Money
Kaiser Family Foundation: 300+ FAQs Help Consumers Understand the ACA Marketplaces as Open Enrollment Begins and Closes a Month and Half Later
Editor's Note: Although our former company funds part of our health expenses as retirees, not all is covered nor funded. Therefore, we too, have to explore parts of our plan for explanations, changes, lowering costs and other aspects. Open enrollment for the Federal and most state marketplaces begins Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 and ends on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019. Organizations assisting consumers are encouraged to link to the Kaiser Family Foundation's FAQ web page.Designed to help consumers and the navigators, brokers and others who assist them, the FAQs cover a wide range of topics including eligibility for subsidies, requirements for health coverage and information about health plans offered through state ACA marketplaces. more »
US Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy by Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard H. Clarida
The unemployment rate, at 3.5 percent, is at a half-century low, and wages are rising broadly in line with productivity growth and underlying inflation. There is no evidence to date that a strong labor market is putting excessive cost-push pressure on price inflation. But despite this favorable baseline outlook, the U.S. economy confronts some evident risks in this the 11th year of economic expansion. Business fixed investment has slowed notably since last year, exports are contracting on a year-over-year basis, and indicators of manufacturing activity are weakening. Global growth estimates continue to be marked down, and global disinflationary pressures cloud the outlook for U.S. inflation. more »
Poll: Democrats Say They Are Hearing Enough From Presidential Candidates About Medicare-for-All and Expanding Coverage, But Want Them to Talk More about Health Costs and Women’s Health Care
The poll finds the public narrowly divided on whether the Supreme Court should overturn the entire ACA, with 43% favoring such a decision and 48% opposing it. This reflects partisan views of the law itself, with most Republicans (75%) wanting it overturned, most Democrats (69%) wanting to keep it, and independents falling in between (51% want to keep it, 40% want it overturned). At the same time, most (63%) do not want to see the Supreme Court overturn the law’s protections for people with pre-existing condition protections. This includes most Democrats (71%) and independents (73%). Among Republicans, 47% say they want the court to overturn those protections and 42% say they do not. more »
What is Sex Discrimination? That Was the Question Before the Supreme Court on October 8
Jo Freeman writes: Several hundred people protested in front of the Supreme Court on October 8 as it heard oral argument inside on the issue of exactly what is sex discrimination in employment. At the end of the rally 132 people were arrested for blocking the street in planned civil disobedience. "Sex" is one of the protected categories in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in employment. At that time, same-sex relations were a crime in every state except Illinois. Transgender wasn’t even a word. Much has happened in 55 years. more »
