More Americans Have Health Insurance (Whether They Want it or Not)

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By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

April 13, 2015

The latest Gallup survey shows the rate of American adults without health insurance dipped to an all-time-low of 11.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, down from 12.9 percent at the end of 2014 and 18 percent in mid-2013. That means nearly nine in 10 adults now say they have health coverage, which Gallup attributes primarily to provisions in the Affordable Care Act.

So far, the White House estimates that more than 16 million people have gained health coverage through Obamacare.

Gallup notes that the uninsured rate is likely to continue trending downward this year as more people sign up for coverage during the special enrollment period, which ends on April 30. The administration granted extra time to people who were unaware of the law’s individual mandate requiring everyone to have health coverage or be subject to a tax penalty.

The pollsters noted that there are, of course, other factors that have helped lower the percentage of uninsured people in the U.S., including the improving economy and a falling unemployment rate. Even so, they suggested that Obamacare played the largest role: “The uninsured rate is significantly lower than it was in early 2008, before the depths of the economic recession, suggesting that the recent decline is due to more than just an improving economy.”

The poll of 43,575 adults over the first three months of the year suggests that the health care reform law is succeeding in its primary goal of expanding access to coverage, though questions remain about just how affordable that care is — and whether the law will be undone by a Supreme Court ruling, scheduled to be announced in June in the case of King v Burwell. The high court’s interpretation of language in one sentence of the Affordable Care Act will determine whether roughly 8 million people will lose health insurance subsidies. Read about the case here.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:

Why GM Should Send a Thank You Note to Saudi Arabia

Mike Stone

By Michael Rainey

July 23, 2015

General Motors shares are up more than 4 percent Thursday after the automaker reported better-than-expected profits. The company earned more than $1 billion in profits last quarter, well above Wall Street’s forecasts.

A big reason for the blowout quarter was record margins in North America, thanks in large part to increased sales of trucks and SUVs. The headline at the Detroit Free Press says it all: “GM earns $1.1B in Q2 as pickup, SUV sales surge in U.S.”

As a general rule, big pickup trucks and SUVs deliver higher profit margins than smaller, cheaper cars, so Detroit is always happy when large vehicles are selling. Another general rule seems to be that when gas is cheap, Americans start dreaming about gas-guzzling vehicles of all kinds, from blinged-out GMC Yukon XL Denalis to fuel-blasting Chevy Camaro ZL1s. And gas certainly has been cheap lately, thanks in large part to Saudi Arabia’s decision to maintain crude oil production levels in the face of increased U.S. production and a global slowdown in demand for energy.

Here’s a chart of gas and oil prices over the last three years, courtesy of GasBuddy. Note the steep decline starting in 2014:

As long as oil and gas are cheap, GM can probably count on selling lots of its most profitable vehicles. And with China slowing and Iran rejoining the global oil market, cheap fuel may be here for a while.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:

Watch Lindsey Graham Destroy His Phone, Get a Bit of Revenge on Donald Trump

REUTERS/Jason Reed

By Yuval Rosenberg

July 23, 2015

What do you do when Donald Trump gives out your cellphone number in a televised campaign rally? South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump rival for the GOP presidential nomination, made the most of The Donald’s rude move by releasing a video in which he demolishes his phone (more than one, actually) by doing everything short of blowing it up.

The YouTube video, posted by IJ Review and titled “How to Destroy Your Phone With Sen. Lindsey Graham,” shows the senator smashing a Samsung flip phone in various ways — a golf club, a wooden sword, a cinder block — and also chopping it with a meat cleaver, putting it in a toaster oven with pizza bagels, dropping it in a blender with some Red Bull, lighting it on fire and dropping it from a rooftop.

“Or if all else fails, you can always give your number to The Donald,” Graham says toward the end of the 1:04 clip.

Graham isn’t exactly a technophile, so maybe he didn’t know he didn’t need to destroy his phone to get a new number (and there are much better ways to get rid of an old phone). More likely, though, the senator found a clever way to take advantage of the attention Trump provided for him and his campaign while also finally upgrading from his flip phone to a smartphone.

Probably getting a new phone. iPhone or Android?
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) July 21, 2015

Graham has struggled to make headway in a crowded Republican presidential field, drawing the support of less than 1 percent of registered GOP voters in recent polls. That would leave him off the stage in the Aug. 6 Fox News debate, which is limited to 10 of the 16 candidates. Trump, by the way, is almost assured of a spot. So the senator and his campaign need all the attention they can get — and the new video sure is getting attention. Since it was published to YouTube yesterday, it’s already been viewed more than 1 million times.

McDonald’s McTricks Aren’t Working

MIKE BLAKE

By Millie Dent

July 23, 2015

Turns out warm buns aren’t the solution to McDonald’s financial woes.

The burger giant announced Thursday that its sales slide continued in the second quarter, with same store sales falling 0.7 percent globally and by 2 percent in the U.S. Quarterly revenues dropped 10 percent to $6.5 billion, though without currency effects from a strong dollar they would have climbed 1 percent.

The results were good enough to top Wall Street’s expectations, but they showed again just how far McDonald’s has to go to win back customers.

The fast food chain blamed the admittedly “disappointing” results on the failure of its products and promotions to draw customers to its stores as anticipated.

New CEO Steve Easterbrook, who took over in March, has promised to revamp the restaurant chain and improve sales by catering to consumers who prefer fresh, high quality food.

McDonald’s continues to try a variety of promotions and menu changes to win back diners. It recently started offering a double cheeseburger and fries for $2.50 as a summer deal and rolled out an “artisan grilled chicken sandwich.” It has also, among other things, enlarged its quarter pounder, tested a new breakfast bowl full of kale, rolled out flavored hot coffee in some locations and even tested a lobster roll in New England restaurants. And it upped the toasting time for its hamburger buns by 5 seconds.

So far, though, the new deals and menu options have failed to entice diners.

Easterbrook did acknowledge that changing McDonalds’ image would take time, but he said Thursday that the company is “seeing early signs of momentum.”

The company will begin to offer all-day breakfast, which already accounts for 25 percent of the company’s sales. And it is continuing to simplify its menu options to lower costs.

Analysts wonder if such changes will be enough to boost consumer appetites for McDonald’s and how the company is going to reposition its brand. As Thursday earnings report made clear, introducing a younger, hip hamburglar isn’t going to cut it.

When That Shark Bites

Why Shark Attacks Have a Silver Lining

Universal Pictures

By Millie Dent

July 23, 2015

While recent headlines about the above average number of shark attacks in the U.S. this year may have rethinking your summer vacation, the incidents could be good news for the ocean’s ecosystem.

Conservation measures implemented to prevent the decline of great white sharks are paying off, scientists have found. The global population of great whites has been in recovery since 1990.

One of the key components in this environmental success story is the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. With the legislation, seal and sea lion populations began to rebound along the West Coast. Great white sharks eat both seals and sea lions and having more food available most likely boosted their comeback.

A healthy shark population makes for a more balanced ecosystem, leading to healthier oceans that support all lives, both human and non-human. Oceans produce over half of the oxygen in the atmosphere and absorb the majority of carbon in it.

The increase in the number of sharks suggests that some of the damage humans have caused in the oceans has been reversed. However, it will take a while for sharks to rebuild their populations completely. It takes sharks at least eight years to reach a reproductive age and gestation periods can last 18 months.

Even though “Sharknado: Oh Hell No!” is getting awful reviews this week, everyone should applaud this other bit of shark-related news.

Teens Are Having Much Less Sex Than Their Parents Did at That Age

Last February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db58.htm" target="_blank">announced</a> that the birth rate for U.S. teenagers hit its lowest level ever reported since the government started c

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By Suelain Moy

July 22, 2015

Adolescents may be thinking about sex all the time, but fewer teens are actually doing the deed. Since 1988, sex has dropped by 14 percent among teenage females (ages 15 to 19) and 22 percent among teenage males (ages 15 to 19). The latest study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics shows that 44 percent of female teenagers and 47 percent of male teenagers had experienced sexual intercourse at least once.

The good news? The majority of them used contraception. From 2011 to 2013, 79 percent of female teenagers and 84 percent of male teenagers used contraception the first time they had sexual intercourse. Condoms were the most widely used method of contraception among teenage girls, followed by withdrawal (60 percent) and the pill (54 percent). Use of the emergency “Plan B” or “morning after pill” came in fourth, reaching 22 percent in 2013, and up from 8 percent in 2002.

About 70 percent of 15- to 19-year-old females said their first sexual intercourse happened with a steady dating partner, compared to about 50 percent of 15- to 19-year-old males.

Could all that sex education be working? Are teenagers watching more porn? Do teens have more access to contraception because of Obamacare? Then again, it could be all those episodes of reality TV they’re watching. Last year CNN reported a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research that linked watching MTV’s 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom to a 5.7 percent reduction in teen births in the U.S. The study found a correlation between higher rates of viewership in certain areas with a bigger decrease in teen births.

Despite teen births being at an all-time low, the U.S. still leads other developed countries in teen pregnancy. (New Zealand comes in second, followed by England and Wales.) And if parents are worried their teens won’t ever get off their iPhones long enough to have sex, they can relax. Most teens, or two-thirds of adolescents, will have sex by the time they’re 19.

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