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Trump asserts 'Democrats are like insurrectionists'

admin - Latest News - October 7, 2025
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President Trump asserts that “Democrats are like insurrectionists” when talking about the passage of this summer’s sprawling domestic policy bill.



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Oct. 7, 2025, 2:00 PM EDTBy Berkeley Lovelace Jr.If you’re among the roughly 165 million Americans who get your health coverage through work, not the government, you might be wondering: Is my plan next, now that health insurance premiums for Affordable Care Act plans are set to rise next year?Experts say there’s no single, across-the-board increase, but increases are likely for many people on employer-sponsored plans. And even if your monthly premium stays the same, you could still end up paying more through higher deductibles or copays.“Last year, health insurance premiums went up. This year, they went up. And next year, they’ll go up,” said Dr. Kevin Schulman, a professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine who researches employer-based health insurance.Have you gotten a notice about health insurance premium hikes for next year? Whether you receive benefits from the Affordable Care Act or private insurance from your employer, we’d like to hear from you. Please contact us at tips@nbcuni.com or reach out to us here.So, how much could your plan go up? Unlike ACA plans, in which insurers publicly file proposed rate increases with states and federal regulators, employers often negotiate plans with insurers privately, said Gary Claxton, director of the Program on the Health Care Marketplace at KFF, a health policy research group. That means your premium increase might not be apparent until open enrollment.Even so, recent employer surveys shed some light on what companies expect to pay next year — though they may not pass the entire increase onto the employee.A September report from the benefits consulting firm Mercer found employers say health care plan costs could rise by nearly 9% on average in 2026 if they don’t take action to control costs. The survey was based on more than 1,700 U.S. employers. Another report from the consulting firm Aon projects employer health care costs will climb 9.5% next year, based on data from more than 1,000 U.S. companies. HR consulting firm Segal estimates a roughly 9% increase for health plans and 11% for prescription drugs. Claxton said some employers will decide to pass some of the additional costs onto employees through premiums. The Mercer report, for example, said the average cost of coverage per employee is expected to be 6% to 7% — the biggest increase in more than a decade — a jump that will likely show up in workers’ premiums.“If we’re seeing a big increase of 6.5%, it’s likely that the employee contribution, the employee share of the premium, is going to go up by the same amount,” said Beth Umland, director of research for health and benefits at Mercer. Other companies, however, may keep premiums steady, but raise deductibles or copays, Claxton said.Others, in a competitive labor market, might absorb the entire cost increase themselves. “Sometimes it’s better to eat that cost as opposed to upsetting your employees, particularly if it’ll mean that some of them will leave,” Claxton said. “It’s often more expensive to recruit new workers.”It also depends on how big the company is and whether its employees are healthy enough for it to take on the financial risk.“If you have a really young workforce, your premiums are going to be lower,” Claxton said. “If you have an older workforce, they’re going to be higher. If you’re an employer with only a few hundred employees, if you get a couple really sick people, you can see a big increase from year to year, particularly if that sickness is going to persist.”Schulman said some companies may try to control costs instead by limiting which doctors and hospitals employees can use, also called “narrow network.”Still, he said, the premium increases have been a growing trend: Health insurance costs as a percentage of median family household income have increased from 13% to 25% from 2000 to 2021.“These are enormous increases in health insurance premiums, Schulman said. Why is insurance getting more expensive?In the reports from Mercer and Aon, employers cited many of the same cost pressures that are driving up ACA premiums, including rising hospital costs and pricey prescription drugs, like GLP-1s, and a growing number of people seeking care — thanks in part to convenient options like telehealth that are making it easier for people to get help. JoAnn Volk, a research professor and co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, said the increases are largely due to rising health care costs. Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy sent a memo last month to Democratic senators who requested information about the proposed rate increases under ACA plans. Volk said many forces cited hitting ACA plans — including higher prices, more use of services and inflation — are hitting employer plans, too. What’s more, people are spending more. Health care spending jumped about 8.2% in 2024 and is projected to grow another 7.1% this year, outpacing spending across the broader economy, according to a June study published in Health Affairs. Health spending may slow slightly in 2026 as fewer people are expected to have health insurance, but costs will likely keep rising faster than the overall economy.Some employers could raise premiums next year, while others may have already locked in rates and won’t adjust them, Volk said.In the coming year, they may also factor in new employees who previously had coverage through the ACA marketplace or another individual plan.“Some employers start on a fiscal year, which might be summer of next year, and they would be more likely to say, ‘We have some sense now of who’s coming back into the employer plan, then the prices may adjust to reflect that,” she said. Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.
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Oct. 8, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Aria BendixA Covid vaccine rollout unlike any other has given rise to confusion over who’s eligible and concerns that the shots might be harder to obtain this fall — especially for young children. Unlike in past years, when the vaccines were approved and recommended for everyone 6 months and older, the Food and Drug Administration this summer approved updated Covid shots only for people 65 and older and those with medical conditions that put them at risk of severe illness. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it recommends Covid shots for the same groups, based on people’s own decision-making or conversations with their doctors. The change has created hurdles for people who want the shots but don’t obviously fit into either category — especially parents who want their infants or toddlers vaccinated. But for the most part, it hasn’t prevented adults from getting vaccinated.Younger adults must now attest either online or in person at pharmacies that they have health conditions that qualify them for the vaccine. The CDC’s list of conditions is broad — it includes pregnancy, physical inactivity, being overweight, mental health conditions and a history of smoking. So many adults seeking shots say it’s easy to find something that describes them or to stretch the truth without pushback. CVS’ and Walgreens’ websites simply prompt people to confirm that they’re eligible before they book appointments and offer an option to learn more about the CDC’s list of risk factors. A prescription isn’t required.Bobby McClanahan, 37, of Columbus, Ohio, said he signed up for a vaccination appointment on the CVS website about two weeks ago even though he didn’t think he had any underlying conditions that would put him at risk of severe Covid. If necessary, he was prepared to say he had asthma, even though he doesn’t.But the website didn’t ask for specifics — he merely agreed to the terms and conditions and was able to get vaccinated.The pharmacist was enthusiastic that he was there, McClanahan said: “She just told me to encourage people to come in and get a vaccine booster.”Dr. Michelle Fiscus, a pediatrician and the chief medical officer at the Association of Immunization Managers, said that per the CDC criteria, “the majority of Americans would actually qualify to get a Covid-19 vaccine.”Insurance plans — including private plans, Medicare and Medicaid — still largely cover Covid shots. McClanahan said he had no trouble getting his provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield, to do so. “I’m walking out of CVS and I opened my Blue Cross Blue Shield app on my phone and the claim was already there, showing that I owed nothing,” he said.However, vaccinating infants and toddlers is proving more challenging, since their shots are typically administered in doctors’ offices, which have less consistent supplies than pharmacies. Walgreens offers Covid vaccinations only for kids ages 3 and up, and CVS’ minimum age is 5 years. (Some states, such as Kansas and Illinois, have even higher age requirements.)Several pediatricians told NBC News that they are still vaccinating healthy children because of the CDC language that allows for shared decision-making between doctors and patients. In addition, the American Academy of Pediatrics continues to recommend Covid vaccinations for all babies ages 6 to 23 months, along with older kids who are at high risk of severe disease or haven’t had Covid shots before. (Parents can choose to get healthy children boosters this year if they desire, according to the AAP.)“I really agree with the AAP language, saying that anybody that wants a Covid vaccine for their child should be able to get one,” said Dr. Alexandra Yonts, an attending physician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.Samantha Cramer, the mother of a 2-year-old in Kissimmee, Florida, said she went on a wild goose chase to find a vaccination for her daughter, Alice.Pharmacies weren’t an option, and the family’s pediatrician didn’t have the specialized refrigeration to store the shots, Cramer said. Calls to her local health clinic and a major hospital system in the area revealed neither were offering Covid shots to toddlers. Cramer and her husband considered traveling to Georgia to get Alice vaccinated.“We were just like, ‘Do you want to take a trip up to a state that’s chill about this? Do we need to go out of state to get her vaccinated?’” she said.In a last-ditch effort, Cramer asked for advice on Reddit. A user recommended MinuteClinics — health clinics inside CVS pharmacies that vaccinate kids ages 18 months and up. Cramer tried three locations: One wasn’t accepting walk-ins, and another said the pediatric vaccine was out of stock, but Alice was finally vaccinated at the third.“The choice to not vaccinate is infinitesimally easier now than it is to vaccinate,” Cramer said. The reason some pediatric hospitals don’t have updated Covid vaccines available yet is that they waited for the CDC’s final recommendations before they ordered them. The agency took two weeks to formally adopt the guidance determined by its vaccine advisory committee. (Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the panel’s previous 17 members in June and subsequently appointed 12 new members, many of whom have expressed skepticism about Covid vaccines.) The final CDC guidance paved the way for shots to be distributed through the Vaccines for Children Program, which provides free shots for uninsured or underinsured kids.Nemours Children’s Health — a pediatric hospital network with locations in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida — was one of the health systems that delayed its Covid vaccine rollout until the CDC recommendation came out. Dr. Matthew Davis, Nemours’ enterprise physician-in-chief, said the network should receive doses soon.“I’m confident that parents and guardians who want to vaccinate their kids against Covid-19 will be able to do so,” he said. “There are some additional steps in terms of counseling around shared decision-making and documentation, but those steps shouldn’t be a full barrier to kids getting vaccinated when their parents and guardians make the choice to do so.”Aria BendixAria Bendix is the breaking health reporter for NBC News Digital.
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