Obama administration confirms double-digit premium hikes
Obama administration confirms double-digit premium hikes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Premiums will go up sharply next year under President Barack Obama’s health care law, and many consumers will be down to just one insurer, the administration confirmed Monday. That will stoke another “Obamacare” controversy days before a presidential election.
Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Some states will see much bigger jumps, others less.
Moreover, about 1 in 5 consumers will only have plans from a single insurer to pick from, after major national carriers such as UnitedHealth Group, Humana and Aetna scaled back their roles.
“Consumers will be faced this year with not only big premium increases but also with a declining number of insurers participating, and that will lead to a tumultuous open enrollment period,” said Larry Levitt, who tracks the health care law for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Republicans will pounce on the numbers as confirmation that insurance markets created by the 2010 health overhaul are on the verge of collapsing in a “death spiral.” Sign-up season starts Nov. 1, about a week before national elections in which the GOP remains committed to a full repeal. Window shopping for plans and premiums is already available through HealthCare.gov.
France moving more than 6,000 migrants from makeshift camp
CALAIS, France (AP) — France began the mass evacuation Monday of the makeshift migrant camp known as “the jungle,” a mammoth project to erase the humanitarian blight on its northern border, where thousands fleeing war or poverty have lived in squalor, most hoping to sneak into Britain.
Before dawn broke, long lines of migrants waited in chilly temperatures to board buses in the port city of Calais, carrying meager belongings and timid hope that they were headed to a brighter future, despite giving up their dreams of life across the English Channel in Britain.
Closely watched by more than 1,200 police, the first of dozens of buses began transferring them to reception centers around France where they can apply for asylum. More police patrolled inside the camp, among them officers from the London police force.
Authorities were expected to begin tearing down thousands of muddy tents and fragile shelters on Tuesday as the migrants vacated them.
Migrants have flocked to the Calais region for nearly two decades, living in mini-jungles. But the sprawling camp in the sand dunes of northern France became emblematic of Europe’s migrant crisis, expanding as migrant numbers grew and quickly evolving into Europe’s largest slum, supported by aid groups, and a black eye on France’s image.
What’s next for AT&T megadeal? A look back at Comcast-NBC
NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T is following in the footsteps of its rival Comcast in snapping up its own entertainment conglomerate — in this case, Time Warner. But what’s happened in the aftermath of Comcast’s 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal may cast a shadow over AT&T’s deal.
Like that earlier transaction, the $85.4 billion combination of AT&T and Time Warner would create a giant new company that not only produces movies, TV shows and sports and news programming but also delivers them to viewers.
Time Warner owns popular channels like HBO, CNN, TNT and TBS, plus Warner Bros. movies such as the Harry Potter and DC Comics superhero franchises, while AT&T has its mobile network and its DirecTV service.
AT&T says it is looking for ways to provide innovative new services, which means leveraging Time Warner’s offerings to attract customers, analysts say. But doing so might easily limit consumer choice should AT&T decide, for instance, to withhold certain shows from its rivals or to grant better access to AT&T customers.
Because AT&T is effectively buying one of its suppliers, not a rival, the deal doesn’t directly limit competition, and the company argues that regulators should approve it, possibly with conditions to protect consumers. That’s what happened in the case of Comcast and NBC.