In an effort to clean-up/streamline the sidebar at the right, I removed a lot of links to my favorite other sites/blogs. CarpeDiem consistently has such good links, such good stories, such good comments, I added that link back to the sidebar.
This is incredible: click to this site, and locate median income/college graduation statistics for any zip code.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
We're Starting To Hear/Read The Human Toll -- Wait Until The Employer Mandate Kicks In Next Year ... The Death Spiral
Breitbart is reporting: only 1 percent of those Massachusetts folks who had their policies canceled have been able to find new insurance. This has to be playing havoc with the entire health care industry, from those who are delivering care, to those who are trying to access health care. This is truly incredible. Folks come down with pneumonia daily; their kids break their bones; women become pregnant.
As I've said before, the GOP dodged a silver bullet when the Tea Party failed in efforts to defund ObamaCare. Or was it, the Tea Party dodged a silver bullet when the GOP failed in efforts to defund ObamaCare. Regardless, President Obama and his party now "own" ObamaCare. And what an incredible mess.
Each day, policies expire, and folks will continue receiving notices of cancellations through March 31, 2014. This is one of the few ObamaScare stories that has legs. This story is not going to go away.
Insurers are in deep, deep trouble. Think about it. They are losing millions of premium-paying customers, to be replaced by high-risk consumers of health care who will start racking up expensive as of January 1, 2014, and with NO lifetime medical caps. Once that $12,000 deductible is paid, the insurance companies have bought the entire risk. Yes, I know, the $12,000 deductible is an annual deductible.
But back to the Breitbart story. In case the link is broken, some key paragraphs:
As I've said before, the GOP dodged a silver bullet when the Tea Party failed in efforts to defund ObamaCare. Or was it, the Tea Party dodged a silver bullet when the GOP failed in efforts to defund ObamaCare. Regardless, President Obama and his party now "own" ObamaCare. And what an incredible mess.
Each day, policies expire, and folks will continue receiving notices of cancellations through March 31, 2014. This is one of the few ObamaScare stories that has legs. This story is not going to go away.
Insurers are in deep, deep trouble. Think about it. They are losing millions of premium-paying customers, to be replaced by high-risk consumers of health care who will start racking up expensive as of January 1, 2014, and with NO lifetime medical caps. Once that $12,000 deductible is paid, the insurance companies have bought the entire risk. Yes, I know, the $12,000 deductible is an annual deductible.
But back to the Breitbart story. In case the link is broken, some key paragraphs:
There are too many rolling and coming catastrophes caused by ObamaCare to keep track of. Just wait until the employer market is hit late next year. But within a few weeks, a humanitarian crisis is about to hit millions who could find themselves without health insurance. Millions who had their insurance policies cancelled are now unable to re-insure themselves on the broken ObamaCare websites.
In liberal Massachusetts alone, only 1% of those cancellations have re-enrolled. The Boston Herald reports that ObamaCare and the president's broken promise have already cost 150,000 Bay Staters their health insurance plans. But of those 150,0000, only 549 are in the Massachusetts Health Connector to be re-enrolled on time. Even that small number are not officially enrolled.
Overall, only 47,781 total accounts have been created and a paltry 16,282 applications have been completed. What you likely have here is a toxic mix of people who either can't access the state site due to the technical problems, or those who have decided not to re-enroll. There is still 32 days to sign up in time, but it is obvious many are in no hurry.And then this:
On top of that, if a large portion of the millions who had their insurance cancelled simply refuse to re-enroll, you can bet that those refusing will be the young and healthy needed to keep ObamaCare financially viable. The result of an insurance pool filled with the sick and elderly would be skyrocketing premiums; which means more healthy people drop out, which mean prices go even higher.
That is called the death spiral.On October 21, 2013, I first used the phrase "Death Spiral" to describe what is going on with ObamaCare which is now AmericaCare.
North Dakota Adds To Its "All The Above" When It Comes To Energy; Largest Wind Project To Date Has Been Approved For North Dakota
The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:
So now that we've all agreed killing tens of thousands of bats, bald eagles, golden eagles, hawks, whooping cranes, California condors, it's nice to see that North Dakota is pushing its way to the top of the chart. I assume the gap between North Dakota and Minnesota will widen over time.
I continue to enjoy Freeman Dyson's Disturbing the Universe. Another excerpt, pp. 108 - 109:
A wind energy project that would be among the largest in North Dakota in terms of production capacity was given the green light Wednesday by the Public Service Commission.
Commissioners unanimously approved the 200.5 megawatt Courtenay Wind Farm. The $350 million project is being developed through Edina, Minn.-based Geronimo Energy.
Commission chairman Brian Kalk said the wind farm would be spread over a roughly 21,000-acre area in northeast Stutsman County.
Geronimo Energy is still considering whether they will utilize 1.5-megawatt or 2-megawatt turbines. The company told him recently it is leaning toward 2-megawatt wind turbines, Kalk said. This would put the number of turbines constructed at about 100.
North Dakota had approximately 1,672 megawatts of wind energy capacity in the state as of October of this year. An exact figure on how much of that capacity is being used wasn’t available.
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A Note To The Granddaughters
I continue to enjoy Freeman Dyson's Disturbing the Universe. Another excerpt, pp. 108 - 109:
At that time [during the London Blitz] in London, those of us who were seriously engaged in the war were very grateful to Wernher von Braun.
We knew that each V-2 cost as much to produce as a high-performance fighter airplane. We knew that the German forces on the fighting fronts were in desperate need of airplanes, and that the V-2 rockets were doing us no military damage. From our point of view, the effect of the V-2 program was almost as good as if Hitler had adopted a policy of unilateral disarmament. Unilateral disarmament had certainly not been the intention of the military leaders who set up the Peenemunde organization.
This is an extreme example of the stupidities which often occur when bureaucracy takes control of scientific projects. Such stupidities are by no means an exclusively German phenomenon.The global investment in renewable energy comes to mind.
"Nowhere Close" -- Michelle's WebPage
The FiscalTimes is reporting:
Later in the article:
Regarding costs: this is what I'm hearing
It’s even more discouraging since less than 50,000 people have signed up for health insurance through the federal exchange, according to unofficial estimates reported by the Wall Street Journal.
And it doesn’t appear to be getting better.
According to tech experts, the sorry state of the current website does little to inspire confidence that it can be fixed and functional in less than three weeks.
“When I visited healthcare.gov on October first 1, that was the worst piece of software I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said Luke Chung, founder and CEO of the software company FMS. “It had nothing to do with too many users. It couldn’t serve one user.”
According to Sumit Nijhawan, CEO of Infogix, a data security firm working with private insurers, even if the White House can fix the problems associated with the site, they're going to find new ones immediately. Nijhawan also warned that the systems that allow CMS and health insurance companies to exchange information are no where close to being ready, meaning tech problems could last years.Much, much more at the link. Meanwhile, one million Californians are getting notices that their insurance has been canceled. These are not the homeless, unemployed, urban youth; these are hardworking, middle Americans, blue collar, white collar, soccer moms, etc., who never thought they would be caught up in something so horrendous.
Later in the article:
“I have contended all along that this is not that difficult of a project,” he said. “[The website] doesn’t provide health care, it doesn’t even provide insurance. It’s just a form to apply for a subsidy to get health insurance. It’s automating a paper form. It shouldn’t be that hard.”
“Technically, this is not that difficult,” Chung added. “It shouldn’t cost more than $10 million. And it should be something that can be done in a couple of months.”
According to both Chung and Nijhawan, even if the White House can build a functional web site by the end of the month, new problems would appear almost immediately.This begs the question: what information was the government collecting on folks who enrolled? Since everyone has to have insurance, the government was using this exchange as a way to develop a database of private information on ALL Americans.
Regarding costs: this is what I'm hearing
- original cost: $170 million
- additional cost: $50 million
- emergency surge: the tab is running
- roll-out promotion: $700 million
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~ Putting things in perspective ~
March 21st 2010 to 1 October 2013 is 3 years, 6 months, 10 days.
December 7, 1941 to May 8, 1945 is 3 years, 5 months, 1 day.
What
this means is that in the time we were attacked at Pearl Harbor to the
day Germany surrendered is not enough time for this federal government
to build a working webpage!
Mobilization
of millions, building tens of thousands of tanks, planes, jeeps, subs,
cruisers, destroyers, torpedoes, millions upon millions of guns, bombs,
ammo, etc. Turning the tide in North Africa, Invading Italy, D-Day,
Battle of the Bulge, Race to Berlin - all the while we were also
fighting the Japanese in the Pacific!!!
But Obama and his misadministration CAN'T BUILD A WEB PAGE! ???...
Three and a half years and a billion dollars to get this "rolled-out"
and they are just now finding out that there are shortcomings in their system?
Government
contracts are normally advertised and granted to the lowest bidder with
performance requirements. This contract was not bid but awarded to
Michelle’s classmate.
Why wasn't Microsoft, Apple, or any number of other reputable web companies chosen?
Get ready for the excuses and remember what Ben Franklin once said,
"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good at anything else."
Headline Stories Over At Yahoo!Finance At The Moment; Wow! Talk About A Whopper
Updates
Later, 10:41 CT: in the headline story below, the writer mentioned "Continental Resources in the Permian." That's why I posted the qualifying comment. Don points out that CLR owns no acreage in the Permian.
Original Post
Along that line, in the Bakken shale, he names Whiting Petroleum as a good candidate, as well as EOG Resources in the Eagle Ford shale and Continental Resources in the Permian Basin.
As for companies that will transport the oil to refiners, so-called "midstream suppliers" like MarkWest Energy and Targa Resources are Kiesel's top trades in this space. The companies are up a whopping 48% and 32% year to date, respectively.CLR may be in the Permian Basin, but CLR is the "face of the Bakken." (see update that was posted above at 10:41, today; talk about a whopper of a mistake.) Repeating: CLR owns acreage in Oklahoma but right now, CLR is the "face of the Bakken." It really makes me wonder about these financial reporters getting such basic information wrong.
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Yes, oil prices are being manipulated but not by whom you think.
Ask most Americans and they'll tell you the oil markets are controlled by OPEC. But a recent lawsuit brought by four veteran floor traders alleges the global oil market is being manipulated from the waters off Scandinavia, not via the Middle East or Venezuela.Fluff.
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Oil will bottom at $90; this is not the time to short oil.
Oil prices have been falling Tuesday morning on news of resumed talks to curb Iran’s nuclear program. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) sweet crude fell below $95 a barrel by mid-morning.
Last night, however, it appeared that talks had stalled and both WTI and Brent oil closed higher.
"There were confusing signals coming from the Iran talks at the end of last week, and it's continuing to add volatility to oil markets,"...
Still, there is an overall sense of optimism that a deal will be made with Iran and crude oil supply will increase, says Dicker ....
Dicker expects oil prices to bottom at $90 per barrel.
“If this is the bearish model where we’re down to $95, that’s not so bearish," he notes." I’m not ready to throw in the towel and start shorting oil because that’s not a very cheap price... at least historically speaking."One of thousands of talking heads.
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And speaking of talking heads, this is all I need to know about the Tesla -- George Clooney is not happy with the one he used to own:
DETROIT (Reuters) - Tesla Motors Inc got more bad news this week following the third fire in its Model S electric sedan as actor George Clooney complained about being stuck on the side of the road in the Roadster sports car he used to own.
Clooney, currently starring in the movie "Gravity", was asked by Esquire magazine in an interview that was posted online on Monday whether he owned a Tesla car.
"I had a Tesla," Clooney told the magazine. "I was one of the first cats with a Tesla. I think I was, like, No. 5 on the list. But I'm telling you, I've been on the side of the road a while in that thing, and I said to them, ‘Look, guys, why am I always stuck on the side of the road? Make it work, one way or another.' "
Tesla discontinued the Roadster and currently only sells the Model S sedan. Clooney last year auctioned off his Roadster for charity for $99,000, according to media reports.
Last week, Tesla reported the third fire in the car in Tennessee. Police reports said the vehicle had run over a tow hitch that punctured the armour plating that protects the battery pack of lithium-ion cells. Despite no injuries in any of the accidents, the headlines about the fires have been unwelcome news for a company whose stock had risen sixfold in the first nine months of the year before the first fire occurred on October 1, 2013.
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