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...minimum benefit package, in addition to setting standards for coverage, is also intended to bend that all-important curve of overall health-care costs. Federal subsidies given to individuals to buy insurance, which could be applied to plans only if they are purchased in the exchange, would not equal more than the cost of a minimum benefit package. If individuals want to purchase plans that are more expensive, they would be free to do so but would have to pay more out of pocket. Employers whose workers buy coverage through the exchange, under the House plan, would contribute at least...
Insurance exchanges are not a new concept. Under President Bill Clinton's ill-fated health-care plan, they were called "alliances"; in a current alternative bipartisan reform bill offered by Senators Ron Wyden and Bob Bennett, exchanges are called "health help agencies." And when members of Congress talk about offering Americans health insurance that is as good as what they themselves have, they are referring to the largest exchange in operation, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). On the program's website, federal workers can enter in their location and see what private insurance plans are available...
...benefit package." Health-reform critics have been using this legislative provision to scare people into thinking that the government will decide what services are covered under private insurance. But what the government would actually be doing is setting a standard for a minimum benefit package that all health-insurance plans would have to meet. The purpose of this is not to ration health care but rather to ensure that Americans don't buy plans with hidden loopholes and gaps. The House plan says this minimum benefit must cover at least 70% of the cost of hospitalization, doctor's visits, prescription...
Becoming British just got trickier. Under a new government proposal announced on Aug. 3, would-be Brits may have to work a little bit harder to get their citizenship when a second test is added to the country's points-based immigration system. If the plan goes through, applicants would serve a term as "probationary citizens," winning or losing points on the path to the passport depending on how well they fit into British society...
...MigrationWatch, an organization concerned with both legal and illegal immigration to the U.K., welcomes the new plan. "This is a small, crowded island," says chairman Sir Andrew Green. "In a normally functioning economy there is not a fixed number of jobs, so it's not the case that one immigrant takes one British job. However, there is some effect of the kind as the rate of employment is falling very fast...