Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are federal programs under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that incentivize health care providers to reduce costs and improve quality of care. Theoretically, under the ACO model, physicians coordinate with hospitals to create a large organization that provides streamlined, coordinated care to patients. The ACO model hopes to … Continue reading
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Why Micronesia Matters
China has an eye to increasing its investments in the Pacific, and a new development plan on the island of Yap in Micronesia (see map below) has been turning heads in the region. Kaselehlie Press, a Micronesian newspaper, has reported that the plan calls for 8 to 10 hotel complexes and 8 to 15 golf … Continue reading
Banks vs. Borrowers: Who are reaping the benefits?
On September 13, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke announced a third round of quantitative easing that the Fed would enact to further jumpstart the sluggishly recovering U.S. economy. QE 3, as it is known, has the Fed buy 40 billion dollars worth of mortgage backed securities per month to make it cheaper for … Continue reading
America / Constitution / Foreign Policy / Gov. Officials / National Security / Politics / Presidency
A Halloween Treat(y): Political Partisanship and The Declining Role of Article II Treaties
21st Century government in the United States has become synonymous with extreme political polarization. Since the 2000 presidential election, and the subsequent Supreme Court decision in Gore v. Bush, political bipartisanship has been sparse, at best. Numerous factors have played into the growing political divide in Washington, including a widening ideological gulf between the Democratic … Continue reading
Does Romney’s Tax Math Add Up?
One of the most contentious points in the two presidential debates, and really the focal point of this campaign, has been Mitt Romney’s tax proposal. Governor Romney’s proposal, a summary of which you can read here, is essentially to reduce income taxes for all Americans by 20%, eliminate interest, dividends, and capital gains taxes for … Continue reading
No Good Options on Iran
While there are vast differences in the proposals of the Obama and Romney campaigns there is one issue that both men seem to generally agree on: the need to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. While their policy recommendations may differ in the details, the basic objective is the same. A nuclear armed Iran … Continue reading
On the Romney Tax Plan
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” – Albert Einstein Mitt Romney has a tax plan. He wants to lower tax rates for everyone and get rid of some tax deductions. The details of the plan and who will be benefit are hotly debated topics and seemingly an entire industry has … Continue reading
Put this in your binder- Romney is the better candidate for women
The latest Romneyism to set the political world awitter, “binders full of women,” has reiginited the battle for female voters, with President Obama and his campaign casting Governor Romney as an out-of-touch barbarian set on bringing women back to the 1950s. Romney uttered this now infamous phrase during the second presidential debate in response to a female … Continue reading
Will third time be a charm for Romney?
With the second presidential debate in the past, all the political junkies are gearing up for the third and final contest between President Obama and Governor Romney. If you haven’t been keeping up with the debates until now, here is a brief summary to catch you up. The first debate, domestic policy, was a clear … Continue reading
Healthy, not just “healthy”
Forbes has a list of 10 ‘healthy’ habits that drain your bank account. Those ten are: drinking bottled water, taking unnecessary supplements, having a gym membership and not using it, drinking soy milk, eating organic peanut butter, drinking diet soda, drinking orange juice, buying unnecessary skin treatments, colonics, and eating protein bars. These habits could … Continue reading
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