Large Employers Cite Obamacare ‘Cadillac’ Tax in Reducing Benefits (+video)

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Photo Credit: ReutersFor 75 million Americans who get their insurance through large companies, the Affordable Care Act is a mixed bag. Experts tell NBC News the new healthcare law is only slightly increasing premiums next year, but causing some companies with the most generous plans to reduce their employees’ benefits.

Aaron Baker, 36, his wife Billie and their two young children are covered under a generous health insurance plan offered by the private Midwestern university where he’s worked for 10 years. When they opened their benefits notice this year, they were pleased to see their $385 premium is only up by four dollars next year. However, they were shocked to discover that instead of covering the first dollar they spend with no deductible, the Baker’s plan now includes a $1,000 deductible and a $2,500 out of pocket maximum. They also will still have small co-pays for services.

According to the enrollment notice, the changes are “to relieve future health plan trend pressure and to put the university in a position to avoid the excise tax that becomes effective in 2018.” The 40 percent excise tax—often called the “Cadillac tax”— is part of Obamacare and is levied on the most generous health plans. It’s designed to bring down overall health costs by making companies and workers more cost-conscious. The thinking is that if consumers have to pay more expenses themselves, through higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, they’ll avoid unnecessary or overly costly procedures. And that is supposed to make care more affordable for everyone.

Billie Baker doesn’t think much of that concept. “I think that saying that your insurance is too good so we’re going to give you a penalty,” she said, “is sort of outrageous to me.”

Said Aaron, “You would think the government would want employers to offer good health care packages to their employees. It seems like that is not the case.”

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Rush: Obama Uses His Own Ignorance As A Sign Of Brilliance (+audio)

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Photo Credit: APRUSH: The president of the United States actually said yesterday (paraphrasing), “Okay, on the website, I was not informed directly that the website would not be working the way it was supposed to. Had I been informed, I wouldn’t be going out saying, ‘Boy, this is gonna be great.’ You know I’m accused of a lot of things, but I don’t think I’m stupid enough to go around saying this is gonna be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity a week before the website opens, if I thought it wasn’t gonna work.”

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Pope Francis: Catholic Church Will Never Compromise on Abortion (+video)

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Photo Credit: LifeNews Today, the Vatican released the text of Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”), an Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Francis that specifically addresses pro-life and pro-family issues.

The text of the message makes it clear that the Catholic Church cannot and will not compromise on its pro-life teachings on abortion.

214. Precisely because this involves the internal consistency of our message about the value of the human person, the Church cannot be expected to change her position on this question. I want to be completely honest in this regard. This is not something subject to alleged reforms or “modernizations”. It is not “progressive” to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life. On the other hand, it is also true that we have done little to adequately accompany women in very difficult situations, where abortion appears as a quick solution to their profound anguish, especially when the life developing within them is the result of rape or a situation of extreme poverty. Who can remain unmoved before such painful situations?

Continuing that pro-woman theme, Pope Francis says the Catholic Church must do more to help women in various pregnancy situations and following an abortion.

213. Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenceless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this. Frequently, as a way of ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative. Yet this defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. Human beings are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems. Once this conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defence of human rights, which would always be subject to the passing whims of the powers that be. Reason alone is sufficient to recognize the inviolable value of each single human life, but if we also look at the issue from the standpoint of faith, “every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to God and is an offence against the creator of the individual”.[176]

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Family Says They Did Tip Gay Server, Didn’t Leave Note (+video)

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Photo Credit: NBC New York After a gay server at a New Jersey restaurant said a customer denied her a tip and wrote her a hateful note on the receipt, a local family contacted NBC 4 New York and said their receipt shows they paid a tip and didn’t write any such note.

Dayna Morales, a former Marine and a server at Gallop Asian Bistro in Bridgewater, posted a photo on Facebook earlier this month, showing the bill with a line through the space for a tip. The photo of the receipt showed someone had written, “I’m sorry but I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle.”

Morales indicated in her Facebook post, and in subsequent media interviews — including with NBC 4 New York — that the customer wrote that line.

But a family contacted NBC 4 New York claiming their receipt from the restaurant shows they did leave a tip, and provided what they said was a credit card statement as proof.

The husband and wife, who asked to remain anonymous, showed NBC 4 New York a receipt that appeared to be printed at the same minute, on the same date, for the same $93.55 total, except with an $18 tip.

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Video: Sharks Swim Just Feet Away from Surfers

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Photo Credit: Jay Dohner/YouTubeIt’s not exactly beach season in Southern California.

But even with small surf to feast on surfers are enjoying glassy waves on recent sunny mornings. And ocean temps relatively warm for this time of year.

The folks in the water off El Porto in Manhattan Beach have company:

Sharks.

A local paddle boarder, Jay Dohner, grabbed his GoPro camera after seeing the creatures swimming off El Porto.

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Huckabee: ‘DC Makes the Toronto Mayor Look Perfectly Normal’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP File/Jacquelyn MartinDuring the opening segment of his show “Huckabee” on Fox News Channel, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Sunday that he was “fed up” with the “total disconnect” between Washington, D.C., and the rest of the country, adding that “D.C. makes the Toronto mayor look perfectly normal.”

“Like most Americans, I’m just fed up with the total disconnect that the political class in Washington has with the working class of the rest of the America. D.C. makes the Toronto mayor look perfectly normal,” Huckabee said, referring to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who admitted to smoking crack.

The Toronto City Council voted last week to strip Ford of most of his authority, moving most of his staff and budget to his deputy mayor.

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Grand Jury Indicts Four School Employees in Steubenville Rape Case (+video)

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Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/GettyA grand jury investigating the 2012 rape of a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio, has indicted four school employees, including the school superintendent, who faces felony charges, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced Monday.

Steubenville City Schools Superintendent Michael McVey faces three felony counts: one charge of tampering with evidence and two counts of obstructing justice. He also is charged with making a false statement and obstructing official business, both misdemeanors, DeWine said.

Also indicted was elementary school principal Lynnett Gorman and wrestling coach Seth Fluharty, both of whom are charged with misdemeanor failure to report child abuse. Volunteer assistant Steubenville football coach Matt Belardine was charged with four misdemeanors: allowing underage drinking, obstructing official business, making a false statement and contributing to the unruliness or delinquency of a child.

This brings to six the number of people the grand jury has indicted after two students were convicted of rape, DeWine said. A school technology director and his daughter were indicted in October.

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No Obamacare Subsidy for Some Low-Income Americans (+video)

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Photo Credit: Reuters/Jonathan BachmanOne of the basic tenets of Obamacare is that the government will help lower-income Americans — anyone making less than about $45,900 a year — pay for the health insurance everyone is now mandated to have.

But a CNN analysis shows that in the largest city in nearly every state, many low-income younger Americans won’t get any subsidy at all. Administration officials said the reason so many Americans won’t receive a subsidy is that the cost of insurance is lower than the government initially expected. Subsidies are calculated using a complicated formula based on the cost of insurance premiums, which can vary drastically from state to state, and even county to county.

That doesn’t change the fact that in Chicago, a 27-year old will receive no subsidy to help offset premiums of more than $165 a month if he makes more than $27,400 a year.

In Portland, Oregon, subsidies for individuals making just $28,725 a year phase out for those younger than 35 years old.

The subsidies situation is adding another layer of complications and calculations to the already-complex picture of Obamacare.

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Watch the Moment When Woman Who Falsely Accused Duke Lacrosse Player of Rape is Found Guilty of Murder

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Photo Credit: YouTube raw videoThe woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of her boyfriend.

The jury deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching their verdict in the trial of 34-year-old Crystal Mangum, who was sentenced to between 14 years and 18 years in prison.

Mangum was on trial in the death of 46-year-old Reginald Daye. He was stabbed on April 3, 2011 and he died of complications 10 days later.

In 2006, Mangum claimed Duke lacrosse players gang raped her at a team party where she was hired as a stripper.

The three arrested were eventually declared innocent by North Carolina’s attorney general after Mangum’s story crumbled and her mental stability was questioned.

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Gingrich: ‘Even More Power and More Control’ for Obama (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP/J. Scott ApplewhiteBecause the Senate wasn’t functioning the way President Obama thinks it should, he supported Democrats Thursday as they overturned 200 years of Senate tradition by essentially doing away with the filibuster.

Democrats invoked the so-called “nuclear option,” allowing presidential nominees be confirmed with 51 votes, instead of 60.

“[T]his was one more step to give President Obama even more power and even more control,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday on CNN’s “Crossfire.”

The Senate changed its longstanding filibuster rules only for presidential nominees, not for legislation — but Gringrich said that will probably change, too.

“And I think what struck me, I think this is a very historic vote. I don’t think this is just a tactic. And if you watch the president’s press conference today, the entire opening of the press conference is a litany of legislative problems. He doesn’t get to the appointments until after he goes through layer after layer of legislative problems, which signals to me he intends to unwind the entire filibuster by the time this is done.”

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