Friday 10-15-10

Military ballots may not count in Illinois
CHICAGO (WLS) - The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the state of Illinois missed the deadline for mailing absentee ballots to members of the military and other overseas American voters as part of a new federal overseas voting law.

Cris Cray, Director of Legislation at the Illinois State Board of Elections, says not all of Illinois' 110 jurisdictions were compliant with the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE).

The law requires every state to mail their absentee ballots 45 days prior to Election Day to overseas troops, government employees and other Americans who want to vote from abroad.

Cray says she is currently compiling data from each of Illinois' jurisdictions to determine which were compliant and which were delinquent. Cray said it's possible the ballots may not be counted because the state was tardy in sending them out.

Illinois was required to have all of its absentee ballots mailed by Sept. 18, the national deadline. Election officials have until Nov. 15 to count the absentee ballots, which must be postmarked by midnight Nov. 1 to be eligible.

In an e-mail response, Justice Department spokeswoman Xochil Hinojosa confirmed that Illinois is being investigated for the absentee ballot infraction.

"The Department is working with all states, including Illinois, to investigate and remedy any problems that will prevent our men and women serving overseas from having the opportunity to vote and have their votes counted," Hinojosa said.

The Justice Department has brought a lawsuit against the state of New York after settling with New Mexico over a similar case of delinquent absentee ballots for overseas Americans.

Several New York counties including the five boroughs of New York City were found to be in violation of the deadline after the state was permitted by the Defense Department to move its deadline to Oct. 1 because the state's primary day was four days before the deadline.

The Justice Department settled a case with New Mexico Tuesday where six counties failed to mail ballots by the deadline.

Overseas ballots could be a deciding factor in Illinois' mid-term elections where recent polls show a tight U.S. Senate race between Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias. Republican Bill Brady has an edge over Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn for governor.

http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=1985148&spid=

Jobless Claims, Inflation, Trade Deficit Each Surge Higher
Weekly jobless claims, headline inflation and the US trade deficit all moved higher, according to data released Thursday that posed more questions for the economic recovery.

The number of people filing new claims for unemployment insurance rose to a higher-than-expected 462,000 in the latest week, the Labor Department said on Thursday, while the number of people still collecting jobless benefits fell to an almost two-year low.

First-time jobless claims rose 13,000 in the week ended Oct. 9 from the prior week's upwardly revised 449,000 seasonally adjusted claims. The four-week average of first-time jobless benefits, which economists prefer because it smoothes out weekly fluctuations, rose 2,250 to 459,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected about initial 445,000 claims in the latest week.

The number of unemployed workers continuing to collect insurance benefits fell 112,000 to 4.399 million in the week ended Oct. 2, the lowest level since November 2008. The four-week average of continuing claims fell 34,500 to 4.489 million. Economists were expecting about 4.450 million continuing claims.

The unemployment rate of workers eligible for jobless benefits from the government fell to 3.5 percent from 3.6 percent in the prior week.

Meanwhile, rising food and energy prices pushed inflation at the wholesale level up twice as fast as expected last month, and prices excluding those staples rose at the fastest annual pace in a year, data released by the Labor Department showed on Thursday.

The overall producer price index rose 0.4 percent in September and the core index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.1 percent in the month. Economists polled by Reuters had expected overall prices to rise just 0.2 percent and the core producer price index to rise 0.1 percent in September.

Wholesale prices over the past year also rose faster than expected. Overall prices rose 4.0 percent from a year ago, compared to a 3.7 percent forecast. Core prices rose 1.6 percent over the past 12 months, the fastest pace since September 2009 and slightly faster than the 1.5 percent expected pace.

The Labor Department said food costs rose 1.2 percent in September after falling 0.3 percent in August. Energy prices rose 0.5 percent in September after rising 2.2 percent in August.

Also, the U.S. trade deficit widened sharply in August, reflecting a surge in imports of consumer products as businesses restocked their shelves in hopes of a pickup in consumer demand.

The politically sensitive deficit with China climbed to an all-time high, a development that was certain to increase pressure on the Obama administration to take a tougher line on trade issues including China's tightly controlled currency.

The Commerce Department says the deficit in August increased 8.8 percent to $46.3 billion. Exports edged up a slight 0.2 percent but this increase was swamped by a 2.1 percent jump in imports. Also, the U.S. trade deficit widened sharply in August, reflecting a surge in imports of consumer products as businesses restocked their shelves in hopes of a pickup in consumer demand.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39666662

New jobless claims rise in latest week
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of people filing new claims for unemployment insurance rose to a higher-than-expected 462,000 in the latest week, the Labor Department said on Thursday, while the number of people still collecting jobless benefits fell to an almost two-year low.

First-time jobless claims rose 13,000 in the week ended October 9 from the prior week's upwardly revised 449,000 seasonally adjusted claims. The four-week average of first-time jobless benefits, which economists prefer because it smoothes out weekly fluctuations, rose 2,250 to 459,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected about initial 445,000 claims in the latest week.

The number of unemployed workers continuing to collect insurance benefits fell 112,000 to 4.399 million in the week ended October 2, the lowest level since November 2008. The four-week average of continuing claims fell 34,500 to 4.489 million. Economists were expecting about 4.450 million continuing claims.

The unemployment rate of workers eligible for jobless benefits from the government fell to 3.5 percent from 3.6 percent in the prior week.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-jobless-claims-rise-in-rb-318256614.html?x=0&.v=1

U.S. to Let Insurers Raise Fees for Sick Children
The Obama administration, aiming to encourage health insurance companies to offer child-only policies, said Wednesday that they could charge higher premiums for coverage of children with serious medical problems, if state law allowed it.

Jay Angoff, a health and human services official, said the new policy was aimed at making child-only policies more available.
Earlier this year, major insurers, faced with an unprofitable business, stopped issuing new child-only policies. They said that the Obama administration’s interpretation of the new health care law would allow families to buy such coverage at the last minute, when children became ill and were headed to the hospital.

In September, the administration said that insurers could establish open-enrollment periods — for example, one month a year — during which they would accept all children.

Now, on Wednesday, the administration, answering a question raised by many insurers, said they could charge higher premiums to sick children outside the open-enrollment period, if state laws allowed such underwriting, as many do.

Insurers “can adjust their rates based on health status until 2014, to the extent state law allows,” said Jay Angoff, director of the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Department of Health and Human Services.

The difficulty in preserving access to child-only insurance policies is the latest example of unintended consequences of the new law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The problem may be solved in 2014. If Democrats can beat back Republican efforts to dismantle the law, most Americans will be required to carry health insurance, starting in 2014, and insurers will be required to accept all applicants, regardless of pre-existing conditions.

The new policy statement, issued Wednesday by Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, came with a fresh blast of criticism of the insurance industry.

“Unfortunately,” Ms. Sebelius said, “some insurers have decided to stop writing new business in the child-only insurance market, reneging on a previous commitment made in a March letter to ‘make pre-existing condition exclusions a thing of the past.’ ”

The White House has been tussling with insurers for months, trying to get them to provide coverage for children with cancer, autism, heart defects and other conditions.

In a letter Wednesday to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Ms. Sebelius said the decision of some insurers to stop issuing child-only policies was “extremely disappointing.”

But Ms. Sebelius acknowledged, “Nothing in the Affordable Care Act, or any other existing federal law, allows us to require insurance companies to offer a particular type of policy at this time.”

Insurance industry lobbyists say Ms. Sebelius mischaracterized their commitment. They denied that they had promised to continue offering child-only policies.

In a series of questions and answers intended to clarify its reading of the law, the administration said Wednesday that insurers had two options. They can enroll all children year-round, or decline to enroll all children outside the open-enrollment period.

Federal officials specifically rejected an option proposed by many insurers, which wanted to be able to accept healthy children and reject sick children outside the open-enrollment period. This option is “inconsistent with the language and intent” of the law, Ms. Sebelius said.

Insurers said they needed to bring additional healthy children into their broader insurance pools, or else premiums would go up.

Parents may seek child-only policies if they cannot afford family coverage or if they work for employers that do not offer coverage of dependents.

The administration encouraged states to set uniform open-enrollment periods for all insurers in the children’s market.

In its policy statement, the administration said, “States may set one or more open-enrollment periods for coverage for children under age 19, but cannot allow insurers to selectively deny enrollment for children with a pre-existing condition while accepting enrollment from other children outside of the open-enrollment period.”

Mr. Angoff, the Health and Human Services official, said the federal government could, by regulation, establish a uniform nationwide open-enrollment period for child-only policies. “That could get more carriers back into the market,” he said.

But Mr. Angoff said states could act faster than the federal government. “Some states, including California, Colorado, Ohio, Oregon and Washington, have already established open-enrollment periods,” he said.

On March 29, six days after President Obama signed the health care bill, Ms. Sebelius sent a sternly worded letter to insurers, saying, “Children with pre-existing conditions may not be denied access to their parents’ health insurance plan.”

Karen M. Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, sent an immediate response, accepting the administration’s demand.

Robert E. Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the trade group, said Wednesday, “Health plans have upheld the commitment” by Ms. Ignagni. “Children with pre-existing conditions are able to obtain coverage on their parents’ policies,” he said.

Neither the Sebelius letter nor Ms. Ignagni’s response referred to the marketplace for child-only coverage, Mr. Zirkelbach said.

Insurers agree that if they provide insurance for a child, they cannot refuse to help pay for the treatment of pre-existing conditions. But Mr. Zirkelbach said the law “does not mandate that health plans offer coverage to all children” before 2014.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/health/policy/14health.html