CBO sees higher premiums if Trump halts subsidies
Premiums for a popular type of individual health plan would rise sharply, and more people would be left with no insurance options if President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to stop “Obamacare” payments to insurers, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.
The nonpartisan number crunchers also estimated that cutting off payments that now reduce copays and deductibles for people of modest incomes would add $194 billion to federal deficits over a decade. That head-scratching outcome is because a different Affordable Care Act subsidy would automatically increase as premiums jump, more than wiping out any savings.
“Ending the payments to insurers would introduce more chaos into an unsettled market, and perversely end up costing the federal government more in the end,” said Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan group that found similar results.
At issue are the ACA’s “cost-sharing” payments, totaling about $7 billion this year, which reimburse insurers for subsidizing out-of-pocket costs for people with modest incomes.
SCANA won’t recoup nuclear plant funds
A utility on Tuesday suspended its request to recoup billions more from customers for a South Carolina nuclear power project it bailed on last month.
South Carolina Electric & Gas voluntarily withdrew its request that state regulators approve its plans for abandoning the expansion of V.C. Summer Nuclear Station north of Columbia. But utility executives emphasize that their plans haven’t changed.
“To be clear, our decision to withdraw the filing does not mean we are reconsidering the decision to cease construction,” said Rhonda O’Banion, spokeswoman for SCE&G’s parent company, SCANA.
SCE&G and state-owned utility Santee Cooper decided July 31 to halt construction on two partly built reactors they’ve already jointly spent $10 billion on, much of it paid by customers through rate hikes since 2009. The next day, SCE&G filed a request to recoup $5 billion over 60 years, with at least $2.2 billion of that coming from customers’ bills.
Mazda recalls cars for faulty air bags
Mazda is recalling nearly 80,000 cars and SUVs, some for a second time, to replace dangerous Takata air bag inflators.
The recall covers front passenger inflators on certain 2007 through 2009 and 2012 CX-7, CX-9 and Mazda 6 vehicles. The recalls vary by state and age of the vehicles.
Takata inflators can explode with too much force and hurl shrapnel into drivers and passengers. As many as 19 people have been killed and more than 180 hurt due to the problem.
The recall supersedes one issued in January that temporarily replaced older Takata inflators with the same parts. Ammonium nitrate used in the inflators can deteriorate over time. The company says newer inflators are safer. In the latest recall, dealers will install permanent replacement inflators that don’t use ammonium nitrate.
Retail sales jump 0.6 percent in July
Consumers went out shopping in a big way in July, pushing up retail sales by the largest amount in seven months.
Retail sales advanced 0.6 percent last month, the best showing since a gain of 0.9 percent last December, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. For most of this year, retail sales have been lackluster, including a decline in May of 0.2 percent and a modest 0.3 percent June gain.
Consumer spending accounts for around 70 percent of economic activity, so the latest result is a good sign for overall economic growth.