开云体育

For those on fixed income, free Amazon Kindle stuff is cool. Read reviews at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E86ENEQ before ordering! It may be a waste of seven minutes for some. Not sure what Amazon stock price will do on Monday. Approx. 63,000 more free Kindle items: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=free Thanks to an earlier post, I found these deals for those who don't have a Kindle, http://dealnews.com/b38106/Kindle/ My weekend FREE read: http://www.amazon.com/Little-Bit-Everything-Dummies-ebook/dp/B006BBLNA8

Insurance Incentives:There are also incentives and programs through many insurance companies to help you stick to your healthy lifestyle! Aetna: * Fitness Program <http://www.aetna.com/individuals-families-health-insurance/plans-benefi&#92; ts/wellness-programs-discounts/discounts.html> : provides discounts through the GlobalFit network. United Healthcare: * Fitness Reimbursement Program <http://www.uhctogether.com/uhcwellness/16181.html> : "Get Reimbursed $20 per month to an annual maximum of $240 for every month you visit the fitness center or Y at least 12 times." * Health Coaching <http://www.uhctogether.com/uhcwellness/16211.html> : Create a personalized plan with one of the United Healthcare wellness coaches Cigna: * Weight Management & Nutrition <http://www.cignabehavioral.com/web/basicsite/consumer/educationAndResou&#92; rceCenter/healthyRewards.jsp#1> : Receive discounts on telephone coaching, registered dietitian, and savings at Jenny Craig * Fitness Club Discounts <http://www.cignabehavioral.com/web/basicsite/consumer/educationAndResou&#92; rceCenter/healthyRewards.jsp#2> : Save a minimum of 10% off enrollment fees and monthly dues at participating clubs. Anthem Cash Back Programs: * Fitness Reimbursement Program <http://www.anthem.com/wps/portal/eso?brand=special-offers-anthem&state=&#92; nh&template=secondary-category&template-parameters=fitness-and-health/ca&#92; sh-back-programs> : You or your family can receive up to $200 per subscriber contract per calendar year for membership dues. * Weight Loss <http://www.anthem.com/wps/portal/eso?brand=special-offers-anthem&state=&#92; nh&template=secondary-category&template-parameters=fitness-and-health/we&#92; ight-loss> : Save at Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers & more * Home Fitness Equipment <http://www.anthem.com/wps/portal/eso?brand=special-offers-anthem&state=&#92; nh&template=secondary-category&template-parameters=fitness-and-health/eq&#92; uipment> : Save on home fitness videos & equipment - See more at: http://www.fatwallet.com/blog/penny-wise-pound-foolish-what-losing-weigh&#92; t-will-cost-you

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=obamacare+waivers#

http://savannahnow.com/opinion/2013-08-01/obamacare-georgia-sticker-shock At the 11th hour, Aetna announced that it and its newly acquired subsidiary, Coventry Health Care, would not participate in Georgia's exchange. OMG Obama Must Go and, a +ive spin: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114103/obamacare-and-hipsters-6-reasons-theyll-proabably-enroll#

The CBS poll is not a FOX poll - precisely the reason I cited it first. You cannot dispute the fact that the most recent opinion polls clearly demonstrate that most Americans do not want ACA. The more they understand ACA and the more they realize that Obama has hoodwinked them once again, the more they wish it would be repealed. Your supposed facts are the same talking points that the smooth talking Obama used to hoodwink so many Americans, including the press, in the first place. He repeated them over and over again, just like you are doing, until a critical mass began to believe him. If you hear it often enough, it must be true. Right? But now many Americans are beginning to wake up. As your post clearly indicates, you think that talking points, repeated as nauseum, are facts. And, you think that browbeating is debating. These are the same tactics that Obama, the finger pointer in chief, uses. But they're no longer working on the majority of Americans, as the polls indicate, and those same tactics will not work on this board. Most participants here are just too intelligent to be hoodwinked by you.

Are you now suggesting that Medicare is also one of Obama's accomplishments?

It's pretty clear that you aren't receptive to any arguments, Mel.

You "have to ask"? It's somehow relevant to this discussion? Nope, that's right, it's not. It's a failed argument that attacks another person - and in this case, you're doing it because you can't refute a thing that I, or Edward Berkline, or Sheila has written. A much more appropriate question would be, why do you feel so compelled to continue to post misinformation, push opinion as fact, fail to acknowledge when you've been proven wrong, and why do you think that making personal attacks is a valid substitute for a reasoned argument? In the case below, it's not that unions aren't fully on board with the underlying premise behind Obamacare - in fact, they wanted even more than what we've gotten - and so it's either disingenuous or dishonest to make the claim that they don't want Obamacare. They're currently fighting to get an exemption from some treatment within Obamacare that they feel treats them unfairly. That's not equivalent to them wanting to get rid of Obamacare entirely, or anything like that. But despite the reality of what the unions are arguing for, the rightwing media and those who read it and treat it as gospel have alleged that the unions "don't want Obamacare", and they've done so in a dishonest attempt to smear Obamacare. ACA is not perfect. So, as Norman Ornstein explained, honest people try to fix a flawed bill so that it becomes a better bill - that's what the unions are trying to do.

Let me stipulate that I do not condone fraud in any form! http://lmgtfy.com/?q=obamacare+fraud+guide

If BS was music, Obama would be a symphony conductor -- If you can read this, thank a Teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a Veteran ---- KenSP@... wrote:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/08/12/why-the-aca-data-hub-willi-lead-to-identity-theft/ Wow.

Finally, the main stream prime-time news stations are beginning to report the truth about the effects of Obamacare: Businesses claim Obamacare has forced them to cut employee hours By Lisa Myers and Carroll Ann Mears NBC News Employers around the country, from fast-food franchises to colleges, have told NBC News that they will be cutting workers' hours below 30 a week because they can't afford to offer the health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/13/20010062-businesses-claim-obamacare-has-forced-them-to-cut-employee-hours?lite

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2013pres/07/20130718a.html “Today’s report shows that the Affordable Care Act is working to increase transparency and competition among health insurance plans and drive premiums down,” said Secretary Sebelius.? “The reforms in the health care law ensure consumers will have access to better coverage at a lower cost in 2014.” Specifically the report finds that: * In the 11 states (including the District of Columbia) that have made information available for the individual market, proposed premiums for 2014 are on average 18 percent lower than HHS’ estimate of 2014 individual market premiums derived from CBO publications. * In the six states that have made information available in the small group market, proposed premiums are estimated to be on average 18 percent lower than the premium a small employer would pay for similar coverage without the Affordable Care Act. * Both estimates are based on premium proposals for the lowest cost silver plan in the individual and small group markets.? Actual premiums in 2014 may be even lower when health plans are offered in the Marketplace this fall.? Already, in a number of states (DC, OR, RI, VT), the rate review process and competition are resulting in final rates that are significantly below what was proposed earlier this spring. * Preliminary premiums appear to be affordable even for young men. For example, in Los Angeles - the county with the largest number of uninsured Americans in the nation - the lowest cost silver plan in 2014 for a 25-year-old individual costs $174 per month without a tax credit, $34 per month for an individual whose income is $17,235, and a catastrophic plan can be purchased for $117 per month for an individual. Further, data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component shows that the average premiums for employer sponsored insurance increased by only 3 percent from 2011 to 2012, the lowest rate of increase observed since the data series started in 1996. Already the 80/20 rule, or medical loss ratio, has saved 77.8 million consumers $3.4 billion up front on their premiums as insurance companies operated more efficiently and spent more on health care than administrative expenses, and 8.5 million consumers can expect an average rebate of approximately $100 per family.? Since the health law’s rate review provisions were implemented, the number of requests for insurance premium increases of 10 percent or more has dropped dramatically, from 75 percent to 14 percent.? To date, the rate review program has helped save Americans an estimated $1 billion. The report is available at:?http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2013/MarketCompetitionPremiums/rb_premiums.pdf .

http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-releases-insurance-exchange-rates-161931567.html Over 1000 comments at end of article. whew I understand it it will be those that earn enough to pay for health insurance, but have jobs that don't provide health insurance. I cant see how it is going to benefit the low middle class population. Hopefully, smokers (pot?) will be charged more in 2015

The IBM pension board is once again proving to be almost a complete waste of time. Aside from the very biased censoring of posts by the moderators, which result is somewhat one-sided discussions, there is little discussion of IBM pension and retirement issues. Why? The simple and obvious reasons are that there are in fact very few pension and retirement issues to begin with, and those that are real are both largely outside of the control of anyone affected and have already been discussed to death on the board. But don't just take my word for it: Re: Let's get back on track Posted By: the fielder Fri Aug 16, 2013 7:25 am | Options It's responses like this that make this board a waste of time. Either post relevant information that helps us all or STFU. in improving our lives, with good information going forward. Enough of all the "backbiting." Fortunately, madinpok continues to participate with both informative and no-nonsense posts. Here are a couple of my recent favorites: Re: How safe is our pension, IBM pension ? Posted By: madinpok Fri Aug 16, 2013 1:17 pm | Options I would say that your IBM pension is pretty safe in that IBM's pension fund is close to 100% funded according to current accounting standards. The fund is also backed by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation if IBM were to go bankrupt and something terrible happened to the fund's investments But... some companies are looking at "de-risking" their pension funds by turning them over to an insurance company. This gets the employer off the hook for providing the pension and makes the insurance company responsible. One side effect would be that it eliminates the insurance provided by the PBGC. The insurance companies like this idea, since they believe they can manage the money in the (former) pension fund better and make a profit on it in addition to making all the required annuity payments. In order to do that, they probably have to make riskier investments than the pension fund did. In case of bankruptcy by an insurance company, states attempt to distribute the annuity customers to other, healthier insurance companies. Insurance companies are also covered by state-level guarantee funds, but the amount of coverage varies from one state to another. The insurance industry likes to point out that even in the financial crisis of 2008, no one lost their annuity. With a pension fund, the company is supposed to look out for the best interests of the retirees. That doesn't always work as it should, of course, but does keep most companies from doing crazy things. With insurance companies, their number one interest is corporate profits and the stockholder, and not you, the annuity holder. So it is easy to view the annuity as "less safe" than the IBM pension. Your pension should be safe in the short term. But de-risking should be a concern and something to pay attention to. It's certainly worth writing to your elected representatives to tell them you want this practice stopped. Whether or not IBM is actually thinking about de-risking the pension fund is unknown. IBM Pension] Re: 3000 and counting Posted By: madinpok Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:04 pm | Options From what I have heard from people I know Westchester, no one in upper IBM management wants to have anything to do with Moffat. They all instantly cut off contact with him after he was arrested for fear of being tainted by him. I'm a big believer in facts, Iggy. If you have some facts to back up your claim, please share them with us. Otherwise, we can only take this as just another one of your wacko rants. have sued IBM I doubt that he would have had any grounds that would have given him a chance to win a lawsuit. Stock grants and option agreements are pretty clear about what is required for you to be able to cash them in. If you leave the company before they are vested, you lose them. their crony companies, and it wouldn't have looked good on his resume if he had to write 'fired'. said he didn't. IBM can rewrite the rules in favor of their friends any old way they want.

You left out the most important part... "In battles over the health care law in 2009-10, Republicans proposed a requirement for lawmakers and aides to join the exchanges, and Democrats accepted it. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who proposed an early version of the idea, said he wanted to make sure that "members of Congress and Congressional staff get their employer-based health insurance through the same exchanges as our constituents." It has been a headache for many in Congress ever since." So it was a Republican idea that is causing all the problems! How about those dumb-ass Republicans? They screwed things up again.

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2013/08/ups-to-drop-15000-spouses-from.html I had a dream: http://www.gifbin.com/985145

Be a Navigator! 30 hrs training http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20130802/OPINION/308020005/Another-View-Navigators-needed-ply-Obamacare- Navigators will receive about 30 hours of online training—about the same amount required for a federal census worker. Join one of these groups: More than 100 groups will split $67 million to help people "navigate" the new Obamacare health insurance exchanges — more money than the administration initially said would be available but short of what advocates say will be needed to help people sign up, especially in states where the governors are hostile. The grants announced Thursday will go to 105 organizations, including community groups, health care providers, business groups and a handful of Planned Parenthood affiliates. The program, which got an extra $13 million from the health law prevention fund, is for those states that refused to set up their own health insurance exchanges, and the federal government is stepping in. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/hhs-obamacare-navigators-95575.html#ixzz2cAHz4VlS

I wonder whether surviving spouses of pre-1990 retirees will be entitled to any HRA contribution from IBM? The Employee Service Center gave me a vague answer of "probably" when I called about the current plan earlier this year.

If you really want to helpful to the rest of us post something simple and concise that informs us of something specific that might impact us IBM retirees. Or ask the group to collectively help with a specific issue relating to IBM pensions. I have been overwhelmed by the recent posting from some you regarding the Affordable Care Act. I would like to challenge you members who have been posting to stop using: - Labels such as Republicans versus Democrats - Name calling ->conservatives, right wing ->liberals, socialists, communists, Obamacare, etc... ->racist - Using slang ->recent example of this is someone used "his lettuce" which I think is referring to his saved assets or retirement income - Using rumors or unproven generalizations about the US government's intentions with regard to laws that have been passed Using the above mentioned in your posts forces us all to take one side or the other with no aid in helping an IBM retiree better understand or deal with a pension issue.