CSR from your point of view

by 10:31 am. It has 0 Comments.

Yesterday, MAK in comments raised a very good and pragmatic implicit question; WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS MEAN TO ME AND MY FAMILY

Does this mean that the September payment covered the rest of the year? Because I’ve been looking (apparently in all the wrong places) for an answer to this simple question: when do the subsidies end?
We receive a substantial subsidy which makes our family policy affordable. If the subsidy goes away, so does our insurance. So perhaps a better question, in my case, is: when does my insurance end?
ETA: We’re in Pennsylvania, fwiw.

Everything that I have been writing about regarding CSR is happening behind the scenes. It will have future in front of the scene implications, but let’s keep things simple.

1) If you currently have an ACA plan, the CSR drama has no immediate impact on whether or not you are covered today, tomorrow or next month.

2) If you have an ACA plan with premium tax credits helping you pay the monthly premium, the CSR drama has no immediate impact on whether or not you are covered today, tomorrow or next month.

3) If you have an ACA Silver plan with premium tax credits and CSR assistance, the CSR drama has no immediate impact on whether or not you are covered today, tomorrow or next month.

So what about 2018?

1) If you qualify for premium tax credits, those will be paid normally.
2) If you qualify for CSR and choose to buy a Silver plan, you still will get the extra reductions in out of pocket expenses.

There will be strange things happening in relative pricing as we saw when we looked at Pennsylvania’s pricing this morning, but everything is going to function normally once you choose a plan for 2018.

This is a really good, pragmatic question.

Open thread for insurance questions!


Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Rare Sincerity

by 5:23 am. It has 230 Comments.

Not an elegant solution, stripping the individual tweets like this, but I hope y’all will overcome your aesthetic instincts to read the whole thing anyways:

2/ I watched the segment @chrislhayes did tonight RE whether Trump called or sent letters to the families of the 4 soldiers KIA in Niger
3/ it kinda unexpectedly wrecked me. I heard about it earlier, & like w much that he does, my response was sarcastic humor. But watching…
4/…it overwhelmed me, & I ended up in tears. It was one of those moments where it was devastating to think about the defective human…
5/…now with power to make some of the most consequential decisions w the most catastrophic effects in human history. Specifically…
6/…it reminded me of my role in bringing a dog from Iraq to the United States. In 2006 I managed a Congressional campaign vs a Repub…
7….incumbent who–like nearly every one of them-voted for the Iraq War. As late as early 2006 there were still a lot of Dems afraid of…
9/…opposing the Iraq War & making the campaign centered on it. Like many Dems unafraid of opposing the war, he won. He asked me to be…
10/…his chief of staff. And in 2007 I took on the job of setting up his operation & positioning him for reelection.
*****

14/…BUT, he was not elected to represent only people opposed to or not involved in the war. He was elected to represent all +700,000 people in his district…
*****

19/ Fast forward a few months. We get word the family had tried to get help from one of the state’s 2 Repub…
20/…senators but we’re getting ignored. They reached out to us. The last photo of their son was him holding a puppy. The next day…
21/…he was killed. They wanted to know if we could he them bring them the puppy. From Iraq. To the US. From the start, I made it clear..
22/…I would likely fire anyone on our staff who should do any of the following: A. Guarantee we could get the dog B. Request anything…
23/…that could get anyone else wounded or killed C. Mention anything about what we were doing to anyone in the press. This was…
24/…something the family wanted. We were doing it for them, & because their son had made the ultimate sacrifice for his nation. Remember
25/…the man we worked for was elected for opposing the war in which their son was killed. I assumed they voted for the Repub incumbent…
26/…but _it didn’t matter. We had a duty to act in the interests of everyone in the district. And we took that duty seriously. So, for…

27/…the next several months, in addition to all out normal work, & helping a guardswoman who’d gone AWOL to attend a custody hearing…
28/… for her son, & a soldier who wanted to donate a kidney to his mom, we worked to find a street dog in Iraq, get it quarantined…
29/…in Iraq, transported through three countries, & delivered to a family in the US, & keep it secret from the press. The help we got…
30/…still makes me choke up; the soldier’ squad, the commander of the 82nd Airborne, DHL, customs officials in three countries…
31…and especially the 20-somethings on our staff who took on this task as professional, as public servsnts, as patriots, and as…
32…this connects to today–as serious people doing serious work. When I saw the tape of Trump today, I wanted to punch the screen…


***********

Apart from resolving to NEVER STOP RESISTING, what’s on the agenda for the day?


On the Road and In Your Backyard

by 5:00 am. It has 13 Comments.

Good Morning All,

This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.

So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.

You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.

For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!

Sorry to all who I tried to publish for today, I encountered lots of errors and have little mental “pow” to deal with more than the path of least resistance.

 

Thank you JR – I think I stomped something else of yours, but I’ll try to solve  that another day.

Mom is doing ok, not good. I’m now here all the time (only son, no other family outside of Texas) so I’ve not paid the attention I should to this feature. I will, soon.

Until then, let me share with you a picture I took nearby. This is the view from where we (me and then-best-friend Brian) dropped off a stolen quarter-full keg of beer from some stupid Georgetown University frat boys our junior HS year, 30 years ago. Unfortunately, it didn’t have a tap, and no store would rent underage boys a tap without a credit card and deposit. So it sat outside until it was reported to police officers and then returned to the store from whence it came. Ah, the good old days, and getting away with stupid shit without digital evidence of all shapes and sorts!

This is looking over the (former) train bridge over Canal Road/Arizona Avenue in Washington, D.C. In the distance you can see forested cliffs; that is Virginia, across a deep, rapid stretch of the Potomac. During the Civil War, there were Rebels there – in view.

In my neighborhood is a former Battery a hundred or so feet higher in elevation than my family home where cannon were emplaced to shell across the river and defend against any efforts to cross the river up to Chain Bridge or down to Fletcher’s Cove. Gettysburg may be a two hour drive, and Bull Run much less, but it’s crazy how literally close the enemy was here, in our Nation’s Capital – within view, within hearing, but not effective rifle range.

It reminds me of visiting Bogota in 1996 – you could not believe that “los guerillas” were just over the mountain, and were likely viewing you in their scopes. Crazy that rebellion can be so physically close to the seat of power and yet not destroyable. Perhaps the best, most unheralded change of the past few years is the conclusion of the civil war in Colombia, and the beginning of repatriation of FARC. Finally a great people can work together to forge a better future for their children.

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Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Alas, Young Jared!

by 1:25 am. It has 37 Comments.

…Their partner, Vornado Realty Trust, is telling brokers to plan for a much more mundane renovation that would leave the property as an office building, according to three people familiar with the matter. Vornado Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steve Roth was never enthusiastic about the Kushner plan although until now he hadn’t stood in its way.

Putting an end to the Kushner effort — to salvage their overpriced investment by turning it into a Midtown jewel with expensive condos, a hotel and five-floor mall — could have profound ramifications for the family. Vornado, which owns 49.5 percent of 666 Fifth Ave., is unlikely to invest further in the property without first being reassured of its future, said three people familiar with Roth’s thinking. That means returning to the negotiating table with lenders — a battle that could result in Kushner Cos.’ losing control of the building, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private deals…

Roth is famously press shy and private and has instilled that ethos in other company executives. When he suffered a minor heart attack in August — something that many publicly-traded companies would immediately disclose to investors — it took more than a month for the news to break. So Vornado’s switch of directions for 666 Fifth is probably leaking out for a reason, according to three people familiar with him: he’s signaling to any lenders or investors who may still be interested in the Kushner effort to back off, the people said.

It’s a sharp reversal. As recently as March, both Vornado and Kushner were looking at a massive windfall from Anbang Insurance Group. The Kushner family stood to gain a $400 million cash payout from a deal being discussed with the Chinese insurer, while realizing their dreams of building a glamorous skyscraper. But Anbang, which had previously bought up several major U.S. properties, including the Waldorf Astoria hotel, pulled out of the negotiations amid a public outcry in the U.S. over conflict-of-interest concerns and a crackdown by the Chinese government on overseas investments…

Pressure is mounting because a $1.2 billion mortgage is due in February 2019, while losses make it unattractive to lenders who might refinance the debt. The building lost $14.5 million in 2016 and is on track to lose $24 million this year after a boost in the loan’s interest rate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A 30 percent vacancy rate, as of June, has deepened the losses as Kushner Cos. prepared to demolish the property and replace it — a process that would have required buying out existing leases. Vornado’s plans are designed to fill the building at market-rate rents and stanch the bleeding, three people said…

For entertainment purposes only (since there’s not much that hasn’t already been chewed over here), Kyle Pope in CJR on “The Jared Bubble: What my 18 months as Jared Kushner’s first editor taught me about the Trump family and the press”:

“You can’t say ‘hit job’ in here.”

I was six months into my tenure as the editor of the New York Observer, and I was schooling my publisher, Jared Kushner, on why ordering up a slam of someone who had crossed his family in business didn’t pass the journalistic smell test.
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Open Thread: Trump Lies About Fallen Soldiers & Actual Presidents

by 9:45 pm. It has 245 Comments.

There is nothing this person will not lie about. THANKS, REPUBLICANS!

… Trump was responding to a question about why he has not yet made remarks about the four special operations servicemen killed in Niger almost two weeks ago. Trump, speaking from the Rose Garden in a surprise press conference with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he plans on contacting the families soon.

“If you look at President [Barack] Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I am able to do it,” said Trump. “They have made the ultimate sacrifice. So generally I would say that I like to call. I’m going to be calling them. I want a little time to pass. I’m going to be calling them.”…

The office staff is having a little trouble finding those phone numbers, y’see. And they tore the place up looking for the roll of stamps, but how often do letters get sent, these days?

Look, those soldiers will be just as dead during the off-season, but there’s only so many days suitable for a few rounds of golf. The man has his priorities.

… “President Trump’s claim is unequivocally wrong,” a former Obama official said in a statement to ABC News. “President Obama engaged families of the fallen and wounded warriors throughout his presidency through calls, letters, visits to Section 60 at Arlington, visits to Walter Reed, visits to Dover, and regular meetings with Gold Star Families at the White House and across the country.”

“President Bush wrote all the families of the fallen, and called and/or met privately with hundreds if not thousands,” a spokesperson to former President George W. Bush told ABC News.

An aide to President Bill Clinton also called the claim false. “He did call the families of fallen soldiers while in office,” the official told ABC News.

Alyssa Mastromonaco, former White House deputy chief of staff and a longtime scheduler for Obama, told ABC News, “It is unconscionable that a president would dare to ever portray another as unpatriotic, which is essentially what he was doing.” …

He may be squatting in the Oval Office, but Donald Trump will never be “a president”.

(Also, too, if glum-faced Mitch McConnell had the political sense of my little dog, he’ve tried to distract his “leader” before he dug that trench any deeper — by faking a heart attack, if necessary. Nobody outside the 27% believes your ‘No True Republican’ bullshit, McConnell.)

ETA:


(Trump would probably explain that he prefers soldiers who don’t get wounded and suck up money that could better be spent on tax cuts shiny new weapons.)


Open Thread: Everything’s Bolder in This (Mal)Administration…

by 7:01 pm. It has 108 Comments.

… In a terse letter to Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) — leaders of the House oversight committee — President Donald Trump’s congressional liaison Marc Short declined to indicate whether any administration officials had used personal email accounts or messaging services, despite reports suggesting such communications were common in the West Wing.

“The White House and covered employees endeavor to comply with all relevant laws,” Short wrote in a two-page reply delivered late last week and obtained Monday by POLITICO.

Short’s statement comes despite recent revelations that several senior aides to President Donald Trump routinely used private email addresses and personal devices for government business. Among the current and former aides who POLITICO found at least occasionally relied on private email addresses were Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Gary Cohn and Reince Priebus.

In a similarly brief letter, Short also declined to provide records in response to a separate inquiry by Gowdy and Cummings into the use of costly private air travel by top administration officials.

The White House’s limited responses set up a potential confrontation with Gowdy, a hard-nosed prosecutor with subpoena power and a track record that includes sharp criticism of Hillary Clinton’s use of private email as secretary of state. Cummings said last week that he hoped the committee would subpoena any information that the White House declined to provide, as have other Democrats…

Anybody want to bet that Witchfinder Gowdy will take more than a token interest in Lawyer Short’s curt dismissal of his mighty prosecutorial powers?

At least now we know why so many high-ranking Repubs have suddenly started wringing their pale plump hands over the reckless, out-of-control Trump cartel’s totally unprecedented “takeover” of the GOP — suddenly it’s in the Party’s interests to pretend they had nothing to do with this gang of thieves and con artists. Shocked! they are shocked! that there might be gambling going on in their personal branded casino!…


Monday Midday Open Thread

by 11:31 am. It has 132 Comments.

Feeling kinda stuck today, not unlike Batman and Robin:

The photo is from the @BatLabels Twitter feed, which, as its name suggests, primarily features things that are labeled from the old Batman TV series, e.g., “UNDETACHABLE GLUE PAD.”

Besides that, I got nothing. Open thread!





This post is in , and has 132 Comments.