East Oregonian : E.O., October 25, 2016, Page Page 7A, Image 7

NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 7A
CAMPAIGN ROUNDUP
In emails, Clinton campaign 60s civil rights hero stands
measures diversity of staff
by Trump despite criticism
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
The HealthCare.gov website, where people can buy health insurance, is displayed
on a laptop screen in Washington.
Double-digit premium hikes
coming to Obamacare in 2017
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Premiums will go up sharply
next year under President
Barack Obama’s health care
law, and many consumers
will be down to just one
insurer, the administration
conirmed Monday. That’s
sure to stoke another
“Obamacare” controversy
days before a presidential
election.
Before taxpayer-provided
subsidies, premiums for a
midlevel benchmark plan
will increase an average of
25 percent across the 39
states served by the federally
run online market, according
to a report from the Depart-
ment of Health and Human
Services. Some states will
see much bigger jumps,
others less.
Moreover, about 1 in 5
consumers will only have
plans from a single insurer
to pick from, after major
national
carriers
such
as UnitedHealth Group,
Humana and Aetna scaled
back their roles.
“Consumers will be faced
this year with not only big
premium increases but also
with a declining number of
insurers participating, and
that will lead to a tumultuous
open enrollment period,”
said Larry Levitt, who tracks
the health care law for the
nonpartisan Kaiser Family
Foundation.
Republicans pounced on
the numbers as a warning that
insurance markets created by
the 2010 health overhaul are
teetering toward a “death
spiral.” Sign-up season starts
Nov. 1, about a week before
national elections in which
the GOP remains committed
to a full repeal.
“It’s over for Obamacare,”
Republican
presidential
candidate Donald Trump said
at a campaign rally Monday
evening in Tampa, Florida.
Trump said his Demo-
cratic rival, Hillary Clinton,
“wants to double down and
make it more expensive and
it’s not gonna work. ... Our
country can’t afford it, you
can’t afford it.” He promised
his own plan would deliver
“great health care at a frac-
tion of the cost.”
The new numbers aren’t
too surprising, said Sen. Orrin
Hatch, R-Utah, who chairs a
committee that oversees the
law. It “does little to dispel
the notion we are seeing the
law implode at the expense
of middle-class families.”
HHS
essentially
conirmed
state-by-state
reports that have been coming
in for months. Window shop-
ping for plans and premiums
is already available through
HealthCare.gov.
Administration oficials
are stressing that subsidies
provided under the law,
which are designed to rise
alongside premiums, will
insulate most customers from
sticker shock. They add that
consumers who are willing to
switch to cheaper plans will
still be able to ind bargains.
“Headline
rates
are
generally rising faster than
in previous years,” acknowl-
edged HHS spokesman
Kevin Grifis. But he added
that for most consumers,
“headline rates are not what
they pay.”
The vast majority of
the more than 10 million
customers who purchase
through HealthCare.gov and
its state-run counterparts do
receive generous inancial
assistance. “Enrollment is
concentrated among very
low-income individuals who
receive signiicant govern-
ment subsidies to reduce
premiums and cost-sharing,”
said Caroline Pearson of the
consulting irm Avalere Health
But an estimated 5 million
to 7 million people are either
not eligible for the income-
based assistance, or they buy
individual policies outside
of the health law’s markets,
where the subsidies are not
available. The administration
is urging the latter group
to check out HealthCare.
gov. The spike in premiums
generally does not affect the
employer-provided plans that
cover most workers and their
families.
Guard seeks federal aid for soldiers
told to return enlistment bonuses
SACRAMENTO,
Calif. (AP) — Members
of Congress and veterans
leaders on Monday called
for federal action to absolve
the debts of nearly 10,000
soldiers in California alone
who have been ordered by the
Pentagon to repay enlistment
bonuses a decade after they
signed up to serve in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Lawmakers from Cali-
fornia expressed outrage,
including Democratic Sens.
Dianne Feinstein and Barbara
Boxer; House Majority
Leader Kevin McCarthy,
a Republican; and House
Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi, a Democrat.
Maj. Gen. Matthew
Beevers said the California
National Guard is working
with members of Congress
to introduce legislation that,
if approved and signed by
the president, would order
the National Guard Bureau
to clear the debts of soldiers
who were wrongly told they
were eligible for bonuses of
$15,000 or more.
The total amount given
out in bonuses is not clear,
but The Los Angeles Times
reported $22 million has
been recovered in California
so far.
“This is how you destroy
all faith in a Pentagon that
is supposed to have your
back,” Brian Duffy, head
of the national service
organization Veterans of
Foreign Wars, said in an
emailed statement. “Instead
of seeking repayment, the
Pentagon owes them a debt
of thanks and an apology
for insulting their honorable
service to our nation.”
The Guard offered the
bonuses and student loan aid
to re-enlist at the height of the
two wars in the 2000s.
The Pentagon demanded
the money back after audits
revealed
overpayments
by the California Guard
under pressure to ill ranks
and hit enlistment goals. If
soldiers refuse, they could
face interest charges, wage
garnishments and tax liens,
the Times reported .
“We understand other
states may have been affected
but are pending veriication of
which ones,” National Guard
Bureau spokeswoman Laura
Ochoa wrote in an email to
The Associated Press. “Cali-
fornia is where the majority
of this occurred.”
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior staff
members on Hillary Clinton’s nascent
campaign were conscious about diversity
in the top ranks two months before
the Democratic presidential candidate
formally announced her bid, according to
hacked emails from the personal account
of a top campaign oficial.
In February 2015, Clinton lawyer and
chief of staff Cheryl Mills sent a list of
potential hires to campaign chairman
John Podesta. Among the suggestions was
“Political Director-Hispanic Woman.”
They eventually hired Amanda Renteria,
who is Latina.
Mills sends “Robby’s List of the top
10 or so positions,” referring to Clinton
campaign manager Robby Mook.
The email breaks it down: “four ‘POC,’
or people of color, four women ‘assuming
COO is a white woman’ and six white
men.” So, the email says, that is “33%
diverse, 33% women, 50% white men.”
The email was among more than
3,000 released by the anti-secrecy group
WikiLeaks on Monday and is just one of
the tens of thousands posted over the last
two weeks. The notes were stolen from
the email account of Podesta as part of a
series of high-proile computer hacks of
Democratic targets that U.S. intelligence
oficials say were orchestrated by Russia,
with the intent to inluence the Nov. 8
election. Russia has denied the allegations.
HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP) — Clarence
Henderson was hailed as a hero nearly 60
years ago when as a young black man he
participated in a sit-in at a segregated North
Carolina lunch counter.
In 2016, he is again taking a risky stand;
he is supporting Donald Trump. And he
isn’t shy about it. Last month he gave the
invocation at a Trump rally here, smiling as
he shook the Republican candidate’s hand.
“Donald Trump is certainly not a
politician, and politicians are a dime a dozen,
but leaders are priceless,” Henderson said in
an interview.
Trump is deeply unpopular in the black
community. He has called on black voters to
vote for him because “what the hell do you
have to lose?” His support among blacks is
less than the margin of error in some polls.
Henderson, 74, has been criticized for his
stance, with many taking to Twitter to accuse
him of abandoning the principles he fought
so hard for more than half a century ago.
Henderson shrugged off the criticism,
saying he isn’t paying any attention to it.
And he has gotten some support from one
of his fellow activists. Jabreel Khazan was
one of the irst four protesters to sit down at
the Woolworth’s lunch counter. And though
he supports Hillary Clinton, he said he had
no problem with Henderson’s choice.
“God bless him and all of those who have
a second opinion,” said Khazan, whose name
was Ezell Blair at the time of the protest. “We
should not be a one-minded people.”
Trump rejects ‘phony’ polls,
Trump took $17M insurance
insists ‘we are winning’
for damage few remember
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — A
deiant Donald Trump blamed his
campaign struggles on “phony polls” from
the “disgusting” media on Monday, ighting
to energize his most loyal supporters as his
path to the presidency shrinks.
With just 14 days until the election,
the Republican nominee campaigned in
battleground Florida as his team conceded
publicly as well as privately that crucial
Pennsylvania may be slipping away to
Democrat Hillary Clinton. That would
leave him only a razor-thin pathway to the
270 electoral votes needed to win.
Despite continued dificulties with
women and minorities, Trump refuses
to soften his message in the campaign’s
inal days to broaden his coalition. Yet he
offered an optimistic front in the midst of a
three-day tour through Florida as thousands
began voting there in person.
“I believe we’re actually winning,”
Trump declared during a round table
discussion with farmers gathered next to a
local pumpkin patch.
A day after suggesting the First
Amendment to the Constitution may give
journalists too much freedom, he insisted
that the media are promoting biased polls to
discourage his supporters from voting.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald
Trump says he received a $17 million
insurance payment in 2005 for hurricane
damage to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in
Palm Beach. But The Associated Press has
found little evidence of such large-scale
damage.
Two years after a series of storms, the real
estate tycoon said he didn’t know how much
had been spent on repairs, but acknowledged
he pocketed some of the money. He
transferred funds into his personal accounts,
saying that under the terms of his policy
“you didn’t have to reinvest it.”
“Landscaping, rooing, walls, painting,
leaks, artwork in the — you know, the
great tapestries, tiles, Spanish tiles, the
beach, the erosion,” he said of the storm
damage. “It’s still not what it was.”
Trump’s description of extensive damage
does not match the versions of Mar-a-Lago
members and even Trump loyalists. In
an interview about Mar-a-Lago’s history,
Trump’s longtime former butler, Anthony
Senecal, recalled no catastrophic damage.
He said Hurricane Wilma, the last of a string
of storms which barreled through in 2004
and 2005, lattened trees behind the estate,
but the house itself only lost some roof tiles.
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