With millions of Americans frustrated and bewildered by the trouble-prone federal website for health insurance, con men and unscrupulous marketers are seizing their chance. State and federal authorities report a rising number of consumer complaints, ranging from deceptive sales practices to identity theft, linked to the Affordable Care Act.
Madeleine Mirzayans was fooled when a man posing as a government official knocked on her door. Barbara Miller and Maevis Ethan were pitched by telemarketers who claimed to work for Medicaid. And Buford Price was almost caught by another trap: websites that look official but are actually bait set by fly-by-night insurance operators. ...NYT
Recent Posts
- Yes, he is a fascist.
- GOP top
- The many lives of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Incredibly yuge!!
- Some of us hang together; some hate everyone
- Is Hillary in the clear?
- Time for a delicious, well-seasoned roast of Bush
- Brentrance
- With Britain's exit from Europe, US also loses international clout
- How the Republicans (reds) are (slowly) taking over
The Scribe
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- November 2011: What is OCCUPY?
- Nation-killer: America has an inequality problem that's bringing our society down
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- Obama's principles, his skepticism, his pragmatism, and his game plan
- Our "hidden brains" -- political decisions, the Republican disconnect, and how politicians connive with voters
- Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Who gets reformed and who gets protected?
- Searching for "truth and accuracy" in the media
- Health care reality check. Interview with Uwe Reinhardt.
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- The danger next time: the pressures to keep financial instruments unregulated
- "Uh-oh. Wall Street has got its swagger back!" Interview with economist Simon Johnson
- T. R. Reid: How to win over the right and get "better, cheaper, and fairer health care"
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- "The Predator State": an interview with James K. Galbraith
- Interview with George Packer on "The Fall of Conservatism"
- The "shadow system" and the US economy
- "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death." Discussion with Norman Solomon
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- "Gotcha Capitalism": about those capitalist predators we love to hate
- "Free Lunch": David Cay Johnston on hidden government subsidies for the very, very rich
- Matt Bai, "The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics"
- Why Iran distrusts the US
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- Analysis: Right to choose
- How a third candidate affects how we decide who to vote for: "The decoy effect"
- "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America"
- Jeff Sharlet on how fundamentalists are "reimagining" American history
- Interview with Chalmers Johnson
- "One step too far:" Serious shifts in the federal balance of power, and some excerpts from Justice O'Connor's Georgetown speech
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- Nina Totenberg reports on Judge Samuel Alito -- his revealing rulings and dissents on Roe, states' rights, church/state, affirmative action
Finders Keepers
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- Redman, Mehldau, and generosity
- Too damn much gratitude
- "Ascending Bird"
- "Crap cars"
- Monk and Coltrane together again
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- Jeanne-Claude, Christo, and Tinkerbell
- Rubens and Warhol
- Not entirely what it seems: Istanbul to Meshed to Srinagar to Saigon
- Self
- More pattern language
- Wanted
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- Notes from a prurient January evening in the late 1980's
- Having time
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- Seeing our world (and hiding in it)
- Richard Wilbur
- Pynchon, plots, and puritanism
- John Gardner on "catching on"
- Sor Juana
- Family Secrets
Legal stimulants
- ALEC Exposed
- Attytood
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- Balkinization
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- Beggars Can Be Choosers
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- TomDispatch
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- Washington Monthly-Political Animal
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- WAWG Blog
- Whites Creek Journal
- Working in Bare Feet
