What most people consider health "insurance"

What most people consider health "insurance" is actually genuine insurance combined with inefficient pre-paid medical care. Contrast that with standard car or homeowners insurance policies. Those plans protect us against unlikely but expensive events, such as a bad car accident or a house fire. But we don't use car insurance to cover routine predictable expenses such as oil changes.The current system of employer-based health "insurance" is an artifact of federal tax rules from World War II. When the U.S. government imposed wartime wage and price controls,alligator shear employers could no longer compete for workers by offering higher salaries. Instead, they competed by offering more generous fringe benefits such as health insurance. In 1943, the IRS ruled that employees did not have to pay taxes on health insurance paid for by employers; in 1954, the IRS made this rule permanent.

This law permanently distorted the health insurance market in favor of employer-based plans. If an employer pays $100 for health insurance with pre-tax dollars, the employee enjoys the full benefit. But if the employer pays that $100 as salary, the worker will only be able to purchase $50-70 of insurance after taxes. The law also created perverse incentives for insurers to shift as many services as possible into pre-tax plans. Gradually, they started covering not just major expenses but minor routine expenses alligator shear such as immunizations and well-baby checks.Think of what would happen to the market for car oil changes if they were offered as a tax-free benefit through your workplace.

Over time, this tax disparity helped employer-based health insurance dominate the private insurance market. Hence, most workers don't own their own health insurance in the same way that they own their auto or homeowners insurance. When workers change jobs, they almost always must also change health plans.Adding to this problem have been the many state and federal regulations mandating specific insurance benefits. At the federal level, ObamaCare requires all plans include a laundry list of "essential health benefits" such as maternity coverage, pediatric dental services,skin analyzer "free" HIV and syphilis testing, and obesity counseling. The states require an additional 2,271 mandatory benefits including acupuncture, in vitro fertilization (MA), and hair prostheses. These mandates inevitably drive up insurance costs.

This is my favorite article:Buffs earn four-set win vs. Arizona State

Tantalizing test results raise key issue: Who killed Arafat?

New test results on the remains of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "moderately support" the proposition that he died of polonium-210 poisoning but avoid the most tantalizing question of all: If it was murder, who did it?Arafat died in November 2004 in a French hospital. He had fallen ill with symptoms including vomiting and stomach pains after eating at his headquarters in Ramallah, on the West Bank. The official cause of death was a massive stroke, but no autopsy was done.The new tests were conducted by 10 experts at the Vaudois University Hospital Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, on remains extracted from Arafat's grave.The tests were triggered by a year-long Al Jazeera investigation,alligator shear which included a forensic examination of some of the Palestinian leader's clothing that suggested a suspicious cause of death.

The Swiss experts carefully hedged their findings, which included at least 18 times the normal levels of radioactive polonium in Arafat's remains.However, the degradation of polonium-210 over eight years and the quality of the forensic samples made a definitive conclusion difficult."Our observations are coherent with a hypothesis of poisoning, in any case more consistent than with the opposite hypothesis of no poisoning," Patrice Mangin,alligator shear director of the hospital's center of legal medicine, told reporters.Francois Bochud, who headed the Swiss team, said Thursday: "Was polonium the cause of the death for certain? The answer is no, we cannot show categorically that hypothesis that the poisoning caused was this or that."

Similar tests were also carried out by Russian and French experts. The Russian findings, Al Jazeera reported Friday, were "inconclusive," finding "radioactive background" on only one of four fragments. The French report is being withheld pending the outcome of its murder investigation.Arafat's widow, Suha,skin analyzer has little doubt that murder was involved, telling Reuters, "We are revealing a real crime, a political assassination."As leader of the Palestinian Authority, he had control over vast sums of money, particularly aid from foreign governments. Arafat's widow tells Reuters that the polonium must have been administered by someone "in his close circle" because experts had told her the poison would have been put in his coffee, tea or water. She did not accuse any country or person and noted that he had many enemies.

This is my favorite article:First Data Quietly Buys Payments Startup Clover

2 admirals' classified access suspended in Navy probe

The U.S. Navy on Friday suspended two senior military intelligence officers' access to classified materials in connection with an investigation into alleged illegal and improper relations with a defense contractor.Classified access was suspended for Vice Adm.Ted Branch, director of Naval Intelligence,alligator shear and Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless, director of Intelligence Operations, according to Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, Navy chief of information.Kirby said the decision to suspend their classified access was made based upon the nature of allegations against Branch and Loveless in connection with an ongoing Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation.

The NCIS is investigating possible illegal and improper relations with Navy contractor Leonard Francis, a Malaysian citizen and CEO of Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd.There is no indication,alligator shear nor do the allegations suggest that there was any breach of classified information, Kirby said. Neither Branch nor Loveless has been charged with any crime or violation. Both retain their ranks and security clearances. They are on temporary leave.Kirby said the suspension was deemed prudent given the sensitive nature of the admirals' current duties and to protect the integrity of the investigative process,The allegations against Branch and Loveless involve conduct prior to their current assignments and flag officer ranks, Kirby said.

NCIS initiated the investigation in 2010."We will continue to make public as much information as we can without prejudicing the conduct of this investigation," Kirby said in a statement.On Wednesday, Cmdr. Jose Luis Sanchez, 41, was arrested in Florida and faces charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, according to the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego.He was the third Navy official has been charged in a case accusing them of accepting prostitution and other services from Francis in exchange for business and favorable treatment,skin analyzer according to the attorney's office.Federal prosecutors allege Sanchez, as deputy logistics officer in the U.S. 7th Fleet and later as the Fleet Logistics Command's operations director, directed Navy business and sensitive information to Francis' company, which provides security, supplies and other services to U.S. Navy ships at various ports.

This is my favorite article:Dispute over scanning machine may stall West Rail Bridge opening

Jobs Strength Puts Fed on Hot Seat

"Stores are hiring, but it's more muted than what we'd expect given the nature of the business being so strong," he said. Ace, which has 4,700 stores that are mostly independently owned, recorded strong sales growth during the past six months, including a 4% gain in October."We definitely saw some softening of the business when the politicians were making all the headlines" during the government shutdown, Mr. Venhuizen said. "And nothing was really resolved,alligator shear just put off. That creates more uncertainty, not less."But the improving stock market and broader gains in the economy appear to be giving wealthier Americans more confidence about opening their wallets.

When the economy went sour, affluent clients "still had plenty of money" but chose to put off renovations, said Kelly Conklin, owner of Foley Waite Associates, a woodworking firm in Kenilworth, N.J., that is seeing increased orders from luxury-home builders and renovators. "Now that the economy seems to be improving, they are getting more comfortable spending their money."Strengthening demand has allowed the firm to add four employees this fall,alligator shear bringing its head count to 14. That is the same size it was before the recession, which forced Foley Waite to cut back to as few as four workers.Overall, 11.3 million Americans remained unemployed in October, a number that has held steady for several months. A broader measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those working part time, but who want full-time employment, rose to 13.8% from 13.6% in September.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking at an International Monetary Fund conference Friday, commented broadly about slack in the labor market. The unemployment rate, he said,skin analyzer probably understates the softness in the labor market. It is an argument Fed officials have made before. Because so many Americans are leaving the labor force, they are also leaving the government's counts of unemployed workers and holding down the jobless rate.The slack is a reason why the Fed has continued pushing easy-money policies. Mr. Bernanke gave no indication Friday of whether he is more or less inclined to start pulling back on the bond-buying program.

This is my favorite article:Poor telephone connectivity

Asian shares wilt, Fed anxiety eclipses China optimism

"If the ISM report is better than expected, it could add to revived tapering expectations, and U.S. yields and the dollar could go up and stocks could go down," said Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo.Data on Thursday showed the pace of business activity in the U.S. Midwest jumped more than expected in October, while jobless claims decline in the latest week,alligator shear soothing some worries about sluggish fourth-quarter growth after last month's federal government shutdown.Still, not all investors or economists were convinced that the latest U.S. data heralded a shift in monetary policy expectations.

"The existence of noise in the October data will likely make it difficult for the Fed to gather enough evidence to start tapering in December," strategists at Barclays wrote in a note to clients, adding that they still to expect the central bank to begin reducing its current $85 billion monthly bond purchases in March 2014.The U.S. data pressured emerging market currencies, with the Indian rupee and Indonesian rupiah leading slides.The euro remained under pressure after plunging in the previous session as euro-zone inflation dropped to its lowest rate in nearly four years,alligator shear sharpening expectations that the European Central Bank, in contrast to the Fed, will further ease its monetary policy.

The single currency dropped about 0.2 percent to $1.3555, moving away from a two-year peak of $1.3833 set one week ago. On Thursday, it suffered its biggest one-day fall against the greenback in six months, tumbling 1.1 percent.Data on Thursday showed euro-area inflation slowed to a four-year low of 0.7 percent last month, far below the ECB's target of just under 2 percent. Other data showed unemployment held at record highs in September.The dollar index .DXY,skin analyzer which measures the greenback against six major currencies, was on track for a sixth session of gains, rising about 0.1 percent to 80.305 after touching a two-week peak of 80.418 and pulling further away from a nine-month trough of 78.998 hit one week ago.Against the Japanese currency, the dollar was about 0.4 percent lower on the day at 97.91 yen.In commodities trading, gold steadied but was still trading close to its lowest in nearly two weeks, hurt by sharp losses in the previous session from month-end profit-taking, the strong U.S. economic data and the higher dollar.

This is my favorite article:Indian-origin scientist develops 'brain' for robots