*Amid legislative efforts to tweak the Affordable Care Act, business lobbyists and unions are uniting to push for a bill that would repeal the $63 reinsurance tax–a two-year levy on group plans designed, in the words of The Hill, to “help stabilize the individual market as sick patients come on board.” The tax would be in effect from 2014-2016, and the bill to nullify it, cosponsored by Reps. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), was introduced to the House on Thursday.
*Speaking of unions and healthcare, public transit officials in the San Francisco Bay area want to relaunch CBA negotiations after the October BART workers strike because they claim to have “accidentally” included family medical leave in the four-year deal that ended the work stoppage. Service Employees International Union and Amalgamated Transit Union officials are unimpressed, accusing BART management of negotiating in bad faith, in statements quoted by Reuters.
*Tim Geithner is taking a whirl through the revolving door. The former Treasury Secretary will join private-equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC on March 1. The leveraged buyout outfit will, presumably, leverage (sorry) the experience (read: connections) Geithner accumulated in his 26 years of public sector experience.
*In the Detroit-area yesterday, Wayne County prosecutors announced that the killer of Renisha McBride, 19, would face second degree murder and manslaughter charges. McBride was shot with a shotgun by Theodore Wafer, a white suburban homeowner, when she knocked on his door asking for help in the wake of a car accident. In the New Yorker this morning, Jelani Cobb writes about how McBride’s killing is another case of black people seeking help “read as something far more sinister.”
*And this morning, it was reported that Gerardo Hernandez, the TSA Officer who was killed in a shooting at LAX this month, bled for 33 minutes before receiving medical attention. The delay, as described by Gawker, can only leave his family with burning questions:
Hernandez lay wounded on the floor, only 20 feet from an exit, as paramedics waited for clearance to enter the terminal. They were kept 150 yards away for more than 25 minutes after the gunman was shot and taken into custody.
