Ken Plum: Too good to pass up

Ken Plum

In 2001, over 900,000 Virginians were living below the poverty line with an annual household income for a family of four under $23,050. Over 416,000 of these Virginians were living in deep poverty with a family of four having an annual household income under $11,525. Of the total, 270,000 were children, the highest number of children living in poverty in Virginia since 1998.

McDonnell: State will not pursue its own health benefits exchange

AFP

The old saw about PR is that if you have news that you need to get out, but really don’t want getting out, you do it on a Friday, the later in the day, the better. In that context, then, we have the news release from the McDonnell administration issued at 4:35 p.m. Friday reporting that Virginia will not be pursuing a state-based health benefits exchange for 2014.

Suffolk U.: Obama leads Romney by double digits

Chris Graham

President Barack Obama (47 percent) leads Republican Mitt Romney (37 percent) in a national general election match-up, with 7 percent saying they would vote for a third-party candidate and 7 percent undecided, according to a Suffolk University survey of likely general election voters of all parties. Obama led all GOP candidates: Romney by 10 points,…

Consumer groups comment on GA’s health exchange gamble

AFP

On Wednesday the Senate special subcommittee on health insurance failed to recommend any health exchange bills despite previously acknowledging the irresponsibility of waiting and denying months of work from the governor’s hand-selected health reform panel. Subcommittee Chair Sen. Jeffrey McWaters moved to wait until after the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality of…