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Policy driving rising ACA premiums

If it wasn’t obvious before that the famous bill passed to make health care more affordable has done anything but, it should be now: Individual plans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges are projected to spike by about 14 percent in 2027, according to recent insurer filings. The ACA imposed a wide array of mandates on health insurance. Those mandates are expensive. To make up for the increase in costs, the ACA distributes subsidies so consumers don’t feel the impact of the increase. Many of these subsidies are “advance” subsidies that go directly from the federal government ...

Why our legacy is different

Two hundred and fifty years ago, men in powdered hair and knee breeches did what no colony had ever done successfully. They broke away from the most powerful empire on earth. They were not bloodthirsty radicals. They had petitioned again and again to remain loyal subjects of the Crown. They fought for what was already theirs. Now look at the revolutions. Ours in 1776. France in 1789. Russia in 1917. China in 1949. Four attempts to tear down an old order and build something new. Only one ended in liberty. Only one. The French stormed the Bastille shouting about the rights of man, and ...

Hear the right story; love the World Cup

At this point, my family members are accustomed to my weird European sporting interests. Short of watching “Heated Rivalry,” you can’t get me into hockey, but I can give you a 15-year history of the F1 race team that was Force India. And when it comes to football, the only team I’ve watched compete at Soldier Field is Olympiakos, the Piraeus soccer team. So, when the World Cup rolls around every four years, I settle in. Greece didn’t qualify and I always had my doubts about the U.S. squad, so I quickly adopted Cape Verde as my team. I wasn’t alone, which is why it was ...

Whole office carries workload for boss who never shows up

Dear Annie: I work in a small office where our boss is almost never there. She comes in late, leaves early, works from home whenever she feels like it and is often “unavailable” when problems come up. Meanwhile, the rest of us are expected to answer clients, meet deadlines, handle emergencies and keep everything running. The frustrating part is that she still takes credit when things go well. When something goes wrong, however, she wants to know why “the team” dropped the ball. Last week, we had an upset client waiting on a decision only she could make. She finally showed up at ...

Explaining Z-, T-scores in DEXA scans

Dear Dr. Roach: I’m a woman of 54 with somewhat limited mobility due to back pain. Perhaps for this reason, my primary care physician ordered a DEXA scan in 2023 and again in 2026. I was alarmed when the recent scan showed osteopenia in five of the six areas that were tested. I thought the 2023 scan was normal, but when I revisited it, I saw that I had osteopenia then as well. But in the 2023 report, they had only looked for a Z-score of less than -2 as an indicator of a problem, whereas in 2026 they used the T-score. Had I realized that I had osteopenia three years ago, I’d have ...

Horoscope: Monday, July 13

Monday, July 13 Your creativity will be applied to lucrative effect. Aries (March 21-April 19) It feels like the other person controls the pace of a relationship, responding in their own sweet time. But you have complete authority over how much of your attention, energy, imagination and time gets organized around that fact. Taurus (April 20-May 20) Someone’s mixed signals have you constantly interpreting clues. Maybe they subconsciously love how this snags your attention. But you don’t need to solve every mystery. The energy you spend decoding can be redirected toward ...