Word: payments
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...issue for many months. Bills have been introduced in the House and Senate that, if passed, would allow merchants to negotiate their interchange fees directly with banks and credit-card networks. The Senate's version, introduced by Senator Richard Durbin, even calls for a panel of three electronic-payment-system judges to step in if merchants fail to reach a negotiated agreement...
...fiscal impact of his legislation by proposing to cut a hefty $500 billion in Medicare costs. The bill claims to do this by trimming a lot of fat out of the system and setting up an independent, nonpartisan panel that will take away Congress's power to set Medicare payment policies and reimbursement rates. But, most controversially, the bill takes a big chunk of money from the Medicare Advantage program, which essentially subsidizes insurers. "We are committed to working with policymakers and stakeholders to find savings in the Medicare program, including Medicare Advantage, but it is important to ensure seniors...
...Food stamps originally came in two colors: recipients bought orange stamps, which could be used for any kind of food, and they were given half that amount in free blue stamps, which could be used to buy designated surplus foods (all but the most destitute had to make some payment to receive food stamps until 1977). About 20 million people made use of the original food-stamp program, but its popularity dwindled as prosperity returned, and the program was stopped...
...major change to the program came in 1977, when Congress stopped requiring payment for food stamps and distributed them to all recipients for free (the price had steadily decreased over time, until it represented just a fraction of the face value). The move dismayed a number of observers, who had supported the program as a means to help the poor help themselves, not as a direct government handout (the Agriculture Department had insisted on selling food stamps for fear of undermining the dignity of recipients). The policy created a backlash - some middle-class shoppers indignantly complained that food-stamp users...
...qualify. In June, the average monthly benefit came to $294 per household and $133 per individual. Recently, officials have worked to make the program more convenient, distributing electronic benefit-card readers to farmers' markets so food stamps can be used there and encouraging more stores to accept them as payment (Costco announced this year it will take food stamps at some New York City stores on a temporary basis). As an experiment, CNN reporter Sean Callebs spent the month of February relying on food stamps. Spending $176 - the maximum amount awarded by the state of Louisiana, where he lives - Callebs...