this is a great product being offered by united health care.ut enabled by the sponsored data offering. the customers use the video without charging their data buck. and they get great advice to lead a healthier life. >> it's a good customer decision and a good business decision if they encourage just enough of the right demographic to take care of their health. for companies like google, facebook, that have figured out how to monetize mobile. they might jump into this, too, to accelerate growth, right? >> those companies, the companies that make movies. wouldn't you want to watch a trailer to the latest movie free, off data charges? and if you like it -- >> free data. >> there you go. this is a breakthrough. we're the first in the industry to roll it out. and we already have three customers on the stage today that are going to try it. and we feel like it's an exciting future for us. >> melissa lee has a question. back to nasdaq? >> i thought we were wrapping. thanks for the interview. we'll see you later on here. later, we will hear from john w

by united health care. care. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans.t pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. to me, relationships matter. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. so don't wait. call now and request this free decision guide to help you better understand medicare... and which aarp medicare supplement plan might be best for you. the

say the selection problems are much worse and the mix is bad of the there is an interesting united health care that is one of the largest insurers in the country who chose to participate and a few exchanges. they thought the problems were going to be so bad. their ceo this week said their enrollment was so low that they could send a gift basket to every one of their enrollees, and that this was good for shareholders because losses would be limited. >> should republicans run against this idea that there will be an insurance bailout? there is part of obamacare that says if the pool is as bad as joe says it is, there are mechanisms by which the hhs will provide money to offset some of those losses. this is part of the law. it is designed to -- it was written into the law, but there are some republicans like marco rubio saying, you know what, this is an insurance bailout. should republicans be making this case? >> we shouldn't be supporting bail yowls whether they are in finance -- >> no, they are against the bailout. >> that's right. marco rubio is absolutely right. there is an old expression abo

there was an interesting united health care, one of the largest insurers in the country, chose to participate in just a few exchanges because they thought the problems would be so bad. their ceo this week said their enrollment was so low they could send a gift basket to every one of their enrollees and this is a good thing for shareholders. >> should republicans run against this idea there is going to be an insurance bailout? there is part of obama care that says if the pool is as bad as joe said it is, there are mechanisms which hhs will provide money, reinsurance pool to offset some of those losses. this is part of the law. it's designed to -- it was written into the law. there are some republicans like marco rubio saying this is an insurance bailout. >> we shouldn't be supporting bailouts for failing industries. >> republicans are against the bailout. >> right. i think marco rubio is absolutely right. there is an old expression about lying in the bed you make. the health care industry, the health insurers certainly were in this bed with the obama administration preparing obamacare. there s

don't stop thinking about tomorrow ♪ >> announcer: "world news now" weather brought to you by united health careou by united health care. >>> it looks so incredibly cold. welcome back. as we continue our coverage of the big storm hitting the northeast this morning, this is a live picture you're looking at of the george washington bridge from ft. lee, new jersey. the snow is still coming down. new jersey and new york city are expected to get six to ten inches of snow before it's all done. >> welcome back, everyone. >>> with the rush hour just a few hours away, road crews are busy this morning trying to keep up with all of the snow. >> joining us by phone is joe dine, spokesman for the new jersey department of transportation. thanks for joining us. great to hear from you. first, how are the crews making out this morning? >> well, they've been going since roughly dinnertime yesterday. and they've been going nonstop. so the roads are snow covered but still passable. it's been -- it's just been a nonstop operation for the last nine hours. and we're expecting the snow to continue for at least another

. >>> united health care was another dow component out with earnings. quarterly profits rose 15% as more people enrolled in its insurance plans. but unh said implementing the new health law and private medicare funding cuts will eat into 2014 profits. the stock was the biggest decliner in the dow today, falling nearly 3%. >>> and some other big financial firms reported today with mixed results. profits at citi group rose 21% as expenses declined and it set aside less money for bad loans. net income at pnc shot up 46%, mostly by originating more loans especially in commercial real estate. and black rock the world's largest money manager had higher profits on more money coming into its exchange-traded funds. and it was a mixed finish for all three stocks today. two up, pnc and black rock, one down, citi group by about 4%. >>> still ahead on "nightly business report," last year was the driest on record for california. now farms are being forced to make some tough decisions. and that could mean higher food prices for you. >>> we don't note full extent of wh

. >> "world news now" weather brought to you by united health care. ng life ahead. big plans.ance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. to me, relationships matter. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. so don't wait. call now and request this free decision guide to help you better understand medicare... and which aarp medicare supplement plan might be best for you. there's a wide range to choose from. we love to travel -- and there's so much more to see. so we

welcome julie from united health care.e was the arkansas insurance commissioner in my tenure as governor and my appointee. >> the state's attorney general foiled a lawsuit saying that what the obama administration has done is illegal. why do you think that the lawsuit has merit? >> well, because i think they are exactly right. by excutive order, you can't just change what congress has passed. he can't just go in there and say oh, well, i know this was law, but it is not working and we don't like it. we'll change it on a whim. it will not work. >> a lot of people don't understand the process. he said we'll go a head and let the states if they want to keep the insurance, as a state insurance commissioner, you know that brings havoc to the industry. explain to the audience why does that make a big deal to the companies and regulators? >> there are so many things in the 2,000 pages and man dates and directives, and so many time lines to me, not only on the insurance state government, and on the federal government itself. it ju

we know that she was insured by united health care. we don't know because of hippa laws who will pay for this and what type of coverage she has. there could be a legal battle because the family has fought to take her off of the ventilator. so perhaps they may not want to pay for the bill. i want to move out of the way here so you can see this memorial set up here. i spoep to a few of them earlier. that the fetus -- >> such a tough tough story. hundreds of passengers sickened aboard a screcruise ship. but first, comparing anything to nazis is never a about idea. we are talking about a venture capitolist and what he said that next. for aches and pains trust bufferin, the only non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain reliever formulated with special buffers so it's gentler to your stomach. >>> time to prepare yourself for a fresh round of fiscal bickering in the nation's capitol. let's call it debt ceiling deja vu. it suspended the battle to february 7th. republicans and democrats are signaling job creation that legislation would raise the na

people are very close to the international union seiu and united health care workers. they are combined. de blazio the new mayor alyssa mark vigorito the speaker of the council votes worked for seiu. you can go on down the list. one of the ways liberalism changed is that when it lost the american majority and i talk about this in the section i called those philosophical crisis of american liberalism it was in the wilderness and discovered a new middle class. public sector unions. public or unionist likes liberals because like the pros they wanted to extract from the state. private-sector unionist, this is i don't know how many people follow governor christie and i have no interest in defending governor christie. they wake governor christie has succeeded to the degree he has is by working with the president and the senate steven swanson the head of the ironworkers union. as a private-sector unionist he wants to file economy and new jersey's economy is pretty much dead in the water. he oppose private-sector unions but what private-sector unions want his extraction and th

health care. so, what parts of the world are affected by this health care? in general, we think of the unitedstates because this country has had health care falling for decades, and also we think of the development world. also, the reality is that there is not a single company in the world that a person does not have a health care issue of one sort or another so it is affecting the united states, canada, latin america, europe and asia, africa. so this is a global issue and it is very important to go over each one of the systems to understand because of the health care crisis and how we could solve them. it is very funny because in general people think that everything in the united states is perfect and that everybody here is life is wonderful. and the reality is that united states has a lot of problems right now and they are affecting everybody. so, i see that people are learning more in the united states and people have to struggle here, too. in general, the united states is a health care system which is the most privatized in the entire world. yet, half of these health care spending is fina

please welcome julie benfield from united health care.sure, she was the arkansas insurance commissioner during my tenure as governor and an appointee of that position, of which i'm quite proud. let's start with this lawsuit. the states attorney general have filed a lawsuit saying what the obama administration has done is illegal. why do you think the lawsuit has some merit? >> well because i think they are exactly right. i think that by executive order you can't just change what congress has passed. he can't just go in there and say, oh, well, i know this was law, but it is not working or we don't like it, let's just change it on a whim. it won't work. >> and i think a lot of people don't understand the process. when he said well, we're going to go ahead and let the states if they want to keep these insurance -- as a state insurance commissioner, you know that just brings havoc to the industry and explain to the audience who may not understand the regulatory process, why does that make a big deal to the companies and to the regulators? >>

some plan like united health care reimburse members several hundred dollars a year if they join and usepating fitness center. you can also keep an eye out for gym deals on social media sites by facebook and twitter and look for offers on saving with thechlts resolution include getting physically fit and financially fit, you may able to do both at the same time. consumer report says before you sign up with a gym make sure you read the contract fully. many carry expensive cancellation fees if you want out of your contract. i'm michael 7 on your side. >> well coming up fix on 7 news at 9:00. the war of words brewing between starbucks and small beer maker. what's all we use this board to compare car insurance rates side by side, so you get the same coverage, often for less. [ rattling ] that's one smart board. what else does it do -- reverse gravity? [ chuckles ] split atoms? [ whoooosh! ] hey, how is that atom-splitting thing going? [ rattling ] [ electronic whistling ] oh! [ zap! ] a smarter way to shop around. now, that's progressive. call or click today. you've got to try this sweet & s

at&t, verizon, mcdonald's, merck, united health care unchanged. >> weigh in on that, bob. >> strange today and what's going on in the major indices. art and i talking about it in daily reports. dow is down 2.6% for the year. transports are positive. russell 2000 is positive. >> and you usually don't see the dow and transports -- >> unusually large disparageies in the markets. railroads have become in very well. shipments terrific, even as coal shipments dropped, railroads strong. odd to see disparities and we've been pointing out the fact stocks are diverging. certain groups are doing better even with insecter, a decent earnings report, hold up. if you don't, guidance poor, they sell off quickly and the market isn't moving in tandem. correlations last year. everything moves in one direction, breaking down now. >> art, tell us what history tells us about the fact that the previous year was so stellar? i mean, we had close to 30% in the s&p, better than 24% in the dow jones industrial average. so perhaps this should not be unexpected? >> well, you know, we're over extended to some degr

point caller raises the that the health care outcomes in this country are not as good as other company -- countries. , your united states health care outcomes are not likely to be as good as they are in other countries, despite the fact that we spend much more on health care. we are paying more for worst outcomes. it is not fair for people to

we've learned she is insured by united health care. because of hip pa laws we don't know exactly what coverage she has. we have asked the hospital that question. they said because her husband has not signed the waiver to speak specifically about the unborn fetus or marlise munoz, they just can't answer that question officially. miguel? >> are texas lawmakers talking about possibly changing the laws out there to include cases like this? >> reporter: we know up until this point that no texas state lawmaker has come out with a statement or commented on this particular situation. also, it's worth noting that the texas legislature is not in session again for another year. this could very well be an issue that is taken up by the legislature in 2015. but at this point, we just don't know. i asked the hospital if they were, despite removing marlise munoz from the ventilator, if they were planning on appealing. they said, nick, we're going to abide by the court's mandate. miguel? >> nick valencia for us, thank you very much. >>> question number

we know she was covered by united health care insurance. because of hipaa laws, we don't know exactly the coverage that she had. i'm sure that's going to be a big question for the family going forward. miguel? >> nick valencia for us in ft. worth, thank you very much. >>> this just into cnn. we're getting details of a u.s. military mission that targeted a militant's group in the horn of africa. our military sources are telling us about an american air strike in southern somalia. the target? the senior leader in the militant group affiliated with al qaeda. the extremist group al shabaab. cnn's barbara starr, the pentagon tells cnn the strike was carried out with missiles. that no u.s. troops were involved on the ground. and there was no troops there -- there are no troops there now. we don't yet know if that senior military leader was killed in today's strike. >>> extortion. big money. dirty dealings. it all sounds like a plot within "house of cards." a cnn investigation reveals it's happening in american politics. that's ahead. >>> but firs

states' national health care act which calls for the creation of a single payer health care system in the united states. let's make a single payer health care system a reality in america. and that's the way it is tonight monday january sixth twenty fourteen quick announcement for portland oregon viewers be sure to stop by the first unitarian church at seven pm on monday january thirteenth twenty or twenty seven members of the community will discuss my new book the crash of two thousand and sixteen a plot to destroy america what we can do to stop it or more information email jerde gardner juror at equity design dot com head over that democracy begins with you get out there get active tag your. i'm. a. big. find. and bank all that. money and have a bash like that for a politician right a lot right. here just to let. today's. i would rather ask questions to keep building positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question for. i know c.n.n. the m s n b c news have taken some not slightly but the fact is i admire t

states' national health care act which calls for the creation of a single payer health care system in the united states. let's make a single payer health care system a reality in america. and that's the way it is tonight monday january sixth twenty fourteen quick announcement for portland oregon viewers be sure to stop by the first unitarian church at seven pm on monday january thirteenth twenty or twenty seven are members of the community will discuss my new book the crash of two thousand and sixteen a plot to destroy america what we can do to stop it or more information email juror gardner juror added equities. and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there get active tag you're it. live. live live. live live. live. talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want. live. he survived war atrocities. to make a psychologist so she. has changed his life and the world around him. by giving. hope. and love to so many children. nikolai the lyrics work on the train. coming up on r t in iraq two major cities have reportedly fall into terrorist fallujah and ramadi are besieged

point caller raises the that the health care outcomes in this country are not as good as other company -- countries. , your united states health care outcomes are not likely to be as good as they are in other countries, despite the fact that we spend much more on health care. we are paying more for worst outcomes. it is not fair for people to costs such expensive and not getting results. >> good morning. it is simply a ponzi scheme that will not last. 6 million policies have been canceled. that is approximately 20 million people. i have heard about 500,000 have actually paid for a plan. that is a scheme that cannot last. going to behere is a massive insurance company bailout for this scheme. the cure is worse than the problem. s, amount of spin, lie deception is going to change that fact. it is just a matter of time before the whole thing crumbles. it will require a massive bailout. forget the spin. guest: that is the precise view of an opponent of the affordable care act. i am a reporter. there are success stories for some people under the affordable care act. others are not benefiting as much. the law is highly

very wisely, one of the first company in the partnered with was actually an insurance company, united health careake clear to consumers, by choosing the partners very carefully, that this is not something to be scared of. i know that once they start dealing with media companies they will start getting into the net neutrality issues. >> anybody who read your 70 page or research reports over the last couple of decades knows it is a really physical body combat within your area. media, cable, the different wireless people and all of that. who has the high ground in this debate right now? no, you are going to pay, no, you are going to pay, the customer is going to pay. who has the high ground? adage hascally the been content is king and distribution is just a commodity. where distribution is actually a constrained commodity, it is not a bad thing to be commodity. cableroberts and the operators actually have power. it is a little harder for the wireless companies because the wireless business tends to be a somewhat more competitive business than the video distribution business. what is going to be real

one winner on the dowel all time high, united health care. it was raised over at deutsche bank. that is good news for them, the top performing sector, health care overall. there is the look one year at health group 50% in the last year. lori: thank you for that. good news if you are stuck at the airport, jetblue restoring service in new york and boston after being forced to shut down friday. hi, adam. adam: the cold weather is causing a lot of trouble. the latest numbers from flight aware. the total numbers nationwide, and we will show you the airlines with the most delays. right now delays nationwide roughly 2440. here at laguardia, things are getting back to normal if you can call this normal travel, but the airlines with the most flights cancelled, as of 12 no noon, american eagle, that is the commuter version, southwest had 312 flights that had been cancelled or delayed, jetblue 216, american 128, united 117. a lot better than what we saw yesterday with 4100 flights cancelled nationwide, 8000 delayed, but it is still bitter cold. in some cases the fuel that operates not the a

united health group confirms the affordable care act and upcoming changes to medicare will effect the companie's short term profits.however, it expects profits will grow as more americans sign up for coverage under the health care law.in its fourth quarter earnings report, united health's profits beat wall street expectations. shares sold off yesterday closing above 72 dollars. in our cover story, the farm bill is being held up in a dispute over a program to limit milk production, if prices for milk products drop below certain levels, in short--a guarantee that dairy farmers would make money by manipulating the supply of milk.could it sink the farm bill or is it more or less a drop in the bucket? there's an internal battle in the dairy industry. and the battle lines are not altogether clearly drawn. some producers-- farmers want price supports to protect them if the price of feed or transportation costs go up or if the price of milk itself drops. the current model authorizes the u-s-d-a to order milk production cut. house speaker john boehner calls it "soviet style" supply management.

health care system. for instance in the united states because the united states is the leading in terms of health care reform and in terms of pharmaceutical development there are many ways that we contribute to the collaboration in terms of the academic and also the industry. people have a negative attitude towards the industry relationship but in the end at the end of the day what we want to do is translate this idea into medicine and compare them into something in a society because all of this is on the economy and feed on the people's health. we need to work on the pharmaceutical industry organization and also the need to become conscientious in the sense that yes they have to make money but at the same time it cannot be so far in which the idea is to develop blockbuster drugs that means drugs that cost of of drugs that sell for 100 million more a year -. we need to get a different system in terms of the poverty in which they should be accessible because as we are interdependent i think it is very unfair that people could have a system while other people cannot have access to anything. so i think that we

. >> the advisors to the united workers health care trust. they made this play to take chrysler public. basically a backdoor public offering. by virtue of shares by the united auto trust. that did not work. kind of the smoke and mirrors type thing that did not work out. >> you see it linked right away. the yield above four percent for the first time since may. what else? weinboehner,r -- john signaling he may back a series of changes to the immigration law. congress might finally reach a compromise. i would say is his aides are talking about support immigration law and a step-by- step fashion. those that want to see an omnibus bill pass on that they would get everything done at once. will not happen. >> we will have to talk to phil mattingly about what is really going on behind the scenes. this is a key issue for the republicans to win the hispanic vote. nowhere.going i need to be convinced it will go somewhere this year. warren buffett possibly missing his target for the first time in 44 years. over theffett took company back in 1965 he said

they reached a deal with the united auto workers health care trust. predicts profit may fall short of estimates. the news comes as the company cuts more than 1000 jobs. the company is coming off three straight years of declining sales. welcome back to countdown. ibm shares fell after hours after the computer company posted sales that missed analyst estimates. demand for service dwindled. this report by caroline hyde. orders oftraight falling sales for ibm. sales down five percent for the full year. said we are forgoing our bonuses. to put it in perspective, $28 billion for the fourth quarter, that is bigger than last year's gdp. they are just not living up to expectations. the reason we are not growing anymore is companies that work on a general basis don't need service quite so much. totead, we are all looking loud computing. you don't need these huge juggernauts of hardware. we talked to a tech analyst recently who was saying there will still be demand for service , it is just that cloud companies would buy them instead of businesses. what is ibm do

by $13 so that is what he are seeing as far as the trend, a lot of names on highs including health care, uniteds well. cheryl: see you in a little bit. dennis: wild weather indeed, some 0 temperatures blanketing the midwest, strong grip on the northeast with wind chills well below zero, meteorologist janice dean has the better for cold forecast from the weath center. >> we set dozens of records to take a look at the record lows we have, detroit-14, these are actual air temperatures-9 in pittsburgh, n.y. citizen apart, 4 degrees, atlanta 6 degrees in austin, texas, 14, the coldest air we have seen in decades and we are still feeling in across the northeast toward the mid-atlantic and even the southeast but there's a warm-up on the way. that is the good news, pretty short-lived but looking at your forecast, windchill, going to be around single digits below zero for the rest of today into the overnight across all these big cities and down the i-95 corridor. be extra careful and lake effect snow as that cold air comes across the relatively warm lakes we could see one to 3 feet, the popular great la

you deliver the health care to us, would it be paying doctors just a salary and getting away from fee for service? what is it? >> if you look at what causes premature death in the united states, 40% of it is related to behaviors. smoking, lack of exercise, and obesity. if we're going to reduce the cost of health care across the united states and have a healthier population, we have to address those things. and i think we can do that by raising the understanding of those problems across the entire country. i hope we'll see that in the future years. >> thank you so much, toby. nice for you to come and share this conversation with us. >> sure. >>> and finally tonight, as you know today is the martin luther king holiday. the holiday that honors the slain civil rights leader. he fought for racial and economic equality across the united states. his "i have a dream" speech is widely regarded as one of the most stirring pieces of oratory in american history. king was assassinated in memphis, tennessee. this holiday was created back in 1983 when president reagan signed into it law. only other two other people have national holidays honoring them, george washington and christop

the caller raises the fact that health care outcomes in the united states are not as good as other countries. that is an important point. it is not discussed widely among the american public that in the united states your health care outcomes are not likely to be as good as they are in other countries, despite the fact that that we -- despite the fact that we pay more for our health care. that is something people want to see performed. host: howard in florida on the line for independents. caller: good morning. your guest seems to be a great plan of the obamacare plan but it is simply a ponzi scheme that will not last. 6 million plus policies have been canceled, approximately 20 million will. so far i have heard 500,000 have actually paid for a plan. that is a scheme that can last. obviously there will be a massive company bailout. the cure is worse than the problem. no amount of spin, lies, and deception will change that fact. it is only a matter of time before the whole thing crumbles. forget the spin. reality is a fraud. guest: that is certainly a precise view of the affordable care act. f

. >>> general electric is buying health care unit from thermal fisher scientific, a deal valued around $1 billion and helps ge expand its like sciences unit by selling new medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics. shares of ge fell a fraction to $27.26, but thermal fisher up slightly to $110 and change. >>> t-mobile reached a deal with verizon wireless to buy some of its spectrum licenses for almost $2.5 billion, plus about $1 million worth of its own spectrum. the licenses will help t-mobile to improve certain kinds of cell service across the u.s. t-mobile, this is the country's number four mobile provider, needs more airways so it can compete with its bigger rival. shares of t-mobile jumped almost 4% to $33.48. shares of verizon rose a fraction to $48.69. >>> and after the market closed today, shares of neurocryobiosciences surged. it announced positive results of a drug that helps patients suffering with a condition that causes involuntary motions. stock soared as high as 60% in after-hours trading, then in the regular the stock rose 1% to $9.76. >>> and still ahead, the next big issue

. >> we see left money coming into health care, having major implications for the economy. health care is the biggest industry in the united states. 17.3% of the u.s. economy. if we look at that, there's reduction in costs. it's got be people who have to be taken occupant. every ceo of a hospital talks about reducing employees. remember, health care is the only industry that is growing jobs since 2000. so that could have major implications in a lot of areas. >> that was toby cosgrove of the cleveland clinic. then arnie sorensen, the ceo of marriott hotels. they brought a south african hotel chain and are expanding. one of the things that sorensen and other hotel and hospitality companies are on about is it's difficult for people to come to the united states. the process when you get to the airport. he puts pressure on the administration to make things easier and explains why. >> more and more people with resources to travel for the first time many want to come to the united states. what we see is a decline in the u.s. arrivals share of that global travel. if we had the same share as in 2000. we would have this 35,000 more

health care law it's a health insurance law. it's a law written largely by the insurance companies to guarantee them selves customers it didn't really do anything to adjust health care costs in the united states that's one of the things that we were promised coming into the law is that it would start to turn the cost of health care down but it hasn't it's helped some people who didn't otherwise have a chance get insurance we know all the troubles with people trying to get on board but the fact of matter is some people have been able to get on but it hasn't curbed health care costs and in continuing to propagate the current. industry as it is insurance industry as it is i think is problematic because that's one of the reasons why costs are what they are it's requiring us to have insurance in the first place do you think this is obama's intention you know to increase the health care you know there's no payoff there nothing. i think i had my druthers i would shut down the affordable care act tomorrow i think that it's a terrible law and i'm completely against it but i don't think that obama's proposals for it were the ferias i think this is a different philosophical view of how the world

health care costs to dominate. remember, japan has universal health care. again, you would be wrong. japan spends only 8% of its gdp on health care, half the percent the unitedspends. now look at education. in the very near future, for every japanese new born, japan will also have a centenarian, a man or woman who is 100 years old. # the low percentage of children also means fewer school students, less money spent on education. and, remember, japan has a strong school system and is a world leader in research and development. how does tokyo manage this? is it a welfare state? again, the answer is no. according to a group of 34 rich nations the average japanese worker faced a tax burden of about 31%, 4 percentage points lower than the group's average. a few other hidden benefits for japan. declining population means there is more space and land for every japanese citizen. remember, japan is a tiny country that packs in 127 million people. fewer people could well translate into a higher quality of life as well. these are fascinating points to consider. many other countries may soon encounter some of japan's problems. china could grow old before it becomes rich.