Word: anthem
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...nationalistic laws go, the one just passed in Slovakia seems rather tame on the surface. Earlier this month, the Slovak parliament approved a "patriotic act" mandating that every school play the Slovak national anthem on Mondays and that each classroom display a set of state symbols: the flag, the coat of arms, the lyrics to the anthem and the constitution's preamble. However innocuous this all may appear to be, though, Slovaks are outraged that the government is forcing them, by law, to be more patriotic...
...have all the charity songs gone? In recent years, that staple of the mid-1980s--the all-star benefit tune--has become a pop rarity. But now, 25 years after "We Are the World" raised $63 million for African famine relief, a new generation of musicians has rerecorded the anthem, with proceeds going to victims of Haiti's recent earthquake...
Still, it's true that the Anthem Blue Cross rate hike is a perfect example of why the current individual insurance market is unsustainable. After all, the justifications the company provides for why its rates have to increase do make sense. In a bad economy, the people most likely to cancel their health insurance are healthy people; this leaves the remaining so-called risk pool less healthy, and therefore more expensive to insure. (Waxman, in a follow-up letter to WellPoint, asked the company to explain why data show that it had more individually insured customers in California...
...Anthem Blue Cross story in California is far from unique. According to the Associated Press, Maine, Oregon and Kansas are among states where consumers buying individual policies on the open market may see double-digit rate increases in 2010. Sandy Praeger, the Kansas insurance commissioner and head of the managed-care committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said she agrees with others that Anthem Blue Cross is probably operating within the law in proposing its California rate hikes. "I thought the explanation made perfect sense," says Praeger. "In this job climate, if people are young and healthy, they...
Daveed Kapoor, 30, a healthy, self-employed resident of Los Angeles, is one of California's 700,000 individually insured Anthem Blue Cross customers. Since he bought his policy in 2005, he has seen his premiums rise dramatically. Just last year, his monthly rate jumped from $361 to $495, a 27% increase. Kapoor, who pays his premiums via automatic debit from his bank account, did not receive a notice about the 2009 hike and didn't realize it had happened until reviewing his bank statements several months later. This year's hike - to $665 - may be too much...