Wiretap: Hospital prices falling, and that’s incredible

It’s far from clear how much credit Obamacare should get for this, but Vox‘s Sarah Kliff writes that hospital prices always go up, but that this year they have fallen. She cites two trends which she thinks may account for the fall: private health insurance has seen a rise in “narrow-network” plans, and there has been a reduction in what Medicare pays for care.

Cass Sunstein: The Texas judge was on the right track in the immigration ruling, but he still managed to get everything wrong. Via Bloomberg View.

Rudy Giuliani has an answer for those who say his observation that Obama doesn’t love America is racist. It’s a strange answer, but it’s his answer. He told the New York Times: “Some people thought it was racist — I thought that was a joke, since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people. This isn’t racism. This is socialism or possibly anti-colonialism.”

From the growing for-profit education file: After a two-year investigation, the Colorado attorney general is suing CollegeAmerica, a for-profit college that has three campuses around the state. The lawsuit seeks to put an end to “ongoing deceptive trade practices and protect consumers from irreparable and immediate harm,” like making lofty promises of high-paying careers and saddling students with mounds of debt. Via the Denver Post

If Hillary Clinton wants to be president, writes Ron Fournier in the National Journal, the Clinton Foundation needs to stop accepting money from foreign countries.

Free trade agreement blues in Boulder: Nearly 30 protesters gathered outside U.S. Rep. Jared Polis’s office in Colorado’s main university town on Tuesday to urge him to oppose the Trans-Pacific partnership. “It’s a giveaway to the largest oil and gas, agro businesses and other corporate interests in the United States,” said Sam Schabacker, regional director of a D.C.-based group Food and Water Watch. Via the Daily Camera.

Note to Scott Walker: Adam Gopnik writes that evolution is not an ideology. It’s not something you believe in or don’t believe in. He says you might as well ask a politician, “Do you believe in an expanding universe with a strong inflationary instance in the first micro-seconds?” Via the New Yorker.

Linda Greenhouse says it’s Groundhog Day — again – at the Supreme Court. The University of Texas affirmative action case is back, and this time the Court might just go all the way. Via the New York Times.

How the oil boom brought diversity to North Dakota. The National Journal writes that the black and Hispanic population rose by more than 50 percent between 2010 and 2013.

Gail Collins writes of an uncheckable concealed-carry permit in every wallet, a gun on every corner. Via the New York Times.

Mother Jones says Bill O’Reilly may have Brian Williams disease. Was he really in a combat zone in Argentina?

And in Aspen, after initially letting his girlfriend take the blame, disgraced former cyclist Lance Armstrong pleaded guilty to careless driving after he hit two parked cars in December. Via FOX31.

[Photo by Steve Jurvetson.]

The Colorado Independent is a statewide online news source operating in a time when spin is plentiful, but factual, fair and unflinching news in the public interest is all too rare. Our award-winning team of veteran investigative and explanatory reporters and news columnists aims to amplify the voices of Coloradans whose stories are unheard, shine light on the relationships between people, power and policy, and hold public officials to account. We strive to report the news with context, social conscience, and soul, and to give Coloradans the insight they need to promote conversation, understanding and progress in this square, swing state we call home.

2 COMMENTS

  1. […] Wiretap: Hospital prices falling, and that's incredible Jared Polis's office in Colorado's main university town on Tuesday to urge him to oppose the Trans-Pacific partnership. “It's a giveaway to the largest oil and gas, agro businesses and other corporate interests in the United States,” said Sam … Read more on The Colorado Independent […]

  2. “Hospital prices falling, and that’s incredible”. I thought you were going to provide more information on this, instead you went from: The Texas judge the immigration ruling, Rudy Giuliani vs Obama, Hillary Clinton and her presidential ambitions…..

Comments are closed.