The glitch in www.healthcare.gov is shaking Obama's presidency. The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 after long and brutal political fight in Congress. The President promised that the law would provide new insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans. Three years later, millions of people who applied for Obama care are in the middle of nowhere, receiving cancellation notices from their previous insurers. Today, President Obama announced that insurers can extend by one year those policies they had canceled for failing to meet the law's requirements. Although it is obviously a technical problem in the website that will be repaired sooner or later, a problem is not limited to the health care website, but the President's trustworthiness. On top of it, in the world of politics he will be responsible if Democrats lose an election held next week. It is a humiliating situation for Obama because nobody imagines that the government of the world's most advanced high-tech country suffers from a technical problem in making a website and that he has to pay for it. But it will be another challenge for the President if he is not wrong about the issue of U.S. health care system. You know that based on the WHO's World Health Report 2000, the US healthcare system came in 15th in overall performance, and first in overall expenditure per capita. That result meant that its overall ranking was 37th.
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 President Obama said that Americans who received insurance cancellation letters will be able to keep those plans, though he urged people to look at other options available on state and federal marketplaces. (WSJ)
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Another milestone is passing in America's racial journey: The next mayor of New York City is a white man with a black wife. (ctpost)
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A Soyuz capsule has returned to Earth, carrying the Sochi 2014 Olympic torch after it was taken on its first spacewalk as part of the Russian lead-up to the Winter Games. (BBC)
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The American Film Institute (AFI) has launched a scholarship scheme allowing student filmmakers to write movies about China, saying US cinema-goers need more cultural insight than "Kung Fu Panda." (AFP)
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Prince Charles plans to claim the government pension he qualifies for when he turns 65 on Thursday, but he still hasn't started the job he was born to do. (Yahoo)
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In as little as 10 years trinkets like those could bring about the extinction of elephants. "What was once a local or regional problem has become a global crisis," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Daniel Ashe. "How will we answer the question when our grandchildren ask why there are no elephants remaining in the wild? (HP)
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