The 2025 reconciliation law will—for the first time—require adults who are enrolled in Medicaid though the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expansion, along with those in partial expansion waiver programs in Georgia and Wisconsin, to meet work requirements or qualify for an exemption as a condition of eligibility starting in January 2027 in most states. States may adopt an optional hardship exception to Medicaid work requirements for individuals living in counties with unemployment rates at or above 8%, or at least 1.5 times the national average unemployment rate. A recent KFF survey found that most states plan to adopt this exception, which will exempt both Medicaid applicants and enrollees in counties with unemployment rates that meet the…
Author: Awais
American Coastal Insurance Company (AmCoastal) has successfully renewed its core catastrophe reinsurance program for 2026/27, with first event limit now extending to $1.68 billion, as the company secured 14.4% more in coverage for $1.918 billion of occurrence-based limit in the aggregate.First-event limit of $1.68 billion is now $349.5 million, or 26.3% higher than a year ago, while total cascading limit increased to $435 million. AmCoastal’s core catastrophe program is designed for hurricane coverage in Florida. At the January 2026 renewals, AmCoastal grew its all other perils cover slightly and also refreshed its catastrophe aggregate coverage at the same size as the prior year. During…
The Justice Department last Thursday accused Yale University of illegally considering race in admissions to its medical school — the second institution to face discrimination allegations by the federal agency this month. In a letter to a lawyer for Yale, Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said a DOJ investigation found that Black and Hispanic students have a much higher chance of admission to the medical school than white or Asian students, despite having lower grade-point averages and lower test scores. “Yale has continued its race-based admissions program despite the Supreme Court and the public’s clear mandate for…
A rare Ebola outbreak that may have circulated undetected in northeastern Congo for several weeks is exposing the difficulty of detecting deadly viruses in regions where malaria, typhoid and other fever-causing illnesses are common and health systems are stretched thin. About 350 suspected cases and 91 deaths have been reported in northeastern Congo, the country’s health minister Roger Kamba said on Sunday, while neighboring Uganda has confirmed two infections, including one death in Kampala. A separate case was also reported Sunday in Goma, the eastern Congolese city controlled by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. “Hospitals are already under pressure,” Kamba told reporters…
Governments, investors and banks have poured about $100 billion into efforts to handle the effects of climate change in Asia in the past five years, with water and infrastructure projects attracting the majority of the capital. More than 90% of the investment between 2021 and 2025 was made by state-related organizations or development finance institutions, according to a study of 165 funding groups published Monday. Road elevation and drainage, water basin management, and training for farmers were among the activities that attracted the most funding, said the report by the Centre for Impact Investing and Practice, Singapore’s state fund Temasek…
British companies should take steps to plan for and mitigate risks from new artificial intelligence models, the country’s finance ministry, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority regulator said on Friday. “The cyber capabilities of current frontier AI models are already exceeding what a skilled practitioner could achieve, and at a significantly higher speed, greater scale, and lower cost,” they said in a joint statement. “These capabilities, if used maliciously, amplify cyber threats to firms’ safety and soundness, customers, market integrity, and financial stability.” Last month BoE governor Andrew Bailey said he saw major cybersecurity risks from Anthropic’s…
President Donald Trump earlier this year bought as much as $680,000 in stock of Eli Lilly, the maker of blockbuster obesity drugs, as the agencies he oversees undertook an agenda that largely benefited the company. On May 14, the federal government released ethics disclosures revealing a list of stock and bond trades made on Trump’s behalf from January to March of this year. They included extensive trades across the economy, including investments in tech giants such as Microsoft and Nvidia, aerospace firms such as Boeing, and household-name companies such as Target and Chipotle. In healthcare, however, the trades for Lilly…
China Evergrande’s liquidators are seeking 57 billion yuan ($8.4 billion) in their lawsuit against PricewaterhouseCoopers International Ltd. and its mainland China and Hong Kong affiliates, among the largest corporate claims ever sought in the city. Of the total amount, liquidators are seeking 38 billion yuan from all three — PricewaterhouseCoopers International, the umbrella entity for the firm worldwide, and the two local affiliates, lawyers from both sides said. They’re also seeking 19 billion yuan solely from the Hong Kong and mainland entities. The case centers on PwC’s auditing work for Evergrande, an emblem of China’s property crisis since it defaulted…
The Government of Jamaica has raised the target size for its third catastrophe bond, now aiming to secure $200 million of parametric named storm and hurricane insurance protection from the World Bank facilitated IBRD CAR Jamaica 2026 issuance, market sources have told Artemis.Jamaica returned for its third catastrophe bond sponsorship at the end of April, initially targeting $150 million of parametric named storm and hurricane protection. Recall that Jamaica’s second catastrophe bond had been exhausted after paying out in full due to the devastating impacts of hurricane Melissa in October 2025, which triggered the notes and Jamaica’s government benefited from…
California’s workers’ compensation system continues to experience moderate but persistent cost growth due to wage increases, labor market conditions, rising medical expenses and system complexity. Payments per claim in California’s workers’ comp system have risen steadily since 2021, according to a new study, which shows that for claims evaluated in 2025, total payments per claim increased by 6%. The Workers Compensation Research Institute’s CompScope Benchmarks for California report examines costs and system performance in California’s workers’ comp system from 2020 to 2025, using multistate comparisons across a range of claims and benefit measures. Related: Workers’ Comp Medical Costs Per Claim…
When Tampa-headquartered Slide Insurance filed for an initial public offering in June 2025 and disclosed executive compensation topping $40 million, it triggered some sniping and some intense scrutiny of the Florida property insurance industry that continues a year later. In the latest IPO for a Florida insurer, Safepoint Holdings, parent of Tampa-based Safepoint Insurance and Manatee Insurance Exchange, reported last week that its own top three executives were paid a total of more than $20 million in salary, bonuses and stock awards in 2025. Flitman Safepoint CEO David Flitman received $12.5 million, while Chief Financial Officer Steven Hoffman took home…
Artificial Appoints Joost as President Leading US Expansion Eric Joost Artificial Labs (Artificial), headquartered in London, appointed Eric Joost as president, leading its U.S. expansion. Joost joins Artificial’s leadership team, supporting the overall business. He will be responsible for shaping the company’s U.S. strategy, supporting client engagement and ensuring Artificial’s platform reflects the operational and cultural realities of the North American specialty market. Joost brings close to four decades of experience across the U.S. and global insurance markets, spanning specialty brokerage leadership, underwriting, operations and technology. He has held senior roles at Willis Towers Watson, Aon and Allianz. Most recently,…
Snap Inc., Google’s YouTube and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok reached agreements to settle the first lawsuit headed to trial over claims that addiction to top social media platforms has disrupted learning and pushed public schools to spend massive sums fighting a mental health crisis, according to court filings. The trio of settlements announced Friday leaves only Meta Platforms Inc. to face off with a rural Kentucky school district in a trial set to begin June 12 in federal court in Oakland, California. The terms of the settlements weren’t disclosed in filings May 15. The trial will serve as a test case…
Amazon.com Inc was sued on Friday by consumers seeking refunds for costs passed on to them in the form of higher prices as a result of tariffs the U.S. Supreme Court later concluded had been unlawfully imposed by President Donald Trump. Consumers in a proposed class action filed in federal court in Seattle alleged that the e-commerce giant collected hundreds of millions of dollars in unlawful tariff costs by raising prices on imported goods before the Supreme Court had ruled. The U.S. Supreme Court in February concluded in a 6-3 decision that Trump overstepped his authority by using the International…