Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
President Donald Trump has finally put a branded health proposal on the table, and the reaction from the policy world has been less a sigh of relief than a collective double take. The Great Healthcare Plan arrives with sweeping promises to slash costs, protect patients and send cash directly to households, yet even seasoned analysts…
UnitedHealth is back under the regulatory spotlight, with fresh scrutiny of its Medicare business arriving just as investors are still digesting earlier legal and political blows. The new accusations raise questions about how much legal risk is already reflected in UNH’s valuation and how much more volatility shareholders should brace for. I see a company…
The Trump administration’s health team tried to quietly pull roughly $2 billion from the country’s mental health and addiction safety net, then scrambled to put the money back after a political and public health firestorm. The Department of Health and Human Services is now racing not only to restore the grants on paper but also…
The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly stripped a major category of benefits from the way it justifies new air pollution rules, dropping projected savings in health care costs from cleaner air. The shift sounds technical, but it reshapes how the federal government weighs the value of preventing asthma attacks, heart disease and premature deaths when…
Retirees heading into 2025 are being promised a bigger Social Security check, but a quiet tug-of-war with Medicare threatens to pull much of that raise away before it ever reaches their wallets. The core problem is simple: benefit increases are slowing at the same time that health premiums are climbing faster, so the headline “raise”…
President Donald Trump has signaled that he may veto any extension of Obamacare subsidies, putting the future of enhanced Affordable Care Act support in doubt just as key provisions approach expiration. His stance comes as Congress weighs legislation to keep the subsidies in place, and at least one Republican lawmaker has broken ranks to join…
Millions of older Americans who rely on private Medicare plans are about to lose a coverage option that had quietly become routine. A new federal rule will bar Medicare Advantage insurers from paying for a widely used medical procedure, affecting more than 4 million seniors and reshaping how these plans can compete on benefits. The…
The United States is carrying a $38 trillion national debt, and Mark Cuban is arguing that one of the most bloated corners of the economy, health insurance, should help pay it down. His idea is blunt: fine insurers every time they overbill or wrongly deny care, and use the proceeds to chip away at the…
Minnesota’s decision to remove hundreds of Medicaid providers from its rolls is framed as a crackdown on fraud, but the practical question for patients is who will still be able to get care when the dust settles. The state is targeting what it describes as inactive or high risk providers, while advocates warn that disabled…
As Affordable Care Act coverage gets more expensive, the Trump administration is promoting a cheaper alternative built around short-term insurance and expanded tax-favored accounts. The pitch is simple: lower monthly premiums and more flexibility at a moment when many families are staring down painful rate hikes. The catch is that the new setup shifts far…