RALEIGH — Because Obamacare requires that insurers pay the government a 3.5 percent fee to sell their plans on the exchange, all Blue Cross policy holders would pay higher premiums if the giant insurer is selected to provide insurance plans on the federal health exchange that will operate in North Carolina, according to Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina officials.
RALEIGH — Tax subsidies in Obamacare could push at least half of privately insured, lower-income North Carolinians into the federal health exchange and off of private coverage, critics of the federal health reform law say. Backers of the law say such “crowd-out” will be much smaller, perhaps less than 10 percent.
RALEIGH — For years, public school students in North Carolina have been subjected to newer math benchmarks that favor estimation over exactitude, promoting the notion that close enough is good enough.
RALEIGH — A Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think tank gives North Carolina a mixed review in a 50-state analysis on the implementation of welfare reform. In a policy report published last fall that rated all the states on the results of their policies, the Cato Institute gave the Tar Heel state a “C” grade, along with 19 other states. Idaho, one of four states to earn an “A,” received the highest marks, while Vermont ranked the lowest among the nine states that received an “F.” Cato reviewed the states’ policies and practices in place since the federal overhaul of the welfare system in 1996.
