Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Insurer Financial Performance in 2023

You will read more on the profitability of healthcare plans as detailed by KFF. A brief introduction to this issue in an article by KFF. In 2023, per enrollee gross margins were highest in the Medicare Advantage market, and medical loss ratios were lowest in the individual insurance market. While both gross margins and medical […]

2026 Healthcare Insurance Rate Changes – North Carolina

Charles Gaba at ACA Signups is reviewing Affordable(?) Care rate changes for 2026. We have been reading quite a bit about the new rate forthcoming for 2026. From the looks of it, I suspect many people will be going without healthcare insurance in North Carolina, etc. I will grab certain states I know some people […]

Some good news

In the past six months, the Trump Administration, acting through Elon Musk’s DOGE, cut more than 10% of the staff at the National Weather Service. But it looks like TACO doesn’t just apply to tariffs: “The National Weather Service has received permission to hire 450 meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians just months after being hit […]

Dismal scenes from the July employment report

 – by New Deal democrat We’ve settled back in to our typical post-employment week lack of new data, so today is a good day to update the leading indicators from the employment report, especially in view of their important contribution to why I went on “recession watch” yesterday. As you probably already know, because I harp […]

Sixteen Million Without Healthcare Insurance

Pinning down the numbers making up the 16 million people without healthcare insurance by 2034. From where did the number come? Government Medicaid Healthcare Insurance covered nearly 85 million people as of June 2024. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the changes to Medicaid and health insurance outlined in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act could lead […]

Killing us softly

mRNA vaccines proved transformational in the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, they’ve allowed a rapid pivot to attack new variants. They saved tens of millions of lives worldwide, and prevented long COVID in survivors. “Infectious disease experts say the mRNA technology used in vaccines is safe, and they credit its development during the first Trump administration […]

Back from the Dead and Very Much Alive . . . Detroit

I was living in Livingston County, Michigan where all the white folk go. Don’t get me wrong some of the other counties east of Livingston County were nice places too. We were in white suburbia and distant from the City of Detroit. Not so distant as to ignore the city decaying. We watched and whined […]

“A relentless and holistic campaign against women’s autonomy and health”

Writing on Women’s healthcare and Healthcare in general has been my bailiwick in the past. With the death of Dan and losing some of Angry Bear’s writers as they aged out or just moved on left me with no choice but to expand my vision. It appears our president has a vision also and that […]

“Recession watch” for economically weighted ISM indexes, and residential construction spending, continues

 – by New Deal democrat Since Friday featured the very salient jobs report – and its immediate fallout – I delayed reporting on two other important reports that typically start the month – the ISM manufacturing index, and construction spending – until today. As it turns out, they only amplify the message from the employment report […]

Where are all the Democratic donations?

Ever since November 2024, when Donald Trump took over all three branches of the federal government, there has been no shortage of navel-gazing pieces posing as political analysis of why Democrats are unable to get their voters to the polls. One theme has been that the party is been chasing dollars, and to be successful, […]