Healthcare in the United States continues to grow at an unsustainable rate. Since 1971 there have been more than 30 reform pieces of legislation passed in an effort of cost containment. Describe the intent of the following programs 1) Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act (1988), Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, Social Security Amendments of 1972 and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996. In your opinion has the legislation performed as designed? Provide rationale for your opinion.

In 2014, the 11th United States Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Chiquita Brands, a Cincinnati–based multinational marketer and distributor of food products—widely known for its Chiquita banana brand—which had been accused by 4000 Colombians of supporting paramilitary soldiers who had killed or tortured their relatives. The court ruled on technical grounds that the Colombians could not sue the company under the laws they had cited. “The Alien Tort Statute does not apply extraterritorially,” wrote Judge David Sentelle, and “the Torture Victim Protection Act only applies to actual people, not to corporations.”

The Colombians had sought $7.86 billion in damages, on the basis that Chiquita was responsible for the deaths of 393 victims at the hands of a paramilitary group called the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia that Chiquita had funded through their payments. The lawsuits pointed specifically to a 1997 massacre in which 49 people were tortured, dismembered, and decapitated and another incident in 2000 in which 36 more people were killed.

The lawsuit was ironic, because Chiquita had originally made the payments to the paramilitary group to protect its Colombian employees from harm—not to put people at risk. However, once the payments had been made, Chiquita had no control over what the outlaw group did with the funds—which it had apparently used to terrorize other people in the community. “The principle upon which this lawsuit is brought,” said the Colombians’ attorney Jonathan Reiter, “is that when you put money into the hands of terrorists, when you put guns into the hands of terrorists, then you are legally responsible for the atrocities, the murders and the tortures that those terrorists commit.”

Chiquita’s problems began in the early 2000s, when the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia attempted to extort substantial payments from the company to help fund the group’s operations. The paramilitary group made it clear that if the company did not make the payments Chiquita’s employees would be at risk. The company’s managers took these threats seriously, because they were aware that in 1995 the paramilitary group had been responsible for bombing Chiquita’s operations and murdering 17 banana workers, who had been gunned down on a muddy soccer field.

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Chiquita’s mission emphasized a strong sense of ethical performance and social responsibility. It stated that it wanted “to help the world’s consumers broaden mindsets about nutrition and bring healthy, nutritious, and convenient foods that taste great and improve people’s lives.” Therefore, it was not surprising that Chiquita’s management also wanted to protect its employees and ensure their safety while working for the company. In a handwritten note, a Chiquita executive said that such payments were the “cost of doing business in Colombia.” The company agreed to make the payments demanded by the paramilitary group, but hid the payments through a series of questionable accounting actions. From 1997 through 2004 Chiquita paid monthly “protection payments” totaling more than $1.7 million.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in the United States, the U.S. Government declared the Colombian paramilitary group to be a terrorist organization. In February 2003, a Chiquita employee informed a senior Chiquita officer that the company’s protection payments were illegal under the new U.S. terrorism laws. Chiquita officials met with their attorneys in Washington, DC, and were advised to stop the payments to the terrorist group. Yet the company continued to make the protection payments, amounting to an additional $825,000.

In the minds of the Chiquita’s executives, stopping the payments would risk the lives of their employees. Chiquita’s executives also considered but rejected the option of withdrawing operations from Colombia. But in a surprising move in April 2003, Chiquita decided to disclose to the Department of Justice that the company was still making payments to the Colombian paramilitary group. The company told the government that the payments were made under the threat of violence against them and their employees.

The Justice Department informed Chiquita that these payments were illegal, yet the company continued to make the payments. In 2007 Chiquita Brands International pleaded guilty to one count of the criminal charge of engaging in transactions with a designated global terrorist group and agreed to pay a $25 million fine.

In explaining its actions, a company spokesperson stated that “Chiquita and its employees were victims and that the actions taken by the company were always motivated to protect the lives of our employees and their families.” He added, “Our company had been forced to make protection payments to safeguard our workforce. It is absolutely untrue for anyone to suggest that these payments were made for any other purpose.”

Sources: “Chiquita Brands International Pleads Guilty to Making Payments to a Designated Terrorist Organization and Agrees to Pay $25 Million Fine,” U.S. Department of Justice Press Release, March 19, 2007, www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2007/March/07_nsd_161.html; “Colombian Families’ Suit Says Chiquita Liable for Torture, Murder,” CNN.com, February 14, 2007, www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/11/14/chiquita.lawsuit; “Chiquita Sued Over Colombian Paramilitary Payments,” The Sacramento Bee, May 30, 2011, www.sacbeee.com; and “US Appeals Court Says Colombians Cannot Sue Chiquita,” BBC News, July 24, 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28469357.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you agree with the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that cleared Chiquita of any liability for the victims killed by the paramilitary group that Chiquita funded? Construct an ethical argument that supports your view.

2. Using each of the four methods of ethical reasoning (see Figure 5.6), was it ethical or not for Chiquita to pay the terrorist organization when payments were demanded in the early 2000s?

3. Should the U.S. ban against supporting terrorist groups, imposed after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, be applied in this situation? Why or why not?

4. Is there anything that Chiquita could have done to protect its employees adequately without paying the terrorists?

5. Should Chiquita be assessed a penalty that puts the firm out of business for their actions?

Teeth and military service. In 1898, the United States and Spain fought a war over the U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. At that time, the U.S. military was concerned about the nutrition of its recruits. Many did not have a sufficient number of teeth to chew the food provided to soldiers. As a result, it was likely that they would be undernourished and unable to fulfill their duties as soldiers. The requirements at that time specified that a recruit must have "at least four sound double teeth, one above and one below on each side of the mouth, and so opposed" so that they could chew food. Of the 58,952 recruits who were under the age of 20, 68 were rejected for this reason. For the 43,786 recruits who were 40 or over, 3801 were rejected.

a) Find the proportion of rejects for each age group.

b) Find a 99% confidence interval for the difference in the proportions.

c) Use a significance test to compare the proportions. Write a short paragraph describing your results and conclusions.

d) Are the guidelines for the use of the large-sample approach satisfied for your work in parts (b) and (c)? Explain your answers.

3. A random sample of wolf dens in the southwestern United States is taken. The number of pups found are:

5 8 7 5 3 4 3 9 5 8 5 6 5 6 4 7

a. Find a 90% confidence interval for the population mean number of wolf pups per den. Include the sample statistics, degrees of freedom, LaTeX: t_{\frac{\alpha}{2}}t α 2 , standard error and a sentence.
b. What sample size is needed for the margin of error to be 0.3?   

4. In the United States, what are the principles, concepts, rules, guidelines, methods, and procedures that govern financial reporting collectively referred to as?

5. Do all US companies have to use the rules referred to in Question #4 above? when preparing their financial statements? Why or why not?

6. Who has the legal authority to establish the rules referred to in Question #4 above? Has this organization made any of these rules? Why or why not?

7. Briefly describe the three primary US groups from the private sector that have been responsible for determining the rules referred to in question #4 above (include the years of operations for each group)

USA Today reported that about 47% of the general consumer population in the United States is loyal to the automobile manufacturer of their choice. Suppose Chevrolet did a study of a random sample of 1006 Chevrolet owners and found that 486 said they would buy another Chevrolet. Does this indicate that the population proportion of consumers loyal to Chevrolet is more than 47%? Use α = 0.01.

(a) What is the level of significance?


State the null and alternate hypotheses.

H₀: p = 0.47; H₁: p < 0.47H₀: p = 0.47; H₁: p > 0.47    H₀: p = 0.47; H₁: p ≠ 0.47H₀: p > 0.47; H₁: p = 0.47

(b) What sampling distribution will you use?

The standard normal, since np > 5 and nq > 5.The standard normal, since np < 5 and nq < 5.    The Student's t, since np > 5 and nq > 5.The Student's t, since np < 5 and nq < 5.

What is the value of the sample test statistic? (Round your answer to two decimal places.)


(c) Find the P-value of the test statistic. (Round your answer to four decimal places.)


Sketch the sampling distribution and show the area corresponding to the P-value.

(d) Based on your answers in parts (a) to (c), will you reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis? Are the data statistically significant at level α?

At the α = 0.01 level, we reject the null hypothesis and conclude the data are statistically significant.At the α = 0.01 level, we reject the null hypothesis and conclude the data are not statistically significant.    At the α = 0.01 level, we fail to reject the null hypothesis and conclude the data are statistically significant.At the α = 0.01 level, we fail to reject the null hypothesis and conclude the data are not statistically significant.

(e) Interpret your conclusion in the context of the application.

There is sufficient evidence at the 0.01 level to conclude that the true proportion of customers loyal to Chevrolet is more than 0.47.There is insufficient evidence at the 0.01 level to conclude that the true proportion of customers loyal to Chevrolet is more than 0.47.

The mean cost of domestic airfares in the United States rose to an all-time high of $385 per ticket. Airfares were based on the total ticket value, which consisted of the price charged by the airlines plus any additional taxes and fees. Assume domestic airfares are normally distributed with a standard deviation of $120. Use Table 1 in Appendix B. a. What is the probability that a domestic airfare is $555 or more (to 4 decimals)? ( ) b. What is the probability that a domestic airfare is $255 or less (to 4 decimals)? ( ) c. What if the probability that a domestic airfare is between $310 and $470 (to 4 decimals)? ( ) d. What is the cost of the 5% highest domestic airfares? (rounded to the nearest dollar) $ ( ) or -select your answer- more, less.

The United States has experienced an unprecedented number of individuals protesting the use of force by law enforcement officers. This was precipitated by the George Floyd case. However, over the past few years our country has seen a number of incidents where law enforcement officers were alleged to have used excessive force in the apprehension of individuals. For example, Ferguson, Illinois and Baltimore, Maryland have both had incidents where the use of force by officers resulted in civil unrest. In it state and defend your position on whether or not you believe excessive force by law enforcement officers in our country is an issue. Include your suggestions/recommendations for addressing this issue. Write a 2-3 page, double-spaced paper regarding the use of force by law enforcement officers.

According to the 1980 Census, the United States population was approximately 226,540,000 in 1980, and according to US Census Bureau estimates, approximately 317,300,000 at the beginning of 2014. Using Census data for 1980 and estimates derived from mortality data and census estimates for 2014, we arrive at the population estimates given in the table below:

The National Center for Health Statistics published a document entitled “Health, United States, 2015: With Special Feature on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities” that includes a table listing the leading causes of death in both 1980 and 2014 for various categories of Americans. Under the Project Instructions link in Blackboard, you’ll find Discussion Board Forum 2: Data; this is a spreadsheet showing the leading causes of death in both 1980 and 2014 for these 3 age categories. Each of the first 3 questions has both a computational part and a discussion part. To get full credit for each of the discussion parts please support the reason you provide by citing a reference. This should not be an excessively difficult task: you can easily find information online for most of the illnesses or other causes listed in the report. All you need to do is provide the website you used (though other resources are also permitted if you prefer to use one of those).

1)Assuming that the population numbers in the above table are relatively accurate, use the Discussion Board Forum 2: Data spreadsheet to compute the deaths per 1000 people for each age group in both 1980 and 2014. Give these 6 values (e.g. deaths per 1000 people for ages 15–24 in 1980) and then cite a reference to discuss what might account for the changes between the death rates in 1 of these 3 age categories between 1980 and 2014.

2)Besides the changes in the overall death rate in the past 3 decades, the leading causes of death vary somewhat between 1980 and 2014. Choose 1 of the 3 age ranges and select 1 cause of death from the Discussion Board Forum 2: Data spreadsheet that strikes you as noteworthy and that appears in both the 1980 and 2014 lists. For the cause of death that you selected, compute the number of deaths per 1000 in both 1980 and 2014 for your chosen age group and cite a reference to discuss the possible reasons for any changes in the rates over this period.

3)Not only do the leading causes of death vary across time, they vary significantly for different age ranges. Looking only at the 2014 data, choose a cause of death that appears in both the 25–44 and 45–64 age categories and compute the number of deaths per 1000 people for both age categories. Cite a reference to discuss a possible reason for any differences in these values as people advance in age.

4)Contemplating causes of death might strike some people as unpleasant or even morbid. However, the Bible encourages us to give some thought to the fact of our own mortality. Ecclesiastes 7:2–4 says: “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” It is interesting to consider why the author of Ecclesiastes encourages the wise to go to the house of mourning and the living to lay the end of all mankind to heart. What value might there be in thinking about the, admittedly uncomfortable, subject of the end of all mankind? What comes to your mind when you consider this topic?

According to a recent study annual per capita consumption of milk in the United States is 23.8 gallons. Being from the Midwest, you believe milk consumption is higher there and wish to test your hypothesis. A sample of 14 individuals from the Midwestern town of Webster City was selected and then each person's milk consumption was entered into the Microsoft Excel Online file below. Use the data to set up your spreadsheet and test your hypothesis.

1. What is a point estimate of the difference between mean annual consumption in Webster City and the national mean?

2. At ? = 0.05, test for a significant difference by completing the following:

Calculate the value of the test statistic (2 decimals).

The p-value is