The Denver Post

Women Pay Up to 50% More for Health Insurance Premiums | Denver Post

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:07:00 -0400

The rate at which women visit primary care physicians is more than 50 percent higher than for men, according to the New America Foundation. ...

Curbing Costs Falls to Wayside in Health-Reform Push | Denver Post

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:03:00 -0400

"It's fair to say their characterization of the literature is accurate," said Len Nichols, a health-reform expert from the New America Foundation who also ...

Colorado Health Talks Get a Spark from Co-Ops | Denver Post

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:04:00 -0400

These companies might be less agile than traditional health insurance companies," warned Len Nichols, a health care expert at the New America Foundation in Washington. But for now, politics may trump all that. Some recent polls suggest that many voters ...

The Health Care Affordability Act | Denver Post

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:39:00 -0400

Colorado's economy lost as much as $3.9 billion in 2007 due to the poor health and shorter lifespan of the uninsured, according to a recent report from the New America Foundation. By any measure, that's a startling figure. It underscores that improving ...

Reihan Salam in The Denver Post | 'The Republican Party Gets Ready'

Communications — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:31:00 -0400

Part of addressing different challenges includes making a pragmatic shift, says Reihan Salam, 28, who is part of the GOP's younger generation and co-author of "Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream."

He contends family values should include kitchen-table economics. Acknowledging global warming isn't an embrace of liberalism, he says, but the first step in discovering solutions. Instead of lambasting entitlement programs or just denying that a problem exists, he adds, Republicans should find a way to make them better, less bureaucratic and more cost-effective. LINK

Len Nichols in The Denver Post on Health Care and Latinos

Communications — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:18:00 -0500

...About 56 percent of all wage and salary employees ages 21 to 64 had an employer or union-sponsored pension or retirement plan last year, according to a report released this month by the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C. Overall, about 53 percent of full-time, full-year workers participate in such plans, but the Institute's analysis of 2007 U.S. Census data found non-native Hispanics were less likely to participate than whites, blacks or non-immigrant Hispanics.

Matthew Gnabasik, managing director of Blue Prairie Group, a human resources and investment consulting firm in Chicago, said there is a "generally accepted truism" in the industry that in companies with large Spanish-speaking immigrant populations, participation in retirement savings plans is low. "It's often said that there is a cultural element to that," he said.

Human resources directors, he said, repeatedly tell him that among Spanish-speaking immigrants, those who are working feel a greater responsibility to care for older family members than to invest in a retirement plan. In addition, Gnabasik said, it is difficult to get lower-income workers to participate in a plan.

Burkhart is working to change that. A former English, Spanish and social studies teacher in Denver Public Schools, Burkhart launched Futuro… more

Steven Clemons and Flynt Leverett Discuss Iran in the Denver Post

Communications — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 09:10:00 -0400

Washington -- I did a guest spot on a Denver talk radio show last week, and was stunned when the program’s hosts turned the topic to Iran.

Talk is cheap. But the hosts were ready -- in fact, sounded downright eager -- to beat the war drums....

My radio hosts are not alone. In neo-conservative quarters here, the trumpets are sounding.

"There are those who see a tyrant regime" and are working to push the U.S. into a "cataclysmic" war, said Steven Clemons, director of the New America Foundation, a think tank that held an all-day conference on Iran’s nuclear ambitions last week....

"The odds that the use of force will be counterproductive are staggeringly high," said Flynt Leverett, who served as a Middle Eastern expert at the White House and the State Department during Bush’s first term....

To read the full article, please visit the Denver Post website.

Time for a Fresh Look at Life Terms on the Supreme Court

Cecille Isidro — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 01:00:00 -0400

Should U.S. Supreme Court justices serve life terms? This is a question that is raised whenever there is a vacancy on the Court. At 50 years of age, Judge John Roberts, President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, could serve for decades.

Perhaps more than any single factor, this "until death do we part" constitutional requirement has been responsible for bruising confirmation battles. On the partisan chessboard, nailing down one of nine Supreme Court spots is a major victory.