Word: blocking
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...floor is not the end of the equation. The CBO, in its report on the regulations, said insurers might react to new thresholds by "cutting back on efforts to restrain benefit costs through care management." Translation: Anything that doesn't count as "medical costs" may be on the chopping block, including exorbitant executive salaries but also programs to keep patients healthy. There is also a fear among health policy experts that some insurers could raise premiums in reaction - higher premiums means more money spent on health care, but also more left over for profits. Another unintentional consequence might be insurers...
...deal appeared to be in doubt for much of Friday morning, after a small group of countries including Cuba, Sudan, Bolivia and Venezuela worked to block the accord. They complained that the deal brokered by Obama and his interlocutors lacked specific emission-reduction targets, and only included a vague pledge to attempt to keep global warming from rising above the upper safe limit of 2 degrees celsius. The dissenters also attacked the climate finance for poor countries promised in the deal - around $30 billion for the period to 2012, and $100 billion annually by 2020 - as far short...
...experts on the Internet in China point out that pornography crackdowns often ensnare many other types of speech that Beijing finds objectionable. This spring, for example, the Ministry of Information Technology launched plans for the mandatory installation of software on new computers that would block users from visiting porn sites. Studies of the sites that would be restricted by the software, known as the Green Dam Youth Escort, found that many of them were political and not pornographic...
More tactically, the Greek Cypriots also gained E.U. veto power, which they threatened to use last week to block the opening of five new chapters in the negotiations for Turkey's membership next year. "The problem as far as a deal is concerned is that Greek Cypriots are basically content. As it stands they are an E.U. member, they're happy and prosperous," says Munir. "They know that any deal will inevitably entail some loss for them and they don't like that idea." The Greek Cypriot leader who presided over that fateful referendum was Tassos Papadopoulos, the hard-liner...
...After a series of bad years for Hershey, however, the trust board briefly toyed in 2007 with the idea of selling its stock to Wrigley, famous for its chewing-gum brand, but backed down within hours of closing the deal. State and federal authorities had tried to block the sale, in part because of concerns about the size of a combined Wrigley-Hershey company. Residents of the town of Hershey, meanwhile, expressed outrage and even convinced a local judge to delay the sale, saying it would cause "irreparable harm" to the community...