Skimm for October 30th Quote of the day: “It’s over for now.” — The Jonas Brothers have split, officially. Apparently, Nick was feeling trapped. So many feelings. There are still three of them and none are currently dating Taylor Swift. Healthcare.gulp THE STORY: The website for Obamacare’s marketplace still does not work well. People are still annoyed. Congress is even more annoyed. Now the administration has officially apologized for the tech problems, which didn’t do much. It’s also dealing with a new complaint. WHAT’S THE NEW PROBLEM? People losing their current coverage. While Obama was championing his health care reform law, he reassured many that if they currently had health insurance that they liked, they’d get to keep it. But on Monday, NBC News reported that over half of the 14 million who buy insurance on their own can expect their policies to be cancelled. WTF? All because they don’t meet the new law’s standards. Apparently, a wave of notices have either gone out or are on their way. The report claimed the Obama administration knew this could happen. Yesterday, the administration shot down the report and said that you can keep your insurance plan as long as your insurer does…which is awkward when it doesn’t. OK, THEN. WHO APOLOGIZED? At a congressional hearing, the official in charge of the hot mess of a website said she was sorry people were having trouble signing up. She wouldn’t say how many people actually signed up, which made it more uncomfortable when a Congressman said that more people probably were booted off of their existing coverage, than signed up for new coverage. theSKIMM: With the administration also dealing with NSA headaches, the most popular question of the week has been — what did Obama and the administration know and when? Today, the spotlight will be on Health & Human Services Sec. Sebelius, the top health official dealing with the most criticism, when she testifies before Congress. The Congressional nitpicking is opening the door for a new debate— a bipartisan effort that would try to delay the requirement that will force Americans to have health insurance. REPEAT AFTER ME… What to say when you’re planning a Eurotrip… Don’t invite the NSA. It’s lost a lot of friends there recently, after all the latest reports on its habitual spying on world leaders and millions of citizens alike. But yesterday, at a Congressional hearing, the director of the NSA said the US isn’t the only one with a gossip problem. Director Gen. Keith Alexander defended the NSA’s surveillance/listening practices and said a lot of its information on millions of citizens isn’t just collected by the agency but gathered and gifted by European allies. This puts a new spotlight on European intelligence services and how all these international pen pals work together. What to say when someone coughs on you… Better be vaccinated, buddy. The UN’s World Health Organization confirmed an outbreak of polio — yes, polio — among young kids in Syria. Plans for vaccination campaigns in the war-torn country and its neighbors got a very, very big push in order to stop the disease from spreading. Thousands of refugees flee Syria’s civil war daily for neighbors like Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, and Lebanon where vaccination campaigns have amped up. Egypt and Israel are also taking precautions against the disease, which can cause paralysis and can be transmitted through contaminated food and water (or when someone else has it). Officials are trying to find out where the outbreak came from and some are pointing to Pakistan, one of three countries where it is usually still found. What to say when you get caught with candy wrappers… The jig is up. Billionaire Steven Cohen’s hedge fund, SAC Capital, will plead guilty to securities fraud in a big, big criminal insider-trading settlement. Federal prosecutors will probably announce the deal next week. SAC will promise to stop managing other people’s money and pay the government about $1.2 billion in penalties, the largest insider trading penalty ever. EVER. SAC has already agreed to pay hundreds of millions in a civil settlement. While Mr. Cohen probably wants to get back to his art and home collection hobbies, he will remain under a separate investigation and could still be banned from managing money, except his own.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 10:26:18 +0000
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