My group topic is Obamacare.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/12/tktk.html

This article talks about how the enrollment numbers for Obamacare were lower than expected. They found that only 3% of the target areas actually enrolled in the healthcare act. They are hoping that even though enrollment is off to a slow start, it will pick up soon. They believe that an estimated 7 million people are expected to enroll before the March 1 deadline, but with the technical glitches of the website that goal might not be met.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/20/obamacare-alec-republican-legislators

This article talks about the Republican strategy to destroy the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare. While the healthcare act is still recovering from the technical issues, Republican officials are coming up with ways to repeal and destroy the act. Their new plan is from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and is called The Health Care Freedom Act.

My partner and I have been covering Obamacare all semester for our media project. Signups for the health care reform began on October 1 but had a rough start.  The website wasn’t ready which only gave opposers to Obamacare more reason to hate it. People can register until December 15 to be covered in 2014. The President announced that if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan and you are not forced to register for Obamacare. Obamacare survived the government shutdown but Republicans are still pushing to repeal the Affordable Care Act before the November 2014 election.

Today I will be summarizing the Public Relations Society of America’s Ethics section.

http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/CodeEnglish/#.UoUsFvlJOSp

The most important practice to a PRSA member is ethical conduct. This section of their website defines what the ethical code that they are supposed to follow is.

The core values of the foundation are advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness. They believe that these values are vital to the integrity of the organization.

The intent of the free flow of information is to keep the integrity of the organization with the media and to aid in successful decision making. They must be sure to put out truthful and accurate information

Competition, disclosure of information, safeguarding confidences, conflicts of interest, and enhancing the profession are all of the other codes of conduct the organization must follow to be considered ethical.

At the bottom of the website’s page there is a pledge to sign that says you will conduct yourself in all the ways stated previously and that you realize there are consequences if you do not act in ethical manners.