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ObamaCare Demystified

Those who are eligible to apply for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) more popularly known as ObamaCare must do so before December 23rd in order to be covered as from Jan 1st.  Go to https://www.healthcare.gov/ to apply.

This highly controversial legislation was signed into law by President Obama on March 2010. It was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court on June 2012. Last October's 16-day government shutdown can be attributed almost in its entirety to an impasse about this legislation. The Tea Party faction of the Republican Party demanded that Congress stop health care reform from proceeding by removing funding for it. It failed.

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com/will-obamacare-challenges-succeed-2013-1

 

Besides political hurdles, ObamaCare suffered massive technical glitches when it launched. The website was unable to handle the amount of traffic and reports claim that the system had other numerous bugs. Reuters reported on December 14 that around 15,000 enrolment forms filled out by people applying for health insurance were not transmitted properly to insurers.  As a result of this mess, the Chief Information Officer for the agency running the troubled health insurance website resigned.

Image: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/10/09/3-million-obamacare-website-may-face-months-glitches-experts-warn/

 

ObamaCare will go down in history as being an attempt to clear the Hospital’s Emergency Rooms. Before this act, people who could not afford to pay for medical treatment because they had either had no insurance or because they has been refused insurance could only see the inside of a hospital if they were admitted as an emergency case. Millions of ill persons would have to stick it out until their condition was desperate and once they (sadly) go to this state (and still be alive) they would hog the ERs to get treatment.

With ObamaCare people can no longer be denied coverage or treatment because they had been sick in the past or be dropped mid-treatment for making a simple mistake on their application.  Insurers can no longer apply annual or lifetime limits on healthcare. Also ObamaCare practically makes health insurance available to practically everyone.

Immunisation for children is will be free. Young adults can stay on their parent's plan until 26 and improvements related to women’s health such as mammograms and wellness visits are covered automatically.

Another provision of ObamaCare is called the 80/20 Rule, which requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% of insurance premium on health care or improvements to care. If they fail to meet this benchmark, for example by spending excessively on advertising and CEO bonuses they must provide a rebate to their customers.

People who were already covered by health insurance will benefit further.

According to ObamaCareFacs.com, as of 2013 there were around 44 million Americans who were unable to get health insurance.

Image: http://obamacarefacts.com/affordablecareact-summary.php

 

Government Default = Black Thursday?

Last week I published a short article on the effects of the Government Shutdown. Today I’ll explain what will happen on Thursday 17^th October if congress does not raise the United States of America’s debt ceiling.

Like many other countries (including Malta) the US collects less money than it spends. This has been happening for many years. The US government’s main source of income is federal taxes while its spectrum of spending is wide. Food stamps, Medicaid, the military and the 2.65 million who are employed by the federal government are examples of where income tax money is distributed internally. The US also pays out billions in financial aid to counties such as Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines and another 25 countries for “good behaviour”, “good friendship” or military bases. The US is a major contributor to the United Nations, NATO and other international bodies.

Being the most indebted country in the world, the US pays a lot of money in interest on its debt. According to the US Treasury website (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm) more than $415 billion was paid in interest between September 2012 and October 2013.

In order for the government to borrow more money it needs the approval of congress. If congress does not approve this increase the government will run out of money.

Let us imagine that the US government is a person. This person has a family to support. He has a wallet, a bank account, a credit card and a loan. The bank accounts stand at zero, the credit cards are maxed out and a loan payment is due. His wallet is bone dry. This person has a job but the pay cheque will not cover the expenses.

Now think of congress as the Bank that can approve an increase in this person’s loan facilities. If the loan ceiling is increased the person can cover the additional expenses. If not, …

If the US were to default, the financial markets will probably react very badly and we could risk facing another Black day in which stock exchanges spiral out of control as investors see this uncertainty as a sign to pull out of certain markets. Another effect of a default would probably be that rating agencies downgrade the US. This will result in an increase in borrowing costs. Simply put, instead of paying $415 billion in interest the government would have to pay $800 billion for the same amount of money. This is because investors no longer see the US government as a safe place to invest their money and will demand more interest. It is like having negative notches on your credit rating. Once this happens banks will no longer want to loan money and you would have to go to a pay-day lender or, even worse, a loan shark.

A default would result in a weaker dollar. Since most international business is conducted in this currency, countries who already committed to transact in this currency will suffer because of this unexpected change.

Hopefully the President and Congress see sense before damage is done.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat visits the Maltese Centre in New York

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat visiting the Maltese Centre in New York were he met representatives of the Maltese community

The Prime Minister and Ms Muscat meet the President and Ms Obama

The Prime Minister and Ms Muscat meet the President of the United States and Ms Michelle Obama during one of the engagements related to the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Members Unanimously Approve Changes To Stars And Stripes Malta Statute

All registered members of SASM have been asked to indicate whether they want to make fundamental changes to how our not-for-profit organisation functions. The most important change was the introduction of a new Article to our Statute which ensures that every committee member comes up for election every 4 years. It also gives opportunity for aspiring members to come forward and offer their service to SASM as committee members. Members unanimously approved these changes and very soon we will kick off the election process targeted for November.

How to conduct a fair election was one the major issues that had to be dealt with. The global distribution of members required a setup that would be easily accessible by everyone. Since all members have an email address and access to the internet, the committee felt that the most cost-effective solution would be to use an online voting system.

The voting system had to meet certain critical conditions that ensured that elections would be guaranteed fair and that all those who either presented themselves as candidates or who voted would be assured that rigging of the system would be out of the question.

After considerable searching all over the Internet, the solution selected was the one produced by QuestionPro Inc of Seattle, Washington (http://www.QuestionPro.com). Their solution had functions that ensured that the vote would be done securely, ballot stuffing was not possible and that only registered members could participate. Each member received a unique password that only worked with his/her email address. Once the vote was cast the member could not cast his vote again. Another plus for the QuestionPro guys was their online help. Every time we came across a hurdle, a human being was a few clicks away with a solution.

Another cool feature of QuestionPro that made life a lot easier was the ability to control the time the electronic voting boot opened and when it shut.

The committee would like to say a big thank you to all members who voted.