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12. Clemson Tigers 10-3 (7-1 Atlantic Coast Conference regular season) What's next: First-round at No. 5 seed Texas, Dec. 21 Head coach: Dabo Swinney (17th season, 180-46 overall) About Swinney: The 55-year-old, who is 6-4 in the CFP, took over during the 2008 season and has won two national titles (2016, 2018). He will take the Tigers to the CFP the first time since the 2020 season and the seventh time overall. Resume The Tigers, the only three-loss team in the 12-team field, were in a must-win situation in the ACC championship game, prevailing on a last-second, 56-yard field goal to defeat SMU 34-31. Clemson lost two games to SEC opponents (Georgia and South Carolina) this season. The Tigers' other defeat came at home to Louisville. The matchup with Texas will be Clemson's first true road game against the SEC this season. Postseason history A nine-time winner of the ACC Championship Game, the Tigers notched a double-figure win total for the 13th time in the last 14 seasons. Along with its two national titles, Clemson reached the title game two other times (2019 and 2015). This will be the first Clemson-Texas matchup. The road to Atlanta It will be a tricky road for the Tigers to reach the CFP title game in Atlanta at a venue familiar to Clemson fans. The Tigers will take at least two and maybe three trips outside of their own time zone to qualify for the final. Names to know QB Cade Klubnik Klubnik, a Texas native, has been taking snaps in crucial situations since a limited role as a freshman in 2022, when he rescued the Tigers in an ACC Championship victory vs. North Carolina. Sporting a 19-8 career record as a starter, Klubnik has thrown for 3,303 yards and 33 touchdowns along with five interceptions this season. He tossed four TDs in the ACC title game Dec. 7 against SMU after receiving All-ACC honorable mention following the regular season. "He's battle-tested," Swinney said. "He has got a lot of experience under his belt. He has had some failure, which has made him better." RB Phil Mafah The senior has racked up 1,106 rushing yards with eight touchdowns this season and has 28 career scores. Mafah has averaged fewer than 17 carries per game, so he makes the most of his opportunities, and at 230 pounds he can be a load to bring down. DE T.J. Parker He's been disruptive on a regular basis, racking up 19 tackles for loss (11 sacks) this season. The 265-pound sophomore helped set the tone in the ACC title game when the Tigers feasted on early SMU mistakes. Parker is tied for the Division I lead with six forced fumbles this season. K Nolan Hauser The freshman joined the Tigers this season with great acclaim and produced a career highlight with a 56-yard game-winning field goal -- the longest in ACC title game history -- to beat SMU at the buzzer. --Field Level MediaTesco and Aldi issue 'do not eat' warning on festive food items as they could be unsafe
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Renuka Rayasam | (TNS) KFF Health News In April, just 12 weeks into her pregnancy, Kathleen Clark was standing at the receptionist window of her OB-GYN’s office when she was asked to pay $960, the total the office estimated she would owe after she delivered. Clark, 39, was shocked that she was asked to pay that amount during this second prenatal visit. Normally, patients receive the bill after insurance has paid its part, and for pregnant women that’s usually only when the pregnancy ends. It would be months before the office filed the claim with her health insurer. Clark said she felt stuck. The Cleveland, Tennessee, obstetrics practice was affiliated with a birthing center where she wanted to deliver. Plus, she and her husband had been wanting to have a baby for a long time. And Clark was emotional, because just weeks earlier her mother had died. “You’re standing there at the window, and there’s people all around, and you’re trying to be really nice,” recalled Clark, through tears. “So, I paid it.” On online baby message boards and other social media forums , pregnant women say they are being asked by their providers to pay out-of-pocket fees earlier than expected. The practice is legal, but patient advocacy groups call it unethical. Medical providers argue that asking for payment up front ensures they get compensated for their services. How frequently this happens is hard to track because it is considered a private transaction between the provider and the patient. Therefore, the payments are not recorded in insurance claims data and are not studied by researchers. Patients, medical billing experts, and patient advocates say the billing practice causes unexpected anxiety at a time of already heightened stress and financial pressure. Estimates can sometimes be higher than what a patient might ultimately owe and force people to fight for refunds if they miscarry or the amount paid was higher than the final bill. Up-front payments also create hurdles for women who may want to switch providers if they are unhappy with their care. In some cases, they may cause women to forgo prenatal care altogether, especially in places where few other maternity care options exist. It’s “holding their treatment hostage,” said Caitlin Donovan, a senior director at the Patient Advocate Foundation . Medical billing and women’s health experts believe OB-GYN offices adopted the practice to manage the high cost of maternity care and the way it is billed for in the U.S. When a pregnancy ends, OB-GYNs typically file a single insurance claim for routine prenatal care, labor, delivery, and, often, postpartum care. That practice of bundling all maternity care into one billing code began three decades ago, said Lisa Satterfield, senior director of health and payment policy at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists . But such bundled billing has become outdated, she said. Previously, pregnant patients had been subject to copayments for each prenatal visit, which might lead them to skip crucial appointments to save money. But the Affordable Care Act now requires all commercial insurers to fully cover certain prenatal services. Plus, it’s become more common for pregnant women to switch providers, or have different providers handle prenatal care, labor, and delivery — especially in rural areas where patient transfers are common. Some providers say prepayments allow them to spread out one-time payments over the course of the pregnancy to ensure that they are compensated for the care they do provide, even if they don’t ultimately deliver the baby. “You have people who, unfortunately, are not getting paid for the work that they do,” said Pamela Boatner, who works as a midwife in a Georgia hospital. While she believes women should receive pregnancy care regardless of their ability to pay, she also understands that some providers want to make sure their bill isn’t ignored after the baby is delivered. New parents might be overloaded with hospital bills and the costs of caring for a new child, and they may lack income if a parent isn’t working, Boatner said. In the U.S., having a baby can be expensive. People who obtain health insurance through large employers pay an average of nearly $3,000 out-of-pocket for pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker . In addition, many people are opting for high-deductible health insurance plans, leaving them to shoulder a larger share of the costs. Of the 100 million U.S. people with health care debt, 12% attribute at least some of it to maternity care, according to a 2022 KFF poll . Families need time to save money for the high costs of pregnancy, childbirth, and child care, especially if they lack paid maternity leave, said Joy Burkhard , CEO of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, a Los Angeles-based policy think tank. Asking them to prepay “is another gut punch,” she said. “What if you don’t have the money? Do you put it on credit cards and hope your credit card goes through?” Calculating the final costs of childbirth depends on multiple factors, such as the timing of the pregnancy , plan benefits, and health complications, said Erin Duffy , a health policy researcher at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. The final bill for the patient is unclear until a health plan decides how much of the claim it will cover, she said. But sometimes the option to wait for the insurer is taken away. During Jamie Daw’s first pregnancy in 2020, her OB-GYN accepted her refusal to pay in advance because Daw wanted to see the final bill. But in 2023, during her second pregnancy, a private midwifery practice in New York told her that since she had a high-deductible plan, it was mandatory to pay $2,000 spread out with monthly payments. Daw, a health policy researcher at Columbia University, delivered in September 2023 and got a refund check that November for $640 to cover the difference between the estimate and the final bill. “I study health insurance,” she said. “But, as most of us know, it’s so complicated when you’re really living it.” While the Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover some prenatal services, it doesn’t prohibit providers from sending their final bill to patients early. It would be a challenge politically and practically for state and federal governments to attempt to regulate the timing of the payment request, said Sabrina Corlette , a co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. Medical lobbying groups are powerful and contracts between insurers and medical providers are proprietary. Because of the legal gray area, Lacy Marshall , an insurance broker at Rapha Health and Life in Texas, advises clients to ask their insurer if they can refuse to prepay their deductible. Some insurance plans prohibit providers in their network from requiring payment up front. If the insurer says they can refuse to pay up front, Marshall said, she tells clients to get established with a practice before declining to pay, so that the provider can’t refuse treatment. Related Articles Health | Which health insurance plan may be right for you? Health | California case is the first confirmed bird flu infection in a US child Health | Your cool black kitchenware could be slowly poisoning you, study says. Here’s what to do Health | Does fluoride cause cancer, IQ loss, and more? Fact-checking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims Health | US towns plunge into debates about fluoride in water Clark said she met her insurance deductible after paying for genetic testing, extra ultrasounds, and other services out of her health care flexible spending account. Then she called her OB-GYN’s office and asked for a refund. “I got my spine back,” said Clark, who had previously worked at a health insurer and a medical office. She got an initial check for about half the $960 she originally paid. In August, Clark was sent to the hospital after her blood pressure spiked. A high-risk pregnancy specialist — not her original OB-GYN practice — delivered her son, Peter, prematurely via emergency cesarean section at 30 weeks. It was only after she resolved most of the bills from the delivery that she received the rest of her refund from the other OB-GYN practice. This final check came in October, just days after Clark brought Peter home from the hospital, and after multiple calls to the office. She said it all added stress to an already stressful period. “Why am I having to pay the price as a patient?” she said. “I’m just trying to have a baby.” ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Biden signs defense bill despite objections to ban on transgender health care for military childrenBill Clinton Is Out of the Hospital After Being Treated for the Flu
Published 01:36 IST, December 9th 2024 The idea of an electoral boycott surfaced after former diplomat KC Singh said that Opposition party leaders are privately arguing an Election boycott strategy. New Delhi: In light of the results of the recently concluded Maharashtra elections, the usual EVM skeptic rhetoric of the Opposition returned to cast a shadow on the mandate. Amidst this an odd idea was floated that caught the attention of many, the idea of an electoral boycott. It all started with a tweet on November 26th from a former diplomat KC Singh who said, “Election boycott strategy is being privately argued. A senior Congress leader apparently confided that regional parties don’t agree. They feel they can mostly win in state elections, despite suspected flaws. A Bangladesh-type boycott threat may force transparency & reform.” Understanding The Bangladesh Model The ‘Bangladesh model’ became a common template of discussion in India’s internal political discourse after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina on August 5th, 2024. Usually, the Bangladesh model refers to a people-led movement that eventually snowballs into an anti-incumbency movement that can lead to the ouster of an electorally dominant party. Such was the case of the Awami League, which lost the war of narrative vis-a-vis the country’s reservation system which was skewed in favour of freedom fighters and their families. After months of mass unrest, the protests culminated in an anti-Hasina movement that led to her departure from Dhaka as a mass mob of protesters marched towards the PM’s residence aided by the military. Some called it a revolution, others called it a coup depending on their political point of view. However, the Bangladesh-type boycott threat referred to in this particular case by KC Singh refers to an electoral boycott strategy which was employed by one of the principal opposition parties in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The BNP has been boycotting the last two general elections in Bangladesh, including the one held earlier this year in the month of January that won Hasina her historic 4th consecutive term as Prime Minister. However if one reads the fine print of the tweet again, the idea is not to boycott the elections but to employ it as a strategic threat to “force transparency & reform”. At least in its intent, the strategy is clear, that it can merely be weaponized as a threat. This is because there is a long body of theoretical and practical research and evidence to show that “Electoral Boycotts” simply do not work. Why Boycott Elections? Classically, electoral boycotts are seen as a tool against an authoritarian system that tends to be unfree and unfair in its electoral processes. This is where the opposition chooses not to take part in uncompetitive elections. The core objective of the boycott is not however to awaken the conscience of the authoritarian power. The real intention is to capture the attention of the electorate and primarily build a global perception of delegitimizing the electoral process of the nation. This brings us back to the “Bangladesh-type boycott threat” referred to earlier. While in principle, the BNP’s boycott did not have any significant political impact on Bangladesh’s internal political upturn, the perception of a delegitimised electoral process in Bangladesh went against Hasina’s situation. Due to this perception, even the self-appointed custodians of the democratic world order stood mute when a so-called non-political movement came marching for Hasina’s chair. The very next morning after Hasina swept 75% of the seats in Bangladesh’s general elections, the US State Department said, "The United States shares the view with other observers that these elections were not free or fair and we regret that not all parties participated." This is the intended objective and the achievable target of an “electoral boycott strategy”. Interestingly, at the time of writing of this article, the new regime in Dhaka led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is yet to announce any form of “electoral reform”, nor has it shown any intent of holding “free and fair” elections anytime soon. The unspoken legitimacy that the Yunus administration has managed in the Western world order is a result of the perception that the electoral process in Bangladesh is flawed. Not to take away from the fact that there may exist significant evidence of electoral manipulation in Bangladesh, However such is the case in every nation of the world. Even the mighty United States is not immune to electoral malpractice allegations. However, January 6th is still termed as an insurrection and not as a revolution. Historically Boycotts Simply Don’t Work In an interesting analysis by Binghamton University, which analyzed over 1380 national-level elections held between 1971-2005. European Democracies only saw a 4.4% electoral boycott. The United States and Canada had no reported instances of a nationwide boycott. The overall rate of electoral boycotts during this period was around 10.4%, with Arab states seeing the highest rate of any region at 21.6%. Compare this to Europe which saw a boycott rate of only 1.8%. The larger inference from this data point is that democratic regimes as a whole do not see electoral boycotts as an employable strategy. This is because participation in the electoral process outweighs the reformative impact a party desires to have in an electorate as compared to a boycott. Comparing India in this case to democracies in Europe or North America is a fair comparison as compared to its Asian neighbours and other Arab nations. Fundamentally the Indian democracy has sincerely espoused the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity with an added focus on secularism since its Independence. In this regard, the examples of authoritarian regimes in Arab states are a completely disingenuous comparison. While in India’s neighbourhood, there exists a Pakistan where no Prime Minister has ever completed a full term and a Bangladesh which has seen multiple military coups. Indian democracy has been a beacon of peaceful transition of power in the sub-continent, with strict adherence to its constitution and its founding principles. As compared to all nations in the sub-continent and the world, India is undoubtedly one of the most vibrant democracies on planet Earth. To delegitimize an Indian election is something that not even the mighty British Empire could achieve. In fact, electoral boycotts, a trusted tool of the Muslim League did not help it completely to attain its objectives. India as it stands has over half a dozen national parties, over 50 recognised state parties, and over 2500 unrecognised parties. The question then remains, does the Indian National Congress, which won over 21.4% vote share in the last general elections, which presently has a government in 3 states, and won as a junior partner in 2 states this year have enough reason to call for an electoral boycott? Conclusion Only the threat of an electoral boycott was believed to be a potent agent of change in the past. The only major notable example comes from South Africa’s 1994 elections. When the president of the Freedom Party decided to boycott the elections and denounced the elections as unfair in South Africa. International pressure increased on the Nelson Mandela government. Consequently, this led to the abolishment of the single-vote system in South Africa and amendments in the constitution vis a vis local self-government. However, in a more contemporary example, in the case of Azerbaijan, this strategy has had no notable impact. In Azerbaijan, the principal opposition parties have been boycotting elections for multiple years. However, there has been no significant political pressure on the incumbent administration, nor any widespread loss of legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. In fact, with each consecutive election, western nations have gradually accepted the results and cooperated with the government in Azerbaijan. In theory, for an electoral boycott to have any impact, there is not just the need to grab international headlines of ideologies sympathetic to your cause. There is also the need for a genuine on-ground campaign and support. As it stands, the opposition’s narrative of EVMs is yet to see any ground support. The only support it has is in the form of echoes during political press conferences from leaders in disbelief over their electoral debacles. A comprehensive study of election boycotts between 1990 and 2009 done by Matthew Frankel shows that only 4% of actual election boycotts showed any positive outcomes. In a democracy like India, where the opposition’s alliance had to backtrack on a boycott of the "Exit Polls" within a fortnight, whether it can succeed in a nationwide call for an electoral boycott remains only a thought experiment. Get Current Updates on India News , Entertainment News along with Latest News and Top Headlines from India and around the world. Updated 01:36 IST, December 9th 2024Fast longer than Hazare’s in 2011, Dallewal has lost 11kg in 15 days