The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week but remain low overall, even as the Federal Reserve has furiously raised interest rates to beat down inflation and cool the labor market. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless claims for the week ending April 29 rose by 13,000 to 242,000 from 229,000…
The latest from Washington, D.C., impacting the insurance and financial services industries.
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Did Biden sign the trifecta of long-term care?
It remains to be seen how these changes will be implemented and what the full effects will be, but the executive order represents a step towards improving the health care system in the United States.
Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced she will resign on June 30, saying the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic was a good time to make a transition.
For more than two years now, Republicans have been predicting that President Joe Biden's big-spending policies will crash the U.S. economy into recession. "Growth in the U.S. slowed considerably during the first three months of the year as interest rate increases and inflation took hold of an economy largely expected to decelerate even further ahead," reported…
Legislation introduced this week would establish parity for 403(b) retirement plans serving teachers, hospital workers, clergy, and non-profit employees.
The Federal Reserve began raising rates last March, and 10 straight hikes have pushed the fed funds rate to a 16- year high. It looks like the Federal Reserve has finished raising interest rates, at least through its next meeting in June. The Fed seeks to drive inflation down to 2% from the 4.2% total for its favored price indicator in the 12 months through March.
Small businesses– the heartbeat of the U.S. economy– are beginning to feel the pinch of tighter credit conditions as the Federal Reserve continues to increase borrowing costs. That’ s in large part brought on by the actions of the Federal Reserve, which has been raising borrowing costs for companies and consumers for over a year in an effort to tame inflation and is…
WASHINGTON- The Federal Reserve is on track to raise its benchmark interest rate for the 10th time on Wednesday, the latest step in its yearlong effort to curb inflation with the fastest pace of hikes in four decades. Yet economists and Wall Street traders will be more interested in what the Fed and Chair Jerome Powell signal in a statement and at a news conference…
Inflation, which is the general rise in prices of goods and services, hurts our pockets, so to relieve that hurt, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to make it more difficult for us to access money so we spend less and the suppliers are then compelled to lower their prices, due to lower demand for their products. In spite of the Fed raising interest rates…
Key measures of prices and wages remained high in March, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates next week for the 10th time since March of last year in its drive to defeat high inflation. And a separate measure issued Friday by the Labor Department showed that workers' pay and benefits rose 1.2% in the first three months of this year, faster…
—The government’ s report Thursday that the economy grew at a 1.1% annual rate last quarter signaled that one of the most-anticipated recessions in recent U.S. history has yet to arrive. Many economists, though, still expect a recession to hit as soon as the current April-June quarter— or soon thereafter. The Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate…
Health insurers say free preventive care will continue while lawsuit is appealed
Several groups representing health insurers told Congress that insurers will continue to offer free preventive services while a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act’s requirement continues its way through the court system.
DACA recipients would have access to health care through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
America’s Health Insurance Plans launched an advertising campaign targeting Big Pharma.
Telehealth, PBM reform legislation among health care issues pending in DC
Some legislation relating to health care still has a chance of getting through Washington even with a divided Congress.
In between near-constant pummeling by Republicans, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed at a congressional hearing last week that a new federal system for setting flood insurance premiums needs more tweaking than expected.
President Biden’ s choice to lead the Labor Department faces an uncertain fate within the Democratic-controlled Senate because of her tenure overseeing a California unemployment agency that paid out billions in fraudulent benefits at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. The uncertainty comes as business groups and Republicans have mobilized in…
If the Republican-controlled Congress and Mr. Biden cannot reach an agreement on the debt limit in the next several weeks, the government could default on its bills, resulting in economic chaos in the U.S. and across the globe. Mr. Biden has called on Congress to raise the nation’ s debt limit, while Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, is demanding massive spending…
The Bipartisan Working Group on Paid Family Leave invited members from numerous insurance companies to discuss the role of private industries as it relates to paid family leave policies.
WASHINGTON— Minority Leader Mitch McConnell returned to the Senate on Monday weeks after suffering a concussion and fractured rib in a fall, jumping back into the fray by accusing President Joe Biden of taking an "extreme position" over a coming debt ceiling deadline. But the jokes stopped there, with McConnell going right after the president hours after…
