Nibbling Here and There

Item Uno (Obamacare): Did you know there are 34 million different ways to make a Domino’s pizza? Obviously, those combinations can’t fit on a menu board… but that’s what Obamacare says they have to do. Yep, the law requires that eateries put up menu boards that tell people the calorie count of the comestibles. In Domino’s case, that’s a cost of $5,000 per board and must detail every possible combination. Of course, all this information is already available online… but that’s not good enough for the Feds.  Who’d have thunk it – a national healthcare act creating business for sign makers and computer programmers. (Insert your own joke here.) 

Item Uno-A (Obamacare): The administration plans to delay the start of next year's Obamacare enrollment period, a move pitched as a way to give consumers and insurance companies more time to study their options...

BUT this just happens to conveniently pushes the second round of enrollment past the 2014 midterm elections. Politics seeping into healthcare care, no way. WAY!

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the decision does not affect those trying to enroll this year, despite the myriad problems with the launch of the law and HealthCare.gov. Rather, it affects those who will sign up late next year for 2015 coverage. Consumers will be able to sign up beginning Nov. 15, 2014, as opposed to the original date of Oct. 15. Enrollment will last until Jan. 15, 2015, instead of Dec. 7.

Item Uno-B (Obamacare): Code Blue – STAT! Covered California, the state's health exchange, has rejected President Obama's request to let insurers extend their current health policies, a decision that affects about one MILLION Californians who have coverage that doesn't comply with the requirements of the federal health law.

Item Dos: From the state Legislative Analyst’s Office we get, "The state’s 2013–14 budget plan assumed a year-end reserve of $1.1 billion. Our revenue forecast now anticipates $6.4 BILLION in higher revenues for 2012–13 and 2013–14 combined. These higher revenues are offset by $5 billion in increased expenditures, almost entirely due to greater required spending for schools and community colleges.” (Wait… isn’t this why we just had to pass Proposition 30? I know, confusing the issue with facts.) So, “combined with a projected $3.2 billion operating surplus for the state in 2014–15, these factors lead us to project that, absent any changes to current laws and policies, the state would end 2014–15 with a $5.6 BILLION reserve.” Vegas is now setting the odds of how long it will take the legislature to begin spending this "rainy day surplus" which almost all have vowed not to touch lest we find ourselves in yet looming state of brokenness.

Item Tres: That $13 billion settlement by California with JPMorgan Chase includes some major coins for the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation's largest public pension fund. It appears JPMorgan Chase will pay $299 million to CalPERS (AKA the public employee and teacher pension funds) as part of a settlement related to mortgage-related investments. This money will settle claims that the company misrepresented the value of residential mortgage-backed securities sold to the CalPERS and the California State Teachers' Retirement System between 2004 and 2008. It was alleged by CA Attorney General Kamala Harris that JP Morgan Chase profited by giving California's pension funds incomplete information about mortgage investments. The payout is part of a broader $13 billion settlement between JP Morgan Chase and the U.S. Department of Justice. Wait for it... Anyone want to speculate when (not if) serious salary increases start a coming?! (Oddly, most Californians higher salaries for teachers. For public employees - not so much.)