As Congress and the Senate get closer to summer vacation, the news everywhere is focusing on the proposed healthcare plans coming from the Obama Adminstration.
A lot of criticism is going his way because he is trying to get something signed before Washington clears out.
Here's the timeline of the proposed bill and how things would unfold according to MSNBC:
2010: The government sets up a Health Benefits Advisory Committee led by the surgeon general to recommend a basic benefits package. Community health centers serving low-income people get a funding boost. Insurance companies are barred from engaging in "rescissions" — the cancellation of existing policies. A campaign is launched to reduce health care paperwork. Doctors serving Medicare patients are spared a 20 percent cut in fees.
2011: The benefits committee unveils a recommended package for adoption by the Health and Human Services Department. HHS sets rules requiring insurance companies to spend a minimum percentage of premiums on medical costs. Medicare recipients get relief from the 'doughnut hole' coverage gap in their prescription benefits. Tax hikes on upper-income earners take effect.
2012: Low-income seniors get additional financial assistance with their Medicare prescription plans.
2013: Insurance companies are barred from discriminating against people with health problems. The government opens the health insurance exchange — a new purchasing pool — to individuals and businesses with fewer than 10 workers. A government-sponsored plan is among the options available through the exchange, with premiums estimated 10 percent lower than private coverage. All plans in the exchange offer at least the basic benefits package. Individuals and families making up to four times the federal poverty level get subsidies to help pay for insurance. Individuals are required to get coverage — and employers to offer it — or face financial penalties. Businesses with payrolls under $250,000 are exempt from the mandate. Medicaid eligibility is expanded.
2014: The health insurance exchange is expanded to include companies with up to 20 employees and people who can't afford premiums under their employer's plan.
2015: The government decides whether to open the health insurance exchange — and the government-sponsored plan — to all employers.
2018: Employers who continue to provide coverage outside the exchange must offer at least the same basic benefits available through the government-regulated purchasing pool.
***What do you think of the bill/timeline?
There’s always something going wrong with my house.
Yesterday, the microwave broke. Early in the morning, I put my mug of water into the microwave and when the time was up, I opened the door – and the microwave kept running. Yikes.
Last week, the garbage can track inside the cabinet broke and had to be replaced. Earlier this year, our refrigerator stopped keeping things cold. So, we had to replace that as well. (Big surprise – the cost of replacing our refrigerator was actually less than it cost us to buy the original 10 years ago.) Our kitchen sink faucet broke, and we’re on the hunt for something that doesn’t cost more than $300.
Did you know that your smoke detectors only work for a few years before needing to be replaced? A couple of years back when we were having irregular beeping of one of our smoke detectors, we called the manufacturer and were told that we should vacuum our detectors on a monthly basis. I don’t know anybody that goes around their home vacuuming smoke detectors. In addition, the manufacturer recommended replacing smoke detectors every five to 10 years.
In the 15 years we’ve lived in our house, we’ve replaced the whole set at least three times. The seal of the picture window in my office has broken and been replaced twice as well. We’ve installed new gutters, and put heat wires on the roof to help keep ice dams at bay.
Then, there’s the ongoing house maintenance.
In the summer, we have weekly – or semi-weekly, depending on the amount of rain – landscaping chores. It takes my husband, Sam, about an hour to get the lawn mowed, plus extra time to trim the bushes, weed and water the flowers, and get the plant debris swept up. In the winter, he does snow removal. Once a year, we seal coat our driveway. If we didn’t have vinyl siding, we’d have to repaint the exterior of our house about every 3 to 5 years (an easy decision after calculating the cost of painting).
Our rental properties aren’t cost-free either. We’ve had good tenants and bad, clean ones and those who kept the place less than clean. Between each lease, the apartments need painting. One tenant’s dog scratched up the hardwood floors in one of our units so badly we had to have the floorboards replaced and the whole floor sanded and sealed. And although you tell tenants to change filters, batteries, and take the lint out of the dryer, not all of them do – some see that as a landlord’s job.
My point is simple: It’s expensive to own and maintain property. Here’s what you can expect to pay:
Mortgage, real estate taxes, homeowner’s insurance premium. Often called PITI (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance) for short, you’ll either pay it altogether each month (if you escrow for taxes and your insurance premium) or you’ll have to write a monthly check for the mortgage, and an annual or semi-annual check for taxes and insurance. These days, more lenders require homeowner’s insurance on condominium purchases, in addition to the insurance obtained by the condominium association.
Homeowner’s association fees, co-op assessments, monthly maintenance fees. If you live in a condo, co-op, townhouse development or single-family subdivision, you’ll have some sort of fee you’ll have to pay regularly to cover the maintenance and expenses of the common areas.
Utilities. Gas, electricity, cable, satellite, Internet service, garbage removal, water and sewer (may be billed together or separately). Don’t forget to budget for septic system maintenance and repairs or hard water system maintenance and replacement of chemicals.
Repairs and maintenance of the exterior and interior of the property. This includes everything from window washing and tuck-pointing to replacing appliances, carpet, batteries and filters.
Landscape care. Lawn and garden in warm weather months and snow removal in the winter (for those who get snow).
The problem with not taking care of problems when they’re small is that they only get worse. My friend Alice has a country house about 3 hours from New York City. She didn’t know there was a tiny leak in the roof. By the time she figured it out, they had to replace almost an entire wall of the house.
Bottom line: Home maintenance requires vigilance, and a wide-open checkbook. If you’re not ready for the responsibilities, think about renting instead.
A new scam alert from the FBI is targeting auto shops via the phone relay system. This scam asks businesses to charge repairs and shipping costs to a stolen credit card, asking to wire the excess funds back to the scam artist. After the money has already been wired, the business finds out the credit card is stolen, getting stuck with the loss. While this scam is appearing in auto shops, the money wiring scam has been around for a long time. Don't get trapped by this scam.
Auto repair shops watch out, this scam is targeting you. Scammers have been using Telecommunications Relay Services for a long time to fool business owners, but the Cyber Investigations division with the FBI reports that they're most recently targeting auto repair shops.
These scam artists are manipulating the fact that under Title IV of the Americans With Disabilities Act, all telephone companies must provide TRS for people with hearing impairments or speech impairments.
The scam artist is using the relay service to call an auto shop to request service for a vehicle. They then claim the car has to be shipped to the auto shop and ask for the repairs and shipping fees to be put on a credit card. Unfortunately this credit card is stolen, and before the business has discovered anything wrong with the card, they have wired the money for the shipping costs back to the scam artist. After the money is wired the business discovers the credit card is stolen, and the business is responsible for the loss.
This process is an ongoing scam and while it's currently targeting auto shops, has been known to be used for all sorts of businesses. Always be wary of unknown people asking you to wire funds. 
***Report instances of scams and fraud at www.ic3.gov.
Read the press release from the FBI IC3 at this link: http://www.thinkglink.com/article/2009/07/09/scam-artists-use-phone-relay-system-to-fool-businesses
Read more about scam and fraud alert below:
New Scam: Asian Extortion Scheme
Looking for a Work-From-Home Job? Don't Fall for Money Mule Job Scam
From the blog at ThinkGlink.com:
With the housing crisis and rising foreclosures, there are more renters on the market. Add these new renters to the existing renters, and you may see changes in renters' behavior. According to a study by Rent.com, more renters are trying to find additional roommates and they're looking for the basic necessities in their apartments, instead of luxury rental units.
I’ve been a renter since I was in college, and living in a big city without a lot of disposable income means I’ll probably stay a renter for a while.
In this crazy housing economy, more people are turning to rentals as their homes go into foreclosure. Even more people, existing and new renters, are trying to combining households and trying to cut costs by finding additional roommates. On Craigslist.org, postings for those seeking roommates have gone up 160 percent in the last 24 months nationally.
According to a recent study from Rent.com, rental behavior has changed over the last two years because of the economic situation. Rent.com found that in addition to taking more roommates, renters were spending more time looking for apartments, but were only looking for basic amenities versus luxuries. Renters were also more concerned with finding a landlord that would accept or overlook bad credit.
With June, July and August being the most popular months to move (according to the American Moving & Storage Association), you might be facing stiff competition to find these ideal bare bones apartments that accept multiple roommates and overlook bad credit scores.
Another survey from Rent.com found that 17 percent of Americans think finding the perfect apartment is more stressful than getting a job. I might fall into the other 83 percent, but the survey reported pretty high levels of anxiety from apartment hunters.
* 50 percent of Americans are frustrated by rental ads without enough information
* 49 percent reported that they find the apartment-hunting process to be too time-consuming
* 26% find it difficult to take time off from work to visit apartments
Read More About Today's Renters: Why Michael Jackson, Angelina Jolie, and Other Celebrities Rent Houses Instead of Buying Homes and It's The Right Time To Rent
When agents market a house for sale, they use every marketing means at their disposal. A little old-fashioned publicity never hurts: If the listing agent can get the home featured in the local newspaper, or in a nationally-syndicated column, it should help the home sell faster.
But if Jon & Kate (plus 8 really cute kids) are having trouble selling their own house, where does that leave you?
If you follow Federal Reserve Chairmen as if they were rock stars, you may not have heard about Jon and Kate Gosselin, who along with their 8 children are the stars of a popular reality television show on TLC, which is owned by Discovery Communications, Inc. (owner of the Discover Channel, Animal Planet, etc.).
The purchase of the new 24-acre compound was apparently covered in a previous season of the show, as were the preparations for getting the old house in Elizabethtown, Pa. on the market.
But now Jon & Kate’s old house has been listed for sale for 90 days (and counting!) without an offer. The property has 5 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, and the Gosselins’ paid $280,000 for it. It is currently listed for $325,000 (I couldn’t confirm it, but web reports suggest the house was originally priced at $350,000).
To read the full my full blog about this subject follow this link and head over to CBS Money Watch.
I run a Chicago-based media publishing company specializing in real estate and personal finance content for online and offline applications. We also create corporate and online videos.
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