XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Obamacare: Hidden Spreadsheet Shows Premium Rates For Every Health Plan In Your Area -

Obamacare: Hidden Spreadsheet Shows Premium Rates For Every Health Plan In Your Area - 

Click on the image to download the spreadsheet to see the premium rates in your area.

Healthcare.gov, the official Obamacare insurance exchange website, removed references to a nationwide premium rate spreadsheet, which allows Americans to determine the most inexpensive health plans in their area, but it is still available here. - http://static.infowars.com/images/health-plan-information-download.xlsx


The seven megabyte Excel spreadsheet, which can now only be found by a file name search on Healthcare.gov, is current as of September 27, 2013 and displays premium rates for medical plans across America.
By using the filters on the spreadsheet, one can find the cheapest health insurance plans available in his area.
For example, the cheapest “Bronze” option for a 27-year-old individual in Travis County, Texas appears to be Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Blue Advantage Bronze HMO 006, with a monthly premium rate of $144.34.
The spreadsheet reveals some interesting observations.
Multiple counties in Virginia have the most expensive family plan in America, which has a staggering premium rate of $6,494.54 per month and is a “Gold” level plan offered by Optima Health.
The “Bronze” version of this plan is also available to a 27-year-old individual for $1,835.81 per month.
Single 27-year-olds in Comanche Count, Okla. are lucky.
They can get the cheapest “Bronze” plan in the country at $100.36 per month.
According to the spreadsheet, here is a breakdown of the average premium rates for families and individuals in America:
102213obamacareaverages2

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Superior Court of Justice ran short of prospective jurors - ordered the sheriff to round up more people at the mall -

Superior Court of Justice ran short of prospective jurors - ordered the sheriff to round up more people at the mall - 



When the Superior Court of Justice ran short of prospective jurors for an upcoming criminal jury trial Monday, the judge ordered the sheriff to round up more people at the mall.

Normally jurors are summoned by letter to court, they're asked some questions by Crown and defence during a vetting process and at least 12 are selected. Though 125 jurors were summoned, the jury could not be filled in this case.

So Justice Leonard Ricchetti made an order under a rarely used section of the Criminal Code to find more jurors immediately.

Court supervisor and sheriff's delegate Stephen Olschewski put on his sheriff's uniform, obtained a van and brought along two city police officers to start adding shoppers to the pool of prospective jurors.

Olschewski described in an interview Tuesday how he went about gathering 12 more people, loading them on the bus and delivering them to the Owen Sound courthouse.

“I approach people in the mall, explain to them who I am, explain to them that I'm approaching persons and the reason and then providing they answer some questions, like are you 18?, are you a Canadian citizen? – and I asked each individual person is there any reason they couldn't sit on a jury – and some did.”

He excused a man from Tobermory who was going to have knee surgery next week, Olschewski said. Only one person left quickly after being approached, Olschewski said, though he declined to discuss that. The rest were served with a summons.

“We give them the opportunity to speak to family, friends, stuff like that. And then we load them on the bus and we bring them to the courthouse.”

Olschewski said that by the time the bus arrived at the courthouse, a mistrial had been declared. The prospective jurors were driven back to the mall, or put in cabs to take them where they had to go. They also were paid $100, a discretionary payment ordered by Justice Ricchetti.

Olschewski said the judge relied on a “rarely, rarely, rarely used section” of the Criminal Code to round up more jurors “by word of mouth, if necessary.”

“People shouldn't see the sheriff come into the mall and start to panic,” Olschewski said with amusement. “It's rare. It's like 40-something years ago since we did something like this.”

He found people were agreeable when the plight faced by the court Monday was explained to them.

“I am extremely proud of the people of Grey County. They were good humoured. They understood the process, it was explained to them, and they were more than willing to participate.”

The trial was adjourned to Dec. 2, when another jury is slated to be selected.

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Spiders Give Toyota Owners Reason For Arachnophobia - Cobwebs responsible for last week's big recall -

Spiders Give Toyota Owners Reason For Arachnophobia - Cobwebs responsible for last week's big recall - 



Spiders are to blame for Toyota's massive recall of more than 800,000 vehicles last week.

This isn't some Halloween prank. The critters have been spinning cobwebs and making their homes in tubes in the cars' air-conditioning units and causing all sorts of problems.

"Spiders have been implicated in the condition," said Cindy Knight, public affairs manager for Toyota. "It's a very rare occurrence, but a spider can get into the air conditioning drainage tube and build a nest."

Those nets were blocking drainage in the tubes, which led to leaks. In some cases, these leaks drained on top of the airbag control units in the vehicles, causing electrical short circuits and airbag malfunctions.

Toyota announced the recall last Thursday, but Gwen Pearson of Wired was the first to report the spider's contribution to the problem in this fascinating piece. "This makes sense to me, as a spider-watcher," she wrote. "It's warm under a car, it's dark, it's damp -– it's the perfect spider habitat."

Two people sustained what Toyota described as "minor" injuries in accidents when their airbags failed to deploy because of this problem, which has affected the 2012 and 2013 Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid and Venza.

"The remedy," Knight said, "is to help prevent water from the condenser unit housing from seeping onto the airbag control module."

Airbag-related malfunctions have caused increased problems for automakers this year. They've issued 29 airbag-related recalls so far in 2013, which is a record. Toyota has recalled vehicles for airbag problems four times, and three of the four have recalled more than 800,000 vehicles.

Across the industry, those are the three largest airbag recalls this year.

This isn't the first time spiders have caused problems that resulted in a recall. In 2011, Mazda had to recall 65,000 cars because spiders nested in hoses attached to the fuel system. This dude sent his car to be painted, and it came back with a nest filled with freaky spiders. So he did the natural thing -- took a video and put it on YouTube. Of course.

It's not uncommon for critters to take residence in cars. One woman had an ant infestation. Rabbits caused a huge ruckus at the Denver International Airport after they were caught chewing on car wiring in the long-term parking lot. And one terrified family drove down the highway with a snake flapping around on the windshield.

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