...ROMNEYCARE An In-‐Depth Analysis of the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform The American Healthcare System Final Research Report By Sara Mahmood, DDS and Camille Debi 1.0 Introduction In 2006, the state of Massachusetts initiated a health care overhaul by passing a reform law with the central tenet of providing healthcare to all of its residents. Widely popular and objectively successful, the law has been dubbed “Romneycare,” named after then Governor Mitt Romney who signed the legislation into action. The law mandates that nearly every resident of Massachusetts obtain a minimum level of insurance coverage and provides free health insurance for residents earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level. It also mandates employers with more than 10 full-time employees to provide health insurance. Among its many outcomes, the law established an independent public authority with the official title of “the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority”. However, it is commonly referred to as “the Connector”. The Connector acts as an insurance broker, essentially, offering free, highly subsidized and full-price private insurance plans to residents. The website serves as a portal for Massachusetts residents that allows them to access many of the Connector’s resources, as well as the ability to register online for an insurance policy. Although it has been amended significantly since...
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...Throughout the past century, there have been boiling debates between the Democratic and Republican Party about ideological, cultural, and racial issues. Though these two parties may differ in certain beliefs, they still share a common ground and actually are not much different from each other. Therefore, in this paper I argue that the United States electorate is not polarized, or deeply divided. I base my argument from various tables shown in Morris P. Fiorina’s “From Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America,” which shows evidence of America not being polarized; as well as a table listed in Alan I. Abramowitz’s “The Polarized Electorate,” which shows how the information provided is biased and inaccurate in terms of justifying that the electorate...
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...JS 5/1/2013 POLS 3315-001 Party Issue Valuations and Reassessments Why do political parties in the United States abandon or revisit specific issues? Moreover, what is the driving force behind a party making an issue politically salient? Some examples that could be correlated with these questions could be why the Republican Party has stayed silent on issues that many old-guard Democrats feel is contentious in the current administration, why the sudden recent ideological transformation of conservative party, or why many politicians steer clear from Wall-Street related subjects (even though lashing out against bankers these days is sure to garner some attention, and most likely support from the general public). All of these examples and more will be discussed in order to provide a sufficient answer as to why issues are left behind in the dust or put out prominently on display. There are numerous factors and variables to consider when trying answering such a question, one of which could be racial factors. It’s been largely documented that Latinos have been an increasingly growing electorate, going from 1 percent of voters from the 1950s to over 11% in the twenty-first century (Abramowitz 27). With this information in mind, it would make sense that the Democratic establishment is today trying to initiate immigration reform in the United States Senate, knowing that they’ll have an increasing amount of support from their Latino electorate. It should also be noted that although...
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...AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF MARGINAL TAX CUTS SAYANTAN MITRA In my last paper, I argued in favor of the across-the-board tax-cuts proposed by the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. With the help of instances from both micro as well as macroeconomics, I showed how a reduction in marginal and corporate taxes was beneficial for the economy. I used the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of the positive direction which the economy would take as a result of tax-cuts. I used empirical evidence to show that the tax-cuts on previous occasions have resulted in economic growth and increase in GDP of the United States. My detailed arguments and results can be found in the Appendix. In this paper I will analyze the effects of marginal tax-cuts on the different income groups, the high income and low income households. I will also analyze the variations in marginal propensity to save taking account demographic characteristics such as age group and education level as well as income. This would aid in an analysis of which portions of the population would be benefitted from a tax-cut. Therefore, I would like to would policy prescriptions for cutting taxes. When there is a reduction in payroll tax rates, it can have different effects on the different parts of the population. For low-income households, a tax-cut would encourage them to work for more hours. On the other hand, for high-income households, it may lead to them working lesser. These can be explained...
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...on average, male CEOs were three inches taller than the average man at just under 6′.For every three inches taller than average they are, women earn 5 to 8 percent more money than women of average height. Symmetry is a sign of perceived beauty and people who are attractive make a considerable amount more than everyone else. Rick Wilson of Rice University studied “Fiscal Attraction.” He found a correlation between good looks and success. He found that the better a person looks, the more other people trust them. One finding in particular showed that the more people smiled, they more they were seen as trustworthy over those who kept a serious face. According to TheGlassHammer, a website designed for women executives, “there is strong statistical evidence to show that women who wear make-up in business get better jobs and are promoted more quickly.” And a survey reported in The Times shows that “64 per cent of directors said that women who wore make-up look more professional and 18 per cent of directors said that women who...
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...their options. 2. How open is your audience to your argument? Is it undecided or hostile? Keep in mind that the more hostile your audience is, the more time you will need to spend establishing common ground between you and your audience. My audience would have to be more towards hostile because abortion is a sensitive subject to some people. 3. How will you organize your argument to accommodate your audience’s level of openness to your position? Will your argument have a classical structure? Will it have a Rogerian structure? Will you be presenting your reasons and evidence before directly stating your thesis? Why, based on your knowledge of your audience, will your argument have the organization you will be using? I will give both of the sides of the argument and keep an open mind when presenting both sides. My argument will have a Rogerian structure and my thesis will come after all the evidence is presented. 4. What are your audience's priorities and goals? What are your audience's concerns and fears? What values and beliefs contribute to these priorities, goals, concerns, and fears? Use this question to help you consider possible objections your audience may have about your argument. The goals for the audience would be to be able to go into the argument with an open mind. A fear or concern would that abortion is ‘okay’. 5. Does your audience fit...
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...Administration (FAA) forecast predicting a doubling of passengers and cargo by 2030, the current funding system is not up to the job of ensuring airports will have the infrastructure they need to handle such dramatic increases in traffic. This will have far-reaching consequences. Commercial airports are powerful economic engines, generating 10.5 million jobs and $1.2 trillion for the U.S. economy, according to a new Airports Council International-North America study. Across the country, workers and businesses count on local airports to attract investment and move people and goods around the world. Since 2001, the total number of jobs associated with airports has increased by more than 50 percent. Despite unprecedented growth and clear evidence of the economic benefits of infrastructure investments, airports expect to have $80 billion in unmet needs through 2015 because of the flawed system used to pay for infrastructure projects. That has not always been the case. Airports generated millions of jobs and trillions of dollars for local communities between 2001 and 2010 because President Bill Clinton and Congress made two decisions to improve airport infrastructure planning and investment in 2000. The first decision allowed local communities to raise more money to finance...
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...1. Point-Counterpoint State Medicaid Policy and Health Reform Harold A. Pollack University of Chicago Authors: Pollack, Harold A.1 Source: Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law; Feb2013, Vol. 38 Issue 1, p161-163, 3p The article discusses the positive and negative implications of the new ruling that the federal government could not require states that receive federal funds under the Medicaid program to participate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's (PPACA's) Medicaid expansion. Several shortcomings like limited provider payment and associated patient access barriers have been observed in Medicaid that make its adoption not a good idea. However, families below the poverty line can benefit. In July 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The Court thus ended one phase in the political and legal battle over health reform. Yet in doing so, it opened a new front. In a notable departure from post–New Deal commerce clause jurisprudence, the Court ruled that the federal government could not require states that receive federal funds under the Medicaid program to participate in the PPACA’s Medicaid expansion. In effect, the Court made states’ participation in the PPACA’s Medicaid expansion voluntary — a possibility that neither the act’s supporters nor its opponents seriously entertained during the long legislative battle of 2009 and 2010. The full implications of these...
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...CHRISTIAN APPROACH TO HOMOSEXUALITY 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. BIBLE AND HOMOSEXUALITY 1. Biblical View of Sexuality 2. Old Testament on Homosexuality 2a. Stories of Sodom and Gibeah 2b. Levitical Texts 3. New Testament on Homosexuality 3a. Paul’s Statements in Romans 3b. Other Pauline Texts II. BIOLOGY AND HOMOSEXUALITY III. LAW AND HOMOSEXUALITY IV. CHURCH AND THE HOMOSEXUAL CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY 2 INTRODUCTION On 2nd July 2009, in a landmark judgement, the Delhi High Court struck down the provision of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised consensual sexual acts of adults in private, holding that it violated the fundamental right of life and liberty and the right to equality as guaranteed in the Constitution. Pronouncing the order in Naz Foundation (India) Trust v. Government of NCT, Delhi and Others, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 7455 of 2001, a division bench of Chief Justice A.P Shah and Justice S. Murlidhar said “We declare that Section 377 IPC, insofar it criminalizes consensual sexual acts of adults in private, is violative of Articles 21, 14 and 15 of the Constitution.” While gay-rights movements...
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...Oprah, Obama, and the 2008 Democratic Primary Craig Garthwaite Department of Economics University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 Vmail: 202-746-0990 Email: cgarthwaite@gmail.com Tim Moore Department of Economics University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 Vmail: 301-442-1785 Email: moore@econ.umd.edu August 2008 Abstract Candidates in major political contests are commonly endorsed by other politicians, interest groups and celebrities. Prior to the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary, Barack Obama was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, a celebrity with a proven track record of influencing her fans’ commercial decisions. In this paper, we use geographic differences in subscriptions to O! – The Oprah Magazine and the sale of books Winfrey recommended as part of Oprah's Book Club to assess whether her endorsement affected the Primary outcomes. We find her endorsement had a positive effect on the votes Obama received, increased the overall voter participation rate, and increased the number of contributions received by Obama. No connection is found between the measures of Oprah's influence and Obama's success in previous elections, nor with underlying local political preferences. Our results suggest that Winfrey’s endorsement was responsible for approximately 1,000,000 additional votes for Obama. JEL Classification Numbers: D7; D72 We are grateful to Bill Evans for his comments and guidance. We also would like to thank Kerwin Charles, Allan Drazen...
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...The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School The Mary Jane and Frank P. Smeal College of Business ESSAYS IN POLITICAL MARKETING A Dissertation in Business Administration by David LeBaron 2008 David N. LeBaron Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2008 The thesis of David N. LeBaron was reviewed and approved* by the following: William T. Ross, Jr. Professor of Marketing Dissertation Co-Advisor Co-Chair of Committee John C. Liechty Associate Professor of Marketing Dissertation Co-Advisor Co-Chair of Committee Peter Ebbes Assistant Professor of Marketing David J. Huff Clinical Assistant Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems Johannes Baumgartner Professor of Marketing Head of the Department of Marketing *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT Political marketing sits at the nexus of two disciplines, political science and marketing, but is not entirely accepted by either. The present research looks at the origin, development, and evolution of political marketing and examines how the adoption of a political marketing orientation is impacting the practice of political campaigns. The role of political marketing in actually changing voters’ preferences is also examined, showing that grassroots marketing efforts seem to have the greatest effect, especially with undecided voters. Finally, voter segments are derived...
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...The Journal of Legal Medicine, 33:171–199 Copyright C 2012 American College of Legal Medicine 0194-7648 print / 1521-057X online DOI: 10.1080/01947648.2012.657993 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY A 50-STATE SURVEY EXPLORING FEDERAL AND STATE FIREARM REGULATIONS RELATED TO MENTAL HEALTH Jason Sterzer* The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, and this without any qualification as to their condition or degree, as is the case in the British government. This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty . . . . The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Whenever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.1 INTRODUCTION On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho went on a murderous rampage at Virginia Tech University, slaughtering 32 people before turning his gun on himself.2 Cho had previously been diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder and declared mentally ill in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County.3 At the time of the shooting, Virginia law prohibited the “purchase, possession, or transportation of any firearm by any person adjudicated ‘legally incompetent,’ ‘mentally incapacitated,’ or ‘incapacitated,’ whose competency or capacity [had] not been * Third-year law student...
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...The Economist 本 PDF 由人人网《经济学人》翻译组提供翻译、整理 新浪微博请关注 http://weibo.com/tett 原文版权归经济学人集团所有 小组地址 http://xiaozu.renren.com/xiaozu/228064 主宰自己人生的秘诀在于求知与冒险，前者让你预见未来，后者让你掌控你所预见的未来。 鸣 组长：钮成拓 组长：胡伟凡 谢 翻译 A 组（一周时事 The world this week 文艺 Books and Arts） 组员：史心语 李雅婷 罗智 朱田牧 沈鱼 唐宇 熊朋迪 姚欣悦 翻译 B 组（财经 Finance & Economics 科技 Science & Technology） 组员：陈默 汤旭武 熊佳 黄文琦 王紫珊 徐莉钦 袁子葳 陈玉梅 许青 汤永永 翻译 C 组（精粹 Briefing 亚洲 Asia） 组长：贺鹏 组员：董董 王英莲 金婧华 杨婕 郑玮 闵昂 董平 苏秋秋 刘畅 杨畅 翻译 D 组（商业 Business 社论 Leaders） 组长：卢爽 组员：程娟 曹宝平 张力 巩子笠 王同同 谢乙德 赵一蓉 管浩波 翻译 E 组（美国 United States 美洲 The Americas） 组长：程蒙 组员：慧子 孔德威 栾子越 裴静 郑恒 胡文玉 王思思 马绍博 李苏 翻译 F 组（中东与非洲 Middle East and Africa 国际 International） 组长：单李扬 组员：樊睿 沈骜 林冰洁 李小千 黄献禾 蔡丽艳 李骏 刘超 翻译 G 组（英国 Britain 欧洲 Europe） 组长：周薇薇 组员：徐文婕 周开文 郭伟华 战培良 郭爽 芳菲 柳杨 王征 李慧彗 郭心睿 李寅 罗丹 张亚玲 校对组 组长：尹茜 组员：李晓敏 任昊 汪楚航 胡心云 张诗玲 张理中 王晴 刘洋 杨舒雅 费凡 ——组员专访 没有赶上这周的小组会议， 但是也得服从组织安排啊。 这周的题目是政治和金融的结合体， 尽管不长， 也让我大费周章。 虽然嘴上说再也不要碰经济类的文章了，但是心里还是有种想要去正视自己软肋的冲动。每次都是拖拖拉拉直到最后，有时 候还要翻译到一点多，厚着脸皮向刘总、组长和校对组的同学们表示深深的歉意。 因为考研，我加入了这个小组，从当初看不得群里一片喧哗，气愤从网横行的河蟹，然后为分组纠结，再到后来认识了 好多朋友，成长的确是一件值得开心的事情。那么多伙伴祝我生日快乐，我一条一条看过去，留下了一个一边笑一边想哭的 扭曲表情。 今天刘总把人人小组对翻译团的超好评发出来了，今后也请各位继续多多努力，我们的目标还很远大呢！ C 组-苏秋秋 2011.9.10 《经济学人》中英文对照版 2011 年 9 月 10 日刊 免费订阅地址：http://s8.hk/5vqm -1- 本刊旨在提供学习交流之用，请于下载后 24 小时内删除，我们鼓励购买正版！ The Economist 本 周 政 治 要 闻 BY 史 心 语 &罗 智 本 周 商 业 要 闻 BY 唐 宇 &熊 朋 迪 本 PDF 由人人网《经济学人》翻译组提供翻译、整理 财 经 Finance & Economics 红币在国外 新浪微博请关注 http://weibo.com/tett 原文版权归经济学人集团所有 小组地址 http://xiaozu.renren.com/xiaozu/228064 ...
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...EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Two big events will frame the year ahead: America’s presidential election and the summer Olympic games in Beijing. The race for the White House will be a marathon, from the front-loaded primary season in January and February to the general election in November. The betting is that the winner will be a Democrat—with a strong chance that a Clinton will again be set to succeed a Bush as leader of the free world. China, meanwhile, will hope to use the Olympics to show the world what a splendid giant it has become. It will win the most gold medals, and bask in national pride and the global limelight. But it will also face awkward questions on its repressive politics. America and China will be prime players in the matters that will concentrate minds around the world in 2008. One of these is the world economy, which can no longer depend on America, with its housing and credit woes, to drive growth. America should—just—avoid recession, but it will be China (for the first time the biggest contributor to global growth) along with India and other emerging markets that will shine. Another focus of attention will be climate change. As China replaces America as the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, serious efforts on global warming depend on the serious involvement of those two countries. If 2007 was the year when this rose to the top of the global agenda, in 2008 people will expect action. It is striking that green is a theme that links all the contributions...
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...2013 AnnuAl RepoRt Find Your WorldSM ONLINE. TOuR OuR INTERACTIvE ANNuAL REpORT AT MARRIOTT.COM/INvESTOR. MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL , INC. A MESSAGE FROM OuR EXECuTIvE CHAIRMAN J.W. Marriott, Jr. Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board There are so many ways to Find Your World at Marriott International. Our more than 3,900 hotels in more than 70 countries provide the stage for you to close that important business deal, take your loved ones on a beach vacation, or explore new destinations on a journey of personal discovery. For our guests and approximately 325,000 associates at headquarters and our managed and franchised hotels, we are working hard to help you meet your goals, whether it’s creating lasting memories or building on life’s successes. I am so proud of our company. Something I’ve noticed even more in my role as Executive Chairman is that Marriott’s history and culture are the foundation for our future. Our stakeholders recognize this, too. I am confident we’ll continue our success and come even closer to realizing our vision of being the best lodging company in the world. In 2013, our strategy delivered great results. We grew our portfolio, and had more hotels in the pipeline than any time in Marriott’s history. Our leadership teams created new opportunities for growth across the globe, from opening one of every five new rooms in the u.S. and setting us up for growth in Africa, to accelerating our growth in Asia and creating and launching...
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