Eric Schmidt to Step Down as Alphabet’s Executive Chairman
December 22, 2017 by admin
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Internally at Google, the inclusion of Mr. Pichai in Mr. Schmidt’s statement on Thursday, alongside the names of Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, was seen as a passing of the torch and the creation of a new power triumvirate.
Mr. Page, in a statement on Thursday, alluded to the new generation at Alphabet and Google. “I’m incredibly excited about the progress our companies are making, and about the strong leaders who are driving that innovation,” he said.
For years, Mr. Schmidt served as a buffer for the company, smoothing relationships with regulators and the broader tech industry, said John Battelle, author of “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.”
“He did a lot of that important public facing work on behalf of the company,” he said. “At a moment when the world needs to have more conversations with Google about its growing power and influence, my question is not why is Eric stepping down. It’s who is going to fill the void.”
Mr. Page and Mr. Brin have largely avoided public events, with Mr. Page having a medical ailment that has made public speaking difficult and Mr. Brin focusing on the company’s more experimental projects. Mr. Pichai has tended to speak mostly about products and services, instead of policy.
Through a Google spokesman, Mr. Schmidt declined to comment.
Mr. Schmidt has been marginalized over time at Alphabet through a combination of its changing leadership, the shifting political environment in the United States, and his own personal gaffes, according to people familiar with the company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Since 2011, Mr. Schmidt has been a go-between for the company in Washington — some people internally referred to his role as Google’s secretary of state. During President Barack Obama’s administration, Mr. Schmidt, who has supported many Democratic politicians, prominently represented Google on policy matters. He also gave money and technical assistance to Hillary Clinton’s campaign team during the 2016 presidential race.
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But since President Trump came to office, Mr. Schmidt’s standing has changed. He has been eclipsed in Washington by others at Google, including Susan Molinari, a former Republican Congresswoman from New York, said some of the people familiar with the company. Google also has new Washington staff members such as Max Pappas, a longtime political operative who has a relationship with Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who support conservative causes. In the meantime, Google is under fire, along with other tech giants, as legislators seek to deal with the perceived monopolies these companies have.
In a time of heightened scrutiny on workplace behavior and sexual harassment, Mr. Schmidt’s personal life has also attracted attention. While he is married, he has brought a series of girlfriends to corporate events over the years. Though Mr. Schmidt’s relationships were outside the office, the fact that they were carried out publicly and that the women attended professional events with him set the tone for other executives, several former Google executives said.
Some gaffes by Mr. Schmidt over the years have also received attention.
In a 2009 interview on CNBC, for instance, Mr. Schmidt said something about Google users’ concerns about privacy that still haunts the company today: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Google has also had to tamp down reports that Mr. Schmidt sought to remove personal information, including about political donations, from the search engine, which he has denied.
In August, Mr. Schmidt thrust Google into a negative spotlight when Barry C. Lynn, a scholar at the New America Foundation, claimed that the executive had forced him out for applauding the European Union’s decision to levy a record $2.7 billion fine against the company. Google has denied the claim.
Google has donated more than $21 million to the New America Foundation and helped make the foundation one of the most influential policy voices in progressive politics. After the incident, Mr. Schmidt lost some of the cachet he had built up in government circles, according to two people with knowledge of the incident.
Mr. Schmidt has not kept his head down. He has still been seen at some of the company’s weekly Friday meetings, which are called TGIF, according to Google employees.
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Obamacare Sign-ups at High Levels Despite Trump Saying It’s ‘Imploding’
December 22, 2017 by admin
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Republican efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act this year had an unintended effect: They heightened public awareness of the law and, according to opinion polls, galvanized support for it among consumers who feared that it might be taken away.
“It’s incredible how many people signed up for coverage this year,” said Lori Lodes, an Obama administration official and a founder of Get America Covered, a nonprofit group.
But the strong demand for insurance through the Affordable Care Act could set off new efforts to dismantle the law.
The tax cut that Mr. Trump will soon sign repeals the Affordable Care Act’s tax penalties for most Americans who go without insurance, starting in 2019. The president said Wednesday that with elimination of the individual mandate, the health law is being effectively repealed, a statement that is untrue given the law’s expansion of Medicaid, the continued guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and the subsidies still available to millions of people with low or moderate income.
And some Republicans signaled they have not given up. “By eliminating the individual mandate in the tax bill,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said Thursday on Twitter, “we have pulled one of the pillars of Obamacare out. But by no means has Obamacare been repealed or replaced.”
Mr. Graham said that Republican leaders were “sadly mistaken” if they thought there would not be another effort to repeal and replace Obamacare in 2018.
But his leadership might not be with him, especially in an election year when the Republicans are facing a stiff headwind.
Healthcare.gov Enrollment
This year’s enrollment in Affordable Care Act marketplaces was not far below last year, even as the Trump administration cut the advertising budget and shortened the sign-up period.
Last year
9.2 million
This year
8.8 million
This year’s signup period was only 45 days. Last year’s was about twice as long.
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15
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“I think we’ll probably move on to other issues,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, told National Public Radio when asked about Affordable Care Act repeal.
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The sign-up numbers seemed to indicate that despite all the politics, millions need the insurance. Nearly half of all plan selections this year — 4.1 million of the 8.8 million — occurred in the last week of open enrollment. More than one-fourth of the people who signed up this year — 2.4 million — were new customers, and 6.4 million people returned to HealthCare.gov to select plans or were automatically re-enrolled.
Those large numbers came in the face of big challenges. Before the enrollment period, which ran from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, many insurers announced big rate increases for 2018. The Trump administration cut the budget for advertising to promote enrollment and greatly reduced grants to insurance counselors, known as navigators, who help people sign up for coverage.
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In the first nine months of this year, Republicans tried repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, continually criticized it and asserted that health insurance markets were collapsing. Mr. Trump highlighted huge increases in premiums without noting that many consumers were eligible for federal subsidies that help cover the extra cost.
For weeks, consumers have been confused about whether they would be subject to penalties for going without insurance.
The report Thursday shows sign-ups by people in 39 states that use HealthCare.gov. It does not include activity in 11 states that operate their own insurance exchanges and are also reporting strong enrollment. In some of those states, consumers have more time to sign up. The deadline is Jan. 14 in Minnesota, Jan. 15 in Washington State and Jan. 31 in California and New York.
In addition, people losing coverage because their insurer withdrew from the marketplace may qualify for a special enrollment period providing 60 additional days to sign up for a health plan.
More than 80 percent of people buying insurance through the marketplace qualify for subsidies to help pay premiums. The Trump administration said in October that the average subsidy in states using the federal marketplace would be $555 a month next year, up 45 percent from this year.
Among states using the federal exchange, the largest numbers of sign-ups this year were in Florida (1.7 million), Texas (1.1 million), North Carolina (524,000), Georgia (483,000), Virginia (403,000), Pennsylvania (397,000) and Illinois (340,000).
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Federal officials reported a huge surge of activity near the end of open enrollment. In Florida, more than 700,000 people selected plans or were automatically enrolled in the final week, and in Texas, the number was more than 550,000.
Ms. Verma tried over the summer to persuade Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but on Thursday, she boasted about how well the law’s insurance marketplace — under new management — was meeting the needs of consumers.
The Trump administration, she said, spent only $10 million on marketing and outreach to consumers, or just over $1 for each person who signed up. By contrast, she said, the Obama administration spent a total of $100 million last year, or nearly $11 for each person who signed up.
Moreover, Ms. Verma said, the Trump administration “took a more cost-effective approach” that emphasized the use of digital advertising and email to reach consumers.
While cutting the budget for navigator groups, the Trump administration encouraged the use of insurance agents and brokers, saying it wanted to “shift away from the government selling a private product.”
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