The Netherlands - Insurance Industry: Family doctors can work together to make deals with insurers

The Dutch consumer and markets authority ACM is to give family doctors and other health practitioners more leeway to work together to negotiate fees with health insurance companies.

The ACM’s chairman Chris Fonteijn told the NRC at the weekend that doctors and physiotherapists can work together if it is in the interests of the patient. What they may not do is divide up areas between them, boycott a health insurer as a group or stop new doctors setting up practices, Fonteijn said. In addition, doctors who do break competition laws will be given a warning before the ACM issues fines, he said.

The Dutch consumer and markets authority ACM is to give family doctors and other health practitioners more leeway to work together to negotiate fees with health insurance companies. The ACM’s chairman Chris Fonteijn told the NRC at the weekend that doctors and physiotherapists can work together if it is in the interests of the patient.

What they may not do is divide up areas between them, boycott a health insurer as a group or stop new doctors setting up practices, Fonteijn said. In addition, doctors who do break competition laws will be given a warning before the ACM issues fines, he said.

Insure-Digest

Goldman Sachs and the Vatican: Two Cultures of Infallibility - by Stephan Richter

From the perspective of Goldman’s management, the recent path of the Catholic Church is probably the most nightmarish thing to think about — assuming their imagination and sense of seriousness reaches this far.

Look at the long list of parallels: None, of course, is more powerful — and disastrous — than Goldman’s and the Vatican’s unceasing belief in the doctrine of infallibility.

The rot, one says, starts at the top — and in the age of democracy and participatory learning, no organization can successfully hold onto the belief that, as far as dealings with the outside world are concerned, its staff members are really incorrigible.

I am not suggesting that there isn’t plenty of rigorous debate about the organizations’ direction and business (or spiritual) practices — but it occurs strictly in the inner sanctum.

The instrument of doubt plays a role in both organizational learning cultures. However, it is viewed solely as a method of rigorous inquisition to come to a decision internally, which — once made — is upheld externally with a united front. One for all, all for one.

With regard to interactions with the outside, such a frame of mind can quickly result in presenting a fiercely clannish, if not secretive, front. That unquestioned commitment to the cause, 24x7x365, surely breeds a strong internal culture, but it also makes the organization as a whole ripe for systemic denial. In short, wrongdoing simply cannot occur because we are perfect, aren’t we?

What Goldman must realize is that the Vatican had tried to hush things up. It simply could not happen here, it argued. But the harder and longer it tried, the more pushback there was among the victims.

It is simply inconceivable that a firm with the breadth and depth of Goldman’s client dealings in the markets — and its relentless hunger for profit maximization — did not leave behind a lot of broken china.

The second applicable lesson for Goldman which the Vatican’s troubles foreshadow is this: While child molestation and sexual abuse are definitely qualitatively different charges than manipulating financial markets, the ultimate fallout of denial on one’s reputation, financial well-being and inner morale may well be the same.

It all starts with the inner logic of the real temptation — “overlooking” the respective crime in question. Regarding the internal culture of the two organizations, there are stunning parallels.

Both cultures are rooted in an intense sense of loyalty to the “company.” Both firms’ staff members have a strong sense of mission, even though one is very much focused on the immaterial, while the other is very material-minded.

Readmore: Goldman Sachs and the Vatican: Two Cultures of Infallibility - The Globalist

Greek election live: Alexis Tsipras celebrates victory - as it happened

With most of the ballot papers counted, Syriza is leading with a 35.5% share of the vote compared with 28.2% for the centre-right New Democracy party. Speaking in Athens, Tsipras declared the election a victory for the people. “This victory belongs to the people and those who dream of a better tomorrow and we’ll achieve it with hard work,” he said.

Jubilant supporters, clearly relieved at the result, took to the streets in celebration, with many singing and dancing outside Syriza’s main election marquee in central Athens.

Tsipras told supporters that he would tackle endemic corruption in the country. “The mandate that the Greek people have given is is a crystal clear mandate to get rid of the regime of corruption and vested issues,” he said. “We will show how effective we will be. We will make Greece a stronger place for the weak and vulnerable, a fairer place.”

Read more:Greek election live: Alexis Tsipras celebrates victory - as it happened | World news | The Guardian

Middle East: US to accept extra 30,000 refugees over two years, says John Kerry - by Jon Swaine

The US will accept an extra 30,000 refugees from around the world over the next two years, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday, as the Obama administration came under further pressure to take in more victims of the Syrian civil war.

Speaking as his predecessor Hillary Clinton urged America to “lead the world” in responding to the Syrian emergency, Kerry said the total number of refugees taken by the US yearly would rise from 70,000 to 85,000 next year and to 100,000 in 2017, Reuters reported.

“The need is enormous, but we are determined to answer the call,” Kerry said, during remarks in Berlin. Kerry reportedly did not say whether any of the additional refugees would be from Syria.

Earlier on Sunday, Clinton said the US should take in more than six times the 10,000 Syrian refugees that has been proposed by President Barack Obama.

“We’re facing the worst refugee crisis since the end of world war two, and I think the United States has to do more,” Clinton said on CBS. “And I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000.”

Read more: US to accept extra 30,000 refugees over two years, says John Kerry | US news | The Guardian

Welfare US Spends Far More on Social Welfare Than Most European Nations - by Robert Rector

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual poverty report. Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. has a small social welfare system and far more poverty compared with other affluent nations.

But noted liberal scholars Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater, and Timothy Smeeding challenge such simplistic ideas in their book “Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader?”

Garfinkel and his colleagues examine social welfare spending and poverty in rich nations. They define social welfare as having five components: health care spending, education spending, cash retirement benefits, other government cash transfers such as unemployment insurance and the earned-income tax credit (EITC), and non-cash aid such as food stamps and public housing.

The authors find that in the U.S., social welfare spending differs from that in other affluent countries because it draws heavily on both public and private resources. By contrast, in Europe, government controls most of the resources and benefits. For example, in the U.S., government health care spending is targeted to elderly and low-income persons; the American middle and working classes rely primarily on employer-provided health insurance.

The U.S. government health care system is, therefore, more redistributive than the systems of most other developed nations.

Elderly middle-class Americans are also more likely to have private pensions than are Europeans. Middle-class parents in the U.S. pay for much of the cost of their children’s post-secondary education; in Europe, the government pays. Overall, in Europe, the upper middle class is heavily dependent on government benefits; in the U.S., it relies much more on its own resources.

But even setting aside the private sector, the U.S. still has a very large social welfare system. In fact, among affluent nations, the U.S. has the third highest level of per capita government social welfare spending. This is striking, given that government spending in the U.S.  is more tightly targeted to benefit the poor and elderly.

When private-sector contributions to retirement, health care, and education are added to the count, social welfare spending in the U.S. dwarfs that of other nations. In fact, social welfare spending per capita in the U.S. rises to nearly twice the European average. As Garfinkel, et al. conclude:

For those who believe the absolute size of the US welfare state is small, the data presented … [in the book] are shocking and constitute a wake up call. Once health and education benefits are counted, real per capita social welfare in the United States is larger than in almost all other countries!

Only one nation (Norway) spends more per person than the U.S. spends.

How much of this spending reaches the poor? The left often claims that the U.S has a far higher poverty rate than other developed nations have. These claims are based on a “relative poverty” standard, in which being “poor” is defined as having an income below 50 percent of the national median. Since the median income in the United States is substantially higher than the median income in most European countries, these comparisons establish a higher hurdle for escaping from “poverty” in the U.S. than is found elsewhere.

Read more: US Spends Far More on Social Welfare Than Most European Nations

Microsoft: Windows 10 Downloads = Microsoft Update Silently Steals Gigabytes Of Storage Space - by Mke Brown

Microsoft has confirmed that it downloads Windows 10 files to computers just in case users decide to upgrade. The company wants to make the migration to Win10 as efficient as possible, but the files take up somewhere between 3.5 to 6GB of disk space.

The situation was first reported by an anonymous reader at The Inquirer, who found the "~BT" folder used for storing copies of Windows 10 had appeared on his system, despite the user not expressing any interest in upgrading.

"I know of two instances where people on metered connections went over their data cap for August because of this unwanted download," he said. "My own Internet (slow DSL) was crawling for a week or so until I discovered this problem."

Microsoft confirmed the problem in a statement to the publication. "For individuals who have chosen to receive automatic updates through Windows Update, we help upgradable devices get ready for Windows 10 by downloading the files they’ll need if they decide to upgrade," the statement read.

Read more: Windows 10 Downloads Secretly Onto PCs: Microsoft Update Silently Steals Gigabytes Of Storage Space

Germany: Deutsche Bank could cut workforce by 25 percent

Deutsche Bank is considering shedding almost a quarter of its global workforce as it looks to honour pledges to cut costs and streamline its operations.

Some 8,000 jobs could be cut, while the bank has already announced plans to hive off its consumer division PostBank which employs another 15,000 people.

It’s thought that the cuts would mostly affect administrative and technology posts.

Preliminary details of the plan were presented to supervisory board members at the weekend by CEO John Cryan, who took control of Germany’s biggest bank in July promising to tackle what he described as Deutsche Bank’s “swollen” cost base.

Read more: Deutsche Bank could cut workforce by 25 percent | euronews, economy