Barton Gellman has a new piece up at the Washington Post about how the NSA is collecting vast amounts of data from the Google and Yahoo clouds.
The newly revealed NSA operation — called MUSCULAR — is ostensibly being deployed against communication links between Google and Yahoo data centers outside of the United States, where FISA doesn’t apply. But as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) notes in Gellman’s piece:
As we’ve reported over the last couple of days (here and here), insurance companies who are participating in the Obamacare exchanges have big concerns about extending the open enrollment period past the currently scheduled end date of March 31.
It sounds like HHS has heard and understands those concerns.
Kathleen Sebelius said this morning during her congressional testimony that the deadline wasn’t moving: “It’s important for the insurance partners to know who is in their pool so again they can stay in the market next year and know who they are insuring.”
You gotta love it when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) rages on possible Social Security cuts.
Sahil Kapur on the early outlines of a budget deal — emphasis on early.
A very interesting letter from TPM Reader JS on a little discussed part of the ‘cancellation’ and rollover story, namely that a lot of insurers, far from ‘dropping’ or ‘canceling’ coverage are working hard to keep their existing coverage holders from going to the exchanges to see the better deals they can get …
I am not terribly different than some other writers who have been in the individual market. We have BCBS covering a family of four with a variety of pre-existing (but not life threatening) conditions. Like others, BCBS of Illinois informed us that our policy would no longer be valid after January 1, 2014. They also informed us that they would role us automatically into a slightly more expensive (and largely comparable) plan if we did nothing.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) tells Fox & Friends: It was inappropriate for me to call Harry Reid an “absolute a–hole.”
Ongoing coverage of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee at TPMLivewire.
27 Republican Senators vote to “disapprove” of their two week old votes to raise the debt ceiling.
TPM Reader MD helps us understand the power of building a robust state based exchange …
I also live in California, and my experience is very similar to that of the family in “Real Lives, Part 6.”
Our exchange is very effective, clear as can be, and the call center has no wait times of any significance.