Today is Thursday, May 17, 2012

Colorado

Colorado’s top 50 stocks

The Rocky Mountain News ranks the top 50 companies based in Colorado.  Out of 94 Colorado-based stocks, about 60 stocks are listed below. More will be added as I get time.

Links to charts of the top 10 and my technical observations as well as fundament rankings by Morningstar.com, the independent research firm, are shown below (click on the headline):

 

Mystery pollster explains political polling

Political junkies will enjoy this new blog, MysteryPollster.com, which is written by a pollster for the Democrats.

Why Colorado’s Medicaid program is in a financial bind

This is a pretty fair description of the Medicaid problem for all states.

 

Watch the polls and futures markets

Watch the presidential election polls here.

Risk rating leaves people without health insurance; shows need for community rating

Thirty states offer poorly funded high-risk insurance pools for people with pre-existing medical conditions who can’t get insurance from companies that risk rate those they insure in an effort to avert expensive claims and keep health insurance premiums as low as possible. The Bush administration is backing inadequate grants to states to help fund their risk pools, and it offers $1,000 tax credits to help the uninsurables buy insurance that is unavailable at any price. It is hard to see how a tax credit will help a person who probably is unemployable as well as uninsurable because of pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

Mark Hillman bill rigs market for Anthem Blue Cross

The Mark Hilllman bill (or, the Anthem protection act of 2003), HB03-1164, is a form of socialism and anti-competition legislation because the legislature is being used by the insurance industry to rig the market in its favor.

 

Colorado fight over small business health insurance and community rating continues

Colorado’s legislators are doing a better job of sorting out a raft of poorly conceived health care reform measures than the editorial page of The Rocky Mountain News, which appears totally confused in this editorial, “Small-group insurance market still ill.”

Risk rating health insurance premiums increases costs

When health insurers set premium rates for individuals and small employers by taking the health status of the insured people into account, they frequently price high-risk individuals and small employers out of the market, according to an article in the May-June 1999 issue of Health Affairs.  Download the article here.

 

NFIB’s Jackson opposes HB03-1013 risk rating bill

Colorado National Federation of Independent Businesses opposes health insurance rate flexibility and rate banding