'Lock Up Your Lethals' campaign targets prescription drug abuse

Times-Standard

While new studies show prescription drug abuse is declining, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it's still an epidemic. One in 20 people in the nation age 12 and older reported using prescription painkillers for recreational purposes. To counter the problem, Department of Health and Human Services officials have launched a new campaign called “Lock Up Your Lethals.” Radio and TV ads are being aired and a brochure is being produced to raise awareness about various hazards and to offer solutions.

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New Health Care Law Tax Surprise

NBC

The US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says that the IRS needs to do more to educate American taxpayers about the implications of the new Federal Affordable Care Act that will extend health care coverage to millions of uninsured Americans beginning in 2014. J. Russell George says he’s concerned that the Internal Revenue Service is making plans to implement the new changes but hasn’t adequately informed the general public about what’s coming and how it could directly affect them, especially potential tax returns uninsured taxpayers might be due.

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Sebelius Says HHS 'On Track' To Implement ACA Insurance Exchanges

California Healthline

On Thursday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius assured House lawmakers that her department is "on track" to implement the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges, one day after she offered the same assurance to a Senate panel, Modern Healthcare reports. Sebelius was testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, which convened a hearing on HHS' budget under President Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget proposal.

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Promises, promises

Economist

A crucial piece of Barack Obama’s health reforms will be in place in less than six months. That, at least, is the plan. New exchanges for buying insurance must be open on October 1st. Democrats intended the exchanges to be jostling markets, run by the 50 states, where individuals could shop for insurance. The White House insists that the deadline will be met and the exchanges will be a success. But many of Mr Obama’s allies are less sure.

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Dan Walters: Jerry Brown's big issues have stalled

Sacramento Bee

Jerry Brown spent the first two years of his second governorship dealing with a chronic budget crisis and finally persuaded voters to raise sales and income taxes to narrow the budget gap. It's debatable whether Brown has truly resolved California's fiscal woes, since the budget is "balanced" only by ignoring several major issues, such as an immense deficit in the teachers pension fund and mounting costs for retiree health care. Moreover, the new taxes are temporary, while the tax ballot measure, Proposition 30, included a permanent, $5 billion-plus annual commitment to counties. Thus, Brown may leave behind a new budget problem if and when he finishes his last term in 2019.

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Baucus warns of 'huge train wreck' enacting ObamaCare provisions

Hill

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Wednesday he fears a "train wreck" as the Obama administration implements its signature healthcare law. Baucus, the chairman of the chamber's powerful Finance Committee and a key architect of the healthcare reform law, said he fears people do not understand how the law will work.  "I just see a huge train wreck coming down," he told Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a Wednesday hearing. "You and I have discussed this many times, and I don't see any results yet."

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Federal budget cuts strike California’s unemployed

Sacramento Business Journal

The pain of federal budget cuts is starting to hit California workers. This week, the California Employment Development Department began mailing notices to notify jobless claimants that federal extensions of unemployment benefits will be cut by 18 percent beginning April 28. More than 400,000 unemployed Californians will be affected, according to the EDD. Most people are eligible for 26 weeks of state unemployment and an additional 47 weeks of federal extension benefits. The cuts only will affect the federal extensions without reducing the overall number of weeks that jobless workers are eligible for unemployment aid.

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