Pacific Islands unlikely to join cup

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As Super Rugby expansion looms, the Pacific Islands appear set to be left out in the cold, yet again.

This year, the three Sanzar nations will debate whether to expand the competition in 2016, as part of a new broadcast deal.

The introduction of the United States and Canada into the Pacific Nations Cup, and comments from Sanzar chief executive Greg Peters this week, confirmed those countries were being viewed as possible destinations.

Asia and Argentina are other contenders, but, until now the Pacific Islands haven't been mentioned.

In 2013, pessimism continues to prevail about inducting an island nation or a combined team into Super Rugby.

Money and resources remain major barriers.

Former Samoan captain Mahonri Schwalger would jump at the chance to lead a breakthrough island venture, one that would create pathways for aspiring players and strengthen Pacific rugby.

The performances of Samoa and Tonga at the World Cup and during last year's European tours have only enhanced the argument to assist their success.

"Samoa has been trying to break into the competition for the last 10 years," Schwalger said. "The thing we released is it's all about money. All the islands struggle financially. It comes down to sponsors and money to get our best players.

"That's the only downfall about the islands; they don't have the resources to compete with the big countries.

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Pacific Islands unlikely to join cup

Premiums to rise under health care law

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Perhaps the biggest irony of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is that if youre young and healthy, youll likely to end up paying higher premiums for individual health insurance than someone who is old and frail or with high-cost medical conditions.

The health care reform law restricts insurers from charging older, sicker policyholders more than three times what they charge younger, healthier members under a policy known as community rating.

The law also prohibits insurers from rejecting very sick individuals or those with pre-existing conditions that are more costly to treat. But the higher costs for treating those patients will be spread among younger, healthier Ohioans obtaining coverage on their own or through government-run health exchanges expected to go on-line next year, experts say.

A report prepared for the Ohio Department of Insurance by Seattle-based Milliman Inc. found that a healthy young male in Ohios individual health insurance market paying about $200 a month in premiums in 2010 could see his health insurance costs increase from 90-130 percent when the health exchanges begin signing up new enrollees in October.

By contrast, someone age 60 or older in the individual health insurance market could see their premiums fall by as much as 40 percent as a result of the community rating restrictions.

Melissa Thomasson, a Miami University professor who teaches classes on the economic impact of the Affordable Care Act, said the community rating was necessary to ensure that the sick and uninsured could get coverage, which was one of the reform laws main goals.

Young healthy people pay the lowest health coverage rates now because theyre less likely to suffer from disease, Thomasson said. On the other hand, many sick people are priced out of the market, if its available at all. The only way to make insurance coverage available for sick people is essentially to use healthy people to subsidize it.

Still, forcing young people to pay more to help cover the cost of caring for the elderly and chronically ill could have the unintended consequence of driving health care costs up for everybody. Some individuals and small businesses will drop health insurance coverage due to significant premium increases, experts predict, and others will simply decide to remain uninsured due to financial constraints.

That would pose a problem for the health exchanges, which would be left with a disproportionate number of older, more costly enrollees and too few healthy individuals to help absorb those costs.

Lets say no young people participated. In that case, the community rating would have to go up, and wed be back to square one because then wed have a bunch of sick people and older people in those exchanges at rates they really cant afford, she said.

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Premiums to rise under health care law

Consumer alert: new health care markets on the way – NBC40.net

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By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Buying your own health insurance will never be the same.

This fall, new insurance markets called exchanges will open in each state, marking the long-awaited and much-debated debut of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The goal is quality coverage for millions of uninsured people in the United States. What the reality will look like is anybody's guess - from bureaucracy, confusion and indifference to seamless service and satisfied customers.

Exchanges will offer individuals and their families a choice of private health plans resembling what workers at major companies already get. The government will help many middle-class households pay their premiums, while low-income people will be referred to safety-net programs they might qualify for.

Most people will go online to pick a plan when open enrollment starts Oct. 1. Counselors will be available at call centers and in local communities, too. Some areas will get a storefront operation or kiosks at the mall. Translation to Spanish and other languages spoken by immigrants will be provided.

When you pick a plan, you'll no longer have to worry about getting turned down or charged more because of a medical problem. If you're a woman, you can't be charged a higher premium because of gender. Middle-aged people and those nearing retirement will get a price break: They can't be charged more than three times what younger customers pay, compared with six times or seven times today.

If all this sounds too good to be true, remember that nothing in life is free and change isn't easy.

Starting Jan. 1, 2014, when coverage takes effect in the exchanges, virtually everyone in the country will be required by law to have health insurance or face fines. The mandate is meant to get everybody paying into the insurance pool.

Obama's law is called the Affordable Care Act, but some people in the new markets might experience sticker shock over their premiums. Smokers will face a financial penalty. Younger, well-to-do people who haven't seen the need for health insurance may not be eligible for income-based assistance with their premiums.

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Consumer alert: new health care markets on the way - NBC40.net

Health care reform: Knox area businesses bracing for health care changes

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When Sandy Beall founded Ruby Tuesday 40 years ago, the restaurateur made the decision to provide health benefits to all of his employees, even as the chain has grown to some 35,000 workers worldwide."That's one thing that sets us apart from others. Sandy has always believed everybody should take care of their own, so we always have. But we think all companies should be on an even playing field," said Belinda Sharp, vice president of human resources for Ruby Tuesday.

Under sweeping changes to the nation's health care system through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, companies with 50 or more full-time employees will be required to join in the game beginning in 2014, when they'll have to provide coverage or face penalties. Part-time employees must be offered benefits if they work 30 or more hours per week.

While some businesses like Maryville-based Ruby Tuesday say they don't expect to see much impact, others are bracing for changes that will be mandated over the next two years.

Businesses varying from restaurants and indoor tanning salons to medical device companies and a craft hobby chain have come out nationally against the legislation, which mandates new tax and regulatory requirements.

They argue that the health care overhaul will stifle business and economic growth by discouraging expansion, cutting worker hours and raising prices to cover additional costs.

But there is one thing on which businesses agree many unresolved questions remain.

Photo by Amy Smotherman Burgess // Buy this photo

Russell's Pest Control employee J.P. Wellens performs a quarterly service call on a customer's home in Knoxville on Jan. 11. The small, family-owned business doesn't meet the employer mandate that requires it to offer health benefits, but owner Mark Nadolski said he feels that he must to stay competitive. AMY SMOTHERMAN BURGESS/ NEWS SENTINEL

For the restaurant industry, such uncertainty creates zero job growth, said Greg Adkins, president and CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association.

A vast majority of the statewide trade organization's more than 1,000 members have concerns with the law, he said. The restaurant industry operates under low profit margins and with a high number of part-time employees.

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Health care reform: Knox area businesses bracing for health care changes

Health care reform: A look at what area companies provide

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Covenant Health

The largest hospital operator in East Tennessee provides all of its full-time employees with free health care at its hospitals, whether they are having a baby or heart surgery.

But as health care reform legislation mandates new requirements, Covenant Health CEO Tony Spezia said it may have to consider a new approach, such as outsourcing some tasks like housekeeping to an outside company that may offer a lesser benefit than Covenant. It also raises a lot of questions, he said, about whether employers are allowed, or required, to provide such benefits to part-time or contract employees which might mean limiting hours for some employees.

Spezia said Covenant's health benefits are a huge recruiting and retention tool.

"It's a big benefit. No co-pays, no deductibles, no nothing. We want our employees to stay here," Spezia said.

Spezia said that because so much of the law is unclear, it's impossible to know yet how it will affect large employers that traditionally have provided good health benefits.

ORNL Federal Credit Union

"My issue with the Affordable Care Act is, rather than focusing on the people that needed coverage and providing coverage, they focused more or as much on the people that had coverage and the companies that were providing coverage and created tons of rules around that," he said. About 70 percent of the Oak Ridge-based credit union's 500 employees take advantage of health care coverage offered.

"We want to be the employer of choice. It would be difficult to tout that if you didn't offer a benefits package," Compensation and Benefits Manager Amy Vichich said.

But with new fees being assessed because of health care reform, ORNL Federal Credit Union has been evaluating ways to offset increased costs, including a look at its health benefits plan.

Originally posted here:

Health care reform: A look at what area companies provide

Consumer alert: new health care markets on the way

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Buying your own health insurance will never be the same.

This fall, new insurance markets called exchanges will open in each state, marking the long-awaited and much-debated debut of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The goal is quality coverage for millions of uninsured people in the United States. What the reality will look like is anybody's guess from bureaucracy, confusion and indifference to seamless service and satisfied customers.

Exchanges will offer individuals and their families a choice of private health plans resembling what workers at major companies already get. The government will help many middle-class households pay their premiums, while low-income people will be referred to safety-net programs they might qualify for.

Most people will go online to pick a plan when open enrollment starts Oct. 1. Counselors will be available at call centers and in local communities, too. Some areas will get a storefront operation or kiosks at the mall. Translation to Spanish and other languages spoken by immigrants will be provided.

When you pick a plan, you'll no longer have to worry about getting turned down or charged more because of a medical problem. If you're a woman, you can't be charged a higher premium because of gender. Middle-aged people and those nearing retirement will get a price break: They can't be charged more than three times what younger customers pay, compared with six times or seven times today.

If all this sounds too good to be true, remember that nothing in life is free and change isn't easy.

Starting Jan. 1, 2014, when coverage takes effect in the exchanges, virtually everyone in the country will be required by law to have health insurance or face fines. The mandate is meant to get everybody paying into the insurance pool.

Obama's law is called the Affordable Care Act, but some people in the new markets might experience sticker shock over their premiums. Smokers will face a financial penalty. Younger, well-to-do people who haven't seen the need for health insurance may not be eligible for income-based assistance with their premiums.

Many people, even if they get government help, will find that health insurance still doesn't come cheaply. Monthly premiums will be less than the mortgage or rent, but maybe more than a car loan. The coverage, however, will be more robust than most individual plans currently sold.

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Consumer alert: new health care markets on the way

Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard Conversations: what Futurists actually do – Video

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Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard Conversations: what Futurists actually do
A conversation between Futurists Dr. James Canton globalfuturist.com and Gerd Leonhard about.me This video is part of the new MeetingsOfTheMind.tv series (launching soon). This video covers questions such as 1) what does a Futurist do (and what not) 2) why clients hire us, and what we can do for them 3) some of the challenges that we have encountered in the past 10 years. You can download audio-only versions of these podcasts at http://www.futuretalks.com in a few days. Enjoy and share. For a better audio-only version try http://www.dropbox.com Please note: You can now download most of my videos by simply subscribing to this iTunes video feed (via Blip.tv) gerd.fm *** audio-only versions are now available here: gerd.fm or on the web at http://www.futuretalks.com My vimeo channel is here vimeo.com Enjoy! Gerd Leonhard Futurist, Author and Keynote Speaker Basel / Switzerland http://www.gerdfuturist.com CEO http://www.thefuturesagency.com Media Blog http://www.mediafuturist.com Gerd #39;s mobile apps: road.ie The Future of Business blog http://www.futureof.biz Public Speaking schedule: gerd.fm Twitter: http://www.twitter.com Need even more links? about.me

By: Gerd Leonhard

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Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard Conversations: what Futurists actually do - Video

Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard discuss the key topics in the next 5 years – Video

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Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard discuss the key topics in the next 5 years
Part 2 of a conversation between Futurists Dr. James Canton globalfuturist.com and Gerd Leonhard about.me This video is part of the new MeetingsOfTheMind.tv series (launching soon); the topics discussed include technology innovation, transhumanism, inequality and financial policy, demographics and aging, the environment and sustainability, the future of business and communications, medical trends and much more. Enjoy! For a better audio version, try http://www.dropbox.com Please note: You can now download most of my videos by simply subscribing to this iTunes video feed (via Blip.tv) gerd.fm *** audio-only versions are now available here: gerd.fm or on the web at http://www.futuretalks.com My vimeo channel is here vimeo.com Enjoy! Gerd Leonhard Futurist, Author and Keynote Speaker Basel / Switzerland http://www.gerdfuturist.com CEO http://www.thefuturesagency.com Media Blog http://www.mediafuturist.com Gerd #39;s mobile apps: road.ie The Future of Business blog http://www.futureof.biz Public Speaking schedule: gerd.fm Twitter: http://www.twitter.com Need even more links? about.me

By: Gerd Leonhard

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Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard discuss the key topics in the next 5 years - Video

Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard discuss Sustainability, Disruption and Technology – Video

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Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard discuss Sustainability, Disruption and Technology
Part 3 of a conversation between Futurists Dr. James Canton globalfuturist.com and Gerd Leonhard about.me and Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard discuss the key topics for the next 5 years This video is part of the new MeetingsOfTheMind.tv series (launching soon). Topics discussed include general sustainability trends and predictions, #39;green future #39; opportunities, the future of capitalism and #39;growth profit economics #39;, accountability and social innovation, renewable energy, Jeremy Rifkin #39;s Intergrid, and much more. Apologies for the low audio output, btw; if it #39;s not good enough for you please try this MP3 http://www.dropbox.com Please note: You can now download most of my videos by simply subscribing to this iTunes video feed (via Blip.tv) gerd.fm *** audio-only versions are now available here: gerd.fm or on the web at http://www.futuretalks.com My vimeo channel is here vimeo.com Enjoy! Gerd Leonhard Futurist, Author and Keynote Speaker Basel / Switzerland http://www.gerdfuturist.com CEO http://www.thefuturesagency.com Media Blog http://www.mediafuturist.com Gerd #39;s mobile apps: road.ie The Future of Business blog http://www.futureof.biz Twitter: http://www.twitter.com Need even more links? about.me

By: Gerd Leonhard

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Futurists Dr. James Canton and Gerd Leonhard discuss Sustainability, Disruption and Technology - Video

Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts in-body computers and a potential war with machines

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AP

Author and inventor Ray Kurzweil, 56, speaks with a reporter during an interview in his office, in Wellesley, Mass., Jan. 12,2005.

By Eli Segall (contact)

Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013 | 2 a.m.

If you worry that the Internet, computers and other electronics play an outsized role in daily life, futurist Ray Kurzweil has one message for you:

This is only the beginning.

Kurzweil, who will speak Sunday night at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Audi Speaker Series, predicts a high-tech society that makes today's lifestyle look straight out of the Stone Age. As he sees it, people will have tiny computing devices in their bodies, more powerful brains and longer lives. Simply put, the world will be dominated by artificial intelligence.

The 64-year-old entrepreneur is the leading evangelist of Singularity, the idea that machines will spontaneously adopt humanlike characteristics, become vastly more intelligent than people and change mankind forever. One possibility is they'll turn on us and wipe out humanity.

Kurzweil has pegged the transformation for 2045.

The nonbiological intelligence created in that year will be 1 billion times more powerful than all human intelligence today, he says on singularity.com.

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Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts in-body computers and a potential war with machines

Author, Futurist David Houle Says The ‘Shift Age’ Is Coming

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By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The world is changing ever-faster, and a futurist says its part of an epic transition that is at once global and personal.

Most of humanity has embraced the Agricultural Age, somewhat fewer the Industrial Age. Many of us are bewildered by the Information Age, but a new one is coming, says futurist David Houle, author of Entering the Shift Age.

Shift Age is his term for a time of global connectedness with greater individual choice through electronics. He says weve grown from a content is king paradigm to context is king.

Earth century, retrofitting the 21st Century, concept of place changing forever, the merging of biology and technology and the new evolutionary shift in consciousness are the five big contexts in which well be looking at the future over the next 10 to 15 years.

Houle says the global and individual trends are not in conflict, because if you dont want to go global you dont have to.

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Author, Futurist David Houle Says The ‘Shift Age’ Is Coming

Freedom of information bill advocates to march to Palace Monday

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By Leila B. Salaverria Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, PhilippinesAdvocates of the freedom of information (FOI) bill are marching to Malacaang on Monday to press President Aquino to push for the passage of the bill in Congress.

The Right to Know, Right Now Coalition will march on Mendiola on Monday afternoon to ask President Aquino to certify the FOI bill as urgent, noting that the measure pending in the House of Representatives already incorporated the Palaces proposed amendments.

We believe Malacaang stated its position, supported the bill, endorsed its own amendments and said it wanted debates to happen. We appeal to them to take that commitment one more step, said Nepomuceno Malaluan, the coalitions co-convenor, adding that a certification would be the only way debates on the bills provisions could start.

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat, a co-author of the FOI bill, earlier said that a miracle from the President in the form of a certification would be the bills best hope for becoming a law.

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy Casio, who has withdrawn his authorship of the FOI bill on account of the Palace amendments, also joined calls for a certification as he accused Malacaang of stalling the bills passage even after its proposed exemptions were put in.

Certification needed

Casio said the certification was needed so the bill could move forward and he could propose amendments to remove the Palace proposals from the current version of the measure.

He also said that Aquino, who attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, could not boast of good governance given how he has regarded the bill.

How can President Aquino look world leaders in the eye and say his government is for transparency and accountability but he is the one primarily responsible for watering down the FOI bill? Casio said in a statement.

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Freedom of information bill advocates to march to Palace Monday