--- title: Morning Must Reads: April 9 description: In the News: Internet security flaw 'Heartbleed' threatens millions; Small few make millions from Medicare; Senate takes up equal pay vote and Republicans expected to block it; Vanity Fair interviews Snowden; NATO warns Russia canonical: https://time.com/55329/morning-must-reads-april-9/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-09T12:34:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:12:44.243Z article:section: Politics og:title: Morning Must Reads: April 9 og:description: In the News: Internet security flaw 'Heartbleed' threatens millions; Small few make millions from Medicare; Senate takes up equal pay vote and Republicans expected to block it; Vanity Fair interviews Snowden; NATO warns Russia og:url: https://time.com/55329/morning-must-reads-april-9/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Morning Must Reads og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Morning Must Reads: April 9 twitter:description: In the News: Internet security flaw 'Heartbleed' threatens millions; Small few make millions from Medicare; Senate takes up equal pay vote and Republicans expected to block it; Vanity Fair interviews Snowden; NATO warns Russia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Morning Must Reads: April 9 > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=789fce98-096b-48b6-8c38-1115e061dcca&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 9, 2014 12:34 PM UTC  The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Apr 9, 2014 12:34 PM UTC * Internet security flaw puts millions at risk \[[Al Jazeera](http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/04/internet-security-flaw-puts-millions-at-risk-2014490147141440.html)\] * “A newly discovered security bug nicknamed Heartbleed has exposed millions of usernames, passwords and reportedly credit card numbers — a major problem that hackers could have exploited during the more than two years it went undetected. It’s unlike most of the breaches reported over the past few years, in which one Web site or another got hacked or let its guard down. The flaw this time is in code designed to keep servers secure — tens of thousands of servers on which data is stored for thousands of sites.” \[[Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/09/major-bug-called-heartbleed-exposes-data-across-the-internet/)\] * “A tiny sliver of doctors and other medical providers accounted for an outsize portion of Medicare’s 2012 costs, according to an analysis of federal data that lays out details of physicians’ billings. The top 1% of 825,000 individual medical providers accounted for 14% of the $77 billion in billing recorded in the data.” \[[WSJ](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303456104579490043350808268?mod=WSJ%5Fhp%5FLEFTTopStories&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303456104579490043350808268.html%3Fmod%3DWSJ%5Fhp%5FLEFTTopStories)\] * “In 2012, 100 doctors received a total of $610 million, ranging from a Florida ophthalmologist who was paid $21 million by Medicare to dozens of doctors, eye and cancer specialists chief among them, who received more than $4 million each that year. While more money by far is spent for routine office visits than any other single expenditure, one of the most heavily reimbursed procedures — costing a total of $1 billion for 143,000 patients — is for a single treatment for an eye disorder common in the elderly.” \[[NYT](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/business/sliver-of-medicare-doctors-get-big-share-of-payouts.html?hp&%5Fr=0)\] * Medicare millionaires totaling almost 4,000 seen in data \[[Bloomberg](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-09/first-data-in-33-years-shows-4-000-medicare-millionaires.html)\] * “People who signed up early for insurance through the new marketplaces were more likely to be prescribed drugs to treat pain, depression and H.I.V. and were less likely to need contraceptives, according to a new study that provides a much-anticipated look at the population that signed up for coverage under the new health care law.” \[[NYT](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/business/study-looks-at-earliest-health-law-enrollees.html?hp)\] * Democrats say prosecuting Lois Lerner could violate your privacy \[[National Journal](http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/democrats-say-prosecuting-lois-lerner-could-violate-your-privacy-20140408)\] * Lois Lerner’s bad week \[[NY Post](http://nypost.com/2014/04/08/lois-lerners-bad-week/)\] * Edward Snowden and the security industrial complex \[[Vanity Fair](http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2014/05/graydon-carter-edward-snowden)\] * Decision Time: Will Obama make a last-ditch Middle East push? \[[TIME](http://time.com/54046/mideast-peace-talks-obama-decision/)\] * “As the government in Kiev moved to reassert control over pro-Russian protesters across eastern Ukraine, the United States and NATO issued stern warnings to Moscow about further intervention in the country’s affairs amid continuing fears of an eventual Russian incursion.” \[[NYT](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/world/europe/russia-ukraine-unrest.html?hp&%5Fr=0)\] * Hillary Clinton psychoanalyzes Putin \[[ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/04/hillary-clinton-psychoanalyzes-vladimir-putin/)\] * Obama equal pay actions match Senate agenda \[[Businessweek](http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-04-07/obama-to-sign-actions-on-equal-pay-as-democrats-press-agenda)\] * “Republicans working to improve their image among women aren’t worried about suffering a political backlash if they follow through with plans to block the Paycheck Fairness Act.Most Senate Republicans are expected to unite on Wednesday to block the legislation, which would allow workers to compare salaries without the threat of retaliation, force companies to explain pay disparities between men and women and allow those discriminated against to seek punitive damages.” \[[Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/paycheck-fairness-act-vote-republicans-105504.html#ixzz2yOLIRSr3)\] * Mozilla makes the world a better place \[[WSJ](http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304640104579489252865438382?mod=Opinion%5Fnewsreel%5F2)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/55329/morning-must-reads-april-9/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/55329/morning-must-reads-april-9/"},"headline":"Morning Must Reads: April 9","datePublished":"2014-04-09T12:34:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:12:44.243Z","description":"In the News: Internet security flaw 'Heartbleed' threatens millions; Small few make millions from Medicare; Senate takes up equal pay vote and Republicans expected to block it; Vanity Fair interviews Snowden; NATO warns Russia","url":"https://time.com/55329/morning-must-reads-april-9/","keywords":["Morning Must Reads"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Morning Must Reads","caption":"Capitol","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/morning-must-reads/","name":"Morning Must Reads"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/55329/morning-must-reads-april-9/","name":"Morning Must Reads: April 9"}}]}] ```