Health Care Price Controls Hit Massachusetts; Are Doctor Wage Controls Next?

Excuse me for asking but wasn't Obamacare supposed to increase competition and lower health care prices?

In theory, everyone was forced to buy insurance, sick or not, whether they could afford it or not, on the grounds it would lower costs for those with preexisting conditions.

In practice, insurance companies continue to jack up rates, so much so that Massachusetts has effectively instituted insurance price controls, rejecting 235 of 274 proposed rate increases because they included "excessive increases and rates unreasonable relative to the benefits provided."

Price Controls In Massachusetts

Inquiring minds waiting for Obamacare to deliver on promises might be interested in reading Mass. agency limits health premium increases.

Massachusetts regulators issued their first batch of health care price controls on Thursday, rejecting the vast majority of small business health premium increases sought this year by the state's major insurers.

Insurance Commissioner Joseph Murphy said he had disapproved 235 of 274 proposed rate increases because they included "excessive increases and rates unreasonable relative to the benefits provided."

The head of a group representing insurers, health care providers and an array of area businesses, termed the action "arbitrary and capricious" and said it would hurt insurance companies because they already have negotiated contracts with health care providers.

Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, added: "The administration is seeking a quick fix, but this will only compound the problem."

Murphy's decision covered all 19 of the plan increases proposed by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, 63 of the 64 plan increases proposed by the Blue Cross HMO, all 47 proposed by Fallon Community Health Plan and all 36 proposed by Tufts Health Plan. The 33 plans offered by three out-of-state, for-profit insurers � Aetna, ConnectiCare and United HealthCare � all were approved. Each does relatively little business in Massachusetts.

Policyholders who have already made a premium payment under the disapproved rates will receive a refund or credit.

The announcement had political overtones: Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, is seeking re-election this fall against a field that includes Republican Charles Baker, the former president of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Twenty-five of the 26 increases proposed by Harvard Pilgrim were rejected.

Three Questions To Ponder

• For Governor Deval Patrick: When do health care companies pull out of Massachusetts?
• For Challenger Charles Baker: Who are you beholden to?
• For everyone: What hath Obama wrought?

Two Certainties

• Plenty of health care mud will be flying in the mid-term elections.
• Wage and price controls never work.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Speaking at Search Marketing Exp (SMX) Toronto

I will be speaking at SMX Toronto next week. If you have not registered yet, you can still save $200 on your registration for SMX, Toronto.

The topic of my session will be �What is Search Analytics and Why Should I Care?� Below is an overview of the session:

Effective use of analytics solutions and processes significantly boosts click through, conversions, return on ad spend and dozens of other metrics that may be important to your organization. To benefit fully, you need to create meaningful action plans based on data.

Speakers in this session define and shed light on the growing discipline of �search analytics� providing case studies from their own successful analytics-driven search marketing action plans.

This session will be moderated by, Marco Bailetti, Sapient. Other speakers in this session are

• Marko Hurst, MDH Studios
• Jeff Quipp, Search Engine People
• Alan K�necht, K�nechtology

Web Analytics Rock Star, and the author of Web Analytics 2.0 and Web Analytics An Hour a Day, Avinash Kaushik will be the keynote on Thursday, 8th April.

I look forward to meeting with you at SMX Toronto

Nikon D90 Everything Spring Photo Contest!

Hey everyone happy April Fools Day! I wanted to give this a try! Everyone has been so nice on my blog over the last year and a half I want to giveaway a free copy of David Busch's Nikon D90 book! So let's have a D90 only photo contest with spring as our theme!

UPDATE 5/4/2010

Here are the top 5 photos and winner submitted for our first contest!

1. Winner! Wafwot


2. Vincent


3. D

4. Nancy


5. Tmup


Congratulations To Wafwot, You win the Nikon D90 Book!
With some help from my friends Wafwot got the votes to win first place. I'll be having another contest soon for another nice d90 gift...please stay tuned!

Thank You to everyone that entered my first contest!

This is how it will work.
1.Theme is Spring Time
2.Photo must be from a D90
3.Must include exit data.(just the basics, Lens, Exposure, Aperture, Focal Length, ISO)
4.Photo Title and Description
5.Dead Line to enter is April 30th

So add this info below in the comments field along with a link directly to your photo so i can see it. I'll post the top 5 photos at the end of April and pick a winner!

Have Fun and thanks again to all my followers and anyone that has visited this blog!

Auto Sales Rebound From Extremely Depressed Levels; Ford Kills Volvo; Think's Electric Cars Roll Into New York

Auto sales are up, but not as much as meets the eye. For example GM sales are reported up 21% but adjusted for the number of sales days, the figure is 16%. Please consider GM 21% U.S. Sales Gain Trails Estimates as Lineup Cut

General Motors Co. posted a 21 percent increase in March U.S. sales that trailed analysts� estimates as a cutback in domestic brands damped the company�s gains in a strengthening auto market.

Deliveries rose to 188,546 from 156,380 a year earlier, GM said today. The Detroit-based automaker is finishing the disposal of half of its eight U.S. vehicle lines under a plan to return to profit after a government-backed bankruptcy.

The results showed GM�s challenge in trying to retain the top spot in the U.S. in a month when industry sales may have run at the fastest pace since 2009�s �cash for clunkers� rebates. Toyota Motor Corp.�s incentives to counter global recalls spurred rivals to match the offers.

The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate for cars and light trucks may have reached 12 million last month, the average of 8 analysts� estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That would be a fifth straight gain from a year earlier. March 2009�s pace was 9.86 million.

The estimates for individual automakers are adjusted for the number of selling days in a month. March had 26 sales days, 1 more than a year earlier. Because of the extra day, adjusted sales will be about 4 percent lower than the actual figures.

On that basis, GM�s increase was 16 percent, compared with an average estimate of 25 percent, based on 6 analysts.

Industry sales matching analysts� estimates would still underscore the market�s contraction in the recession. Annual U.S. deliveries averaged 16.8 million last decade through 2007. The 2008 total was 13.2 million, and 2009�s tally of 10.4 million was the fewest in 27 years, according to industry researcher Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

2009 Totals were the worst in 27 years and that does not even factor in population growth. Thus, beating 2009 numbers is not much to crow about. 2008 was not a good year to say the least, and I doubt we get to that level.

After such depressed levels, we are seeing a return of some pent-up demand, but this is a cyclical bounce not a secular one.

Next year the comparisons will not be as easy to beat. Likewise they will not be as challenging as 2006-2007.

Ford Abandons Luxury Brands Outside US

Inquiring minds note Ford subtracts Volvo, makes Blue Oval main focus

Ford Motor Co's (F.N) sale of its Volvo unit this year will leave the No. 2 U.S. automaker with no luxury brand outside North America.

But does Ford even need one?

At least for now, analysts say no. They may bemoan a lost opportunity to integrate the money-losing Swedish brand Volvo into Ford, but they see an even sharper focus on the "Blue Oval" Ford brand as key to sustaining the company's turnaround.

Ford is farther along in an overhaul of its vehicle lineup than rivals General Motors Co GM.UL and Chrysler Group LLC, which went through government-supported bankruptcies in 2009. Ford posted a small profit last year and expects a profit for 2010.

The money-losing Volvo became a casualty of Ford's unswerving focus on its mass-market Ford brand and its balance sheet for the turnaround under Chief Executive Alan Mulally.

"We aren't really counting on doing anything other than focusing on the Blue Oval," Ford global marketing chief Jim Farley said in an interview at the Geneva Motor Show in early March.

Will City Drivers Accept Think's Electric Cars?

Inquiring minds might recall Think to manufacture electric cars in Indiana

The Think City is an all-electric car that can go about 60 miles per hour and has a driving range of about 100 miles. It runs from lithium ion batteries supplied by EnerDel, which is based in Indiana.

It's expected that Think will market the two-seat City to American consumers as a car suitable for daily errands or commuting. In many cases, it could be second car with a household's primary gas car able to take longer trips.

Think's Electric Cars Roll Into New York

Please consider Think's electric cars to roll into New York

Think will begin selling its all-electric City cars in the New York metropolitan area within the coming months, the company said Thursday.

Think's City model is a highway-legal electric vehicle that runs solely on a lithium ion battery system and gives off zero emissions. The car, which has a top speed of 60 mph, can be charged from either a standard U.S. 110-volt household outlet, or a fast-charging 220-volt station that can be installed for home use. The small two-door car, clearly intended for city driving and parking, has a battery system with a range of about 112 miles per charge.

Via the fast-charging 220-volt station, a Think City car can charge from zero to 80 percent capacity in about 15 minutes. However, using a standard household outlet can take up to eight hours.

Think, which has applied for U.S. Department of Energy loans, has gotten a lot of attention from both the U.S. media and government in large part because the Norway-based company offered to make the Think City a somewhat American-made car and help create green U.S. jobs in the process. And the New York government support that Think mentions is not such a coincidence given the fact that Ener1, a New York-based company, is the parent of Indiana-based EnerDel, the exclusive supplier of the lithium ion battery system for the Think City car in the U.S.

It will be a good thing if these cars are accepted. However, bear in mind what it will likely do to profits if they are.

I would not consider one of those cars. But for someone who only drives in a big city, or as a second car they are appropriate.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Today's archidose #405

Here are some photos of the Mesa Del Sol Town Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico by Antoine Predock Architect, 2008. Photos are by jarrod_arq1, who has many more photos in his flickr set on the building.

To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:

:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose

Candide Round Table

A week from today I will be participating in a round table discussion timed to the launch of Candide. Journal for Architectural Knowledge. The panel focuses on knowledge, writing, and architectural publishing, among other things. I'll be alongside 306090's Emily Abruzzo, Yale's Nina Rappaport, and Columbia's Kazys Varnelis. Between now and then I need to work on de-jangling my public speaking nerves, come up with a brief slideshow on why I do my blog and weekly web page, and think about the questions posed in the press release below. If you attend the discussion be sure to say hi!

8 April, Thursday, 6-8pm
The Glass Corner, Room 206
25 East 13th Street

In an age of seemingly ubiquitous information, data and networks:
What is knowledge?In an age of self-publication and blogs:
Can peer review ensure quality?
Why should architects write when what they do best is design?

Hosted by William R. Morrish, ?Dean, Parsons, School of Constructed Environments
Moderated by Susanne Schindler, ?Editor, Candide. Journal for Architectural Knowledge

Panelists:
Emily Abruzzo, Editor, 306090, Frequent SCE visiting faculty.
John Hill, Writer and Editor, A Daily Dose of Architecture
Nina Rappaport, Publications Director, Yale School of Architecture, Frequent SCE visiting faculty.
Kazys Varnelis, Director, Network Architecture Lab, Columbia University

�
Candide. Journal for Architectural Knowledge
is a peer-reviewed German-English language periodical edited by the Department of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

For questions or review copies, contact Susanne Schindler
schindler@theorie.arch.rwth-aachen.de

Three Reasons Public Sector Workers Are Killing The Economy; Pittsburgh's Pension Liability Hits $1 Billion; Pittsburgh Is Bankrupt

With thanks to the Business Insider who says "pass it on" here are Three Reasons Public Sector Workers Are Killing The Economy.



Three Reasons

1. Public sector employees cost too much.
2. We can't fire them no matter how bad they are
3. They are a permanent lobby

Because public workers get money from taxpayers, everything it gains means less money for the rest of us!

Please play the video, it is short, entertaining, and educational.

Pittsburgh's Pension Liability Hits $1 Billion

Please consider Pittsburgh's pension liability hits $1 billion

Pittsburgh's multimillion-dollar pension liability is set to balloon to $1.04 billion today, when city officials must comply with a state requirement to report retirement obligations to police, firefighters and other city workers.

With $296 million on hand in February, the city has about 30 cents for every dollar required to cover pension promises to about 3,200 employees and thousands of pensioners.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl wants to avoid a state takeover of the pension funds looming at year's end by depositing at least $200 million from a controversial plan to lease city parking garages and meters for 50 years to a private firm.

"They're going to have to be very liberal in their assumptions, if they think that $200 million is going to bring them to 50 percent," said James McAneny, director of the Pennsylvania Employee Retirement Commission. "They're going to have to assume really good earnings and that nobody is going to be able to get a pay raise."

"It's one of the worst pension funds I've heard of," said Edward Siedle, president of Florida-based Benchmark Financial Services, Inc.

"Eight percent is an extraordinarily high expected return. Most funds are in the sevens," he said. "If you fail to meet your investment return, your liabilities grow each year. It's like setting an unrealistic bar."

Pittsburgh is bankrupt in my estimation. There is no way it can meet those pension obligations thanks to corrupt politicians getting in bed with greedy unions. The only way out is bankruptcy, hoping to overturn ridiculous promises in court.

Sadly, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has his head in the sand, hoping to postpone reality with sleight of hand magic. It won't work.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List