| Fresh Pain for the Uninsured
In a lucrative new form of fiscal alchemy, a growing number of hospitals, working with a range of financial companies, are squeezing revenue from patients with little or no health insurance. April Dial's dealings with Hot Spring County Medical Center in Malvern, Ark., illustrate how the transformation of medical bills into consumer debt means quicker cash for medical providers but tougher times for many patients of modest means. Dial, a 23-year-old truck-stop waitress who earns $17,000 a year plus tips, suffers from Type 1 diabetes. Sudden drops in her blood sugar level have sent her to the emergency room four times in the past three years. In September she spent three days at Hot Spring, including two in intensive care, fighting complications from her ailment. The bills came to more than $14,000.
Analysis: Hain quitting will make others nervous
Despite the desire of Gordon Brown to keep Peter Hain and his often-expressed support for his colleague, once the Metropolitan Police let it be known that they were going to investigate, his resignation was inevitable. He contacted the Prime Minister at 11.30 to tell him what was happening, and he offered his resignation without hesitation. If he had not, he would have been told to go. What the Prime Minister desperately wants to avoid is for this resignation to cause a domino effect throughout the Labour Party. To that end, today's events do leave some senior Labour figures feeling rather uncomfortable. Harriet Harman (Leader of the House of Commons and Labour Deputy Leader), as we know, had to return a £5,000 donation and she also apologised when she failed to register a £40,000 home loan she used to fund her campaign.
We are looking for voluntary translators from Arabic into English.
Barack Obama (Ill.). "I cannot make that commitment," added former senator John Edwards of North Carolina. And Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) put it simply when she outlined the dilemma that Democratic presidential aspirants face on Iraq. "It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," the party's front-runner said. After President Bush's announcement this month of a limited troop drawdown and a continuation of the "surge" strategy through next summer, the key question for centrist Democrats in the presidential race is no longer whether U.S. forces will remain in Iraq but what size, mission and length a post-buildup, post-Bush force would take on. Even if the Democratic hopefuls decline to offer specifics, some of the people mentioned as possible defense secretaries under a Democratic White House offer a vision of a U.S.
Schwarzenegger Seeks Broad New Budget Powers To Avoid Deficits
It would be capped at 15 percent of the budget and could be used only to help with the next downturn. Schwarzenegger gleaned the idea from former President Bill Clinton, who had similar budget powers as governor of Arkansas. He said it would put an end to the feast-and-famine cycle of California budgeting. "For several years, we kept the budget wolf from the door, but the wolf is back," Schwarzenegger said, addressing state lawmakers in the Assembly chamber two days before he is to lay out a budget for the coming fiscal year filled with deep cuts. "We cannot continue to put people through the binge and purge of our budget process," Schwarzenegger said. "It is not fair. It is not reasonable. It is not in the best interests of anyone." Revenues have tapered off with the slowing economy, and Schwarzenegger is grappling with a projected $14 billion budget gap over the next 18 months.
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