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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
January 7, 2016
(The Progressive) To sidestep a gridlocked Congress, President Obama announced Tuesday that he will issue executive orders to require anyone “in the business of selling firearms” to be licensed and therefore required to conduct background checks.
As The New York Times has reported, the executive orders will also direct agencies to engage in more gun research, encourage more federal prosecution of domestic violence cases, request new funding for 200 law enforcement agents, and improve access to mental health care.
“This is not going to solve every violent crime in the country,” Obama said Monday. “It is not going to prevent every mass shooting. It will potentially save lives in this country and spare families the pain and extraordinary loss when they lose loved ones to gun violence.”
Although the proposals were more modest than the twenty-three measures Obama proposed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed twenty children and six adults in 2012, Republicans, including presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, have vowed to rescind the measures.
Congress has not passed a major gun control law since 1994, when it approved an assault weapon ban, as part of a larger crime-related bill signed by then President Bill Clinton. The law expired in 2004 and was never renewed despite dogged attempts to overcome GOP opposition by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat whose husband had died in a mass shooting. ..................(more)
- See more at: http://progressive.org/news/2016/01/188489/states-lead-way-addressing-gun-violence#sthash.WuTDJsjX.dpuf
States Lead the Way in Addressing Gun Violence
(The Progressive) To sidestep a gridlocked Congress, President Obama announced Tuesday that he will issue executive orders to require anyone “in the business of selling firearms” to be licensed and therefore required to conduct background checks.
As The New York Times has reported, the executive orders will also direct agencies to engage in more gun research, encourage more federal prosecution of domestic violence cases, request new funding for 200 law enforcement agents, and improve access to mental health care.
“This is not going to solve every violent crime in the country,” Obama said Monday. “It is not going to prevent every mass shooting. It will potentially save lives in this country and spare families the pain and extraordinary loss when they lose loved ones to gun violence.”
Although the proposals were more modest than the twenty-three measures Obama proposed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed twenty children and six adults in 2012, Republicans, including presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, have vowed to rescind the measures.
Congress has not passed a major gun control law since 1994, when it approved an assault weapon ban, as part of a larger crime-related bill signed by then President Bill Clinton. The law expired in 2004 and was never renewed despite dogged attempts to overcome GOP opposition by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat whose husband had died in a mass shooting. ..................(more)
- See more at: http://progressive.org/news/2016/01/188489/states-lead-way-addressing-gun-violence#sthash.WuTDJsjX.dpuf
January 7, 2016
from In These Times:
The Bankruptcy of India’s Economic and Political “Miracle”
India is neither the vibrant global South democracy nor the poster child for globalization’s benefits that global political elites have insisted it is for over a decade.
BY KAMIL AHSAN
[font size="1"]A resident of the Dharavi, Mumbai, slum walks home alongside a trash heap. (Meena Kadri / Flickr)[/font]
In 2008, under the aegis of a Congress Party-led coalition government in India, the country was rocked by one of the biggest scandals of graft and corruption it had ever seen. The scandal was led by Andimuthu Raja, a member of a regional party that had formed a coalition with the old dynastic Congress Party, who became the minister of communications in 2007.
The scandal, the “2G spectrum” scam, involved the sale of bandwidth licenses to select telecom companies at underpriced rates. In exchange, Raja received millions of rupees in kickbacks. The loss to the Indian government due to the 2G spectrum scandal was estimated between US$8-10 billion. In 2011, Time ranked the scandal second on an “Abuses of Power” list—right behind Watergate.
Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided Raj’s residence, finding bank notes in pillowcases and suitcases, it became clear that the corruption scandal implicated not just one minister but India’s political system as a whole. Raja was immediately arrested but the court cases—and insistent calls by opposition parties to investigate the role in the scandal of then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh—rumbled on for years.
The 2G spectrum may be one of the most egregious cases of graft the country has ever seen, but such scandals are now a routine feature of politics in modern India. Without fail, with each scam, corruption is revealed as extending all the way to the uppermost echelons of the Indian political establishment. ...............(more)
http://inthesetimes.com/article/18724/the-bankruptcy-of-indias-economic-and-political-miracle
The Bankruptcy of India’s Economic and Political “Miracle”
from In These Times:
The Bankruptcy of India’s Economic and Political “Miracle”
India is neither the vibrant global South democracy nor the poster child for globalization’s benefits that global political elites have insisted it is for over a decade.
BY KAMIL AHSAN
[font size="1"]A resident of the Dharavi, Mumbai, slum walks home alongside a trash heap. (Meena Kadri / Flickr)[/font]
In 2008, under the aegis of a Congress Party-led coalition government in India, the country was rocked by one of the biggest scandals of graft and corruption it had ever seen. The scandal was led by Andimuthu Raja, a member of a regional party that had formed a coalition with the old dynastic Congress Party, who became the minister of communications in 2007.
The scandal, the “2G spectrum” scam, involved the sale of bandwidth licenses to select telecom companies at underpriced rates. In exchange, Raja received millions of rupees in kickbacks. The loss to the Indian government due to the 2G spectrum scandal was estimated between US$8-10 billion. In 2011, Time ranked the scandal second on an “Abuses of Power” list—right behind Watergate.
Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided Raj’s residence, finding bank notes in pillowcases and suitcases, it became clear that the corruption scandal implicated not just one minister but India’s political system as a whole. Raja was immediately arrested but the court cases—and insistent calls by opposition parties to investigate the role in the scandal of then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh—rumbled on for years.
The 2G spectrum may be one of the most egregious cases of graft the country has ever seen, but such scandals are now a routine feature of politics in modern India. Without fail, with each scam, corruption is revealed as extending all the way to the uppermost echelons of the Indian political establishment. ...............(more)
http://inthesetimes.com/article/18724/the-bankruptcy-of-indias-economic-and-political-miracle
January 7, 2016
Bleak Prospects for Latin America Under Trans-Pacific Partnership
Thursday, 07 January 2016 00:00
By Ian Gustafson, Council on Hemispheric Affairs | News Analysis
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, agreed to on October 5, 2015 by the twelve participating countries, is likely to prove disastrous for the Latin American states—Chile, Mexico, and Perú—that have joined the pact up to now. Multinational economic interests based in the United States have exerted extraordinary influence over the accord, inserting language that will arguably serve to damage Latin American interests.
Though the TPP has often been presented as a disinterested effort to stimulate basic economic growth and development in the Pacific Rim, the economic principles that underlay the TPP may instead serve to advance the interests of the world's leading corporations. US President Barack Obama promised in a statement that the TPP would slash over 18,000 foreign taxes that the US faces for its exports. Despite being heralded as a path to prosperity for developing countries, eliminating protectionist measures in countries like Chile, Perú, and Mexico could prove to be very harmful.
The great nineteenth century German economist Friedrich List argued that developed countries calling for expanded free trade in less developed countries is hypocritical as well as misleading. As List put it, "it is a very common clever device that when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up, in order to deprive others of the means of climbing up after him."
Britain and the United States, which historically have been unflagging proponents of free trade for developing countries, both adopted free trade policies only after they were technologically advanced enough not to need protectionist policies. Britain adopted free trade in the mid-nineteenth century, while the United States eliminated its highly protectionist policies only in the early twentieth century. ................(more)
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34322-bleak-prospects-for-latin-america-under-trans-pacific-partnership
Bleak Prospects for Latin America Under Trans-Pacific Partnership
Bleak Prospects for Latin America Under Trans-Pacific Partnership
Thursday, 07 January 2016 00:00
By Ian Gustafson, Council on Hemispheric Affairs | News Analysis
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, agreed to on October 5, 2015 by the twelve participating countries, is likely to prove disastrous for the Latin American states—Chile, Mexico, and Perú—that have joined the pact up to now. Multinational economic interests based in the United States have exerted extraordinary influence over the accord, inserting language that will arguably serve to damage Latin American interests.
Though the TPP has often been presented as a disinterested effort to stimulate basic economic growth and development in the Pacific Rim, the economic principles that underlay the TPP may instead serve to advance the interests of the world's leading corporations. US President Barack Obama promised in a statement that the TPP would slash over 18,000 foreign taxes that the US faces for its exports. Despite being heralded as a path to prosperity for developing countries, eliminating protectionist measures in countries like Chile, Perú, and Mexico could prove to be very harmful.
The great nineteenth century German economist Friedrich List argued that developed countries calling for expanded free trade in less developed countries is hypocritical as well as misleading. As List put it, "it is a very common clever device that when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up, in order to deprive others of the means of climbing up after him."
Britain and the United States, which historically have been unflagging proponents of free trade for developing countries, both adopted free trade policies only after they were technologically advanced enough not to need protectionist policies. Britain adopted free trade in the mid-nineteenth century, while the United States eliminated its highly protectionist policies only in the early twentieth century. ................(more)
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34322-bleak-prospects-for-latin-america-under-trans-pacific-partnership
January 7, 2016
Minneapolis Activists Continue Fight Against Systemic Racism and Police Violence
Wednesday, 06 January 2016 00:00
By Ibrahim Hirsi, Truthout | Report
Nekima Levy-Pounds watched the scenes of officers slaying unarmed Black men replayed, one after another, in major cities across the United States, including New York, Charleston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Cincinnati. During all of them, she clung onto one hope: to never see the same stories unfold in Minneapolis, where she raises her 11-year-old son, heads the local NAACP and participates in the local Black Lives Matter movement.
However, it's clear that Minneapolis, too, is home to the kind of police violence that has inspired protests from Ferguson to Baltimore and led to the birth of Black Lives Matter, a national racial justice movement fighting against police brutality.
By November, Levy-Pounds found herself on her knees on a cold Minnesota night with her hands raised in the air and her eyes fixed on scores of state troopers on I-94, one of the state's busiest highways.
She was among hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters in solidarity with Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old unarmed Black man who died a day after police officers shot him outside his sister's Minneapolis apartment on November 15. ...............(more)
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34283-minneapolis-takes-national-spotlight-in-the-struggle-for-black-lives
Minneapolis Activists Continue Fight Against Systemic Racism and Police Violence
Minneapolis Activists Continue Fight Against Systemic Racism and Police Violence
Wednesday, 06 January 2016 00:00
By Ibrahim Hirsi, Truthout | Report
Nekima Levy-Pounds watched the scenes of officers slaying unarmed Black men replayed, one after another, in major cities across the United States, including New York, Charleston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Cincinnati. During all of them, she clung onto one hope: to never see the same stories unfold in Minneapolis, where she raises her 11-year-old son, heads the local NAACP and participates in the local Black Lives Matter movement.
However, it's clear that Minneapolis, too, is home to the kind of police violence that has inspired protests from Ferguson to Baltimore and led to the birth of Black Lives Matter, a national racial justice movement fighting against police brutality.
By November, Levy-Pounds found herself on her knees on a cold Minnesota night with her hands raised in the air and her eyes fixed on scores of state troopers on I-94, one of the state's busiest highways.
She was among hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters in solidarity with Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old unarmed Black man who died a day after police officers shot him outside his sister's Minneapolis apartment on November 15. ...............(more)
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34283-minneapolis-takes-national-spotlight-in-the-struggle-for-black-lives
January 7, 2016
Oil Plunges to $32-Handle, Chinese Stocks Crash and are Halted, Whiff of Mayhem Breaks out
by Wolf Richter • January 7, 2016
[font color="blue"]Why Oil Keeps Falling off the Chart[/font]
After having been through the greatest two-year loss on record, the price of oil plunged 9.6% on Wednesday and in evening trading. As I’m writing this, WTI hit $32.62 a barrel, a new low since the desperate depth of the Financial Crisis, when it very briefly kissed $30.28 a barrel on December 23, 2008, before bouncing off sharply.
This time, it’s serious. Brent, the global benchmark, has crashed to $32.75, an 11-year low. This isn’t a quick scare that happens during a Financial Crisis. It’s the result of a persistently growing glut.
Since the oil price plunge began in July 2014, every rally, every “opportunity of a lifetime” to buy oil “for cents on the dollar” has turned out to be a falling knife.
.....(snip)......
Whatever the daily hopes and fiascos that dominate the oil trade, two things remain fundamental: global production and consumption. And there, things are becoming uncomfortable.
In the fourth quarter, global production of crude oil and other liquids actually dropped, according to the EIA estimates, but so did global consumption. .................(more)
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/07/oil-plunges-to-32-handle-chinese-stocks-crash-and-are-halted-whiff-of-mayhem-breaks-out/
Oil Plunges to $32-Handle, Chinese Stocks Crash and are Halted, Whiff of Mayhem Breaks out
Oil Plunges to $32-Handle, Chinese Stocks Crash and are Halted, Whiff of Mayhem Breaks out
by Wolf Richter • January 7, 2016
[font color="blue"]Why Oil Keeps Falling off the Chart[/font]
After having been through the greatest two-year loss on record, the price of oil plunged 9.6% on Wednesday and in evening trading. As I’m writing this, WTI hit $32.62 a barrel, a new low since the desperate depth of the Financial Crisis, when it very briefly kissed $30.28 a barrel on December 23, 2008, before bouncing off sharply.
This time, it’s serious. Brent, the global benchmark, has crashed to $32.75, an 11-year low. This isn’t a quick scare that happens during a Financial Crisis. It’s the result of a persistently growing glut.
Since the oil price plunge began in July 2014, every rally, every “opportunity of a lifetime” to buy oil “for cents on the dollar” has turned out to be a falling knife.
.....(snip)......
Whatever the daily hopes and fiascos that dominate the oil trade, two things remain fundamental: global production and consumption. And there, things are becoming uncomfortable.
In the fourth quarter, global production of crude oil and other liquids actually dropped, according to the EIA estimates, but so did global consumption. .................(more)
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/07/oil-plunges-to-32-handle-chinese-stocks-crash-and-are-halted-whiff-of-mayhem-breaks-out/
January 7, 2016
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/report-yahoo-to-cut-at-least-10-of-its-workforce-2016-01-06
(MarketWatch) Yahoo Inc. YHOO, -3.86% is preparing to slash at least 10% of its workforce, according to a report Wednesday night by Business Insider. That would eliminate more than 1,000 jobs, according to the report, and cuts may begin as soon as this month. The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet giant has been reeling in recent years. CEO Marissa Mayer's turnaround efforts have largely failed, and activist investors are calling for change. This week, Starboard Value LP urged the company to shake up management and overhaul its strategy. Yahoo shares fell more than 35% last year.
Report: Yahoo to cut at least 10% of its workforce
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/report-yahoo-to-cut-at-least-10-of-its-workforce-2016-01-06
(MarketWatch) Yahoo Inc. YHOO, -3.86% is preparing to slash at least 10% of its workforce, according to a report Wednesday night by Business Insider. That would eliminate more than 1,000 jobs, according to the report, and cuts may begin as soon as this month. The Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet giant has been reeling in recent years. CEO Marissa Mayer's turnaround efforts have largely failed, and activist investors are calling for change. This week, Starboard Value LP urged the company to shake up management and overhaul its strategy. Yahoo shares fell more than 35% last year.
January 6, 2016
Global Corporate Debt is Coming Unglued
by Wolf Richter • January 6, 2016
[font color="blue"]Default Rate Highest since 2009, US Distress Ratio Soars.[/font]
Standard & Poor’s slashed the credit ratings of 112 corporations around the globe to default (D) or selective default (SD) in 2015, according to S&P Capital IQ Global Credit. The highest number of global defaults since nightmare-year 2009, when a previously unthinkable 268 companies defaulted, and not far behind the second highest default tally of 125, in 2008.
The oil & gas sector led with 29 defaulters (26% of the total). Metals, mining, and steel followed with 17 defaulters (15% of the total). The consumer products sector and the bank sectors tied for the third place, each with 13 defaulters (12% of the total).
So where are the defaulters? In Russia and Brazil? The economies of both countries have been ravaged by deep recessions and other problems. They rank high on the list but the country with most of the defaulters is… the US.
In total, 66 defaulters were US issuers, up 100% from 33 in 2014, and the highest since 2009. US defaulters accounted for 59% of the global total. Some of this dominant share of defaulters can be attributed to the size of the US economy and the enormous size of its credit market. But the US is also the epicenter of oil & gas defaults, with contagion now spreading to other sectors. ................(more)
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/06/global-corporate-debt-is-coming-unglued/
Global Corporate Debt is Coming Unglued
Global Corporate Debt is Coming Unglued
by Wolf Richter • January 6, 2016
[font color="blue"]Default Rate Highest since 2009, US Distress Ratio Soars.[/font]
Standard & Poor’s slashed the credit ratings of 112 corporations around the globe to default (D) or selective default (SD) in 2015, according to S&P Capital IQ Global Credit. The highest number of global defaults since nightmare-year 2009, when a previously unthinkable 268 companies defaulted, and not far behind the second highest default tally of 125, in 2008.
The oil & gas sector led with 29 defaulters (26% of the total). Metals, mining, and steel followed with 17 defaulters (15% of the total). The consumer products sector and the bank sectors tied for the third place, each with 13 defaulters (12% of the total).
So where are the defaulters? In Russia and Brazil? The economies of both countries have been ravaged by deep recessions and other problems. They rank high on the list but the country with most of the defaulters is… the US.
In total, 66 defaulters were US issuers, up 100% from 33 in 2014, and the highest since 2009. US defaulters accounted for 59% of the global total. Some of this dominant share of defaulters can be attributed to the size of the US economy and the enormous size of its credit market. But the US is also the epicenter of oil & gas defaults, with contagion now spreading to other sectors. ................(more)
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/06/global-corporate-debt-is-coming-unglued/
January 6, 2016
(Bloomberg) Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., struggling to rebound from multiple outbreaks of foodborne illness, reported a bigger plunge in fourth-quarter sales than the restaurant chain expected and said it got served with a subpoena in a federal criminal investigation.
Same-store sales -- a closely watched benchmark -- tumbled 14.6 percent in the period, the Denver-based company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The decline, Chipotle’s first quarterly drop as a public company, was previously projected to be as much as 11 percent. The grand jury subpoena, meanwhile, stemmed from a probe into a norovirus outbreak by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the central district of California, which is working with the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
Chipotle’s reputation has been hammered in recent months by an outbreak of E. coli that afflicted at least 53 people in nine states. That was followed by a norovirus contagion at a Boston location that sickened more than 140 college students. A new spate of illnesses in three additional states was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late last month.
The shares fell as much as 5.5 percent to $424.40 in New York after the filing was released, reaching their lowest point in more than two years. The stock declined 30 percent in 2015. ....................(more)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-06/chipotle-says-sales-dropped-even-more-than-expected-last-quarter
Chipotle Sales Plunge as Troubled Chain Gets Federal Subpoena
(Bloomberg) Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., struggling to rebound from multiple outbreaks of foodborne illness, reported a bigger plunge in fourth-quarter sales than the restaurant chain expected and said it got served with a subpoena in a federal criminal investigation.
Same-store sales -- a closely watched benchmark -- tumbled 14.6 percent in the period, the Denver-based company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The decline, Chipotle’s first quarterly drop as a public company, was previously projected to be as much as 11 percent. The grand jury subpoena, meanwhile, stemmed from a probe into a norovirus outbreak by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the central district of California, which is working with the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.
Chipotle’s reputation has been hammered in recent months by an outbreak of E. coli that afflicted at least 53 people in nine states. That was followed by a norovirus contagion at a Boston location that sickened more than 140 college students. A new spate of illnesses in three additional states was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late last month.
The shares fell as much as 5.5 percent to $424.40 in New York after the filing was released, reaching their lowest point in more than two years. The stock declined 30 percent in 2015. ....................(more)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-06/chipotle-says-sales-dropped-even-more-than-expected-last-quarter
January 6, 2016
(CommonDreams) American big business has now officially endorsed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), giving many all the proof they need that the 12-nation deal—poised to be the largest ever—is bad news for people and the planet.
An association of Chief Executive Officers known as the Business Roundtable (BRT) announced its formal backing on Tuesday, indicating that it plans to use its muscle to press Congress to approve the deal this year. In fact, BRT president John Engler told The Hill that the association wants the TPP to pass as quickly as possible—before the summer.
That endorsement followed Monday's announcement from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) that it is throwing its weight behind the pact. "Open markets encourage cooperation and prosperity among nations and governments, rather than conflict, and the NAM has a long and proud history of promoting free and fair trade," said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons.
With these two endorsements now established, some predict that the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce will be next.
To be sure, multinational corporations have already been heavily influential in the TPP negotiations, which have been conducted in near complete secrecy. ..................(more)
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/05/surprise-corporate-america-throwing-down-tpp
Corporate America starts heavy pro-TPP push
(CommonDreams) American big business has now officially endorsed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), giving many all the proof they need that the 12-nation deal—poised to be the largest ever—is bad news for people and the planet.
An association of Chief Executive Officers known as the Business Roundtable (BRT) announced its formal backing on Tuesday, indicating that it plans to use its muscle to press Congress to approve the deal this year. In fact, BRT president John Engler told The Hill that the association wants the TPP to pass as quickly as possible—before the summer.
That endorsement followed Monday's announcement from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) that it is throwing its weight behind the pact. "Open markets encourage cooperation and prosperity among nations and governments, rather than conflict, and the NAM has a long and proud history of promoting free and fair trade," said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons.
With these two endorsements now established, some predict that the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce will be next.
To be sure, multinational corporations have already been heavily influential in the TPP negotiations, which have been conducted in near complete secrecy. ..................(more)
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/05/surprise-corporate-america-throwing-down-tpp
January 6, 2016
(CommonDreams) For one in five Americans, just having medical insurance isn't enough to forestall the damaging consequences of the nation's for-profit healthcare system.
A comprehensive new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the New York Times finds that while an unsurprising 53 percent of people who are uninsured face problems with medical bills, a whopping 20 percent of working-age Americans who do have insurance also report having medical debt that causes serious financial challenges and changes in employment and lifestyle.
According to a Kaiser Foundation statement, people with insurance who faced the burden of medical debt reported "a wide range of consequences and sacrifices during the past year as a result," including:
In addition, insured people with medical debt reported skipping or putting off other health care in the past year because of the cost, such as postponing dental care, skipping doctor-recommended tests or treatments, or not filling a prescription. .......(more)
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/05/trouble-profit-healthcare-even-insured-face-mountains-debt
The Trouble with For-Profit Healthcare: Even the Insured Face Mountains of Debt
(CommonDreams) For one in five Americans, just having medical insurance isn't enough to forestall the damaging consequences of the nation's for-profit healthcare system.
A comprehensive new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the New York Times finds that while an unsurprising 53 percent of people who are uninsured face problems with medical bills, a whopping 20 percent of working-age Americans who do have insurance also report having medical debt that causes serious financial challenges and changes in employment and lifestyle.
According to a Kaiser Foundation statement, people with insurance who faced the burden of medical debt reported "a wide range of consequences and sacrifices during the past year as a result," including:
delaying vacations or major household purchases (77%),
spending less on food, clothing and basic household items (75%),
using up most or all their savings (63%),
taking an extra job or working more hours (42%),
increasing their credit card debt (38%),
borrowing money from family or friends (37%),
changing their living situation (14%), and
seeking the aid of a charity (11%).
In addition, insured people with medical debt reported skipping or putting off other health care in the past year because of the cost, such as postponing dental care, skipping doctor-recommended tests or treatments, or not filling a prescription. .......(more)
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/05/trouble-profit-healthcare-even-insured-face-mountains-debt
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