A 5th Circuit panel has held that a court — not insurance companies — will determine whether two insurance companies must pay defense costs for R. Allen Stanford and three other former Stanford Financial Group executives who face criminal charges and civil litigation. The civil litigation filed by the SEC and the federal criminal charges stem from allegations that the former SFG executives …
In an interview tonight, Etheridge said he expected all along to wait until he got the numbers from the Congressional Budget Office and had the chance to read the bill.
It isnt perfect, he said. But its better than where we are.
He likes that it lowers the deficit both short-term and long-term, that it does away with denials for pre-existing conditions, and that it is paid for.
The bill isnt perfect, Etheridge said. But Ive concluded that No. 1, itll save lives. And No. 2, the current system needs fixing. A lot of folks are hurting.
Etheridge signaled his views Wednesday, during a speech on the House floor in which he read letters from struggling constituents and said that health reform is needed.
Today, he said he had heard from thousands and thousands of people, through e-mail, phone calls and letters.
Good Lord, weve had enough telephone calls, e-mails, written letters, he said.
He took issue with some of the opponents of health reform, saying, Some folks are trying to scare people. But you cannot allow that to be the final factor.
In an earlier interview, he had criticized a recent ad by Americans for Prosperity, which was labeled a Pants on Fire mistruth by PolitiFact, a project of the St. Petersburg Times.
Americans for Prosperity North Carolina held a rally outside Etheridges Raleigh office Tuesday and has organized a bus trip to Washington Saturday for a rally and visits to lawmakers offices.
The group had planned to take six buses to Washington, but by this afternoon had added two more. Its Raleigh office phone was busy for much of the day with people calling for seats.
We could have filled up every school bus in Wake County with people, said Dallas Woodhouse, director of Americans for Prosperity North Carolina. I have never seen passions as stirred up and people wanting to do something about it.
Those on the buses plan to visit Etheridge and his Democratic colleagues Heath Shuler of Waynesville, Larry Kissell of Biscoe and Mike McIntyre of Lumberton, Woodhouse said.
To some people its just political. I understand that, Etheridge said. Youve got some very strong, passionate views on both sides of the issue.
In fact, Organizing for America, a group that supports President Barack Obamas agenda, marched to Etheridges office in downtown Raleigh earlier today to deliver 10,000 stories of North Carolinians relating their problems paying medical bills. Letters came from people whose high bills forced them into bankruptcy, people with medical conditions who could not buy insurance, and others, said Lindsay Siler, state director of Organizing for America.
Etheridge also read letters from constituents on the floor of the U.S. House earlier this week, and Siler said the group wanted him to see more.
We wanted to make sure he knows that we had his back today, Siler said.
Phones continued to ring at congressional offices across Capitol Hill today. Some overloaded phones rang busy or sent callers into voice mail, a troubling development in offices that pride themselves on answering every constituent call in person.
Oh my goodness; were literally getting thousands of phone calls, e-mails, faxes and letters, McIntyre said. Were hearing from all over the country, but from our district, its overwhelmingly opposed.
McIntyre plans to vote against the health reform bill, he said, because he thinks it doesnt do enough to contain costs.
U.S. Rep. Brad Millers Web site was largely inoperable today, making it impossible for visitors to get beyond the home page. The Raleigh Democrats spokeswoman, LuAnn Canipe, said the problems were likely because of so many people trying to use it and his staff trying to keep it updated. Miller announced Friday he will vote for the bill.
Meanwhile, polls show widely varying results on health bill questions.
An Elon University Poll conducted March 14-17 found that 78 percent of North Carolinians surveyed said the nations health care system needed reform, while 15 percent said it is fine the way it is. The poll surveyed 579 residents and had a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.
A Civitas Institute poll of 600 likely voters resulted in 50 percent saying they were opposed to the current proposal, with 39 percent saying they supported it. The poll was conducted March 16-18 and had a 4 percent margin of error of 4 percentage points.
And a poll of voters in Etheridges district by Public Policy Polling showed that 53 percent were opposed and 37 percent in support of the health bill.
Published: March 20, 2010
Updated: 12:35 am
RALEIGH — North Carolina has the eighth-lowest auto-insurance rates in the country and the lowest in the South, according to a report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
N.C. Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said yesterday that the state’s drivers pay an average of $591.11 a year for auto insurance.
North Dakota had the lowest auto-insurance rates, Iowa was second and South Dakota third.
North Carolina is the most populous state among the 10 states with the lowest auto rates.
Icahn begins a hostile bid for movie studio in Vancouver
NEW YORK — Activist shareholder Carl Icahn raised the stakes in his yearlong dispute with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. yesterday, beginning an all-out bid to take over the movie studio after disagreements over its spending.
The hostile bid comes a week after Lions Gate rejected Icahn’s offer to buy a larger minority stake and rewrote its bylaws to make such a takeover attempt more difficult in the future.
The new offer for all outstanding shares also raised the specter of Canadian government involvement because Icahn, an American, could own the company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and cause friction with the country’s cultural policies.
Icahn owns almost 19 percent of Lions Gate, and his new offer for the remainder was unchanged from the $6 a share he offered last month when he sought to increase his stake to just under 30 percent.
Shares rose 6 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $6.03 yesterday, but fell 8 cents to $5.95 in after-hours trading.
Clemmons company expands its ‘Get Hired’ workshop series
CLEMMONS — The Wooden Group said yesterday that it is expanding its free series of “Get Hired” workshops to a second day, beginning Thursday.
A workshop will be held at noon Thursdays at its office in the Broyhill Office Suites on Clemmons Road.
Randy Wooden, the operator of the outplacement-services company, will conduct the workshops, and continue the ones at 10 a.m. Saturdays.
The workshops are aimed at people 18 and older. In recent weeks, topics have included tips on resume development, networking, utilizing LinkedIn and ways of handling difficult interview questions.
Seating is limited. Reservations can be made at 793-8040, or by e-mailing randy@woodengroup.com.
For more information, go to www.woodengroup.com.
Triad Guaranty reports that Countrywide has filed a lawsuit
Triad Guaranty Inc. said in a regulatory filing yesterday that it is being sued by Countrywide Home Loans Inc.
In the lawsuit, Countrywide accuses Triad of breach of contract.
The company filed the lawsuit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in California.
Triad said it plans a vigorous defense.
BB&T, Atlas Cos. join forces with an open-house promotion
BB&T Corp. and The Atlas Cos. will hold “Score Your Home” open houses from 1 to 5 p.m. today and Sunday and March 27-28 throughout the Triad.
The open houses will have a basketball-conference theme and will focus on 10 new communities in Forsyth, Guilford and Alamance counties. Offerings include condos, town houses and new houses.
BB&T and The Atlas Cos. are working with local real-estate agencies Coldwell Banker Triad, Re/Max, Lewis & Clark, Allen Tate and Ed Price & Associates ..
T. Shane Shuler, a commercial-real-estate-development officer for BB&T, said that for every home sold during the open houses, the bank will make a donation to the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in the area where the home was bought.
For more information, go to www.scoreyourhome.com.
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A state appeals court in San Francisco ruled Friday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had no right to furlough about 475 lawyers who work for the State Compensation Insurance Fund.
The Court of Appeal said the attorneys are protected by a provision of state insurance law that makes fund employees “exempt from any hiring freezes and staff cutbacks otherwise required by law.”
A three-judge panel said the state law gives power to make staffing decisions to the fund’s board of directors and not the governor.
The insurance fund, created by the Legislature in 1914, provides workers’ compensation insurance for some California employers.
It is partly a state agency and partly a private insurance carrier. It is financed through premiums paid by employers and not through the state budget.
The appeals court upheld a decision in which San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter Busch in April 2009 blocked furloughs of the fund lawyers.
Schwarzenegger ordered furloughs of most state employees two days per month beginning in February 2009 because of California’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
In July, Schwarzenegger increased the furloughs to three days per month. But the increase did not apply to the compensation fund lawyers because they had already won the Superior Court order blocking their furloughs.
Justice Stuart Pollak noted in the panel’s decision that because the insurance fund is financed separately, the
furloughs “would not achieve the announced purpose of the governor’s executive order, to improve the state’s ability to meet its financial obligations.”
Patrick Whalen, a lawyer for the union representing the attorneys, said, “We’re pleased with the ruling. We’re glad the court reached this conclusion.”
Whalen said he expects the appeals court may apply similar reasoning to a separate pending appeal concerning more than 7,000 other non-attorney employees of the compensation fund.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said, “We’re reviewing the decision and weighing our options.”
McLear said that 28 lawsuits have been filed in various superior courts challenging state furloughs. Thus far, the governor has won seven and lost six, he said.
The Schwarzenegger administration recently asked the California Supreme Court to consolidate the appeals in seven of the cases.
WASHINGTON — The final health care bill that House Democrats hope to pass this weekend would give about 19 million Americans subsidies averaging $6,000 to help pay premiums and other insurance charges, an unprecedented government investment in private health policies that leaves lingering questions about whether coverage would truly become affordable.
Details of the subsidies, which have emerged in the past day, provide the clearest picture yet on a central question that has hovered over the health care debate: How much help would the government give people to cope with the expense of medical insurance?
In the Democrats’ final version, subsidies would be part of a two-pronged approach to extend coverage to the majority of uninsured. That effort is predicted to cost nearly $800 billion, more than $4 of every $5 of the legislation’s total cost.
The private insurance subsidies would begin in 2014 and be intended for people eligible to buy coverage through newly created insurance exchanges.
The money the government spends to subsidize private policies would eclipse that devoted to a historic expansion of Medicaid, said House aides and congressional budget analysts.
And the subsidies are tilted more toward lower-income Americans than the measures in the Senate’s version of the bill.
The large infusion of federal money into insurance coverage would address one of two goals at the heart of every attempt to redesign the health system for decades:
making care more accessible and slowing medical costs. As Congress approaches what Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the White House herald as the finale of a yearlong debate, policy experts across the ideological spectrum differ over how well the bill would succeed at either goal.
Even some proponents of the subsidies say their buying power could erode over time in an era of rapid medical inflation. Some critics say the approach of creating state insurance exchanges would help some Americans, those who look for insurance policies individually or in small groups, but provide fewer new purchasing alternatives to most Americans, who rely on coverage through work.
Still, liberal groups eager for the health care legislation to pass are heaping praise on the final version of the subsidies, released Thursday among a set of changes to the Senate bill. “This is a huge step in the direction of making coverage and care affordable,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a consumer health lobby.
Specifically, the subsidies would come in two parts, both available on a sliding scale to Americans with incomes too high for Medicaid. That would span families of four with incomes from $29,000 to $88,000 and individuals with incomes from $14,000 to $43,000.
One part of the subsidies would consist of tax credits to help Americans afford insurance premiums, guaranteeing they would not spend more than a specific portion of their income for them, ranging from 3 percent to 9.5 percent. Those subsidies are estimated to cost $40 billion over the 10 years.
The second part of the subsidies, estimated to cost $466 billion during the next decade, would limit out-of-pocket expenses for deductibles and co-payments. This help would be available to individuals with salaries of $27,000 and families with income of $55,000.
