In Santa Cruz, affordable health care elusive for some: High premiums, aided by high subsidies

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SANTA CRUZ -- The price of health care under the Affordable Care Act varies widely depending on where you live, and in Santa Cruz County that means some of the highest premiums in the country.

According to a 50-state analysis by the Sentinel and other newspapers, the Central Coast pays a high price health coverage compared to other regions in California and across the country.

One silver lining is that the costs can be heavily offset by tax subsidies for many middle- and lower-income families. But families that don't qualify for a tax break will see health care affordability promised under the new law fall off a cliff.

"The ones on the edges, it's really a dangerous spot to sit on. Subsidy versus no subsidy is so dramatic, and it's a worry," said Sharon Martin, a Santa Cruz-based broker at Dettle Insurance Agency. "You make a few dollars more and it makes a huge difference."

The Sentinel analyzed premium and subsidy data for the federal health care exchange and each of the 16 states operating their own exchanges, including Covered California. Within each state, rates are further broken down into rating areas, with 501 in total across the nation.

It makes a difference where you live. Santa Cruz and the Central Coast have among the highest premiums in the country, ranking 26th out of 501, and fourth-highest in California.

San Mateo County leads the state in premium costs, and, for a 50-year-old nonsmoker shopping for a so-called "silver" plan, costs nearly $200 a month more than if the same person lived in the eastern part of the Los Angeles basin.

Experts say the different prices are due to the availability of doctor, hospital and clinic networks, whether health care giant Kaiser-Permanente is a local operator and if there is robust regional competition, with sparsely served rural areas often facing higher rates.

"Some of those same characteristics are true (on the Central Coast)," said Marian Mulkey, director of health reform and public programs at the California HealthCare Foundation. "There are only a couple of hospitals, and there are some providers with some pretty significant negotiating clout."

Another factor is whether there are large numbers of uninsured who suddenly became buyers under the law. While the number of people with insurance on the Central Coast has been relatively high, competition for buyers appears to be pushing down prices in some areas.

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In Santa Cruz, affordable health care elusive for some: High premiums, aided by high subsidies

Health district gears up for road ahead

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The Mark Twain Health Care District Board took the path most traveled this week by joining a lengthy group of supporters for a trail route through San Andreas.

We have a lot of wonderful segments, but theyre like isolated islands, said Jim Kavanagh, San Andreas Recreation and Park District board director. We hope to create pedestrian and bicycle opportunities to unify these elements.

The result is the Walk & Bike San Andreas Project. The proposed early phases would start at Calaveras High School, continue through Nielson Park and include San Andreas Elemen-tary School on to Turner Park. Later phases would connect Treat Avenue with the services and centers along Mountain Ranch Road, including the Alex Quinones Community Park.

We want to create feeder routes to the major trails, Kavanagh said, referencing the mile-long loop now being cleared at the ballpark. With two hospitals, the senior center, the government center, the library, the park how many people are in these facilities every day?

Kavanagh said of the large number of people who work in San Andreas, he estimates 80 percent commute and 20 percent live in town.

(San Andreas is) hands-down the largest employer, he said. Could we change that dynamic to make this a more attractive place to live? It is our goal and hope to create a network of trails, paths, walkways, contiguous sidewalks and crosswalks that can help make walking and bicycling in our community much more inviting.

Kavanagh said the recreation district is also working with Caltrans for more crosswalks across Highway 49. He said the plan also includes crosswalks along Mountain Ranch Road, which, along with the highway, are formidable barriers for bicyclists and pedestrians of any age, he said.

Encouraging activity meets the mission of both the project along with the health care district, Kavanagh said.

The key component of this is to have a healthier community, so we can just use our feet and legs to get us where we want to go, he said. Im a resident here and I love it, but you just about have to get in your car to go anywhere.

Health care district board President Lin Reed said this project has been a long time coming.

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Health district gears up for road ahead

Samaritan COO outlines health care changes, opportunities

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Although health care reform is confusing, it is also an exciting time in our history to improve the health of individuals in our communities, Kim Whitley told members of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce Wednesday during that groups monthly lunch forum.

Whitley is the chief operating officer for Samaritan Health Plan Operations, which serves nearly 62,000 members. She has degrees in biology and psychology from Gonzaga University and a masters degree in public administration with an emphasis in health care from the University of Idaho.

Whitley used a YouTube video to summarize the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often referred to as Obamacare).

It noted that companies with more than 50 employees will be required to provide health care insurance or pay a penalty. Companies with fewer employees will be given tax incentives to help offset premium costs for their employees.

The act will not create much change for older Americans on Medicare, but Medicaid will expand considerably, offering coverage to millions of low-income people who are currently not covered.

Each individual state has the option of opting in or out of the Medicaid program expansion.

The act creates a health insurance marketplace, which was compared to an insurance megamall.

Individuals will be able to pick the amount and type of coverage they want or need, and in turn, balance their premiums.

There will be tax credits for low-income people, but the goal is to cover all Americans in some fashion either through their employer, the government or individual payments.

To support the changes financially, there will be new taxes, especially by wealthier individuals.

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Samaritan COO outlines health care changes, opportunities

Cushing's syndrome: Genetic basis for cortisol excess

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An international team of researchers led by an endocrinologist at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich has identified genetic mutations that result in uncontrolled synthesis and secretion of the stress hormone cortisol.

Cortisol is a hormone that is produced by the adrenal gland in response to stressful events, and modulates a whole spectrum of physiological processes. An international research collaboration has now identified genetic mutations that lead to the production and secretion of cortisol in the absence of an underlying stressor.

The discovery emerged from the genetic characterization of benign tumors of the adrenal gland which produce cortisol in excess amounts. Patients who develop such tumors suffer from weight gain, muscle wasting, osteoporosis, diabetes and hypertension. This condition, known as Cushing's syndrome, can be successfully treated by surgical removal of the affected adrenal gland.

Overproduction of cortisol

The team, which included researchers from Germany, France and the US and was led by Professors Felix Beuschlein and Martin Fassnacht of the LMU Medical Center, were able to show that in one-third of a patient population with such adrenal tumors, a mutation in the gene for the enzyme phosphokinase A was specifically associated with the continuous production of cortisol. This mutation had occurred in the adrenal gland and is therefore restricted to the tumor cells. The results have just appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"The gene for phosphokinase

A plays a key role in the regulation of adrenal gland function, and the newly identified mutation causes it to become irreversibly activated, which results in the unrestrained production of cortisol," says Felix Beuschlein. In collaboration with a group at the US National Institutes of Health, the team was also able to identify patients who carry similar genetic alterations in their germline DNA. In these families, Cushing's syndrome occurs as a heritable genetic disease.

The elucidation of the genetic mechanism responsible for a significant fraction of cases of Cushing's syndrome provides a new diagnostic tool, and may also lead to new approaches to treatment. To enable further investigations towards this end, the German Cushing Register, which is maintained by Professor Martin Reincke at the LMU Medical Center, has received a grant of 400,000 euros from the Else Krner-Fresenius Foundation. A recently initiated European research consortium devoted to the study of Cushing's syndrome, of which Professors Beuschlein and Fassnacht are members is supported by a grant of 700,000 euros from the ERA-NET program administered by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (LMU). Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Cushing's syndrome: Genetic basis for cortisol excess

What next: Inflation or Deflation? Get ready for inflation – Economics Futurist Keynote Speaker – Video

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What next: Inflation or Deflation? Get ready for inflation - Economics Futurist Keynote Speaker
What is the greatest threat to our future: inflation or deflation? What should we expect? Inflationary boom or deflationary bust or more economic cycles of b...

By: Patrick Dixon Futurist Keynote Speaker for Industry Conference

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What next: Inflation or Deflation? Get ready for inflation - Economics Futurist Keynote Speaker - Video

Futurist Richard Worzel Discusses the Challenges and Opportunities that Lie Ahead for Farmers – Video

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Futurist Richard Worzel Discusses the Challenges and Opportunities that Lie Ahead for Farmers
Shaun Haney talks to professional Futurist Richard Worzel about what, exactly a futurist is and what the future holds for agriculture.

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Trends Expert Jack Uldrich to Address the Topic of Future-Proofing at Wells Fargo

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Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) February 27, 2014

Local best-selling author and futurist Jack Uldrich will be presenting a keynote address to Wells Fargo on Friday, February 28th. Uldrich will present his speech, How to Future-Proof Yourself Against Tomorrows Ten Transformational Trends, Today. As one of the nation's premier financial services firms, Wells Fargo has made a commitment to satisfy their clients' investment needs and help them succeed financially. By understanding the future trends and learning to future-proof from experts like Uldrich, Wells Fargo is striving to ensure both their success and their customers success.

The material presented is based on a combination of Uldrich's best-selling books, "Foresight 2020: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow" and Jump the Curve; 50 Essential Strategies to Help Your Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technologies.

Uldrichs interactive speech, which has been tailored specifically to Wells Fargo and their quest to discover what 2014 holds in store, is designed to provide Wells Fargos leaders and employees with a solid and thought-provoking foundation upon which to continue creating the companys future. An overview of some of Uldrichs ideas can be found in this YouTube clip of his presentation, "Why Future Trends Demand Unlearning", which also aired on WFYI in Indianapolis.

Uldrich will also provide an overview of how technological change is upending long-standing business models and discuss why future trends demand unlearning. Uldrich, who has been hailed as "America's Chief Unlearning Officer" and is author of 2011 best-seller "Higher Unlearning: 39 Post Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future," will use vivid analogies and memorable stories, drawn from a wide spectrum of industries, to ensure his message of unlearning makes a lasting impression on his audience at Wells Fargo. He will conclude his talk by reviewing the consequences of not embracing the concept of unlearning.

Uldrichs clients include General Electric, IBM, Cisco, United Healthcare, PepsiCo, Verizon Wireless, General Mills, the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), Pfizer, Healthcare Association of New York, Southern Company, St. Jude Medical, Dressbarn, AG Schering, Imation, Lockheed Martin, Fairview Hospitals, Touchstone Energy, The Insurance Service Organization, and hundreds more.

Parties interested in learning about Jack Uldrich, his books, his daily blog or his speaking availability are encouraged to contact Catherine Glynn.

Jack Uldrich is a renowned global futurist, technology forecaster, best-selling author, editor of the quarterly newsletter, The Exponential Executive, and host of the award-winning website, http://www.jumpthecurve.net. He is currently represented by a number of professional speakers' bureaus, including Leading Authorities, Convention Connection, Gold Star Speakers Bureau and Executive Speakers Bureau.

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Trends Expert Jack Uldrich to Address the Topic of Future-Proofing at Wells Fargo

20th-century utopian visions on display at Guggenheim exhibit

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Amplifying the utopian zeal of the 20th-century avant-garde, Italian futurism marched its way into modern art with a revolutionary project and the brazen machismo to back it. The launch of this incendiary crusade against the bourgeois past and the flight toward the technological future led to a radical and chaotic period of production, presented for the first time in full force at the Guggenheim Museums monumental exhibition, Italian Futurism, 1909-1944: Reconstructing the Universe.

Organized by Vivien Greene, the museums senior curator of 19th- and early 20th-century art, this landmark show takes an unprecedented sweep of the history of futurism. It brings together, for the first time, a comprehensive assemblage of almost 400 pieces, including paintings, films, furniture, and architectural sketches by nearly 80 artists. Almost half of these objects have left Italy for the first time for this exhibit.

The show breaks new ground with its exploration of the relatively overlooked post-World War I phase of futurism and its proliferation into further media and subject matter. Frank Lloyd Wrights curved ramp and rotunda are powerfully enlisted, glorifying the futurist motif of the spiral and situating the viewer at the nucleus of the work in futurist fashion. This is one example of the exhibits sensitive and comprehensive reading of such a difficult movement, which is fraught with internal paradoxes and uncomfortably bears the cross of its highly fascist and misogynistic beginning.

Framing the exhibition is an audio display of The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, penned by the movements founder and chief firebrand, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The booming notes of the manifesto, recited with gusto, are an effective usher into the future conceived by Marinetti. With his combative, crowd-rallying register, we are effectively confronted with futurisms ideological thrusts: the exaltation of speed, machines, and warfare, contempt for women, and an unmitigated scorn towards the cultural institutions that would frame the works in years to come.

Early manifestations of this ideological project show the futurists attempts to inscribe speed, simultaneity, and temporality upon a static art object. Anton Giulio Bragaglias photographs with blurred movement are shown alongside the cubist and pointilist paintings of Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, and Carlo Carr. The predominance of paintings in the show embodies the paradox of this movement that sought to annihilate the past but failed to challenge the medium of painting. In Ballas The Hand of the Violinist, the serial repetition of the violin is both a pastiche of cubism and a highly literal depiction of movement through chronophotography. The vast, divisionist whirlwind of Boccionis The City Rises and its evocation of the mythical grandeur of factories and workers is particularly gripping. Carrs The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli is another highlight, amplifying chaos in movement with a throng of fighting bodies under a red mist that rivals the light of the sun.

The early heroic phase of futurism also drew its strength from Marinettis pioneering of parole in libert (words in freedom), a brand of visual poetry culminating in the typographically eccentric collection Zang Tumb Tumb. Documentary filmmaker Jen Sachs animation of the printed poems, coupled to a new recording, uses animation to convey the spontaneous energy of the poems.

While most narratives end in this phase, the breadth of the show importantly affords us a view of the subsequent mellowing of Italian futurism in the next decade. Fortunato Depero and Balla coined the futurist opera darte totale (total work of art), and the futurist aesthetic proliferated past painting into new forms of theater, film, art-deco style furniture, and even toys. The refreshing playfulness of works in this phase is striking, departing from the severity of the opening notes of the manifesto. In particular, a collection of visual sketches for Deporos Balli Plastici, a futurist ballet of machine-like puppets, stood out to me for its distinct combination of vorticist angularity and uncharacteristic fairy tale whimsy.

The later phases of futurism in the 1920s and 1930s, however, saw a return to its direct glorification of the machine with the themes of locomotion and flight, which the exhibition formidably displays. Ivo Pannaggis Speeding Train at once captures the monolithic mass of the locomotive and its dynamic lightness as it tears through space. More impressive are Benedetta Cappa Marinettis and Tullio Cralis works of aeropittura (aeropainting), restless with the movement of flight and appropriately exhibited on the highest ramp. The final paradox of futurismits apparent misogynyis brought to the fore by emphasizing Benedettas distinct presence in this phase, a clear crowning achievement of the show. A room is devoted to her dynamic canvases of rippling waves and warped space, echoing the velocity of Cralis piece and vigorously destabilizing the manifesto.

Italian Futurism is certainly an uneven ride, but one that truly captures the contradictions and complexities of futurism.

Italian Futurism, 19091944: Reconstructing the Universe is on view at the Guggenheim from Feb. 21 to Sept. 1. Entry to the Guggenheim costs $18 for students.

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20th-century utopian visions on display at Guggenheim exhibit

Freedom Jazz Dance jazz backing track with Chuck D’Aloia and Rocco Guitars – Video

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Freedom Jazz Dance jazz backing track with Chuck D #39;Aloia and Rocco Guitars
http://www.bobbysbackingtracks.com http://chuckdaloiamusic.com/ http://www.kitwalker.com/ http://roccoguitars.com/ Chuck D #39;Aloia blowing over a Freedom Jazz ...

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Freedom Jazz Dance jazz backing track with Chuck D'Aloia and Rocco Guitars - Video

Crossfire: Does Arizona’s religious freedom bill discriminate? (3/3) – Video

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Crossfire: Does Arizona #39;s religious freedom bill discriminate? (3/3)
2/26/14 - Crossfire: Van Jones and S.E. Cupp host Neera Tanden and Peter Sprigg to debate Arizona #39;s religious freedom bill. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/wa...

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Crossfire: Does Arizona's religious freedom bill discriminate? (3/3) - Video