| Fresh Pain for the Uninsured
In a lucrative new form of fiscal alchemy, a growing number of hospitals, working with a range of financial companies, are squeezing revenue from patients with little or no health insurance. April Dial's dealings with Hot Spring County Medical Center in Malvern, Ark., illustrate how the transformation of medical bills into consumer debt means quicker cash for medical providers but tougher times for many patients of modest means. Dial, a 23-year-old truck-stop waitress who earns $17,000 a year plus tips, suffers from Type 1 diabetes. Sudden drops in her blood sugar level have sent her to the emergency room four times in the past three years. In September she spent three days at Hot Spring, including two in intensive care, fighting complications from her ailment. The bills came to more than $14,000.
Testing the Waters
Keen to diversify, the insurers jumped onto the housing bandwagon, underwriting billions of dollars of private mortgage-backed securities. Now they face the prospect of huge claims from investors whose subprime-laced assets have soured. advertisement Some hedge-fund managers have been giving warning for years that the insurers' mortgage-related risks would one day overwhelm their flimsy capital bases. Rating agencies are belatedly reaching the same conclusion. On December 19th Standard and Poor's slashed its rating of ACA Financial Guaranty Corporation, a small insurer, to junk grade. The industry's bigger fry have also been told to shore up their capital fast or face downgrades. If that happens, the credit ratings of bonds underwritten by the insurers will fall, driving down their value and further crimping the lending capacity of bondholding banks.
Position vacant at Elland Road
In that time he has seen Leeds through financial crisis and lead the Whites to the play-off finals last season. However, a string of bad results have left Leeds United at the foot of the Championship and a cup win against Barnet was not enough for Blackwell to avoid the axe. So - Kevin Blackwell has gone, who would you like to see as the new manager of Leeds United? In a special programme on BBC Radio Leeds on Wednesday 20 Septembers callers mentioned a number of names including Dennis Wise, Alan Curbishley and even David O'Leary. .
Records Allege Abuse Before Miscarriages
Darshana Patel said her boyfriend abused her to the point that she once leapt from a moving vehicle to escape him. Last month, she filed a restraining order against him. He is now accused of slipping her a ground-up abortion pill to induce a miscarriage. .
DAVID LEASK and DOUGLAS FRASER
The research represents a vital contribution to a debate over whether Scotland should take on more tax-raising powers or become independent. Our findings come amid a growing clamour from English politicians and the London-based media to curb Scotland's £26bn spending grant from the Treasury. But, as The Herald shows, much of this mischief is based not on facts but a series of myths, mistakes and misconceptions. .
POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:
Unlike arson in urban areas, where investigators can often follow a paper trail to an economic motive held by the arsonists, the motivation and methods for setting wildfires tends to be more perverse and therefore harder to trace, Schiff said.Another crucial aspect of the bill, its supporters say, is that Sen. Dianne Feinstein is carrying the measure through the Senate, where it would have to get approval by the end of next year for it to notch ultimate approval.The bill had detractors in the House, but those who opposed the bill did not call for a roll call vote on Tuesday, leaving the act to a voice vote, an unrecorded tally that usually indicates that the presiding opinion represents the clear majority."Sen. Feinstein has introduced the measure in the Senate, along with a number of other efforts to try to deal with the problem of wildfires," Schiff said.
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