The Caucus: Democrats Make a Case for the Health Care Law

With House Republicans planning to approve a bill on Wednesday that would repeal the big health care overhaul, Democrats on Tuesday ramped up their efforts to defend the law.

The secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, will hold a news conference on Tuesday morning to discuss a report by her agency showing that as many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have some pre-existing medical condition that could lead them to be denied health insurance coverage without protections included in the new law.

?Under the full range of policies in the Affordable Care Act to be in place by 2014, Americans living with pre-existing conditions are free from discrimination,? the assistant secretary of health and human services for public affairs, Richard Sorian, wrote in a blog post.

Mr. Sorian, in his post, also insisted that thanks to the law, Americans with pre-existing conditions ?can get the health coverage they need at a price they can afford.?

That, of course, remains to be seen given that the main provisions of the law, including subsidies to help eligible uninsured Americans purchase coverage, do not begin until 2014. Even some supporters of the law have questioned if the subsidies will be sufficient to make insurance affordable.

Later on Tuesday, Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Joseph Crowley of New York, working with the Democratic National Committee, will hold another news conference to make the case that repealing the health care law would be ?devastating? for the American public.

The two representatives will be joined by ?individuals with personal stories of how they?ve benefitted from the Affordable Care Act.?

?Insurance companies would be free to pursue their profits without any accountability, leaving people with fewer choices, fewer options, and little recourse,? the Democrats said in a press release. ?The effort by Republicans would allow insurance companies to discriminate against and deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, cancel coverage when families get sick, and limit the amount of care Americans can get when they need it the most. Repeal would not only allow health insurance costs to continue to soar, but would kill tax credits that help small businesses offer employee health insurance coverage and the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program ? which provides financial assistance for employer health plans offered to early retirees. The American public cannot afford to revert back to a health care system that does not have their best interest in mind. This press call will highlight the devastating affects repeal of the ACA will have on the American people and why we must protect the progress we?ve made.?

The new House Republican majority has made repeal of the health care law one of its top priorities, even though Democrats who control the Senate say they have no intention of taking up the measure, and President Obama would certainly veto it.

Republicans say the law is overly intrusive, giving the government too much of a role in the health care system, and that it will prove far more expensive than Democrats and independent Congressional budget analysts have suggested.

On a third front, Representative Henry Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Representative Frank Pallone Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, released an analysis showing the potential effects of repealing the health care law in individual Congressional districts.

In a letter to colleagues, Mr. Waxman and Mr. Pallone criticized Republicans for not holding hearings about undoing the health care law. ?We believe many members, especially newly elected ones, may be surprised by the results,? they wrote. ?Health care reform is already delivering important health benefits to your constituents.?

Here?s the full text of their letter:

January 18, 2011

Dear Colleague:

This week, we will be considering legislation to repeal the historic patients? rights, protections, and benefits already in effect as a result of the historic health care law. To assist members in understanding the ramifications of repeal, we asked the minority staff of the Committee on Energy and Commerce to analyze the impacts of repeal in every congressional district in the country.

Today, we are releasing these analyses. We have also prepared analyses on the impact of repeal in the 30 largest metropolitan areas in the country. The district-specific and metropolitan-area reports are online at http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/.

We believe many members, especially newly elected ones, may be surprised by the results. Health care reform is already delivering important health benefits to your constituents. As a result of the law, insurers have stopped discriminating against sick children in your district, seniors in your district are saving money on prescription drugs, small businesses in your district are receiving tax credits to provide health insurance, and insured individuals with individual or employer coverage are enjoying new rights and protections against insurance industry abuses. Repeal will roll back these benefits.

We regret that there have been no hearings on the implications of repeal. The failure to hold hearings denies members and the public an opportunity to understand fully what is at stake. This is especially a problem for freshmen members because they did not participate in any of the many hearings held last Congress prior to passage of the health reform law. Our Committee alone held over ten days of hearings and heard from over 100 witnesses before the House voted to enact health reform.

To give you an idea of what is at stake, here are some examples of the benefits the law provides in the districts of ten new members:

Protection for Individuals with Pre-Existing Conditions. Under the health reform law, insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions and will be banned from discriminating against adults with pre-existing conditions in 2014. Freshman Rep. Joe Walsh, from Illinois, represents a district that has 10,000 to 47,000 children with pre-existing conditions. Freshman Rep. Nan Hayworth from New York represents a district with 128,000 to 324,000 non-elderly residents with pre-existing conditions. If repeal passes, these children and adults lose the protection afforded by the law and could be denied individual policies by insurance companies.

Protection Against Coverage Rescissions. The health reform law prohibits insurers from rescinding coverage for individuals who become ill. Freshman Rep. Patrick Meehan from Pennsylvania represents a district in which 40,000 residents purchase individual health insurance. Repeal would allow insurance companies to resume the practice of rescinding their coverage after they get sick and need care.

Benefits for Young Adults. The health reform law allows young adults to remain on their parents? insurance policies up to age 26. Freshman Rep. Daniel Webster from Florida represents 4,000 young adults who have or are expected to take advantage of this benefit. If repeal passes, these young adults would lose their coverage.

Closing the Donut Hole. Beginning in 2011, the health reform law provides a 50% discount for prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries who enter the Medicare Part D ?donut hole? and lose coverage for their drug expenses. The law then increases the discount to Medicare beneficiaries each year until 2020, when the donut hole is finally eliminated. Freshman Rep. Allen B. West from Florida represents 15,000 Medicare beneficiaries who are expected to benefit from these provisions. Repeal would increase the average cost of prescription drugs for these seniors by over $500 in 2011 and over $3,000 in 2020.

Preventive Care and Other Benefits for Seniors. The health reform law improves Medicare by providing free preventive and wellness care, improving primary and coordinated care, and enhancing nursing home care. The law also strengthens the Medicare trust fund, extending its solvency from 2017 to 2029. Freshman Rep. Bill Johnson from Ohio represents 116,000 Medicare beneficiaries. Repeal would eliminate these benefits for the seniors in the district.

Tax Credits for Families. Starting in 2014, the health reform law gives tax credits to middle class families with incomes up to $88,000 for a family of four. Freshman Rep. Reid Ribble from Wisconsin represents 186,000 families who could use these tax credits to lower the costs of their health insurance.

Tax Credits for Small Businesses. The health reform law provides tax credits to small businesses worth up to 35% of the cost of providing health insurance. Freshman Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania represents up to 18,100 small businesses that are eligible for this tax credit. Repeal would force these small businesses to drop coverage or bear the full costs of coverage themselves.

Funding for Retiree Coverage. The health reform law provides funding to encourage employers to continue to provide health insurance for their retirees. Freshman Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler from Washington represents 11,900 early retirees who could benefit from this assistance. Repeal would increase costs for the employers in the district and jeopardize the coverage their retirees are receiving.

Coverage of the Uninsured. When fully implemented, the health reform law will extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans. Freshmen Rep. Daniel Webster from Florida represents a district in which over 100,000 uninsured individuals would gain coverage under the health reform law.

Hospital Savings. The health reform law benefits hospitals by covering more Americans and thereby reducing the cost of providing care to the uninsured. Repeal would undo this benefit. In the district of Freshman Rep. Charles Bass from New Hampshire, this would increase the cost of uncompensated care by $48 million annually for hospitals in the district.

The examples above illustrate the kind of benefits the health reform law provides in districts represented by freshmen members. But similar benefits occur in all of our districts. In Rep. Waxman?s district, 53,000 residents purchase insurance through the individual market and would lose protection against rescissions if the health care law was repealed; almost 12,000 seniors would be forced to pay more for prescription drugs under Medicare. In Rep. Pallone?s district, repeal would mean eliminating health care tax credits for up to 18,200 small businesses and 117,000 families.

The report for your district will explain the specific benefits the new law provides for your constituents. We hope this information is useful to you as you consider how to vote on repeal of health reform.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman

Ranking Member

Committee on Energy and Commerce

Frank Pallone, Jr.

Member

Committee on Energy and Commerce

9:43 a.m. | Updated

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iPhone Preview: Dead Space

iPhone Preview: Dead Space

Posted on 3rd Jan 2011 at 08:33 by Joe Martin with 15 comments

It?s too easy to use the word ?impressive? to describe some of the new releases hitting the App Store lately; the word is starting to lose meaning and isn?t that useful to start with. We?re talking about games running on a mobile phone ? all they have to do is be even semi-playable and they end up way ahead of expectations.

Dead Space for the iPhone, however, looks very impressive.

The kudos here doesn?t stem just from the graphical detail that?s been ploughed into the game though, but more from the depth of the gameplay. Dead Space on the iPhone is essentially that ? Dead Space for the iPhone, feature complete. It has the same third person perspective, the same sprawling and haunting levels and the same focus on dismembering enemies. Lopping limbs off with your array of mining tools and scavenged weapons is a little bit trickier on a touch screen than on consoles or PC, but it?s still manageable and fun.


Dead Space?s first level didn?t leave a great impression, however. Once more cast as engineer Issac Clarke, the preview opened with a glorified mine cart sequence, with us trying to stop Necromorphs from swarming us. There was only a limited amount of movement and the entire thing felt very ?on rails?, thus negating the glory of the graphics. It was all too easy to yawn through the battles and assume that the entire game would be made of similar sequences.

After the shaky start, however, things quickly improved. The next level drops Isaac into a familiar-looking space station lobby and lets him roam freely. Workbenches and vending machines offer the chance to upgrade weapons and armour, build new weapons and buy extra ammo, just like in the original game. Even the holographic displays that wowed us so much in the original, PC release make a return too and, while we didn?t get a chance to see them first hand, the developers assured us that the zero-gravity sequences would make a return as well.


What?s most amazing about all this, however, is that Dead Space brings all this variety across to the iPhone without losing any of the accessibility. The controls in Dead Space are, with only a few minor exceptions (shooting the special Kinesis power can take some getting used to), so fluid and easy to use that they put other shooters on the iPhone to shame.

Our only concern, in fact, is whether or not the idea of playing Dead Space on our mobile phones is one we?ll actually find all that attractive in real life, as lengthy singleplayer games aren?t an easy fit with the platform. This isn?t the type of thing we can imagine ourselves dropping in to and playing for the 10 minutes it takes for the bus to turn up. Then again, if this iPhone version ? which will apparently help bridge the gap between the original Dead Space and the sequel due in early 2011 ? manages to be as gripping as the first game, then we might make an exception.

Dead Space is being developed by Electronic Arts and will be released for all iDevices in Q1 2011

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Intel Sandy Bridge launch was pointless

While the review we published yesterday of Intel's new Sandy Bridge range of CPUs was extremely glowing, the fact remains that launching it at 5am (UK time) on 3 January was pointless.

This is because, more than 33 hours after the so-called 'launch' of Sandy Bridge, you can't still buy one of these new CPUs or an LGA1155 motherboard to put one in.

In short, Sandy Bridge is a paper launch and Intel has joined the ignoble list of companies that 'launches' products you can't buy. There are several reasons why the launch on Monday is such a joke.

First of all, just days before launch, Intel pulled forwards the launch date by a couple of days, throwing the industry into disarray. For example, we had to suddenly get the review prepared earlier than expected; not a whole lot of fun when you're on national holiday and the team is spread around the globe.

Intel Sandy Bridge launch was pointless *Intel Sandy Bridge launch was pointless
You can get your own paper Sandy Bridge CPU by printing out this image

However, while most major review sites managed to scrabble some coverage together, retailers and manufacturers have still yet to catch up. As a result, no major UK or US retailer is listing any Sandy Bridge products as available to ship, let alone pre-order.

It's not just the press and retailers that are confused either - I've yet to receive a single press release from a manufacturer about their Sandy Bridge motherboards, memory or CPU coolers either. Perhaps we'll see some news later on today, when Sandy Bridge was originally meant to launch.

So, even if Sandy Bridge does (on paper) make the whole existing range of LGA1156 CPUs and most LGA1366 processors obselete, in reality it doesn't.

The sad fact is that Intel didn't need to rush out the release of Sandy Bridge in such a slap-dash manner. Its competitor has nothing remotely threatening planned until quite a lot later this year, so it's a baffling decision.

That is, unless you believe its a cynical ploy to drum up demand so that when you finally can buy Sandy Bridge, Intel can mysteriously up the price. In the meantime, don't expect a January Hardware Buyer's Guide anytime soon...

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Where News Is Power, a Fight to Be Well-Armed

With the help of three alarm clocks, he gets up at 4 a.m., is showered and out the door in less than an hour, and scans his BlackBerry almost constantly as he makes his pretimed 12- to 13-minute trek to the Red Line Metro stop where he catches the first train downtown.

He knows exactly where to stand so he can get into the car that deposits him just steps from the escalator at the Farragut North station. ?It?s an efficiency thing,? he explained, ?so I don?t get stuck behind people, so I hit the crosswalk at the right minute.?

Cutting diagonally across Farragut Square, he arrives at his office at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on H Street just after 5:30 a.m. There, in a darkened cubicle, he scans the Internet for the day?s news and condenses it into a two-page memo that he shoots off to Thomas J. Donohue, the Chamber?s president, and other top executives before 8 a.m. He is never late.

Mr. Maldonado, 26, is one of the dozens of young aides throughout the city who rise before dawn to pore over the news to synthesize it, summarize it and spin it, so their bosses start the day well-prepared. Washington is a city that traffics in information, and as these 20-something staff members are learning, who knows what ? and when they know it ? can be the difference between professional advancement and barely scraping by.

?Information is the capital market of Washington, so you know something that other people don?t know and you know something earlier than other people know it is a formulation for increasing your status and power,? said David Perlmutter, the director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. ?So any edge you can use to get stuff faster, earlier, better or exclusively is very important.?

For Mr. Maldonado, who said that ?the information wars are won before work,? that means rising early to browse all of the major newspapers, new polling data, ideological Web sites and dozens of news alerts needed to equip his bosses with the best, most up-to-date nuggets.

?Our executives walk into meetings and they?re doing battles, whether it?s on health care or cap and trade, and information is power, and my job is to make sure they?re armed with the most powerful information,? he said. ?It?s reading the 1,000 stories in the papers and Hill rags, and finding that one needle in the haystack that?s going to matter.?

No hard data exists on how many people spend the hours before breakfast rounding up news and e-mailing clips and quick summaries, and everyone?s routine varies slightly.

Andrew Bates, a media monitor in the White House communications office, is up by 4 a.m. to look over 30 to 40 Web sites and blogs, as well as watch the morning television news and talk shows, and send out relevant news clips to the top ranks of the Obama administration. He has even been known ? with the help of Google Translator ? to translate articles from other languages.

Mr. Bates could ?give anyone in this town a run for their money on ?Jeopardy!? ? Jen Psaki, the deputy White House communications director, said jokingly.

Mr. Bates, 24, said his early-morning search was intended to harvest ?something that?s very strong, that advances an argument well, or anything that could be jeopardizing or damaging, like criticism.?

Over at the Treasury Department, Megan Leary, a financial economist for the markets room, and six other analysts are each assigned one day a week to get to work at roughly 5 a.m. There, they monitor overnight shifts in the markets and put together a morning briefing for the Treasury secretary.

?I think a lot of why the markets room is valuable is because it?s very unfiltered,? Ms. Leary said. ?It?s not like we write something and a week later it goes to the secretary or president. They get it that day.?

Ms. Leary is becoming a familiar customer to the drivers of the cab company she calls the night before to set up her predawn rides. ?Sometimes I just get in a cab and I don?t need to say where I?m going,? she said. ?He just goes.?

At the Chamber, Mr. Maldonado?s duties also include a morning phone call with Mr. Donohue, the president, who sometimes presses him for a more in-depth analysis on certain topics.

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Can Corsair Succeed Where Nvidia failed?

Anyone remember ESA? Nvidia's attempt at making the PC platform its own with the 'Enthusiast Systems Architecture' software? The idea was to get other manufacturers to include little chips in their hardware that enabled them to talk to Nvidia's motherboards. Nvidia's ESA software would then report all the readouts: voltages, temperatures, speeds and so in a single, central interface.

The problem? Other companies (mostly motherboard makers) already had their own software, and they were (and still are) key features with which to differentiate and sell their products. They already did most of the same tasks, such as temperature and voltage monitoring, as well as overclocking, even if they lacked the fancy 3D interface.

Despite its noble ideals, ESA was never really accepted and it died as quickly as it arrived.

Roll on three years and Corsair is trying the same trick with its new Corsair Link software. The difference is that Corsair isn't trying to drum up support from other companies, as it already builds many different products. Instead, Corsair Link is the company's selling point for its own hardware range, which has considerably diversified in the last 12 months.

In case you didn't realise quite the scope of Corsair's products, it now makes speakers, headphones, PSUs, PC cases, heatsinks (both air-cooling and closed-loop water-cooling), SSDs, flash drives and memory. In fact, you would only need a Corsair graphics card, sound card and motherboard in order to make an entirely Corsair PC. I bet its Pokemon set was unbeatable in school.


As you would expect, all those components can throw out a lot of useful stats for enthusiasts who like to know (okay, often obsess about) what's going on, so tying all that together under one software roof makes Corsair Link a potentially very powerful tool.

It could well work too, because the technology isn't competing with that of other companies - cases, PSUs and memory don't come with monitoring software, although they can be read remotely by the motherboard through its own software.

However, the ways in which Corsair Link differs from the software included with motherboards remains to be seen: does the company have (or plan to have) ESA-style monitoring chips in its cases, PSUs and memory? We'll have to wait and see.

Corsair is busy making a platform for itself, and given its brand strength I can really see it working. But I'm worried; will this help kill competition by pushing the PC more towards being a closed platform?

It's unfortunate that Nvidia's ESA wasn't taken up, as it potentially offered an open standard across the industry to give a greater level of monitoring and control for customers, no matter what hardware you bought. However, with every company wanting to stamp its own brand, design and influence on everything it makes, it was bound to fail. Corsair trying to entice you to buy other Corsair components via technological treats is a different matter, though.

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Intel Sandy Bridge launch was pointless

While the review we published yesterday of Intel's new Sandy Bridge range of CPUs was extremely glowing, the fact remains that launching it at 5am (UK time) on 3 January was pointless.

This is because, more than 33 hours after the so-called 'launch' of Sandy Bridge, you can't still buy one of these new CPUs or an LGA1155 motherboard to put one in.

In short, Sandy Bridge is a paper launch and Intel has joined the ignoble list of companies that 'launches' products you can't buy. There are several reasons why the launch on Monday is such a joke.

First of all, just days before launch, Intel pulled forwards the launch date by a couple of days, throwing the industry into disarray. For example, we had to suddenly get the review prepared earlier than expected; not a whole lot of fun when you're on national holiday and the team is spread around the globe.

Intel Sandy Bridge launch was pointless *Intel Sandy Bridge launch was pointless
You can get your own paper Sandy Bridge CPU by printing out this image

However, while most major review sites managed to scrabble some coverage together, retailers and manufacturers have still yet to catch up. As a result, no major UK or US retailer is listing any Sandy Bridge products as available to ship, let alone pre-order.

It's not just the press and retailers that are confused either - I've yet to receive a single press release from a manufacturer about their Sandy Bridge motherboards, memory or CPU coolers either. Perhaps we'll see some news later on today, when Sandy Bridge was originally meant to launch.

So, even if Sandy Bridge does (on paper) make the whole existing range of LGA1156 CPUs and most LGA1366 processors obselete, in reality it doesn't.

The sad fact is that Intel didn't need to rush out the release of Sandy Bridge in such a slap-dash manner. Its competitor has nothing remotely threatening planned until quite a lot later this year, so it's a baffling decision.

That is, unless you believe its a cynical ploy to drum up demand so that when you finally can buy Sandy Bridge, Intel can mysteriously up the price. In the meantime, don't expect a January Hardware Buyer's Guide anytime soon...

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iPhone Review: Bad Company 2

They say they devil is in the details, in which case you should imagine Bad Company 2 for the iPhone as having red skin, horns, a trident tail and breath that smells worse than wet, rotten garlic. What really kills Bad Company 2 is the lack of fine polish ? and that, sadly, makes a huge difference to the overall experience.

This is a shame, because Bad Company 2 initially looks good. It has a lengthy singleplayer campaign, which slots neatly into the story of the full, proper Bad Company 2, plus a four-player multiplayer mode that?s supported over WiFi and 3G. The graphics are lush, and it packs in plenty of variety too, despite a disappointing tendency to resort to turret sequences.

The multiplayer is especially impressive, in fact. While five levels and support for four players might not sound like a lot, it?s actually a perfectly judged limitation for a mobile phone game. If you want to sit down and invest yourself in lengthy tournaments and huge clan matches, then you're better off going back to the full version of the game. The iPhone version is much more suited to drop-in, drop-out games that keep you occupied while you?re patiently enduring whatever dross happens to be on TV.


Unfortunately, midway through enjoying these delights, the devil tends to rear his ugly head. There are numerous tiny niggles, such as performance problems on anything less than a full-spec iPhone, and a few crashes to the home screen too.

Worst of all, however, is the way the level design frequently infringes on the game itself, with players constantly getting caught in corners or bumping straight into the walls due to occasionally unresponsive controls. It?s never enough to ruin the game, not at first, but it's a constant irritation and the only saving grace is that the game is balanced so that, on medium difficulty, it?s actually quite hard to die.

While it?s impressive that so much detail and depth has been brought to the iPhone version, with melee attacks, iron sights and secondary fire options putting Bad Company 2 a step above most iPhone shooters, it?s still a shame that some basic features are lacking. There?s no Game Centre support, for example, while the three different control configs are only titled A, B and C, meaning you have to spend time trying each in turn if you want to see how they work.


On the whole, Bad Company 2 remains an interesting and enjoyable addition to the app store, but it?s mainly because of the quantity that?s on offer, rather than the quality of the experience. A few performance tweaks and some further level optimisation is all that would be needed to elevate Bad Company 2 on the iPhone to Recommended status. Lacking them, however, means it?s stuck at being merely average.

Verdict: Fun and lengthy, Bad Company 2 is wounded by a few design oversights and missing features. Still, it?s definitely worth picking up if you?re itching for some mobile violence.

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Where News Is Power, a Fight to Be Well-Armed

With the help of three alarm clocks, he gets up at 4 a.m., is showered and out the door in less than an hour, and scans his BlackBerry almost constantly as he makes his pretimed 12- to 13-minute trek to the Red Line Metro stop where he catches the first train downtown.

He knows exactly where to stand so he can get into the car that deposits him just steps from the escalator at the Farragut North station. ?It?s an efficiency thing,? he explained, ?so I don?t get stuck behind people, so I hit the crosswalk at the right minute.?

Cutting diagonally across Farragut Square, he arrives at his office at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on H Street just after 5:30 a.m. There, in a darkened cubicle, he scans the Internet for the day?s news and condenses it into a two-page memo that he shoots off to Thomas J. Donohue, the Chamber?s president, and other top executives before 8 a.m. He is never late.

Mr. Maldonado, 26, is one of the dozens of young aides throughout the city who rise before dawn to pore over the news to synthesize it, summarize it and spin it, so their bosses start the day well-prepared. Washington is a city that traffics in information, and as these 20-something staff members are learning, who knows what ? and when they know it ? can be the difference between professional advancement and barely scraping by.

?Information is the capital market of Washington, so you know something that other people don?t know and you know something earlier than other people know it is a formulation for increasing your status and power,? said David Perlmutter, the director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. ?So any edge you can use to get stuff faster, earlier, better or exclusively is very important.?

For Mr. Maldonado, who said that ?the information wars are won before work,? that means rising early to browse all of the major newspapers, new polling data, ideological Web sites and dozens of news alerts needed to equip his bosses with the best, most up-to-date nuggets.

?Our executives walk into meetings and they?re doing battles, whether it?s on health care or cap and trade, and information is power, and my job is to make sure they?re armed with the most powerful information,? he said. ?It?s reading the 1,000 stories in the papers and Hill rags, and finding that one needle in the haystack that?s going to matter.?

No hard data exists on how many people spend the hours before breakfast rounding up news and e-mailing clips and quick summaries, and everyone?s routine varies slightly.

Andrew Bates, a media monitor in the White House communications office, is up by 4 a.m. to look over 30 to 40 Web sites and blogs, as well as watch the morning television news and talk shows, and send out relevant news clips to the top ranks of the Obama administration. He has even been known ? with the help of Google Translator ? to translate articles from other languages.

Mr. Bates could ?give anyone in this town a run for their money on ?Jeopardy!? ? Jen Psaki, the deputy White House communications director, said jokingly.

Mr. Bates, 24, said his early-morning search was intended to harvest ?something that?s very strong, that advances an argument well, or anything that could be jeopardizing or damaging, like criticism.?

Over at the Treasury Department, Megan Leary, a financial economist for the markets room, and six other analysts are each assigned one day a week to get to work at roughly 5 a.m. There, they monitor overnight shifts in the markets and put together a morning briefing for the Treasury secretary.

?I think a lot of why the markets room is valuable is because it?s very unfiltered,? Ms. Leary said. ?It?s not like we write something and a week later it goes to the secretary or president. They get it that day.?

Ms. Leary is becoming a familiar customer to the drivers of the cab company she calls the night before to set up her predawn rides. ?Sometimes I just get in a cab and I don?t need to say where I?m going,? she said. ?He just goes.?

At the Chamber, Mr. Maldonado?s duties also include a morning phone call with Mr. Donohue, the president, who sometimes presses him for a more in-depth analysis on certain topics.

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The Caucus: Democrats Make a Case for the Health Care Law

With House Republicans planning to approve a bill on Wednesday that would repeal the big health care overhaul, Democrats on Tuesday ramped up their efforts to defend the law.

The secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, will hold a news conference on Tuesday morning to discuss a report by her agency showing that as many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have some pre-existing medical condition that could lead them to be denied health insurance coverage without protections included in the new law.

?Under the full range of policies in the Affordable Care Act to be in place by 2014, Americans living with pre-existing conditions are free from discrimination,? the assistant secretary of health and human services for public affairs, Richard Sorian, wrote in a blog post.

Mr. Sorian, in his post, also insisted that thanks to the law, Americans with pre-existing conditions ?can get the health coverage they need at a price they can afford.?

That, of course, remains to be seen given that the main provisions of the law, including subsidies to help eligible uninsured Americans purchase coverage, do not begin until 2014. Even some supporters of the law have questioned if the subsidies will be sufficient to make insurance affordable.

Later on Tuesday, Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Joseph Crowley of New York, working with the Democratic National Committee, will hold another news conference to make the case that repealing the health care law would be ?devastating? for the American public.

The two representatives will be joined by ?individuals with personal stories of how they?ve benefitted from the Affordable Care Act.?

?Insurance companies would be free to pursue their profits without any accountability, leaving people with fewer choices, fewer options, and little recourse,? the Democrats said in a press release. ?The effort by Republicans would allow insurance companies to discriminate against and deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, cancel coverage when families get sick, and limit the amount of care Americans can get when they need it the most. Repeal would not only allow health insurance costs to continue to soar, but would kill tax credits that help small businesses offer employee health insurance coverage and the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program ? which provides financial assistance for employer health plans offered to early retirees. The American public cannot afford to revert back to a health care system that does not have their best interest in mind. This press call will highlight the devastating affects repeal of the ACA will have on the American people and why we must protect the progress we?ve made.?

The new House Republican majority has made repeal of the health care law one of its top priorities, even though Democrats who control the Senate say they have no intention of taking up the measure, and President Obama would certainly veto it.

Republicans say the law is overly intrusive, giving the government too much of a role in the health care system, and that it will prove far more expensive than Democrats and independent Congressional budget analysts have suggested.

On a third front, Representative Henry Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Representative Frank Pallone Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, released an analysis showing the potential effects of repealing the health care law in individual Congressional districts.

In a letter to colleagues, Mr. Waxman and Mr. Pallone criticized Republicans for not holding hearings about undoing the health care law. ?We believe many members, especially newly elected ones, may be surprised by the results,? they wrote. ?Health care reform is already delivering important health benefits to your constituents.?

Here?s the full text of their letter:

January 18, 2011

Dear Colleague:

This week, we will be considering legislation to repeal the historic patients? rights, protections, and benefits already in effect as a result of the historic health care law. To assist members in understanding the ramifications of repeal, we asked the minority staff of the Committee on Energy and Commerce to analyze the impacts of repeal in every congressional district in the country.

Today, we are releasing these analyses. We have also prepared analyses on the impact of repeal in the 30 largest metropolitan areas in the country. The district-specific and metropolitan-area reports are online at http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/.

We believe many members, especially newly elected ones, may be surprised by the results. Health care reform is already delivering important health benefits to your constituents. As a result of the law, insurers have stopped discriminating against sick children in your district, seniors in your district are saving money on prescription drugs, small businesses in your district are receiving tax credits to provide health insurance, and insured individuals with individual or employer coverage are enjoying new rights and protections against insurance industry abuses. Repeal will roll back these benefits.

We regret that there have been no hearings on the implications of repeal. The failure to hold hearings denies members and the public an opportunity to understand fully what is at stake. This is especially a problem for freshmen members because they did not participate in any of the many hearings held last Congress prior to passage of the health reform law. Our Committee alone held over ten days of hearings and heard from over 100 witnesses before the House voted to enact health reform.

To give you an idea of what is at stake, here are some examples of the benefits the law provides in the districts of ten new members:

Protection for Individuals with Pre-Existing Conditions. Under the health reform law, insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions and will be banned from discriminating against adults with pre-existing conditions in 2014. Freshman Rep. Joe Walsh, from Illinois, represents a district that has 10,000 to 47,000 children with pre-existing conditions. Freshman Rep. Nan Hayworth from New York represents a district with 128,000 to 324,000 non-elderly residents with pre-existing conditions. If repeal passes, these children and adults lose the protection afforded by the law and could be denied individual policies by insurance companies.

Protection Against Coverage Rescissions. The health reform law prohibits insurers from rescinding coverage for individuals who become ill. Freshman Rep. Patrick Meehan from Pennsylvania represents a district in which 40,000 residents purchase individual health insurance. Repeal would allow insurance companies to resume the practice of rescinding their coverage after they get sick and need care.

Benefits for Young Adults. The health reform law allows young adults to remain on their parents? insurance policies up to age 26. Freshman Rep. Daniel Webster from Florida represents 4,000 young adults who have or are expected to take advantage of this benefit. If repeal passes, these young adults would lose their coverage.

Closing the Donut Hole. Beginning in 2011, the health reform law provides a 50% discount for prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries who enter the Medicare Part D ?donut hole? and lose coverage for their drug expenses. The law then increases the discount to Medicare beneficiaries each year until 2020, when the donut hole is finally eliminated. Freshman Rep. Allen B. West from Florida represents 15,000 Medicare beneficiaries who are expected to benefit from these provisions. Repeal would increase the average cost of prescription drugs for these seniors by over $500 in 2011 and over $3,000 in 2020.

Preventive Care and Other Benefits for Seniors. The health reform law improves Medicare by providing free preventive and wellness care, improving primary and coordinated care, and enhancing nursing home care. The law also strengthens the Medicare trust fund, extending its solvency from 2017 to 2029. Freshman Rep. Bill Johnson from Ohio represents 116,000 Medicare beneficiaries. Repeal would eliminate these benefits for the seniors in the district.

Tax Credits for Families. Starting in 2014, the health reform law gives tax credits to middle class families with incomes up to $88,000 for a family of four. Freshman Rep. Reid Ribble from Wisconsin represents 186,000 families who could use these tax credits to lower the costs of their health insurance.

Tax Credits for Small Businesses. The health reform law provides tax credits to small businesses worth up to 35% of the cost of providing health insurance. Freshman Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania represents up to 18,100 small businesses that are eligible for this tax credit. Repeal would force these small businesses to drop coverage or bear the full costs of coverage themselves.

Funding for Retiree Coverage. The health reform law provides funding to encourage employers to continue to provide health insurance for their retirees. Freshman Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler from Washington represents 11,900 early retirees who could benefit from this assistance. Repeal would increase costs for the employers in the district and jeopardize the coverage their retirees are receiving.

Coverage of the Uninsured. When fully implemented, the health reform law will extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans. Freshmen Rep. Daniel Webster from Florida represents a district in which over 100,000 uninsured individuals would gain coverage under the health reform law.

Hospital Savings. The health reform law benefits hospitals by covering more Americans and thereby reducing the cost of providing care to the uninsured. Repeal would undo this benefit. In the district of Freshman Rep. Charles Bass from New Hampshire, this would increase the cost of uncompensated care by $48 million annually for hospitals in the district.

The examples above illustrate the kind of benefits the health reform law provides in districts represented by freshmen members. But similar benefits occur in all of our districts. In Rep. Waxman?s district, 53,000 residents purchase insurance through the individual market and would lose protection against rescissions if the health care law was repealed; almost 12,000 seniors would be forced to pay more for prescription drugs under Medicare. In Rep. Pallone?s district, repeal would mean eliminating health care tax credits for up to 18,200 small businesses and 117,000 families.

The report for your district will explain the specific benefits the new law provides for your constituents. We hope this information is useful to you as you consider how to vote on repeal of health reform.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman

Ranking Member

Committee on Energy and Commerce

Frank Pallone, Jr.

Member

Committee on Energy and Commerce

9:43 a.m. | Updated

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=38c731c0d289bcb20c35b17f9696fa14

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AOL teases its Editions magazine for the iPad?rather poorly.

AOL teases its Editions magazine for the iPad?rather poorly.

Take one washed-up tech company, add a dash of what everybody else is already doing. Mix well and serve warm, because the response that you?re likely to get is chilling. What you?d be looking at is AOL?s latest attempt to prove that it is a savvy company. It?s called Editions, and it would have likely held a lot more potential in other hands.

First off, there?s the video. It?s 7 minutes of your life that you can?t have back once it?s gone, so you can skip it and read our summary afterwards if you wish. If you?re feeling a bit masochistic, press play.

There. Now let?s talk about what we saw. Beyond the poor attempts at fart jokes and bathroom humor (oh, and bleeped out expletives because cursing is cool) we see an iPad application. Now, we?re not talking Flipboard, nor are we talking Project or The Daily. All of these seem like infinitely better options than what Editions appears to hold. From what we gathered, it seems like Editions will be taking your interests and then curating content from around the Internet based upon them.

This is a grand idea, in theory. However, in practice ? specifically AOL?s ? this worries us. AOL likely could have spent its money in better places, optimizing its homepage for mobile browsing or changing its search algorithm to provide you with the same experience in an iPad-optimized site. Long story short, something about Editions just feels off, to us, and we haven?t even used it yet.

In all fairness, there are apps that are already doing what Editions does, and doing it very well. my6sense, for instance, comes to mind pretty quickly. But my6sense also does the Flipboard game by allowing you to choose your sources, and the team behind my6sense has put together a genius-level algorithm that?s been working for quite some time. This is an advantage that Editions simply won?t have.

We?ll give it a fair run, once it launches. But resorting to mid-90?s humor for a promotional video simply doesn?t give us high hopes for AOL?s latest product.

About the Author

Brad is a music and tech junkie who calls Nashville home. While he writes across many channels on The Next Web, he has a particular interest in startups located in the Southern US. Find him on Twitter @BradTNW.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/01/20/aol-teases-its-editions-magazine-for-the-ipad-rather-poorly/

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