MNsure and the Department of Commerce announced yesterday the rates for the insurance plans that will become available on the exchange October 1st, and it was great news: Minnesota has the lowest average rates in the country based on all the states that have made their rates public. A young non-smoker in the Twin Cities… Continue reading Minnesota Insurance Rates
Category: Politics
Where the uninsured live
Wonkblog has a great post today showing two maps: the first shows where the uninsured live who make less than 138% of the poverty level, which shows who could benefit from the expansion of Medicaid, and the second shows uninsured people who make less than 400% of the poverty level, which shows who could benefit… Continue reading Where the uninsured live
Land Value Taxes
I’m not an Econ major, but I’ve always wondered why we don’t tax land values by themselves instead of taxing land values plus the values of buildings on them. Specifically, I wonder why we have so many surface parking lots in downtown Minneapolis. For example, according to Hennepin County, the surface lot just north of… Continue reading Land Value Taxes
Healthcare Roundup
What’s going on with health care these days? Here’s a story about a Congressman who took some heat for being less than supportive when it comes to the new healthcare law. What I find very interesting is that he supports ending discrimination against pre-existing conditions, but is opposed to Obamacare. As many people have pointed… Continue reading Healthcare Roundup
Doorknocking doesn’t work
I’ve been campaigning since I was a precinct chair my senior year of high school. In that time, I’ve knocked on thousands of doors and made thousands of phone calls to undecided voters. There may be a few people in the world who appreciate being interrupted during dinner or during the Gopher football game on… Continue reading Doorknocking doesn’t work
Constituent Service
There have been a couple of stories recently about how Republicans are essentially telling people not to take advantage of the benefits of Obamacare, i.e. signing up for subsidized health insurance on the new health exchanges. It’s one thing for radio hosts to peddle this story (and how nice is it to see Twila Brase… Continue reading Constituent Service
On Surveillance and Snowdens
This has been quite the weekend for revelations about the state of government surveillance in this day and age. The suspicions of a lot of paranoid people were validated as we learned that the U.S. government is indeed collecting a vast amount of communications metadata and cloud data from citizens and non-citizens alike. For those… Continue reading On Surveillance and Snowdens
Legislative Pay
I generally believe in voting “No” on all amendments to our state constitution. Sometimes, it’s a “Hell No!” because I truly think it’s a bad amendment: see last year’s amendments on gay marriage and photo ID, for example. But most of the time, I vote no not because I think it’s a terrible idea, but… Continue reading Legislative Pay
The sequestration is a failure
The sequestration was always a stupid idea. Faced with a leaky roof, Congress declared “either we fix the roof or we blow it up!” Congress even in its most functional times is not a paragon of wisdom and efficiency, but this was extra ridiculous. Nevertheless, we were told, the whole point of the endeavor was… Continue reading The sequestration is a failure
Budgeting for families and superpowers
Wonkblog has a good piece about all the reasons that people hate budget deficits, and all of the reasons why they are incorrect. It’s a great piece, but it does overlook one of my favorite reasons trotted out by politicians as to why we need to balance the budget: “Families have to balance their budget,… Continue reading Budgeting for families and superpowers