Republicans Finally Unveil Their Alternative Health Care Reform Plan — But It's Too Little, Too Late

Well it only took about four years – illustrating the GOP’s impeccable penchant for timing (sarcasm added) – but they’ve finally come up with an alternative solution to replace the Affordable Care Act.

Calling it the Republican Study Committee’s American Healthcare Reform Act – also illustrating their impeccable marketing skills (seriously, don’t they have a market research team that could come up with something a little more market centric or PR friendly?) – the House GOP are unveiling it Wednesday on the heels of an effort from a minority of Republicans (12 Senate Republicans and 71 House Republicans, to be exact, or 12% of the Senate and 16% of the House) threatening to “shutdown the government” if they can’t successfully defund Obamacare before the law's Oct. 1 implementation date.

GLOBAL IDEAS NEWS BRIEF: TAXING TELCOS + AFFORDABLE INSURANCE

Financial inclusion

Can affordable insurance underwrite social development for the world's poor?
The Guardian
MicroEnsure serves over four million people around the world with insurance, 80% of whom have never before been insured.

Charging the mobile
The Economist
East African governments are targeting telecoms firms. Are they being unfairly targeted as a proxy for taxing the informal economy?

Latest on Branchless Banking from Indonesia
CGAP blog, by Leesa Shrader
In terms of financial inclusion, Indonesia is renowned for its large scale microfinance sector, led by BRI, a range of commercial banks and over 60,000 MFIs reaching more than 50 million people. Despite this progress, the 2011 Global Financial Inclusion Index still finds only 19.6% of the population have formal accounts.

There are Two Kinds of Auto Insurance Buyers. Which Kind Are You?

One of the dirty little secrets of the auto insurance world is that there are two types of customers; savvy ones who pay rates considerably below the norm, and those who get a quote from just one company and end up paying way more than they need to.

If you’ve been casually following the news about the auto insurance industry over the past few years, you could be forgiven for believing that rates have skyrocketed and continue to climb.  The real story is that, as a result of relentless consumer and regulatory pressure on insurance companies, auto rates in many cases have actually dropped.  Of course, don’t expect your insurance company to let you know you could be getting coverage for less.