Declarations – West

Exchange More Time

“We are confident governors will have enough time to decide whether they want to establish an exchange, work in partnership with the federal government or have a federally facilitated exchange in their state.”

—U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said as she extended deadlines relating to the exchanges. The Obama administration gave states an extra month to say whether they plan to operate their own health insurance exchanges after governors asked for more time in light of the Nov. 6 election, which ensured the survival of Obama’s healthcare overhaul.

Sick Pool

“Basically the story is, we had more people who got sick right off the bat than we thought.”

—Gary Marks, chairman of the Idaho Independent Intergovernmental Authority’s board of directors, explaining that nearly 40 Idaho cities are facing double-digit increases in health insurance premiums because the pool insurance program they joined was hit with some unexpected early claims.

Climate Gap

“These findings reflect a cruel phenomenon sometimes called ‘the climate gap’ — the concept that climate change has a disproportionate and unequal impact on society’s less fortunate.”

—That’s according a report by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with close ties to the White House. The report tapped U.S. data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Census and other agencies.

Sum Total Recall

“They seem to continue to be obsessively monitoring these things and looking for potential problems before they arise.”

—Deutsche Securities analyst Kurt Sanger said the extent of a Toyota recall suggests a more aggressive stance by the company to address defects after its recall crisis a few years ago. Toyota Motor Corp said in November it will recall 2.77 million vehicles worldwide for steering and water pump problems.