pensions and retiree health benefits. The governor said the mounting costs, mostly due to health care, "remain one of the biggest problems facing governments everywhere" and threaten to take money away from education, public safety, environmental protection and health care for the poor. Over time, the state will have to come up with between $40 and $70 billion to pay for the health benefits promised to retired state workers, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. To do that, the...

Look no further than the federal government. For decades it has grossly distorted the market to the point where consumers are all but indifferent to the cost of care. Late last month, the Michigan congressional delegation sent a blunt letter to President Bush, stating that “spiraling healthcare costs are placing our industry and America’s manufacturing base at a serious competitive disadvantage.” To get an idea of what’s driving costs, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey recently asked workers with employer-provided health plans about their sensitivity to the cost of care. The results were stunning. Fewer than half said they consider costs...

Ursinus is not unique. With the race for rankings and choice students shaping college pricing, the University of Notre Dame, Bryn Mawr College, Rice University, the University of Richmond and Hendrix College, in Conway, Ark., are just a few that have sharply increased tuition to match colleges they consider their rivals, while also providing more financial assistance. The recognition that families associate price with quality, and that a tuition rise, accompanied by discounts, can lure more applicants and revenue, has helped produce an economy in academe something like that in the health care system, with prices rising faster than inflation...

An analysis of recent census data indicates that the presence of illegal aliens in California is costing the state's taxpayers more than $10.5 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. The report, written by the Federation of American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, states that even if the tax contributions of illegal aliens are subtracted, state government outlays still amount to nearly $9 billion a year. The $10.5 billion figure translates into a burden to native-born residents of $1,183 per household. FAIR notes that the results of the report take into account only state of California costs and do...

LACONIA -- The rising costs of delivering healthcare combined with the transformation taking place in the structure of employee benefit programs are driving changes in the way LRGHealthcare bills for the services provided by Franklin Regional and Lakes Region General Hospital, the Laconia Clinic, and other providers affiliated with the local, non-profit charitable trust. “We’re seeing a continuing evolution in the programs we offer to assist people with the costs of care,” said Henry Lipman, LRGHealthcare Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “What’s important is that people have access to the care they need, and that they’re treated fairly when...

...The average cost of a family insurance plan that Americans get through their jobs has risen another 7.7 percent this year, to $11,500, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In only seven years, the cost has doubled, while incomes and company revenue, which pay for health insurance, haven’t risen nearly as much. ...An industry that once defined the American economy, meanwhile, is sinking in large measure because of the cost of caring for its workers and retirees. For every vehicle that General Motors sells, fully $1,500 of the purchase price goes to pay for medical care. “We must all do...

Sometimes, simple ideas are the best ones. And what could be simpler than prioritisation? Nobody can do everything at once. We prioritise in our private lives every day. When we budget. When we plan our day. Businesspeople have to juggle competing demands; so do politicians.Yet, when it comes to global issues - the biggest challenges facing the planet - we don't prioritise very well. The media's shifting spotlight often dictates what is most deserving of our attention. We hear experts warn us about global warming, others tell us about HIV/Aids or about the tragedy of children missing out on education....

WASHINGTON - The Senate's immigration proposal would cost $49 billion over the next five years and $127 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The majority of the costs would be for increased enforcement, such as hiring more Border Patrol officers and building more detention facilities. The legislation would offer a chance at citizenship for millions of immigrants. Spending on government benefits programs, including refundable tax credits for the working poor, would rise by $16 billion for the years 2007-11, and by $48 billion over the decade, the CBO said in a report released over the...

he amount of money Medicare spends on chronically ill patients varies substantially from state to state, with nearly $40,000 spent per patient in New Jersey and the District of Columbia, but less than $24,000 spent in states such as Indiana and West Virginia. Yet, there is no indication that patients in the states with the highest spending are better off than those in states with the lowest spending. In fact, the reverse seems to be true, according to researchers at Dartmouth Medical School...(snip) "We need to redirect resources away from acute care and invest in infrastructure that can better coordinate...

A new WSJ.com/Harris health-care poll indicates growing U.S. support for charging higher insurance premiums or out-of-pockets medical costs to people with unhealthy lifestyles. The online survey of 2,325 U.S. adults found that 53% of Americans think it is fair to ask people with unhealthy lifestyles to pay higher insurance premiums than people with healthy lifestyles, while 32% said it would be unfair. When asked the same question in 2003, 37% said it would be fair, while 45% said it would be unfair. Healthy lifestyles were described as not smoking, exercising frequently and controlling one's weight.

Apollo Group is the biggest of the ForPro education groups. It owns the University of Phoenix. Yesterday its stock fell 2 percent after reporting lower third-quarter profits because of higher costs. Corinthian Colleges is another of the big players. It, too, reported a loss of 3 cents/share. DeVry lost 15 cents, and Educational Services lost 3 cents/share as well. Everybody's trading down, albeit down very little. Does this mean that the quality of education provided by these groups has also dipped? Are students losing out 2% on their classes? or 3 cents/dollar they spend on their tuition? Hardly. One of...

Competition may be the tonic that drives most sectors of the economy, but it is bad medicine for the medical professions and their clients, [...] "In theory, free market competition should reduce the cost of a product. But economics is as much a belief system as it is a science, and economists' theories do not always pan out in the material world. In practice, the scramble for health care dollars has proved extraordinarily expensive -- both in terms of the quality of care and in terms of its cost," Mahar writes in Money-Driven Medicine. [...] Because of the competition, [...]...

USA Citizens Day - July 1st Immigration Control Rally Nationwide Rally on Saturday, July 1st, at noon, at your City HallMay 1st - Million of Illegal Aliens Marched in our StreetsTwelve million illegal aliens demonstrated their political power, and declared May 1st to be A Day Without Undocumented Workers ( illegal aliens ). They boycotted the USA, all US businesses and institutions. Millions of them marched in our streets, carried Mexican flags, shouted "Si se puede!", and demanded new laws from our Congress. July 1st - U.S. Citizens Nationwide Rally for Immigration ControlRally to stop our continuous invasion by...

According to police estimates, 50,000 people will march in San Jose in support of criminal fugitive illegal aliens, primarily from Mexico, which just today legalized the use and possession of cocaine, angeldust, heroin, and marijuana. San Jose is a hot-bed of anti-gringo hostility. Expect the Mexican flag to dominate the march fly in place of our country's 'Old Glory'. The march is expected to stop traffic from Story Road to City Hall on Santa Clara Street. It's curious to me that the Mexicans have chosen May 1st to march. The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP, USA), known originally as the...