Money
Updated Subsidy Calculator and 300+ FAQs Help Consumers Understand the ACA Marketplaces as Open Enrollment Begins
Ahead of the annual Affordable Care Act (ACA) open enrollment period, the time during which consumers can shop for health plans or renew existing coverage, KFF has updated its Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator and its searchable collection of more than 300 Frequently Asked Questions about open enrollment, the health insurance marketplaces and the ACA. KFF’s Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator provides estimates of 2021 health insurance premiums and subsidies for people purchasing insurance on their own in health insurance exchanges. Users can enter age, income, and family size information to estimate their eligibility for subsidies and how much they can expect to spend on health insurance. more »
Chair Jerome H. Powell: A Current Assessment of the Response to the Economic Fallout of this Historic Event
Payrolls have now recovered roughly half of the 22 million decline. After rising to 14.7 percent in April, the unemployment rate is back to 7.9 percent ... A broader measure that better captures current labor market conditions — by adjusting for mistaken characterizations of job status, and for the decline in labor force participation since February — is running around 11 percent...The initial job losses fell most heavily on lower-wage workers in service industries facing the public — job categories in which minorities and women are overrepresented... Combined with the disproportionate effects of COVID on communities of color, and the overwhelming burden of childcare during quarantine and distance learning, which has fallen mostly on women, the pandemic is further widening divides in wealth and economic mobility. more »
Federal Reserve: Optimism in the Time of COVID; Businesses Seem Much Better Adapted to Remaining Open
Turning now to the labor market, unemployment was still at 8.4 percent in August and the labor force participation rate still down significantly from February. The extraordinary package of fiscal support in the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) helped to support household incomes and to offset the effect of the huge job losses in March and April. But the act's unemployment provisions have expired, and most of the businesses that received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans report that they have exhausted those funds.4 In addition, one area where increased understanding of the disease has, in many places, not led to general changes in practice is in the widespread school closures this fall. Many parents with children will be forced to work less, or not at all, which is going to be a hardship for them and weigh on the economy. So, I agree with Chair Powell that it will take continued support to sustain a robust recovery. more »
Where We Stand: Partial Draft of Democratic Party Platform Already Voted Upon By Delegates; Covid-19 Pandemic Is a Prime Focus
"In a public health crisis, we all have to rely on each other. That’s why Democrats support making 9 COVID-19 testing, treatment, and any eventual vaccines free to everyone, regardless of their wealth, insurance coverage, or immigration status. We are all only as safe from this disease as are the most vulnerable among us. It has always been a crisis that tens of millions of Americans have no or inadequate health insurance — but in a pandemic, it’s catastrophic for public health." Democrats believe the federal government should pick up 23 percent of the tab for COBRA insurance, which keeps people on their employer-sponsored plans." The Republican Party Platform issued their statement: WHEREAS, The RNC has unanimously voted to forego the Convention Committee on Platform, in appreciation of the fact that it did not want a small contingent of delegates formulating a new platform without the breadth of perspectives within the ever-growing Republican movement...RESOLVED, That any motion to amend the 2016 Platform or to adopt a new platform, including any motion to suspend the procedures that will allow doing so, will be ruled out of order ..." more »