Paying for Prescription Drugs

Stephan:  Just having to think about this ought to make you mad.

Consumers need to consider all the angles when choosing and filling prescription drugs. For example, under many prescription drug coverage insurance plans, a consumer pays a higher co-pay to fill a prescription at a store and a lower one when using mail order. In addition, plans often have co-pay ‘tiers.’ The first tier is for a generic drug; the second is for a brand-name drug. Sometimes, there are three tiers: The second tier is for preferred brand-name drugs and third for a non-preferred brand-name drugs. The same drug can cost as little as $6.66 for a 30-day supply or as much as $40, depending on what you buy and where and how you buy it. Typical fixed-dollar co-payments in tiered drug-coverage plans Two-tier plans: Tier 1 30-day retail supply: $10 Tier 1 90-day mail order supply: $20 Tier 2 30-day retail supply: $20 Tier 2 90-day mail order supply: $30 Three-tier plans: Tier 1 30-day retail supply: $10 Tier 1 90-day mail-order supply: $25 Tier 2 30-day retail supply: $25 Tier 2 90-day mail-order supply: $50 Tier 3 30-day retail supply: $40 Tier 3 […]

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U.K. Marriage Rate Falls to Its Lowest Level Since Records Began

Stephan: 

The numbers of weddings taking place in England and Wales fell by 10 per cent in 2005 Marriage has slumped to its lowest level since records were first kept more than 150 years ago, official figures have revealed. The proportion of couples tying the knot has fallen back into line with its declining long-term trend following a clampdown on sham weddings. The popularity of marriage has been waning since 1973, but in recent years it has been artificially boosted by such bogus unions. In London alone, new rules which make it harder to use marriage to win the right to stay in Britain cut the number of ceremonies by more than a third. But the report from the Office for National Statistics said the crackdown was responsible for only some of the steep decline. It said the long-term fall in the popularity of marriage was continuing, with millions of couples choosing instead to live together and delay having a family. The figures, which cover 2005, the same year the new rules were brought in, show the number of weddings in England and Wales dropped by more than 28,000, from 273,070 to 244,710. The fall […]

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Orpheus Tomb Discovered?

Stephan:  Thanks to Jim Baraff.

The sensational discovery was made by an archaeological expedition which investigated the temple of the Thracians near the village of Tatul, informed BNT. The scientists found 6000-year old buildings with preserved tools made of semi-precious stones, crockery, animal remains. According to the archaeologists now it can be claimed that this is the Tomb of Orpheus, which has been visited of thousands of pilgrims from around the antique world. The sanctuary is one of the oldest in the world and can be compared only with cult complexes as Stonehеnge. The Egyptian pyramids were built 4500 years ago. 1500 years earlier in the Rhodope mountains the Thracians construct their rock sanctuaries. This was proven by the archaeologists who for third successive year examine the Orpheus Tomb. The life of Tatul has continued for 5 thousand years. The soldiers of Alexander the Great have built here magnificent antique temple of Orpheus. Four centuries later the Thracian Odrysian tribe, helped by the Roman legions, conquer and burn the sanctuary. The Romans restore it later. Now a joint project of Bulgaria and Greece will allow for the temple to be restored and after several months it will be shown in […]

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More than Half of Americans Won’t Vote for Clinton, Poll Shows

Stephan: 

WASHINGTON — More than half of Americans say they wouldn’t consider voting for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president if she becomes the Democratic nominee, according to a new national poll made available to McClatchy Newspapers and NBC News. The poll by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research found that 52 percent of Americans wouldn’t consider voting for Clinton, D-N.Y. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, was second in the can’t-stand-’em category, with 46 percent saying they wouldn’t consider voting for him. Clinton has long been considered a politically polarizing figure who would be a tough sell to some voters, especially many men, but also Clinton-haters of both genders. Thursday’s survey provides a snapshot of the challenges she faces, according to Larry Harris, a Mason-Dixon principal. ‘Hillary’s carrying a lot of baggage,’ he said. ‘She’s the only one that has a majority who say they can’t vote for her.’ Clinton rang up high negatives across the board, with 60 percent of independents, 56 percent of men, 47 percent of women and 88 percent of Republicans saying they wouldn’t consider voting for her. Romney struggled most with women: 50.9 percent said they wouldn’t consider voting for […]

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Squash Seeds Show Andean Cultivation Is 10,000 Years Old, Twice as Old as Thought

Stephan: 

Seeds of domesticated squash found by scientists on the western slopes of the Andes in northern Peru are almost 10,000 years old, about twice the age of previously discovered cultivated crops in the region, new, more precise dating techniques have revealed. The findings about Peru and recent research in Mexico, anthropologists say, are evidence that some farming developed in parts of the Americas nearly as early as in the Middle East, which is considered the birthplace of the earliest agriculture. Digging under house floors and grinding stones and in stone-lined storage bins, the archaeologist Tom D. Dillehay of Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, uncovered the squash seeds at several places in the Ñanchoc Valley, near the Pacific coast about 400 miles north of Lima. The excavations also yielded peanut hulls and cotton fibers - about 8,500 and 6,000 years old, respectively. The new, more precise dating of the plant remains, some of which were collected two decades ago, is being reported by Dr. Dillehay and colleagues in today’s issue of the journal Science. Their research also turned up traces of other domesticated plants, including a grain, manioc and unidentified fruits, and stone hoes, furrowed garden plots and […]

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