President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into Law on March 23, 2010. Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act begins Oct. 1, 2013. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2014. PHOTO: The White House

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Health Insurance Marketplace premiums under the Affordable Care Act will be lower than what government officials expected when open enrollment begins October 1, Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, has announced.

The Health Insurance Marketplace, formerly called Affordable Insurance Exchanges, would provide health insurance coverage to 3.8 million African-Americans who otherwise would be uninsured, the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica, Calif.-based research firm, reported in an April 2012 study titled, "The Affordable Care Act and African Americans.”

The study found that 20.8 percent of Blacks lacked health insurance, compared to 16.3 percent of all Americans.

Lower premiums
“Premiums nationwide also will be around 16 percent lower than originally expected - about 95 percent of eligible uninsured live in states with lower than expected premiums - before taking into account financial assistance,” Sebelius said. “In the past, consumers were too often denied or priced-out of quality health insurance options, but thanks to the Affordable Care Act, consumers will be able to choose from a number of new coverage options at a price that is affordable.”

Pre-existing conditions cannot be denied health coverage
Under the Affordable Care Act, consumers will be able to choose from an average of 53 health plans in the Marketplace.
The vast majority of consumers will have at least two different health insurance companies---usually more, Sebelius said.

The Marketplace, which will open in less than a week, will allow millions of Americans to shop and purchase health-insurance coverage in one place. Consumers can compare health plans side-by-side based on pricing, quality and benefits. No one can be denied health-insurance coverage because of a pre-existing condition, like diabetes or prostate cancer.

7 million expected to sign up
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 7 million people will sign up for insurance plans through the Health Insurance Marketplace.

In 36 states, the Department of Health and Human Services will either fully or partly run the Marketplace. Consumers will have an average of 53 plan choices.

Plans in the Marketplace are gold, silver or bronze
For example, a 27-year old who makes $25,000 a year living in Dallas can pay$74 a month for the lowest cost bronze plan and $136 month for the lowest-cost silver plan, taking into account tax credits.

For a family of four with an income of $50,000 annually living in Dallas, the lowest bronze plan would cost only $26 per month, taking into account tax credits.Consumers also will be able to learn if they qualify for insurance-premium assistance.

What the insurance exchanges cover
Marketplace-health insurance covers ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity care, newborn care, mental health, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services, laboratory services, preventive wellness services and pediatric services.Open enrollment for the Health Insurance Marketplace begins next month and it will continue through March 2014. The Affordable Care Act, which is a federal law, goes into effect Jan. 1, 2014.

Have questions? call or get online
Here are some important telephone numbers and websites concerning the Health Insurance Marketplace:
Consumers can participate in online web chats by calling 1-800-318-2596. The TTY number is 1-855-889-4325

HealthCare.gov
http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2013/MarketplacePremiums/ib_marketplace_premiums.cfm
http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2013/MarketplacePremiums/datasheet_home.cfm
http://marketplace.cms.gov/help-us/champion.html

Oct. 6, 2013

After Mall Bombing, Kenya Mulls Expulsion of Somali Refugees

Somali Refugees

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from GIN
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Kenyan parliamentarians are threatening to close Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, which is home to about half a million Somalis forced to flee to Kenya because of a war at home with insurgents under the Islamist Al-Shabab.

The closure threats follow the siege and massacre at a Nairobi shopping mall by the Somali Islamists who took their war against a western-backed government in the Somali capital of Mogadishu into Kenya. Foreign fighters including Kenyans and Ethiopians have been defending the Somali government since 2011 although the “government” controls only a very small part of the country.

Taking responsibility for the attack, Al-Shabab Islamists said it was in retaliation for Kenya’s military involvement in Somalia.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta responded: "If their desire is for Kenya to pull out from Somalia, my friends all they need to do is what they should have done 20 years ago, which is to put their house in order and Kenya will come back to Kenya."

But not all Kenyans agree that “staying the course” is good for the country.

In a sidewalk debate captured by CNN, businessman John Mutua said: "We need to get them out," referring to the Kenyan soldiers. "They'll keep killing us, and we'll continue killing them --- it will never end. We should all stop fighting, start afresh."

Bank teller John Kamau, 28, disagreed. "That's nonsense, it's not that easy," he said. "We're already in too deep. We will be considered cowards if we get out. They (Al-Shabaab) started it by killing and kidnapping people in our own land."

Over the weekend, a Kenyan official suggested that the Dadaab refugees were the obstacle to peace. The refugee camp, located in northern Kenya, was a “breeding ground for terrorists,” he alleged.

But the prospect of closing the camp has alarmed Human Rights Watch who warn it would inflame further instability in Somalia.

“Forcing them back to a country still wracked by widespread violence and insecurity would not only breach Kenya’s obligations under international law, but could inflame further instability in Somalia,” HRW Senior Researcher Gerry Simpson said this week in a statement.

For now, Kenyans who began picking up the pieces at the devastated Westgate Mall, are reporting jewelry cases smashed, mobile phones ripped from displays, cash registers emptied and alcohol stocks plundered.

No one can say for sure who is responsible, but Kenya's poorly paid security forces are strongly suspected. 

Oct. 6, 2013

Howard University President Stepping Down 

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper

Oct. 6, 2013 

106 Days? Hardly Working
By William Spriggs

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In all the coverage of the shutdown of the federal government forced by House Speaker John Boehner, little has been shared on how things got to this point. Too much of the coverage portrays the budget process as a food fight over one issue. Yet, examining the process that created the brinkmanship of Speaker Boehner and the irresponsible decision making that got us here, this needs to be laid out.

Since receiving the budget proposal from President Barack Obama in early February, the House of Representatives under Boehner was in session 106 out of 171 working days until Sept. 30, when the House should have completed its work on the federal appropriations process. The budget process involves Congress passing 12 appropriations bills to fund the various federal agencies and a reconciliation bill to handle taxes and mandatory expenditures.

On March 29, the House voted on a budget resolution that started the appropriations process. Ten Republicans voted against the budget resolution, but all the "yeas" for the resolution came from the Republican Caucus; hardly a "bipartisan" document. The House passed eight appropriations bills, but only the legislative branch appropriation, the military construction and the Department of Veteran Affairs could be called bipartisan. The House failed to pass the other four appropriations bills for the departments of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, State and Treasury and the Environmental Protection Agency and national security agencies.

So we got to Sept. 30 with Boehner having done only a portion of the job under his responsibility. Far from listening to Democrats in the House, he did force through a budget resolution with no votes from Democrats; and received concurrence from Democrats on only two of the eight appropriations bills that were passed.

Objectively, then, Boehner has no evidence to offer that he works in a bipartisan fashion, or that the appropriations process was slowed by the White House after Boehner held Congress in session for only 60 oercebt of business days to do its work on the budget. When Congress fails to act in a timely fashion, it must pass a continuing resolution to let the government operate while Congress finishes the appropriations process; giving itself an extension to finish its work.

So, can there be little surprise with Obama's response when Boehner insists that either the president adopt a Republican budget proposal or shut down the entire government? The Senate Democrats are proposing a continuing resolution based on more severe budget caps than the House worked with.

As a result, the proposal from the Senate Democrats is to continue funding the government but with huge cuts in non-defense discretionary spending from President Obama's budget proposal. The Senate Democrats cap non-defense spending $133 billion below the president's budget submission. So can there be little surprise with Obama's response to Boehner's demands when the president has said he will sign a continuing resolution that slashes his budget proposal?  Clearly, it is Boehner who stands in opposition to a reasonable solution to the situation we are in.

With the timeline in mind, and with the huge compromise the president is indicating he is willing to make on his budget proposal, the current shutdown is clearly the result of Speaker Boehner insisting on the acceptance of his uncompromised position and inability to get done with the appropriations process in a timely fashion.

Now, why is Congress having such a difficult time in doing its job on appropriations? Because five years after the fall of the financial sector, mainstream America is still down several million jobs and families in the middle are still down several thousand dollars in income. Yet, Congress continues to be obsessed with deficit reduction. And, the cuts the House of Representatives gave to maintaining our investment in America's education and health in the House budget resolution were too big to get passed by the House-even the Republican majority in the House when that specific appropriation bill was brought out of committee.

Clearly, the current collision course is the reckless work of Boehner making political points with a bloc in his caucus and disregarding the needs of the American people. Failing to whip his caucus into slashing investments America needs for the future, he is nonetheless trying to bully the president to take the fall with him.

With job growth moderating, Boehner is delaying federal contracting processes and hurting current contracts that many small business owners need to keep their doors open or expand to hire more workers. Risking the economic health of the nation to score political points shows Boehner is disconnected from the realities of Main Street.

Being an obstructionist plays well to the base of the tea party bloc in Speaker Boehner's caucus. The tea party is convinced we don't need government anyway.  But to women who need access to child care so they can work, and mothers who need the assistance of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food program to provide food for their babies, it matters if government is working. To the small business owners trying to line up loan assistance from the Small Business Administration to expand and hire more workers, it matters if government is working.

The tragedy for America is that the compromise being offered will lock in place the sequestration that will continue to shrink the investments America needs in schooling, roads and bridges. What we really need is a true alternative-ending the sequestration and protecting our earned Social Security and Medicare benefits.

The real voice of America is being locked out of the conversation. We want teachers to return to our children's classrooms and we need the services we lost because of the Great Recession's effect on local budgets. Instead, now thanks to Speaker Boehner and his political agenda, we are locked out of our own parks and memorials.

Follow Spriggs on Twitter: @WSpriggs. Contact: Amaya Smith-Tune Acting Director, Media Outreach AFL-CIO 202-637-5142.