HAB911
HAB911's JournalTwo in three patients can't pay off their hospital bills
Of hospital bills that were $500 or less, 68 percent were not paid off in 2016. That's up from 49 percent in 2014.
More than two-thirds of patients aren't paying their entire hospital bills, and that number could increase to 95 percent by 2020, according to a study from TransUnion, a company that helps hospitals collect unpaid bills.
Analyzing patient data from across the country, TransUnion found just under half of patients did not pay off hospital bills of $500 or less two years ago. The company attributed the increase to higher deductibles and patient responsibility growing from 10 percent to 30 percent over the last few years.
The Affordable Care Act has given more people access to health care, but it has driven deductibles up, in some cases, making it harder for patients to pay, said John Yount, TransUnion's vice president of product for the health-care division. Hospital margins are already between only 2 and 4 percent on average, Yount said, and that margin quickly narrows when more patients can't pay their bills.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/26/two-in-three-patients-cant-pay-off-their-hospital-bills.html
Supreme Courts Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer Decision
Washington, DC—Today, in a 7-2 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that churches and other houses of worship are entitled to state funding, undermining the foundation of the wall of separation between religion and government.
In Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, the Court decided that the Missouri State Constitution’s no-aid clause was an unconstitutional burden on the church’s free exercise rights.
David Silverman, president of American Atheists, made the following statement:
“By striking down Missouri’s no-aid clause, the Court has opened Pandora’s Box. This case was about more than a playground. It was about whether unaccountable religious groups are entitled to receive taxpayer funding despite their complete lack of financial transparency. For the first time, this Court has decided that they are.
“Without the protection of these no-aid clauses, taxpayers are now being forced to directly subsidize religious denominations they do not support. That is fundamentally un-American and I am profoundly disappointed that the Court continues to erode the wall of separation between religion and government.
“We will continue to remain vigilant against any further attempts to direct taxpayer funding to churches and other houses of worship. Taken with the ongoing attempts to repeal the Johnson Amendment and turn churches into Super PACs, this decision represents a clear and profound threat to our democracy. We must demand full and equal accountability and transparency of all groups receiving tax-exempt status, including houses of worship.”
https://www.atheists.org/2017/06/american-atheists-profoundly-disappointed-supreme-courts-trinity-lutheran-church-v-comer-decision/
Commissioners vote to keep Confederate monument in downtown Tampa
TAMPA — As some southern communities move to erase Confederate symbols from their public spaces, one prominently on display in Tampa will stay where it is.
After three hours of contentious debate, Hillsborough County commissioners voted 4-3 on Wednesday to keep a Confederate monument outside the old county courthouse in downtown Tampa.
Commissioners Victor Crist, Ken Hagan, Sandy Murman and Stacy White, all Republicans, were in the majority. The board's other Republican, Commissioner Al Higginbotham, joined Democrats Pat Kemp and Les Miller in advocating for its removal.
Instead of moving the monument, the prevailing commissioners want to paint a 10-foot high mural behind it that will pay homage to the county's diversity. They may also start an education program to address what Murman described as a racism problem in the community.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/hillsborough-commissioners-vote-to-keep-confederate-monument-in-downtown/2328040
Transgender former Navy SEAL returns to St. Pete for documentary, veterans art reception
For Kristin Beck, who is returning to St. Petersburg this weekend to take part in St. Pete Pride and events at the Veterans Art Center of Tampa Bay, life has brought a series of huge changes.
The former member of SEAL Team 6 who earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for valor during 20 years of service is now a transgender woman and no longer in uniform. After serving at U.S. Special Operations Command, Beck — a onetime St. Petersburg resident — entered politics, mounting an unsuccessful challenge last year to U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland. And two years ago she remarried, to a woman in the Air Force.
But some things have remained the same.
Toward the end of her military career, Beck worked at the Pentagon's Rapid Reaction Technology Office as a conduit between operators and the people who design weapons systems and other special operations tools of the trade. During her time with the SEALs, she invented a mission-planning tool still being used by SOCom.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/transgendered-former-navy-seal-returns-to-st-pete-for-documentary-veterans/2328198
China's dog meat festival opens despite ban rumours
Yulin (China) (AFP) - A notorious Chinese dog meat festival opened on Wednesday with sellers torching the hair off carcasses, butchers chopping slabs of canines and cooks frying up dishes, dispelling rumours that authorities would ban sales this year.
After earlier reports of a sales ban at the summer solstice event in the southern city of Yulin, animal rights groups said vendors and officials reached a compromise and set a limit of two dogs on display per stall.
But multiple carcasses rested on several stalls at two markets, with stiff pointy tails, leathery yellow skin, eyes shut and bared teeth as if in a final growl.
Crowds of umbrella-toting festivalgoers braved the rain to stand in line outside popular restaurants, but animal welfare groups said sales appeared to be down this year.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinas-dog-meat-festival-opens-despite-ban-rumours-072525599.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw
31% of public and HALF of Republicans say
Russia did not try to interfere in 2016 election AT ALL.
https://twitter.com/CarrieNBCNews/status/877136537619763200
Texas congressman says remarks on Clintons,
Vince Foster were "a step too far"
U.S. Rep. Pete Olson on Tuesday walked back comments he had made on local radio in which he accused — without evidence — former President Bill Clinton of admitting to the murder of deceased aide Vincent Foster.
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/20/congressman-says-comments-about-clintons-were-step-too-far/
Russian Operatives Attacking Putin Critics in the U.S.?
On a Sunday night in February, 2007, “Dateline NBC,” the news show, aired a segment about the strange case of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian dissident who died under mysterious circumstances in London. On the show, several guests argued that his death was an assassination, carried out on orders from Vladimir Putin. The Russian President denied any involvement in Litvinenko’s death.
Among the “Dateline NBC” guests who accused Putin was Paul Joyal, a former government official and an expert on Russian affairs. On a rainy night, four days later, Joyal pulled up to his house, in Adelphi, Maryland, and was attacked by two men. As he wrestled one of the men to the ground, he heard him say to his partner, “Shoot him.” The second man pulled the trigger on a 9-mm. pistol and hit Joyal in the abdomen, then pointed the gun at Joyal’s head and pulled the trigger. The pistol misfired, and then Joyal’s dog, inside his house, began to bark. His wife, also inside, turned on the lights. The two men ran off.
More than a decade later, with Russia’s covert activities in the United States facing intense scrutiny, it seems appropriate to raise the question: Was Joyal shot on the orders of the Russian state? And, more generally, does the Russian government kill people in the United States?
After months of treatment, Joyal recovered, but the crime has never been solved. The F.B.I. investigated Joyal’s attack, but he declined to share details of what it reported about its findings. Joyal told me that he believes one of Putin’s friends—“an oligarch”— arranged the shooting. Some Russia experts believe that he is right. “I think they were intending to send Joyal a message,” Paul Goble, a former senior analyst with the State Department and a friend of Joyal, told me. Goble noted that Joyal had been working to arrange for a Chechen activist to visit the United States—an effort that would have enraged the Kremlin. “He crossed a line you cannot cross.”
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/are-russian-operatives-attacking-putin-critics-in-the-us?mbid=social_twitter&utm_content=buffer32872&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
The company you keep: NFL and NRA
You are who you support and the company you keep
Warren Sapp to donate his brain to concussion research
TAMPA — Since being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot four years ago, Warren Sapp has traveled each August to Canton, Ohio, to join the game's greats returning for induction ceremonies. But with each passing year, it seemed too many of his fellow NFL players were in failing health and slipping further into a fog as a result of head injuries sustained during their careers."I said, 'I can't do this. I can't stay on the sideline and watch Tony Dorsett and Willie Brown and all the great ones deteriorate before my eyes,' " Sapp told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday.
That why the 44-year-old former defensive tackle, one of the most successful players in Bucs history, announced Tuesday that he is pledging his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation and is advocating to eliminate youth tackle football until players are in high school.
In a first-person story and three-minute video at the Players' Tribune, Sapp detailed some of his own problems with memory loss and says he needs to set reminders on his phone for everyday activities because he can't remember things the way he used to.
Sapp said he was motivated to speak out after reading quotes from NFL owners denying a connection between football and concussions, CTE and suicide.
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/football/bucs/warren-sapp-to-donate-his-brain-to-concussion-research/2327891
Nature strikes back, Gangs of aggressive killer whales
are shaking down Alaska fishing boats for their fish: report
The animals have learned to target individual boats, and are leading fishers on high-speed chases to get away
The orcas will wait all day for a fisher to accumulate a catch of halibut, and then deftly rob them blind. They will relentlessly stalk individual fishing boats, sometimes forcing them back into port.
Most chilling of all, this is new: After decades of relatively peaceful coexistence with Bering Strait cod and halibut fishers, Alaska’s orcas appear to be turning on them.
“It’s gotten completely out of control,” Alaska fisherman Jay Hebert said in a detailed Anchorage Daily News report on the phenomenon.
Speaking to Alaska’s halibut and cod fishers, the daily paper outlined several instances of orca harassing boats, chasing boats and dextrously stripping fish off lines.
http://nationalpost.com/g00/news/world/gangs-of-aggressive-killer-whales-are-shaking-down-alaska-fishing-boats-for-their-fish-report/wcm/4da9c8fa-1884-428d-84bd-03f972e34a0f?i10c.referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.nationalpost.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fgangs-of-aggressive-killer-whales-are-shaking-down-alaska-fishing-boats-for-their-fish-report
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