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The price is still wrong for too many health insurance customers. Nearly half of all people with individual health insurance plans this year said it's "very" or "somewhat" difficult for them to afford their monthly premiums. The vast majority of Obamacare exchange customers receive a discount on their monthly premiums as a result of subsidies they are issued. Despite that, among individuals with both subsidized and nonsubsidized coverage, "You've got a substantial share saying it's not a great value for the money," said Liz Hamel, director of Kaiser's Public Opinion and Survey Research team. About four in 10 people surveyed...

Many were called. Few chose to respond. The federal Obamacare insurance marketplace HealthCare.gov signed up 147,000 people in 36 states during a special tax season enrollment period, officials revealed Tuesday. HealthCare.gov issued the final tally via Twitter rather than a press release or news call that Obama administration officials have previously used to announce other numbers and results. In all, it appears fewer than 250,000 people signed up nationally. In Hawaii, no people—as in zero—signed up during the special tax season enrollment.

Nearly two-thirds of companies facing a new ObamaCare tax say they are changing their coverage to avoid the extra costs, according to a new survey. The so-called Cadillac tax, which applies to healthcare plans above a certain expense threshold, is one of the most pressing changes still to come under ObamaCare. Only 2.5 percent of companies that would be hit by the Cadillac tax starting in 2018 said they plan to pay the tax. A total of 62 percent of companies said they have already taken action or plan to take action to avoid it. Most say they are shifting...

Venezuela's black market exchange rate weakened below a key level on Thursday, as the bolivar's decline steepened in the face of hyperinflation and a rapidly shrinking economy. Over the past couple of years the value of the currency has plummeted against the dollar to its present 300 bolivar level. In 2012, a dollar would get you 10 bolivars, according to unofficial exchange rates. By the time President Nicolas Maduro was inaugurated in April 2013, it was 24 bolivars to the dollar and by this January it was at 173. This black market rate of 300.72 on Thursday was almost 50...

The Obama administration is likely to fall far short of the lofty goals it set for itself at Thursday’s summit with Gulf leaders, several experts on the region said. While the White House has framed the seven-nation meeting as an opportunity to deepen and strengthen Gulf nations’ security relationship with the United States in light of a possible nuclear deal with Iran, the six foreign leaders attending have set out bargaining chips that the administration has already shot down, and it’s not exactly clear what else, besides those tangible items, either side wants. “Something that actually offers a couple of...

Damage is estimated at $9 million for the destruction of hundreds of businesses and two homes during the recent unrest in Baltimore — with at least 30 sustaining major damage, according to information released Wednesday. The Small Business Administration estimated the damaged at about $8.9 million to 284 business and $60,000 to two houses, officials told The Baltimore Sun. U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, along with other Maryland Democrats, called for Small Business Administration to assist with the creation of disaster centers in the city and a plan to inform business owners who are eligible for benefits about how to...

After using most of $1 billion in federal start-up money, California's Obamacare exchange is preparing to go on a diet. That financial reality is reflected in Covered California's proposed budget, to be released Wednesday, as well as a reduced forecast calling for 2016 enrollment of fewer than 1.5 million people. A number of factors contributed to the shortfall, but health policy experts said that some uninsured folks still find health insurance unaffordable despite the health law's premium subsidies.

The Obama administration has worked for years to lure states into accepting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion under the false promise of “flexibility.” Despite its best efforts, 21 states have rejected the expansion. And at least two states that previously expanded Medicaid under Obamacare are looking to turn back the clock and draw down their Medicaid expansions in 2016. The Obama administration is desperate for a national leader like Florida to expand Obamacare, hoping it will set off a chain reaction to convince leaders in other states to fall in line. So, frustrated with its lack of success in convincing conservatives to...

The increase in violence that has followed the death of Freddie Gray continued through the weekend, with four homicides reported since Saturday, according to Baltimore police. Ten people were reported shot on Sunday alone, including three who were shot to death within a span of 39 minutes. The violence comes as the city prepares for the Preakness on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course. Ten people were also shot Thursday. At least 87 people have been killed in Baltimore this year, 22 more than at this time last year. Nonfatal shootings are up nearly 50 percent across the city.

From contraception to colonoscopies, the Obama administration Monday closed a series of insurance loopholes on coverage of preventive care. The department of Health and Human Services said insurers must cover at least one birth control option under each of 18 methods approved by the FDA — without copays. Also, insurers can't charge patients for anesthesia services in connection with colonoscopies. Other services covered without copays or cost-sharing include: - Preventive screening, genetic counseling and BRCA genetic testing for women at increased risk for having a potentially harmful mutation in genes that suppress cancerous tumors. - Prenatal care and other services...

... Since January, there has been a shortage of subs in Autauga County, which leaders say is a first for the school system. The shortage means students may be disbursed and placed in another class for the day or teachers take turns during their planning period. Superintendent Spence Agee says the shortage is due to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The law requires large employers to provide insurance for employees working more than 30 hours a week. Due to the requirement, the schools have had to cut back on substitutes' hours, only allowing them to work three...

Hillary Clinton has tried to piggyback on her husband's ferocious reputation, boasting that she "beat the Republican attack machine." Of course, if anybody beat the Republican attack machine, it was Bill. Hillary Clinton wasn't on any ballot in the 1990s. True, her reputation was at stake, but that's a fight she lost: She ended that decade a highly unpopular figure. She remains one today, with about half of the public persistently telling pollsters they have an unfavorable view of her. Nor was Clinton able to shed her baggage when she moved to New York. In her November 2000 Senate race,...

NEW YORK — At the head of the table, wearing a massive diamond brooch, was the widow of the man who was once the country’s richest African American. A few seats down, there was Wendell Pierce of HBO fame in “The Wire” and “Treme,” and beyond that, Baltimore Orioles slugger Adam Jones. Taking the microphone Monday evening inside a luxury upper East Side penthouse in Manhattan was President Obama, thanking everyone for attending the $10,000-a-plate fundraiser. “It is wonderful to see so many old friends and a few new ones,” Obama began. After headlining far fewer party fundraisers following Democrats’...

LINK ONLY:  Contrary to goals, ER visits rise under Obamacare

Nearly half of the 17 insurance marketplaces set up by the states and the District under President Obama’s health law are struggling financially, presenting state officials with an unexpected and serious challenge five years after the passage of the landmark Affordable Care Act. Many of the online exchanges are wrestling with surging costs, especially for balky technology and expensive customer call centers — and tepid enrollment numbers. To ease the fiscal distress, officials are considering raising fees on insurers, sharing costs with other states and pressing state lawmakers for cash infusions. Some are weighing turning over part or all of...

Nearly half of the 17 insurance marketplaces set up by the states and the District under President Obama’s health law are struggling financially, presenting state officials with an unexpected and serious challenge five years after the passage of the landmark Affordable Care Act. Many of the online exchanges are wrestling with surging costs, especially for balky technology and expensive customer-call centers — and tepid enrollment numbers. To ease the fiscal distress, officials are considering raising fees on insurers, sharing costs with other states and pressing state lawmakers for cash infusions. Some are weighing turning over part or all of their...

A recent survey by UC-Berkeley's student assembly found that nearly half -- 47% -- of its Ph.D students were depressed, citing dismal job prospects. About 37% of its master's degree students also reported depression. Even though the once-a-decade report only focused on Berkeley -- one of the most prestigious public universities in the country -- it could spark a wider discussion on the value of graduate education in America. "The largest source of anxiety for me is my job outlook. It is tremendously uncertain and thus fear-inducing," one anonymous graduate student said in their survey response. Job pessimism was the...

Whenever there’s a crisis in America, Barack Obama is quick to demonstrate what a monstrously destructive individual he is. The riots in Baltimore are no exception, as we already hear President “Johnny One-Note” chanting the only song he’s ever known. It goes like this: “A racist, uncaring, greed-driven America has turned its back on the poor, suffering black children of Baltimore and many other cities for decades, depriving them of the help, the funding, and the attention that they so desperately they need and deserve—and thus do we now reap the whirlwind of their long-festering, wholly justified rage.”And how much...

Americans’ tax burden is already $3 billion heavier because of Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare. By putting more able-bodied, working-age childless adults on Medicaid than Kasich projected, Obamacare expansion is reducing incentives to work and threatening traditional Medicaid recipients’ access to care faster and at greater cost than anticipated. After Kasich expanded Medicaid unilaterally, a state panel approved $2.56 billion in Obamacare spending for the expansion’s first 18 months. The money was meant to last until July, but it ran out in February. Kasich’s Obamacare expansion cost $323 million in March — 84 percent greater than...

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