Jun 30
For the second time in less than a year, the government hopes to help some of the as many as 25 million uninsured Americans with pre-existing health conditions. Critics say it may be a case of too little, too late.
Next month, a nationally funded health-care program will lower premiums and relax eligibility for some people with pre-existing conditions ranging from low blood pressure to cancer. Dubbed the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, the program is considered a cornerstone of President Obama’s health-care law, hitting a range of Americans from different economic classes, including the rising numbers of unemployed who have lost health-care coverage.
Even fans of the effort say it may be too pricey, cumbersome and unrealistic to reach the right people.
Read more…
Tags: Conditions, Preexisting Conditions
Jun 29
Fat guys can surprise you. They don’t move very fast. But they can be very agile intellectually.
That was how G.K. Chesterton was. Laurence Lindsay, former assistant to George W. Bush for economic policy, seems to be the same way. Slow on his feet, perhaps. But quick in his mind.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Lindsey delivers thoughts that might have come from The Daily Reckoning. First, he notes that the budget problems faced by Washington are larger than generally reported. Growth rates have been overestimated, he says, while interest costs and deficits have been grossly underestimated. When more realistic assumptions are plugged in to the numbers it adds more than $4 trillion in ‘budget costs’ over the next four years.
Read more…
Jun 29
The Federal Reserve has come to a final decision on the debit interchange fee cap, which will now be at 21 cents per transaction.
The debit interchange fee, which is paid by merchants to banks for every purchase made with a debit card, was originally to be capped at 12 cents. The 21-cent cap is nearly double from previously expected, but still lower than the current average of 44 cents per transaction.
An ad valorem amount of 5 basis points is attached to the base component fee cap of 21 cents. The amount will vary on the average per-transaction fraud losses of the median issuer. Banks are estimated to be subject to an average debit interchange fee cap at 24 cents.
The rule will take effect on October 1.
Read more…
Tags: 21 Cents, Cents, Fee Cap