Sami R., whose father was murdered with a gun - I Demand A Plan

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RealtyTrac: U.S. Jan. foreclosure filings down 28%

The number of U.S. properties with foreclosure filings fell 28% in January from a year earlier, while foreclosure starts fell to a six-year low, according to market researcher RealtyTrac.

There were 150,864 U.S. properties with default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions in January, a 7% decrease from December, RealtyTrac reported. One in every 869 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing last month.

RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist said the U.S. foreclosure landscape last month was altered by the effects of new legislation in California that took effect at the start of the year. The new law extends many of the principles in the national mortgage settlement, including a prohibition on so-called dual tracking and requiring a single point of contact for borrowers facing foreclosure, to all mortgage servicers operating in California, Mr. Blomquist noted. The law also imposes fines of up to $7,500 per loan for filing of multiple unverified foreclosure documents.

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U.S. January budget surplus $3 billion: Treasury

The U.S. government ran a budget surplus of $3 billion in January, the Treasury Department reported on Tuesday, the first monthly surplus since September 2012.

The surplus was driven by a 16% increase in revenue compared to January 2012, including from the expiration of a temporary payroll-tax cut at the end of 2012. The payroll-tax cut expiration represented about $9 billion of an overall $13 billion in revenue from individual withheld taxes.

A year ago in January, the government recorded a deficit of $27 billion. There hasn’t been a monthly surplus in January since 2008.

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Encouragement

“Whenever you feel like giving up, remember why you set this goal in the first place.”

~Unknown~

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Obamacare Medicare Changes Saved Almost $6 Billion On Drugs: Report

Since  the law’s enactment,  6.1 million Americans with Medicare  who reached  the  Part D  coverage gap also known as the “donut hole,”  have  saved over $5.7 billion on prescription
drugs.  Drug savings of $2.5 billion in 2012 are higher than the $2.3 billion in savings for 2011.

In 2012, people with Medicare in the “donut hole” received a 50 percent discount on covered brand name drugs and 14 percent discount on generic drugs.  As a result of the Affordable Care
Act, coverage for both brand name and generic drugs will continue to increase over time until the coverage gap is closed.

The Affordable Care Act also  removed barriers for people with Medicare to  get preventive services, many of which  previously required cost-sharing for patients.    In 2012,  many
recommended preventive services were offered to people with Medicare, with no deductibles or co-pays, meaning that cost is no longer a barrier for seniors and people with disabilities who
want to stay healthy by detecting and  treating health problems early.  Use of preventive
services has expanded among people with Medicare.  In 2012 alone, an estimated 34.1 million
people with Medicare benefited from Medicare’s coverage of preventive services with no costsharing.

Under the Affordable Care Act,  the Medicare program  also performed well in several  other
areas in 2012:

•  Compared to 2011,  people with Medicare continued to pay moderate premiums for Medicare Part B  benefits, which cover  outpatient care, doctors' services, lab tests, durable medical supplies, and other services.  

•  Those who enrolled in Medicare Advantage and prescription drug plans paid average premiums lower than what they paid in 2010, and they had access to a wide range of plan choices.  

•  New techniques were implemented to detect, prevent and fight health care fraud.

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How Obamacare Will Help Extend Health Care To Part-Time Workers

The vast majority of part-time workers in the U.S. don’t have employer-based health insurance, according to a new study from the ADP Research Institute — an issue the health care reform law will help addressonce it is fully in effect.

The majority of Americans access health insurance through their jobs. But theresults from ADP’s study highlight the fact that the current employer-based model often leaves low-wage workers, and particularly those who work fewer than 40 hours a week, in a coverage gap. Only a small percentage of part-time employees are offered health insurance through work, and many of them can’t afford to pay into those plans — but they also typically can’t afford to purchase insurance plans on their own, either.

Fortunately, several Obamacare provisions — including extending Medicaid coverage to additional low-income Americans, providing Americans with subsidies to help them purchase health care on state-based insurance markets, and requiring employers with more than 50 workers to provide health insurance — will start to eliminate some of those coverage gaps and help part-time workers better afford health coverage:

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