Downtown, street vendors populate roadsides preventing large vehicles maneouvering freely and traders can be reluctant to leave their pitch - even temporarily - to let vehicles through.

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Those who could afford to buy insurance would be less reluctant to leave their homes in the face of a storm, and more public money would then be available to help the destitute.

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Provincial disaster official Raul Agustin told ABS-CBN television that marooned flood victims were often reluctant to leave for fear their homes would be looted.

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Further, successful reform would reduce the phenomenon of "job lock, " in which workers are reluctant to leave a job with employer-sponsored health insurance out of fear that they will not be able to find affordable coverage.

WHITEHOUSE: THE WHITE HOUSE