National result
East Midlands
East of England
London
North East
North West
Northern Ireland
Scotland South East South West Wales West Midlands Yorkshire and the Humber RESULTS (excluding Northern Ireland)
SEATS: 72* TURNOUT: 7,082,993 ELECTORATE: 20,807,329
Votes MEPs
Party Total % Total +/-
Conservative 1,911,549 27.0
(+1.6) 12 0
Labour 1,263,567 17.8
(-6.7) 7 -2
UK Independence Party 1,096,380 15.5
(-0.8) 6 0
Liberal Democrats 951,097 13.4
(-1.0) 5 +1
Green Party 592,241 8.4
(+2.4) 1 0
British National Party 499,705 7.1
(+1.6) 1 +1
Plaid Cymru 126,702 1.8
(-0.2) 1 0
Christian Party-Christian Peoples Alliance 130,931 1.8
(+1.8) 0 0
English Democrat 129,480 1.8
(+1.0) 0 0
Socialist Labour Party 84,515 1.2
(+1.2) 0 0
No2EU 75,352 1.1
(+1.1) 0 0
United Kingdom First 58,746 0.8
(+0.8) 0 0
Independent - Jan Jananayagam 50,014 0.7
(+0.7) 0 0
Libertas 35,544 0.5
(+0.5) 0 0
Jury Team 34,878 0.5
(+0.5) 0 0
Animals Count 13,201 0.2
(+0.2) 0 0
Independent - Peter Rigby 9,916 0.1
(+0.1) 0 0
Independent - Steven Cheung 4,918 0.1
(+0.1) 0 0
Socialist Party of Great Britain 4,050 0.1
(+0.1) 0 0
Yes 2 Europe 3,384 0.0
(+0.0) 0 0
Independent - Sohale Rahman 3,248 0.0
(+0.0) 0 0
Independent - Gene Alcantara 1,972 0.0
(+0.0) 0 0
Independent - Haroon Saad 1,603 0.0
(+0.0) 0 0
Fair Play Fair Trade Party 0 0
0 0
Independent - Duncan Robertson 0 0
0 0
Independent - Francis Apaloo 0 0
0 0
Independent - Katie Hopkins 0 0
0 0
Mebyon Kernow 0 0
0 0
Pensioners Party 0 0
0 0
Scottish National Party 0 0
0 0
Scottish Socialist Party 0 0
0 0
The Peace Party 0 0
0 0
The Roman Party 0 0
0 0
Wai D 0 0
0 0
33 of 69 seats declared.
Seat change is adjusted to allow a direct comparison with the results from the 2004 election
*Includes Northern Ireland.
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ELECTIONS 2009
EUROPEAN ELECTION RESULTS
EU WideUK EU Result
Full EU Parliament results
Full UK results by region
UK Total MEP Seats
Votes MEPs
Party % +/- % Total +/-
CON 27.0 1.6 12 0
LAB 17.8 -6.7 7 -2
UKIP 15.5 -0.8 6 0
LD 13.4 -1.0 5 1
GRN 8.4 2.4 1 0
BNP 7.1 1.6 1 1
PC 1.8 -0.2 1 0
SNP 0 0 0 0
SSP 0 0 0 0
OTH 9.1 3.1 0 0
33 of 69 seats declared.
Result excludes Northern Ireland.
Full UK results
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India’s God factory thrives – in China
India’s constant demand for gods has saved atheist China’s biggest ‘Hindu god factory’ from the global recession.
Indian consumers are also inspiring more Chinese to learn the tricky art of mass-producing cut-price gods with names they cannot pronounce.
Across south China, known as the world’s export factory, sinking markets in the US and Europe have crippled over 67,000 factories and left 20-30 million migrants unemployed since last year.
But the Chinese workers, who make 40 Hindu gods per person per day in a factory in southeast China’s Quanzhou near Taiwan, are clocking overtime 7-10 pm shifts to make the Ganesha you will buy in Mumbai or Gurgaon.
These 120-150 workers from rural China, who don’t know the names of any of the gods they mould and paint, can make 1,000 idols of any style in 45 days — cheaper than Indian artisans. When Hindustan Times visited them, not a single worker paused from the task at hand to look up.
“The demand for Hindu gods is always stable in India, but US buyers of gods stopped coming,” said Donna Du, an English major graduate who started the factory in 2004 to make sculptures of couples and doves for India’s Valentine’s Day and Friendship Day. But the religious demand grew so fast that the factory decided to focus exclusively on Hindu gods.
The lightweight and hollow idols travel in a container packed with 1,000 cartons — each carton crammed with 144, 288 or over 300 pieces — on the ancient maritime silk route. The idols are sent by road from coastal Quanzhou to Xiamen port, and then by sea via Hong Kong or Singapore to Mumbai..
“India’s economy is still growing, so demand is good,” said Donna, who remembers the names of only Sai Baba, Krishna and Ganesha. “Inexperienced Chinese competitors are trying to make Ganeshas, but they make mistakes, like the trunk on the wrong side.”
Quanzhou is surrounded by the world’s shoe factories making over one billion pairs of sneakers every year. But the young Indians who travel here every three months head to this lesser-known factory where the Chinese take the Ganesha global.
The factory’s showpiece is an air-conditioned sample room stacked with idols of at least a dozen gods in all sizes and a table with a maroon velvet tablecloth. Here, the Indians meet manager Chen who doesn’t speak English or Hindi and wears an Om locket to “show sincerity”.
“Indians bargain until midnight over a few cents,” said Donna. “The cost of raw material and labour went up last year, but Indians are tough. They won’t pay more.”
Indian traders bring pictures of idols they want copied. A local sculptor makes the design and mould. The sculpture for the mould can cost Rs 700 per inch. A two-inch Ganesha sold for Rs 14 will sell in India for over Rs 100-200. A big idol sold here for Rs 350 each will sell for many times the price in India.
Across a floor that smells like a laboratory, workers manually pour creamy polyresin into moulds. Since the 1990s, Quanzhou has been a hub for making cheap sculptures of polyresin, a flexible compound with a finish like fibreglass.
On another floor, local Chinese with no art training paint 40 idols per day, one part at a time. Hindustan Times saw one worker just spraying black paint on the hooves, tail and snout of Krishna’s cows. A girl was painting the gold blouse on every Saraswati.
A girl painting gold lines on Ganesha identified herself as Zhen, and said she trained on the job. “I thought it was very difficult,” she said. She sends part of her 1,000 RMB (Rs 7,000) monthly salary to her parents in a village three hours away and spends the rest.
In another factory, while workers loaded Christmas shipments, the manager said his staff has begun learning to make Hindu gods. But they finish only three or four idols per day. “Hindu gods, very difficult,” he said, shaking his head.
Indian consumers are also inspiring more Chinese to learn the tricky art of mass-producing cut-price gods with names they cannot pronounce.
Across south China, known as the world’s export factory, sinking markets in the US and Europe have crippled over 67,000 factories and left 20-30 million migrants unemployed since last year.
But the Chinese workers, who make 40 Hindu gods per person per day in a factory in southeast China’s Quanzhou near Taiwan, are clocking overtime 7-10 pm shifts to make the Ganesha you will buy in Mumbai or Gurgaon.
These 120-150 workers from rural China, who don’t know the names of any of the gods they mould and paint, can make 1,000 idols of any style in 45 days — cheaper than Indian artisans. When Hindustan Times visited them, not a single worker paused from the task at hand to look up.
“The demand for Hindu gods is always stable in India, but US buyers of gods stopped coming,” said Donna Du, an English major graduate who started the factory in 2004 to make sculptures of couples and doves for India’s Valentine’s Day and Friendship Day. But the religious demand grew so fast that the factory decided to focus exclusively on Hindu gods.
The lightweight and hollow idols travel in a container packed with 1,000 cartons — each carton crammed with 144, 288 or over 300 pieces — on the ancient maritime silk route. The idols are sent by road from coastal Quanzhou to Xiamen port, and then by sea via Hong Kong or Singapore to Mumbai..
“India’s economy is still growing, so demand is good,” said Donna, who remembers the names of only Sai Baba, Krishna and Ganesha. “Inexperienced Chinese competitors are trying to make Ganeshas, but they make mistakes, like the trunk on the wrong side.”
Quanzhou is surrounded by the world’s shoe factories making over one billion pairs of sneakers every year. But the young Indians who travel here every three months head to this lesser-known factory where the Chinese take the Ganesha global.
The factory’s showpiece is an air-conditioned sample room stacked with idols of at least a dozen gods in all sizes and a table with a maroon velvet tablecloth. Here, the Indians meet manager Chen who doesn’t speak English or Hindi and wears an Om locket to “show sincerity”.
“Indians bargain until midnight over a few cents,” said Donna. “The cost of raw material and labour went up last year, but Indians are tough. They won’t pay more.”
Indian traders bring pictures of idols they want copied. A local sculptor makes the design and mould. The sculpture for the mould can cost Rs 700 per inch. A two-inch Ganesha sold for Rs 14 will sell in India for over Rs 100-200. A big idol sold here for Rs 350 each will sell for many times the price in India.
Across a floor that smells like a laboratory, workers manually pour creamy polyresin into moulds. Since the 1990s, Quanzhou has been a hub for making cheap sculptures of polyresin, a flexible compound with a finish like fibreglass.
On another floor, local Chinese with no art training paint 40 idols per day, one part at a time. Hindustan Times saw one worker just spraying black paint on the hooves, tail and snout of Krishna’s cows. A girl was painting the gold blouse on every Saraswati.
A girl painting gold lines on Ganesha identified herself as Zhen, and said she trained on the job. “I thought it was very difficult,” she said. She sends part of her 1,000 RMB (Rs 7,000) monthly salary to her parents in a village three hours away and spends the rest.
In another factory, while workers loaded Christmas shipments, the manager said his staff has begun learning to make Hindu gods. But they finish only three or four idols per day. “Hindu gods, very difficult,” he said, shaking his head.
‘Small investors need special rights’
Salman Khursheed has taken charge as the country’s Corporate Affairs Minister in the backdrop of the Satyam Computer Services scandal that has triggered calls for better regulation and corporate governance to protect investors. He spoke to Mahua Venkatesh on reforming the way India Inc is governed. Excerpts:
The Satyam episode has so far remained an isolated case. But how would you ensure that in future a scandal of this magnitude does not recur?
It is extremely important to ensure that there are no more Satyam-like cases here. We are planning to put in place an early warning system to be able to detect any early sign. We have already said that this will be priority for us.
Routine surveys take place by auditors and if there are complaints from investors but we need to look beyond that. Early warning system will be aimed at picking signs at a nascent stages. We
have to chalk out the finer points of this system.
Several questions have also been raised on the role of independent directors. Is the current system flawed?
We have very strong guidelines but now we have to strengthen and tighten them further and take them to the next level. Accountability is key and we will see how this can be further enhanced and naturally the role of independent directors would be crucial.
The new Companies Bill which we intend to introduce in Parliament at the earliest has already dealt with several of these issues.
How do you plan to protect the small investor?
Protection of small investor is our focus. The small investor needs to be given some special rights. We need to demystify corporate governance for the aam admi (common man) It is important to speak a language which does not sound like a mystery.
When do you plan to take up the new Companies Bill?
It is a priority, but in view of the Satyam case, do we need to review the bill? That is something we need to see.
The Satyam episode has so far remained an isolated case. But how would you ensure that in future a scandal of this magnitude does not recur?
It is extremely important to ensure that there are no more Satyam-like cases here. We are planning to put in place an early warning system to be able to detect any early sign. We have already said that this will be priority for us.
Routine surveys take place by auditors and if there are complaints from investors but we need to look beyond that. Early warning system will be aimed at picking signs at a nascent stages. We
have to chalk out the finer points of this system.
Several questions have also been raised on the role of independent directors. Is the current system flawed?
We have very strong guidelines but now we have to strengthen and tighten them further and take them to the next level. Accountability is key and we will see how this can be further enhanced and naturally the role of independent directors would be crucial.
The new Companies Bill which we intend to introduce in Parliament at the earliest has already dealt with several of these issues.
How do you plan to protect the small investor?
Protection of small investor is our focus. The small investor needs to be given some special rights. We need to demystify corporate governance for the aam admi (common man) It is important to speak a language which does not sound like a mystery.
When do you plan to take up the new Companies Bill?
It is a priority, but in view of the Satyam case, do we need to review the bill? That is something we need to see.
13 killed in Peru as Indians battle police
Protests by indigenous communities over oil drilling and mining in the Peruvian Amazon region turned violent Friday, leaving at least 13 people dead in clashes with police and subsequent rioting.
According to local officials, nine police officers and four Indians were killed in an early morning confrontation on a road between Jaen and Bagua in northern Peru and in the protests that followed. The Bagua public defender's office said 45 people were injured.
Violence continued throughout much of the day. Rioters sacked city offices, the local headquarters of President Alan Garcia's political party and 50 stores.
Some reports said the death toll was even higher. One said protesters were holding 38 police officers hostage and threatening to kill them unless the police withdrew.
The Health Ministry said it was sending emergency teams of doctors and paramedics to the area, raising concern that the casualty totals were far higher than officially reported.
Tensions between the indigenous communities and the government have been boiling since early April, when tribal members began protesting Garcia's granting of mineral development rights to foreign companies. Half a dozen indigenous communities claim the jungle as their ancestral lands.
The government regards mineral and oil resources as national property that is crucial to Peru's economic development. The nation's booming mining industry has been essential to its rapid growth in recent years.
Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas declared a curfew Friday, but it wasn't clear whether police had control of the area.
The clash between protesters and security forces occurred after the government sent 650 police officers to clear protesters from the Fernando Belaunde Highway, a main thoroughfare in the Amazon region.
Police officers said the Indians fired first. Cabanillas said Indians took weapons from the officers and used them against members of the force.
There were reports of protesters dragging the bodies of police officers through the streets.
Spokesmen for the umbrella indigenous group known as AIDESEP said in Lima, the capital, that it was the police who set off the violence.
"We are sad and outraged by how the government has assassinated our brothers who were struggling peacefully," said Agustina Mayan, an AIDESEP spokeswoman. "Today the government has persisted in hunting down and kidnapping us."
Protests by the indigenous communities against oil and gas exploration have intensified in recent weeks, with the closing of several roads and waterways.
In mid-May, demonstrators succeeded in shutting down an oil pipeline operated by PetroPeru by taking over a pump station.
The government attempted to negotiate with the tribes, but Garcia lost patience and called on Cabinet ministers to "assume your responsibilities."
"This is why we have been elected, not to wash our hands, while we are left with no gas and petroleum," Garcia said. "Is that what people want?"
Kraul and Leon are special correspondents.
According to local officials, nine police officers and four Indians were killed in an early morning confrontation on a road between Jaen and Bagua in northern Peru and in the protests that followed. The Bagua public defender's office said 45 people were injured.
Violence continued throughout much of the day. Rioters sacked city offices, the local headquarters of President Alan Garcia's political party and 50 stores.
Some reports said the death toll was even higher. One said protesters were holding 38 police officers hostage and threatening to kill them unless the police withdrew.
The Health Ministry said it was sending emergency teams of doctors and paramedics to the area, raising concern that the casualty totals were far higher than officially reported.
Tensions between the indigenous communities and the government have been boiling since early April, when tribal members began protesting Garcia's granting of mineral development rights to foreign companies. Half a dozen indigenous communities claim the jungle as their ancestral lands.
The government regards mineral and oil resources as national property that is crucial to Peru's economic development. The nation's booming mining industry has been essential to its rapid growth in recent years.
Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas declared a curfew Friday, but it wasn't clear whether police had control of the area.
The clash between protesters and security forces occurred after the government sent 650 police officers to clear protesters from the Fernando Belaunde Highway, a main thoroughfare in the Amazon region.
Police officers said the Indians fired first. Cabanillas said Indians took weapons from the officers and used them against members of the force.
There were reports of protesters dragging the bodies of police officers through the streets.
Spokesmen for the umbrella indigenous group known as AIDESEP said in Lima, the capital, that it was the police who set off the violence.
"We are sad and outraged by how the government has assassinated our brothers who were struggling peacefully," said Agustina Mayan, an AIDESEP spokeswoman. "Today the government has persisted in hunting down and kidnapping us."
Protests by the indigenous communities against oil and gas exploration have intensified in recent weeks, with the closing of several roads and waterways.
In mid-May, demonstrators succeeded in shutting down an oil pipeline operated by PetroPeru by taking over a pump station.
The government attempted to negotiate with the tribes, but Garcia lost patience and called on Cabinet ministers to "assume your responsibilities."
"This is why we have been elected, not to wash our hands, while we are left with no gas and petroleum," Garcia said. "Is that what people want?"
Kraul and Leon are special correspondents.
First Couple's date night a fascination and inspiration
During a highly unscientific survey in front of the Papaya Dog, where the special is "2 eggs, potatoes and toast, 99 cents," New Yorkers revealed that they are, in fact, hopeless romantics.
Days after President Obama took his wife for a pricey night out on this town, the orchestrated whining about taxpayers footing the $81,000 tab was getting a big Bronx cheer all week.
"Eighty-one thousand dollars or 81 cents, that's what keeps a relationship going," said David Slurff, a construction worker who spent the last 17 days straight pulling out the seats of the old Yankee Stadium. He firmly believes a little time with your sweetheart is how relationships survive the insanity of 21st century life.
It turns out "date night" -- along with text messaging, Swiffer mops and frozen Hot Pockets -- is now an official staple of modern marriage. Experts say a night out -- or in, whatever works, as long as it's just the two of you -- is one easy cure for the inevitable marital drift that sets in when the BlackBerry won't stop buzzing and the kids suck all the oxygen out of the house.
"It's the thing that grounds us, makes us sit across the table from one another and say, 'Hey, I remember you,' " said Pepper Schwartz, chief relationships expert for Perfectmatch.com.
Our parents did some version of it, cards and cocktails with the neighbors, but our generation had to elevate it to a term of art. And now the impossibly elegant Obamas -- he was sleek and tie-less, she wore black -- have only raised the bar with a third date night since Inauguration Day.
They flew to John F. Kennedy International Airport in a mini Air Force One, (who knew it came in mini?) helicoptered into Manhattan, ate organic in a chic Greenwich Village restaurant (known to elicit "ecstatic whispering about the quality of summer peas") and saw a play that didn't even have show tunes.
This opened a floodgate for detractors, mostly Republicans, who squawked that the First Couple's motorcade had inconvenienced much of New York and blown a wad of taxpayer money just as General Motors was going belly up.
"Oh, please," said Chaya Kennedy, a 31-year-old office manager who is divorced, but ever hopeful. "Would we rather he'd be like other politicians and spend it on a prostitute? At least he spent it on his wife."
Even some (cranky) Democrats of the male persuasion took off on the debonair president as a bit of a "rate buster" who was making the rest of the guys look bad.
"Take it down a notch, dude . . . " the Daily Show's Jon Stewart bellyached. "By the end of your term, you're having NASA write her name on the moon in laser."
If all this blather about one Saturday night feels like last week's jelly doughnuts when everyone else has moved on to Obama's speech to the world's Muslims, then why were the tabloids still honking about "President Obama and Michelle's Picture Perfect Marriage" even as he was en route to Saudi Arabia?
Everyone from marriage counselors to suddenly sentimental New Yorkers getting a cheap breakfast across from the Empire State Building would say it's because the president is on to something.
"Behind every great man is a strong woman, and she needs to be appreciated," said Lenny Renny, 49, who married shortly after arriving in New York 20 years ago from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia and treats his own strong woman "like a morning flower." The night the Obamas were out on the town he was home in Brooklyn, cooking his wife a birthday dinner of chicken and rice.
As much as we hate to admit it, the more the Obamas date, the greater the national fascination: How do they do it?
For a lot of us, a date night generally means a burger down the block and, maybe, a deftly timed movie if three more hours doesn't mean the sitter ends up costing more than dinner. Women's magazines love to think up imaginative ways for married people to reconnect. As in: Get a fondue pot and have a feast! Add a French movie and French kiss all night! Make a finger-foods-only dinner and feed each other!
Such contortions fatigue us. Wasn't the whole point supposed to be that we wouldn't have to feed anybody?
Perhaps, as the Republicans insist, the Obamas were "putting on a show" winging it to the Big Apple. But this isn't about partisan politics. These public displays of a wedded White House bliss are increasingly compared to the Reagans', except the Obamas are managing to make time for each other with two kids and a puppy.
Seeing the First Couple out once in a while or holding hands just might be something for us to aspire to: a table set for two, sport coat, high heels, a real conversation.
We can do that.
Yes we can.
Days after President Obama took his wife for a pricey night out on this town, the orchestrated whining about taxpayers footing the $81,000 tab was getting a big Bronx cheer all week.
"Eighty-one thousand dollars or 81 cents, that's what keeps a relationship going," said David Slurff, a construction worker who spent the last 17 days straight pulling out the seats of the old Yankee Stadium. He firmly believes a little time with your sweetheart is how relationships survive the insanity of 21st century life.
It turns out "date night" -- along with text messaging, Swiffer mops and frozen Hot Pockets -- is now an official staple of modern marriage. Experts say a night out -- or in, whatever works, as long as it's just the two of you -- is one easy cure for the inevitable marital drift that sets in when the BlackBerry won't stop buzzing and the kids suck all the oxygen out of the house.
"It's the thing that grounds us, makes us sit across the table from one another and say, 'Hey, I remember you,' " said Pepper Schwartz, chief relationships expert for Perfectmatch.com.
Our parents did some version of it, cards and cocktails with the neighbors, but our generation had to elevate it to a term of art. And now the impossibly elegant Obamas -- he was sleek and tie-less, she wore black -- have only raised the bar with a third date night since Inauguration Day.
They flew to John F. Kennedy International Airport in a mini Air Force One, (who knew it came in mini?) helicoptered into Manhattan, ate organic in a chic Greenwich Village restaurant (known to elicit "ecstatic whispering about the quality of summer peas") and saw a play that didn't even have show tunes.
This opened a floodgate for detractors, mostly Republicans, who squawked that the First Couple's motorcade had inconvenienced much of New York and blown a wad of taxpayer money just as General Motors was going belly up.
"Oh, please," said Chaya Kennedy, a 31-year-old office manager who is divorced, but ever hopeful. "Would we rather he'd be like other politicians and spend it on a prostitute? At least he spent it on his wife."
Even some (cranky) Democrats of the male persuasion took off on the debonair president as a bit of a "rate buster" who was making the rest of the guys look bad.
"Take it down a notch, dude . . . " the Daily Show's Jon Stewart bellyached. "By the end of your term, you're having NASA write her name on the moon in laser."
If all this blather about one Saturday night feels like last week's jelly doughnuts when everyone else has moved on to Obama's speech to the world's Muslims, then why were the tabloids still honking about "President Obama and Michelle's Picture Perfect Marriage" even as he was en route to Saudi Arabia?
Everyone from marriage counselors to suddenly sentimental New Yorkers getting a cheap breakfast across from the Empire State Building would say it's because the president is on to something.
"Behind every great man is a strong woman, and she needs to be appreciated," said Lenny Renny, 49, who married shortly after arriving in New York 20 years ago from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia and treats his own strong woman "like a morning flower." The night the Obamas were out on the town he was home in Brooklyn, cooking his wife a birthday dinner of chicken and rice.
As much as we hate to admit it, the more the Obamas date, the greater the national fascination: How do they do it?
For a lot of us, a date night generally means a burger down the block and, maybe, a deftly timed movie if three more hours doesn't mean the sitter ends up costing more than dinner. Women's magazines love to think up imaginative ways for married people to reconnect. As in: Get a fondue pot and have a feast! Add a French movie and French kiss all night! Make a finger-foods-only dinner and feed each other!
Such contortions fatigue us. Wasn't the whole point supposed to be that we wouldn't have to feed anybody?
Perhaps, as the Republicans insist, the Obamas were "putting on a show" winging it to the Big Apple. But this isn't about partisan politics. These public displays of a wedded White House bliss are increasingly compared to the Reagans', except the Obamas are managing to make time for each other with two kids and a puppy.
Seeing the First Couple out once in a while or holding hands just might be something for us to aspire to: a table set for two, sport coat, high heels, a real conversation.
We can do that.
Yes we can.
Private insurance companies push for 'individual mandate'
Some may find it hard to believe that the U.S. health insurance industry supports making major changes to the nation's healthcare system.
The industry, after all, scuttled President Clinton's healthcare overhaul bid with ads featuring "Harry and Louise" fretting about change.
But this time, it turns out, the health insurance industry has good reason to support at least some change: It needs it.
Private health insurance faces a bleak future if the proposal they champion most vigorously -- a requirement that everyone buy medical coverage -- is not adopted.
The customer base for private insurance has slipped since 2000, when soaring premiums began driving people out. The recession has accelerated the problem. But even after the economy recovers, the downward spiral is expected to continue for years as baby boomers become eligible for Medicare -- and stop buying private insurance.
Insurers do not embrace all of the healthcare restructuring proposals. But they are fighting hard for a purchase requirement, sweetened with taxpayer-funded subsidies for customers who can't afford to buy it on their own, and enforced with fines.
Such a so-called individual mandate amounts to a huge booster shot for health insurers, serving up millions of new customers almost overnight.
"I think that's why we've seen the industry basically trying to play the administration's game," said Jane DuBose, an analyst with HealthLeaders-InterStudy, an industry tracking firm. "They really could be licking their chops over the potential here."
The industry says its interest in change flows not from narrow self-interest but from broader concerns.
"What's driving this is we have 47 million people who don't have access to the system, who get help through emergency rooms and that results in higher costs and inefficient care," said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans. "There's both a social and economic reason to get everybody in the healthcare system."
Jay Gellert, chief executive of Woodland Hills-based Health Net, said industry support for certain changes is driven by "a recognition that public frustration with many of the problems in the system are increasing pretty significantly. So I think there's as much of a commitment to this because we've seen other industries where they haven't dealt with issues early enough, like financial services and auto, and that's not a happy place."
Still, industry observers say, private insurers need the government's help in transforming some of the nation's 45 million uninsured residents into paying customers.
Private health insurers lost an estimated 9 million customers between 2000 and 2007. In many cases, people lost coverage because they or their employers could no longer afford it as premium increases outpaced wage growth and inflation.
Recession job losses are adding to the toll. Some economists estimate that every percentage-point increase in the jobless rate adds 1 million people to the ranks of the uninsured.
The industry's real trouble begins in 2011, when 79 million baby boomers begin turning 65. Health insurers stand to lose a huge slice of their commercially insured enrollment (estimated at 162 million to 172 million people) over the next two decades to Medicare, the government-funded health insurance program for seniors.
"The rate of aging far and away exceeds the birth rate," said Sheryl Skolnick, a CRT Capital Group healthcare investment analyst. "That's got to be very scary. . . . This is the biggest fight for survival managed care has ever faced, at least since they went bankrupt in the late '80s."
With Democrats in power and public sentiment strongly in favor of change, the industry can't afford to just say, "No; we're against this," said Julius Hobson, a Washington, D.C., lobbyist for hospitals and insurers with law firm Bryan Cave.
"This time, you get the sense something is going to happen," he said. "So to stand up and just say no is probably not wise, because politically you could get run over."
For insurers, getting "run over" would be the adoption of a so-called single-payer plan, where the government pays all medical bills. Such a plan would wreak havoc on the private insurance market, and is widely viewed as politically unfeasible this year.
So the best way for the industry to preserve the private insurance market -- and derail the campaign for a single-payer system -- may be to go along with more palatable proposals on the table now, said Jeffrey Miles, a healthcare analyst and president of the Miles Organization, a Los Angeles insurance brokerage firm.
"If healthcare goes down this year, you are going to end up with single-payer care much sooner than anyone expected," he said.
But there is a limit to how much change the industry will abide. It draws the line at proposals, supported by President Obama and others, to offer consumers a public insurance alternative to private coverage.
The idea is that consumers could buy into a government-run health plan, such as or similar to Medicare or the federal employees insurance program.
Proponents say that if consumers are required to buy coverage, it is only fair to give them a public option.
In a recent letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), for example, Jerry Flanagan of the Santa Monica-based advocacy group Consumer Watchdog wrote that adopting an individual mandate without a public alternative would amount to "a bailout for HMOs -- whose greed, waste and indifference to our health have created the current mess."
The industry fears that the government would force lower fees on hospitals and physicians, enabling a public health insurance plan to offer consumers a better bargain.
That, they say, would make it hard for private companies to compete for customers. Insurers also fear that a public option could easily be converted later into a single-payer healthcare system.
Health insurers don't see a public plan "as the nose of the camel under the tent; they see it as the front half of the camel under the tent," said Robert Laszewski, a former insurance company executive and industry consultant.
"They are interested in 45 million new customers," he said, "but the first thing in everybody's mind is preserving their right to do business in a way that can be profitable and meet shareholder needs."
The industry, after all, scuttled President Clinton's healthcare overhaul bid with ads featuring "Harry and Louise" fretting about change.
But this time, it turns out, the health insurance industry has good reason to support at least some change: It needs it.
Private health insurance faces a bleak future if the proposal they champion most vigorously -- a requirement that everyone buy medical coverage -- is not adopted.
The customer base for private insurance has slipped since 2000, when soaring premiums began driving people out. The recession has accelerated the problem. But even after the economy recovers, the downward spiral is expected to continue for years as baby boomers become eligible for Medicare -- and stop buying private insurance.
Insurers do not embrace all of the healthcare restructuring proposals. But they are fighting hard for a purchase requirement, sweetened with taxpayer-funded subsidies for customers who can't afford to buy it on their own, and enforced with fines.
Such a so-called individual mandate amounts to a huge booster shot for health insurers, serving up millions of new customers almost overnight.
"I think that's why we've seen the industry basically trying to play the administration's game," said Jane DuBose, an analyst with HealthLeaders-InterStudy, an industry tracking firm. "They really could be licking their chops over the potential here."
The industry says its interest in change flows not from narrow self-interest but from broader concerns.
"What's driving this is we have 47 million people who don't have access to the system, who get help through emergency rooms and that results in higher costs and inefficient care," said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans. "There's both a social and economic reason to get everybody in the healthcare system."
Jay Gellert, chief executive of Woodland Hills-based Health Net, said industry support for certain changes is driven by "a recognition that public frustration with many of the problems in the system are increasing pretty significantly. So I think there's as much of a commitment to this because we've seen other industries where they haven't dealt with issues early enough, like financial services and auto, and that's not a happy place."
Still, industry observers say, private insurers need the government's help in transforming some of the nation's 45 million uninsured residents into paying customers.
Private health insurers lost an estimated 9 million customers between 2000 and 2007. In many cases, people lost coverage because they or their employers could no longer afford it as premium increases outpaced wage growth and inflation.
Recession job losses are adding to the toll. Some economists estimate that every percentage-point increase in the jobless rate adds 1 million people to the ranks of the uninsured.
The industry's real trouble begins in 2011, when 79 million baby boomers begin turning 65. Health insurers stand to lose a huge slice of their commercially insured enrollment (estimated at 162 million to 172 million people) over the next two decades to Medicare, the government-funded health insurance program for seniors.
"The rate of aging far and away exceeds the birth rate," said Sheryl Skolnick, a CRT Capital Group healthcare investment analyst. "That's got to be very scary. . . . This is the biggest fight for survival managed care has ever faced, at least since they went bankrupt in the late '80s."
With Democrats in power and public sentiment strongly in favor of change, the industry can't afford to just say, "No; we're against this," said Julius Hobson, a Washington, D.C., lobbyist for hospitals and insurers with law firm Bryan Cave.
"This time, you get the sense something is going to happen," he said. "So to stand up and just say no is probably not wise, because politically you could get run over."
For insurers, getting "run over" would be the adoption of a so-called single-payer plan, where the government pays all medical bills. Such a plan would wreak havoc on the private insurance market, and is widely viewed as politically unfeasible this year.
So the best way for the industry to preserve the private insurance market -- and derail the campaign for a single-payer system -- may be to go along with more palatable proposals on the table now, said Jeffrey Miles, a healthcare analyst and president of the Miles Organization, a Los Angeles insurance brokerage firm.
"If healthcare goes down this year, you are going to end up with single-payer care much sooner than anyone expected," he said.
But there is a limit to how much change the industry will abide. It draws the line at proposals, supported by President Obama and others, to offer consumers a public insurance alternative to private coverage.
The idea is that consumers could buy into a government-run health plan, such as or similar to Medicare or the federal employees insurance program.
Proponents say that if consumers are required to buy coverage, it is only fair to give them a public option.
In a recent letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), for example, Jerry Flanagan of the Santa Monica-based advocacy group Consumer Watchdog wrote that adopting an individual mandate without a public alternative would amount to "a bailout for HMOs -- whose greed, waste and indifference to our health have created the current mess."
The industry fears that the government would force lower fees on hospitals and physicians, enabling a public health insurance plan to offer consumers a better bargain.
That, they say, would make it hard for private companies to compete for customers. Insurers also fear that a public option could easily be converted later into a single-payer healthcare system.
Health insurers don't see a public plan "as the nose of the camel under the tent; they see it as the front half of the camel under the tent," said Robert Laszewski, a former insurance company executive and industry consultant.
"They are interested in 45 million new customers," he said, "but the first thing in everybody's mind is preserving their right to do business in a way that can be profitable and meet shareholder needs."
Women Bridging Gap in Science Opportunities
The prospects for women who are scientists and engineers at major research universities have improved, although women continue to face inequalities in salary and access to some other resources, a panel of the National Research Council concludes in a new report.
In recent years “men and women faculty in science, engineering and mathematics have enjoyed comparable opportunities,” the panel said in its report, released on Tuesday. It found that women who apply for university jobs and, once they have them, for promotion and tenure, are at least as likely to succeed as men. But compared with their numbers among new Ph.D.’s, women are still underrepresented in applicant pools, a puzzle that offers an opportunity for further research, the panel said.
The panel said one factor outshined all others in encouraging women to apply for jobs: having women on the committees appointed to fill them.
In another report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Wisconsin reviewed a variety of studies and concluded that the achievement gap between boys and girls in mathematics performance had narrowed to the vanishing point.
“U.S. girls have now reached parity with boys, even in high school and even for measures requiring complex problem solving,” the Wisconsin researchers said. Although girls are still underrepresented in the ranks of young math prodigies, they said, that gap is narrowing, which undermines claims that a greater prevalence of profound mathematical talent in males is biologically determined. The researchers said this and other phenomena “provide abundant evidence for the impact of sociocultural and other environmental factors on the development of mathematical skills and talent and the size, if any, of math gender gaps.”
The research council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, convened its expert panel at the request of Congress. The panel surveyed six disciplines — biology, chemistry, mathematics, civil and electrical engineering and physics — and based its analysis on interviews with faculty members at 89 institutions and data from federal agencies, professional societies and other sources.
The panel was led by Claude Canizares, a physicist who is vice president for research at M.I.T., and Dr. Sally Shaywitz of Yale Medical School, an expert on learning.
The Wisconsin researchers, Janet S. Hyde and Janet E. Mertz, studied data from 10 states collected in tests mandated by the No Child Left Behind legislation as well as data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal testing program. Differences between girls’ and boys’ performance in the 10 states were “close to zero in all grades,” they said, even in high schools were gaps existed earlier. In the national assessment, they said, differences between girls’ and boys’ performance were “trivial.”
In recent years “men and women faculty in science, engineering and mathematics have enjoyed comparable opportunities,” the panel said in its report, released on Tuesday. It found that women who apply for university jobs and, once they have them, for promotion and tenure, are at least as likely to succeed as men. But compared with their numbers among new Ph.D.’s, women are still underrepresented in applicant pools, a puzzle that offers an opportunity for further research, the panel said.
The panel said one factor outshined all others in encouraging women to apply for jobs: having women on the committees appointed to fill them.
In another report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Wisconsin reviewed a variety of studies and concluded that the achievement gap between boys and girls in mathematics performance had narrowed to the vanishing point.
“U.S. girls have now reached parity with boys, even in high school and even for measures requiring complex problem solving,” the Wisconsin researchers said. Although girls are still underrepresented in the ranks of young math prodigies, they said, that gap is narrowing, which undermines claims that a greater prevalence of profound mathematical talent in males is biologically determined. The researchers said this and other phenomena “provide abundant evidence for the impact of sociocultural and other environmental factors on the development of mathematical skills and talent and the size, if any, of math gender gaps.”
The research council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, convened its expert panel at the request of Congress. The panel surveyed six disciplines — biology, chemistry, mathematics, civil and electrical engineering and physics — and based its analysis on interviews with faculty members at 89 institutions and data from federal agencies, professional societies and other sources.
The panel was led by Claude Canizares, a physicist who is vice president for research at M.I.T., and Dr. Sally Shaywitz of Yale Medical School, an expert on learning.
The Wisconsin researchers, Janet S. Hyde and Janet E. Mertz, studied data from 10 states collected in tests mandated by the No Child Left Behind legislation as well as data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal testing program. Differences between girls’ and boys’ performance in the 10 states were “close to zero in all grades,” they said, even in high schools were gaps existed earlier. In the national assessment, they said, differences between girls’ and boys’ performance were “trivial.”
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