affordable

Secure Futures Brings Affordable On-Site Solar Power To Schools and Businesses in North Carolina

Company certified as one of only three providers authorized to offer distributed solar energy with no capital cost




affordable

New Coronavirus Writing Journal Provides an Affordable Tool for Documenting Daily Life

University of Virginia history professor Herbert "Tico" Braun recently told his students, "You do not write alone," as he asked them to begin keeping a record of their daily lives. With Braun's concept in mind, writer Mary Ladd published a new book.




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More Delays in the Affordable Care Act!

More delays in the Affordable Care Act will impact employers with 50-99 full-time equivalent employees in 2014. They will now have until 2016 to offer health care coverage to their employees or be subject to the shared-responsibility payments. The penalty… Read More

The post More Delays in the Affordable Care Act! appeared first on Anders CPAs.



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affordable

Affordable test methods to drones: Institutions take the innovation route to aid COVID-19 fight

While over 20 technical and scientific institutions are working on developing a vaccine for coronavirus, IITs have already set up "COVID-19 specific research centres", encouraging developments in the innovation ecosystem.




affordable

IKEA new CEO targets 'even more affordable' furniture as habits shift

"I think we could broaden the product range a bit in our lower price range," Abrahamsson Ring said, adding that new materials, production techniques and distribution methods would help make IKEA "even more affordable".




affordable

Telstra facing investigation over selling 'unaffordable contracts' to vulnerable Australians

A "flood" of vulnerable Australians have been walking into Telstra shops looking to buy a cheap flip phone and walking out with contracts worth $250 a month. Now the consumer watchdog is investigating.




affordable

Tasmania news: 'Nannas' charged after sit-in, Hobart rent less affordable than Melbourne

DAILY BRIEFING: A trio of women calling themselves the 'knitting nannas' are arrested for staging a climate change protest, and Hobart rent outpaces Melbourne for unaffordability.




affordable

Domain list of most affordable houses in Sydney, Melbourne include places more than 100km from CBD

A new report's list of affordable suburbs reveals first home buyers in Sydney and Melbourne need to be searching as much as 100 kilometres from the CBD.




affordable

Inspiring rammed earth hospital brings affordable care to rural Nepal

An inspiring beacon of humanitarian architecture has arrived to one of the poorest and most remote regions of Nepal — the new Bayalpata Hospital in Accham. Opened earlier this month to replace an aged and overrun clinic, the new hospital is a model of sustainable rural health made possible through a collaboration between the government of Nepal and NGO Possible Health. New York City-based Sharon Davis Design crafted the 7.5-acre campus, which is built primarily from locally sourced rammed earth and powered by rooftop solar panels.[...]




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Supreme Court Considers Affordable Care Act Religious Exemption Rule

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will consider yet another case regarding whether employers can decline to cover contraceptives in their health care plans. Reproductive rights groups warn that depending on the outcome of the case, tens of thousands of American women could lose vital contraceptive coverage. The case, Little Sisters of the Poor and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania, involves a 2017 Trump administration rule change that significantly broadened who can claim an exemption to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contraceptive coverage mandate. The 2017 rule change, issued without a notice of proposed rulemaking or public comment opportunity, expanded the scope of religious exemptions and added an additional moral exemption claim. States had successfully challenged the rule, calling it a violation of the constitution, federal anti-discrimination law, and the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). A federal appeals court issued an injunction, preventing the Trump administration from enforcing the rule until the case was decided. Both the district court and the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed that states were likely to succeed on their APA claim. The court will now consider whether the Little Sisters of the Poor have standing and whether the Trump administration lawfully exempted religious objectors from the […]




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Your Slow Website is Killing Your Business- Level up with our affordable VPS server




affordable

CBD News: This year, World Food Day calls for action across sectors to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone. It is a reminder that without healthy nature and biodiversity, we cannot have quality nutrition, and without q




affordable

Blake Lively's Favorite Affordable Jeans Brand Is Having a Major Sale Right Now

Here's everything you need to know about Old Navy's Black Friday and Cyber Monday plans.




affordable

Katie Holmes’s Affordable Sneakers Are the Star of Her Latest Outfit

Meghan Markle is also a fan of the comfy shoes.




affordable

Scotland at risk of missing affordable homes target as Brexit bites

SCOTLAND is struggling to meet its targets for new affordable homes despite government funding.




affordable

MAKING HOME AFFORDABLE PROGRAM EXTENDED – More Homeowners Will Qualify for Mortgage Relief!

The Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) announced last month that it will be taking the lead in a new outreach project designed to expand the relief options available to homeowners who are struggling with their mortgages. The Making Home Affordable Outreach and Intake Project aims to help homeowners avoid mortgage default by seeking resolutions through the Making Home Affordable (MHA) Program, the cornerstone of President Obama’s plan to offer lasting relief to homeowners in financial distress.




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Governor Markell, U.S. Senator Coons and U.S. Senator Carper to Cut Ribbon at Delaware Affordable Apartment Community

Governor Markell will attend the ribbon cutting ceremony at Heron Run Apartments in Smyrna.



  • Delaware State Housing Authority
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affordable

Congressman Carney Announces Legislation to Expand Affordable Housing Options

This morning, Congressman John Carney (D-DE) visited Liberty Court Apartments in Dover to announce new legislation to improve affordable housing options. The Housing Assistance Reform Act would increase housing options for low-income Americans and help housing authorities raise capital for affordable housing projects. The legislation would expand access to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Moving to Work program from 39 local housing authorities to 60, and eliminate the current unit cap for the Rental Assistance Demonstration program, allowing any eligible housing authority to participate.




affordable

Upcoming affordable hatchbacks: 2020 Hyundai i20, Maruti S-Presso CNG and more

While most of the delayed launches are just updated BS6 models, there is also a slew of all-new cars as well in this list.




affordable

Bajaj Pulsar 125 Neon Review | The most affordable Pulsar is not a compromise

Bajaj has used it’s existing Pulsar 150 platform to create the smaller Pulsar 125 Neon. The design, cycle parts, features and even the engine (stroke has been shortened and swept volume reduced) is borrowed from the bigger bike. The result is a good looking bike for those on a budget. How is it to ride […]




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Rise of affordable ADVs in India: From Hero XPulse 200 to Yamaha & Honda’s new adventure bikes




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Affordable Luxury - Deccan Odyssey Last Minute Deals

Did you know that India's has its very own fleet of trains similar to the legendary Orient Exprees of the West. There’s one more reason why you should book Deccan Odyssey for luxury train tour package with IndianLuxuryTrains.Com As the luxury train season draws to its conclusion by...



  • Thu
  • 21 Feb 2013 00:00:00





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Affordable housing construction briefing: Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act

No hurry to change your construction documents The most significant piece of legislation for the UK construction industry, Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act...




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Affordable housing construction briefing: contractor insolvency - warning signs

In the current uncertain times it is common to hear rumours of financial difficulties at contractors and sub-contractors which are bound to cause concern for employers on construction works. However, there are a number of steps yo...




affordable

Affordable housing litigation e-briefing: when is a RSHP not a public authority?

After the recent decision in R (Weaver) versus London and Quadrant Housing Trust [2009] EWCA Civ 587 the answer, more frequently than not, will be when it is not acting as a 'hybrid authority' and not exercising the pow...




affordable

Affordable housing - liability for anti-social behaviour

Octavia Hill Housing Trust v Brumby [2010] EWHC 1793 (QB) A landmark case could open the floodgates for Registered Providers. Terri Brumby has won the right in the High Court to proceed with a claim against Registered Provider Octavia Hill Housing ...




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Affordable housing construction briefing: the Remedies Directive

How important is public procurement to the public sector? Many contracting bodies incur more expenditure each year on externally provided works, services and supplies than they do on their own workforce, but focus typicall...




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Health care must be affordable and accessible, but also high quality -- by Valerie Shelly, Susann Roth, Kirthi Ramesh

Universal health coverage must be high quality to improve patients’ health outcomes




affordable

COVID-19 highlights the need for safe, nutritious, and affordable food -- by Akmal Siddiq

Hunger and malnutrition were an increasing problem worldwide before the pandemic. Restrictions imposed to curb disease spread have disrupted local and international food supply chains, making the problem even more urgent.




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Builders hunt for cheaper land & technology to offer affordable housing

NEW DELHI: Builders are scrambling to acquire cheap land and technology for low-cost housing after the government and central bank announced incentives for affordable housing, including cheaper loans to developers and buyers. Real estate companies including Tata Housing, ATS Infrastructure, Bhartiya Group and Anantraj Industries are busy sewing up land deals for projects in the Rs 5-20 lakh home segment. There is unlimited demand for homes in this segment, say experts. “There is a large market for such homes but a big supply constraint as well,” said Shailesh Pathak, executive director of the Bhartiya Group, which is planning to build 10,000 low-cost homes over the next two-three years on a […]




affordable

Sugary Drinks More Affordable Across the Globe

Title: Sugary Drinks More Affordable Across the Globe
Category: Health News
Created: 5/4/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/5/2017 12:00:00 AM




affordable

Supply of affordable houses remains low in HCMC

In the third quarter (Q3) of this year, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) saw no new supply of affordable housing entering the market. Low profit margin has made this segment unattractive to housing developers.




affordable

Skydio’s New Drone Is Smaller, Even Smarter, and (Almost) Affordable

Skydio crams all its autonomous magic into a sleek consumer drone that costs under $1k




affordable

Labrador Systems Developing Affordable Assistive Robots for the Home

A startup led by robotics veterans is announcing a pre-seed funding round with participation from Amazon's Alexa Fund and iRobot Ventures




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Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Efforts Recover Record $4 Billion; New Affordable Care Act Tools Will Help Fight Fraud

Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released a new report showing that the government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered more than $4 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year 2010.



  • OPA Press Releases

affordable

Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against City of New Berlin, Wisconsin, for Blocking Affordable Housing

The Department of Justice announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the city of New Berlin, Wis., alleging that the city violated the Fair Housing Act by repeatedly taking action to prevent the construction of an affordable housing development by a private developer, MSP Real Estate Inc.



  • OPA Press Releases

affordable

Justice Department Sues City of Joliet, Illinois, to Preserve Affordable Housing for City Residents

The Department of Justice today filed a lawsuit against the city of Joliet, Ill., alleging that the city violated the Fair Housing Act and the Housing and Community Development Act by taking a series of actions, culminating in the taking through eminent domain a federally-subsidized affordable housing development, that would displace more than 750 residents with low incomes, more than 95 percent of whom are African-American.



  • OPA Press Releases

affordable

Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Against City of New Berlin, Wisconsin, for Blocking Affordable Housing

The Department of Justice announced today that it has settled its lawsuit against the city of New Berlin, Wis., for race discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act.



  • OPA Press Releases

affordable

Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Against Sussex County, Delaware, for Blocking Affordable Housing

The Justice Department announced today that it has settled a lawsuit against Sussex County, Del., and the Planning and Zoning Commission of Sussex County for race and national origin discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act.



  • OPA Press Releases

affordable

How to make biological drugs more affordable

Biological drugs remain unaffordable for many in the US due to strategies used by pharmaceutical companies and negative messaging about biosimilars, explains a recent commentary by Dr Joel Lexchin, School of Health Policy and Management at York University, Canada [1].




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The future of the Affordable Care Act: Reassessment and revision


Given the lackluster healthcare exchange enrollment numbers, unaffordable coverage, and increasing overall healthcare costs, President Obama is wrong to think the Affordable Care Act (ACA) needs just a few tweaks – its most fundamental aspects need to be rethought. Obama’s essay marks the first time a modern sitting president has had a piece published in the journal.

Much of the progress made under the ACA expanding healthcare coverage to the uninsured has been thanks to increased enrollment in Medicaid -- not the exchanges -- a harbinger of even less progress to come.  Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell sharply adjusted down projections of new exchange enrollees in 2016 to 1.3 million. Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that over the next decade, as the population increases, coverage will expand only modestly and the proportion of the uninsured will cease to decline.

Six key areas in the ACA are flawed -- and need to be fixed if healthcare reform is to meet its promise and not have rampant cost problems:

  1. Subsidies still leave plans too expensive. Congress must continue income-related subsidies while making coverage affordable to both households and taxpayers, which is “no easy task” because it could drive up costs of the ACA considerably.
  2. The Cadillac tax needs to be fixed. While better than nothing, it doesn’t confront the underlying problem of health insurance being tax deductible, which is regressive and inefficient. One suggestion is a modification of the Cadillac tax that makes any excess plan costs above a cap be considered taxable income to the employee, as opposed to an excise tax.
  3. Increase federalism in the healthcare system. States should apply for waivers under Section 1332, which takes effect in 2017 and gives states flexibility to meet the law’s goals while retaining its basic protections. The Administration has made a serious mistake in dragging its feet and acting overly restrictively with states who could launch their own bold and far-reaching experiments, as it has itself in encouraging conservative states to expand Medicaid under the ACA.
  4. The exchanges need to be the primary vehicle for health insurance – not Medicaid expansion. Equalizing the subsidy structure for exchange plans and the tax treatment of employer-sponsored benefits, more employees would go on the exchanges which gives them greater choice and portability.
  5. Replace the Independent Payment Advisory Board with a premium support system for Medicare. Premium support would enforce a long-term budget for Medicare by allowing greater control of the beneficiaries themselves, as opposed to imposing payment and price controls; it would also accelerate innovation in the design and pricing of Medicare services.
  6. The ACA should focus more on the “upstream” determinants of health – beyond just medical services. We need to find ways to blend health, housing, transportation, social services and other items to reduce the need for costly medical services, he writes.

If it were a separate economy, the US health system would be equivalent to the first or sixth largest economy in the world. It is both pragmatic and principled to recognize that achieving agreement on how to redesign an economy that large, or to do it successfully in 1 piece of legislation, is beyond the capabilities of the federal government. That is why core parts of the ACA need to be reassessed and revised and why empowering the US system of federalism to adapt and experiment with this law is so important.


Read "The Future of the Affordable Care Act: Reassessment and Revision."

Publication: JAMA
Image Source: © Mariana Bazo / Reuters
       




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Affordable Care Act premiums are lower than you think


Since the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health insurance marketplaces first took effect in 2014, news story after story has focused on premium increases for certain plans, in certain cities, or for certain individuals. Based on preliminary reports, premiums now appear set to rise by a substantial amount in 2017.

What these individual data points miss, however, is that average premiums in the individual market actually dropped significantly upon implementation of the ACA, according to our new analysis, even while consumers got better coverage. In other words, people are getting more for less under the ACA.

Covered California, that state’s marketplace, just announced premium increases averaging 13.2 percent. But even if premiums increase by the 10 or 15 percent overall that some are predicting for 2017, they will still be far lower than premiums otherwise would have been in the absence of the law. Moreover, this analysis does not include the effects of premium and cost-sharing subsidies that serve to make ACA marketplace plans more affordable for many people.

2014 Premiums In the ACA Marketplaces Were 10-21 Percent Lower Than 2013 Individual Market Premiums

While many stories of pronounced increases are simply the natural result of a law that works differently in every region and for people of different health statuses, it appears to be conventional wisdom that the ACA increased premiums in the individual, non-group insurance market, if only because it increased the quality and robustness of coverage. Indeed, many of the ACA’s new rules do have the anticipated effect of increasing premiums, such as:

  • mandated guaranteed issue regardless of health status;
  • restrictions on the ability to charge different premiums based on anything besides age and smoking habits;
  • requirements for plans to offer certain benefits deemed “essential;”
  • limits on out-of-pocket costs an enrollee can pay for covered services in a given year; and
  • the elimination of any lifetime limits on coverage.

However, many features of the ACA push in the opposite direction and save consumers money. The individual mandate and federal subsidies greatly expanded the number of people purchasing coverage in the individual market, pushing premiums down both by increasing the sheer size of the market – the bigger the market, the lower the prices – and including many healthier people who previously went uninsured. In addition, the ACA created relatively transparent marketplaces where insurers must compete on premiums for products standardized by actuarial value, allowing competition to drive down prices.

Together, by creating a much larger and more competitive market, these changes placed strong downward pressure on insurance premiums, outweighing the factors pushing in the opposite direction. Stronger rate review and minimum requirements for how much an insurance plan must spend on actual health care expenses furthered this downward pressure on prices.

According to our analysis, average premiums for the second-lowest cost silver-level (SLS) marketplace plan in 2014, which serves as a benchmark for ACA subsidies, were between 10 and 21 percent lower than average individual market premiums in 2013, before the ACA, even while providing enrollees with significantly richer coverage and a broader set of benefits. Silver-level ACA plans cover roughly 17 percent more of an enrollee’s health expenses than pre-ACA plans did, on average. In essence, then, consumers received more coverage at a lower price.


Download "Affordable Care Act Premiums are Lower Than You Think" »


Editor's note: This piece originally appeared in Health Affairs.

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Publication: Health Affairs
       




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Making apartments more affordable starts with understanding the costs of building them

During the decade between the Great Recession and the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. experienced a historically long economic expansion. Demand for rental housing grew steadily over those years, driven by demographic trends and a strong labor market. Yet the supply of new rental housing did not keep up with demand, leading to rent increases that…

       




affordable

Making apartments more affordable starts with understanding the costs of building them

During the decade between the Great Recession and the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. experienced a historically long economic expansion. Demand for rental housing grew steadily over those years, driven by demographic trends and a strong labor market. Yet the supply of new rental housing did not keep up with demand, leading to rent increases that…

       




affordable

Making apartments more affordable starts with understanding the costs of building them

During the decade between the Great Recession and the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. experienced a historically long economic expansion. Demand for rental housing grew steadily over those years, driven by demographic trends and a strong labor market. Yet the supply of new rental housing did not keep up with demand, leading to rent increases that…

       




affordable

Affordable Care Encourages Healthy Living: Theory and Evidence from China’s New Cooperative Medical Scheme

On May 25th, 2016, the Brookings-Tsinghua Center and China Institute for Rural Studies hosted a public lecture on the topic –Affordable Care Encourages Healthy Living: Theory and Evidence from China's New Cooperative Medical Scheme, featuring Dr. Yu Ning, assistant professor of Economics at Emory University.