LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California fire officials on Sunday reported significant headway battling the two largest of dozens of lightning-sparked blazes raging in and around the greater San Francisco Bay area since mid-August, though 60,000 people remained unde... More »
(Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) said on Friday it has sold shares of some of the largest U.S. banks, slashing its stakes in Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and exiting an investment in Goldman Sachs Group I... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – What happens to Social Security if we eliminate its funding? That is the question to ask after Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum here last weekend ordering the deferral through year-end of revenue collected under the Federal Ins... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Global commercial insurance rates rose 19% in the second quarter, driven higher by claims related to COVID-19 and other large losses, insurance broker Marsh said on Monday. The rate rise was the highest since Marsh began its commercial insur... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Charlie Rich, the late country music singer and songwriter, had it right when he crooned this famous line: “Oh, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.” We need to remind Congress of the truth of that line as it tries to push a plan ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Major U.S. bank executives this week said they extended forbearance programs to millions of credit card, auto loan and mortgage customers who were financially hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. While that is good news for customers who ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Aviva (AV.L) CEO Maurice Tulloch is stepping down with immediate effect for family health reasons, the UK insurer said on Monday, naming independent director and former Zurich Insurance executive Amanda Blanc as his replacement. It’s the sec... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that Britain needed to protect its critical national infrastructure from “hostile state vendors” when deciding what role China’s Huawei should play in the country’s 5G network. Britain is taking a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives this week showcased three big-ticket, election-year initiatives they say would improve healthcare, protect renters from eviction amid a pandemic and spend $1.5 trillion on infrastructure pro... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule on Friday that would lift anti-discrimination protections under Obamacare for transgender people and women seeking abortions, drawing condemnation from Democratic lawmakers. ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The COVID-19 pandemic has put a bright spotlight on weaknesses in many of the systems designed to protect Americans from risks. But with older people more susceptible to serious illness and death from the virus, the problems in our Medicare... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp (6758.T) will turn its financial arm, Sony Financial Holdings Inc (8729.T), into a wholly owned unit through a tender offer worth about 400 billion yen ($3.72 billion), the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant said on Tuesda... More »
(Reuters) – Insurers are normally great with numbers. But the coronavirus pandemic has them struggling to estimate how many billions of dollars in losses they face, and what the fallout will be for their massive investment portfolios. Executives, lawyers and a... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you were laid off in April, the health insurance from your job may stop at the end of the month. Then what? Rest assured there are options, even if they are all expensive. If you are losing a workplace plan, you will get paperwork expla... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – In what now seems like a galaxy far, far away, Republican lawmakers routinely talked up the idea of raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. In fact, we were in that galaxy just three years ago. A higher Medicare age was an awful... More »
(Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday proposed expanding access to Medicare and forgiving some student debt in new overtures to supporters of onetime rival Bernie Sanders. Biden, who became Democrats’ presumptive nominee when Sand... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist whose progressive agenda pushed the Democratic Party sharply to the left, ended his White House campaign on Wednesday, clearing the way for a Nov. 3 election battle between former Vice President Joe... More »
(Reuters) – Geico Corp, part of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said on Tuesday it will offer about $2.5 billion of credits to its 19 million auto and motorcycle policyholders, reflecting the decline in driving stemming from the coronaviru... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The Global Federation of Insurance Associations on Monday warned the world’s governments of the danger of forcing insurers to pay out for losses suffered due to the coronavirus even when pandemic losses were not included in existing policies... More »
MUNICH/LONDON (Reuters) – Shares in Europe’s insurers fell sharply on Friday after the EU regulator said they should temporarily halt payouts to shareholders during the coronavirus epidemic, although Germany backed Allianz’s decision to go ahead with a dividen... More »
(Reuters) – Uber and Lyft drivers are hitting a wall in their efforts to apply for the coronavirus jobless benefits promised by Congress as state agencies say they are not ready to handle a class of workers who are totally new to the U.S. unemployment system. ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Coronavirus lockdowns might have caught a lot of people by surprise last month, but with April’s new billing cycle, it is time for cash-strapped Americans to rethink automatic spending habits. Are you turning off that monthly parking pass?... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Shionogi & Co (4507.T), creator of the blockbuster cholesterol treatment Crestor, said on Monday it would tie up with Ping An Insurance Group Co of China (601318.SS), selling a 2.05% voting stake for 33.53 billion yen ($311 million). ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Thousands of London’s underwriters took their stamps and fountain pens home last week, which they use to sign insurance contracts, but they won’t need them. Working at home due to the coronavirus lockdown, they have abandoned the normal tool... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders blasted President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak during Sunday’s Democratic debate, and offered competing visions for how they would lead in a time of crisis that has upended the daily li... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential contenders Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faced off on Sunday in their first one-on-one debate, a key moment before votes in four states on Tuesday that could give Biden an insurmountable lead in the party’s White H... More »
(Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) on Saturday posted a 23% decrease in quarterly operating profit, while soaring prices in stock holdings such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O) enabled the conglomerate to smash its old record for full-year earni... More »
(Reuters) – Warren Buffett on Saturday called on corporate America to make their boards of directors more accountable to shareholders and less beholden to chief executive officers, perhaps by reducing their pay and requiring that they buy more stock. In his an... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – T. Rowe Price Group Inc said on Thursday it would ratchet up the risk in its target-date retirement portfolios, boosting stock allocations to as much as 98% for younger investors. Target-date funds are popular in 401(k) plans because they do... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took up an appeal by President Donald Trump’s administration seeking to enforce new federal rules allowing employers to obtain religious exemptions from an Obamacare requirement that health insurance that... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A climate research organization will offer access to a risk model that predicts the probability of flooding for homes across the United States, giving the public a look at the data institutional investors use to gauge risk. First Street Fo... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese firms implemented 1.4 trillion yuan ($203 billion) in debt-to-equity swaps and disposed of 2 trillion yuan in soured debt last year as they moved to allay financial risk, the country’s banking and insurance regulator said on Monday.... More »
(Reuters) – Australian insurer Suncorp Group (SUN.AX) said on Thursday it has received since September 2,600 bushfire-related claims worth up to A$345 million ($237.05 million), of which nearly a third was recorded in the first few days of the month. Suncorp o... More »
BUDAPEST/WARSAW (Reuters) – Eastern Europe is a new frontier for private medical care, and insurers and tech startups are racing to steal a march on their rivals by harnessing the region’s health data. Growing numbers of people in Eastern European states, from... More »
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) By Mark Miller CHICAGO (Reuters) – News flash: Members of Congress managed to walk and chew gum at the same time this week. In the midst of the impeachment furor, U.S. lawmakers ad... More »
(Reuters) – The chief executive officer of Hallmark Cards apologized on Sunday night and said the company would reverse an earlier decision to pull television advertisements featuring same-sex couples from the wedding registry and planning website Zola. In a s... More »
MARION, Iowa (Reuters) – With support for Elizabeth Warren’s White House bid sliding since the release last month of a divisive plan to overhaul healthcare, the Democratic presidential contender has made an effort to refocus her campaign in early-voting Iowa o... More »
(This Dec. 5 story corrects first paragraph to say growth was slower not declined in previous years, removes reference to projected spending in eighth paragraph) (Reuters) – U.S. healthcare spending grew faster in 2018 after two slower growth years, a governme... More »
LONDON/RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Aramco is looking to buy insurance against war and terror attacks after a damaging drone and missile attack on some of its oil facilities in September, two sources told Reuters. Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, has been ... More »
(Reuters) – Billionaire investor Warren Buffett was thwarted in trying to spend some of the $128.2 billion of cash at his Berkshire Hathaway Inc, after a private equity firm outbid him to buy technology equipment distributor Tech Data Corp for $5.14 billion, C... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Harris Rosen has a chain of eight hotels bearing his name in the Orlando area, but he makes most of his headlines these days for giving away his fortune. The 80-year-old entrepreneur of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, who grew up on the Lower East... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/TOKYO (Reuters) – Silicon Valley data analytics company Palantir Technologies Inc has established a joint venture with Japanese insurance holding company Sompo Holdings Inc that will initially focus on health and cybersecurity clients, Palantir s... More »
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Retired letter carrier Leslie Maxwell Burton has a message for Democratic presidential contenders campaigning in the early voting state of Nevada this weekend: She will not vote for anyone who tries to take away her hard-won union health ... More »
(The Nov 16 story corrects to clarify in second graph that patients will be infused by a healthcare provider.) By John Miller and Carl O’Donnell (Reuters) – Novartis AG on Friday won U.S. approval for its experimental sickle cell disease drug, Adakveo, making ... More »
(Reuters Health) – When insurance covers in vitro fertilization, more women struggling with infertility, especially those with limited financial resources, will use the method to improve their chances of having a baby, a new study suggests. Researchers found t... More »
(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) By Mark Miller CHICAGO (Reuters) – The cost of Medicare is going up next year – way up. Federal officials announced late last week that the standard monthly premium for Medicare Pa... More »
(Reuters) – Bernard J. Tyson, chairman and chief executive officer of not-for-profit health insurer Kaiser Permanente, died unexpectedly in his sleep on Sunday, aged 60, the company said in a statement. Tyson, who held the top job since 2013, was Oakland, Cali... More »
(Reuters Health) – Many insured Americans go out of network for mental health services, a new study suggests, despite the higher costs to them and despite a federal law mandating that policies’ mental health coverage be at least as good as their physical healt... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. presidential contender Elizabeth Warren’s $20.5 trillion plan to provide healthcare for all Americans was attacked on the weekend by Republicans and fellow Democrats and parodied on “Saturday Night Live,” the long-running network te... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal judge in Oregon on Saturday temporarily blocked a Trump administration proclamation that would have required prospective immigrants to prove they would have U.S. health insurance within 30 days of their arrival or enough money ... More »
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday proposed a $20.5 trillion Medicare for All plan that she said would not require raising middle-class taxes “one penny,” answering critics who had attacked her for... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s plan for universal healthcare rests on an assumption she can radically change an industry the size of Germany’s entire economy without new costs for the average taxpayer. On paper, the... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch central bank said on Tuesday it would require banks to retain 3 billion euros ($3.31 billion) in additional capital to compensate for risks posed by mortgage portfolios. In its autumn report on financial stability, De Nederlands... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cash-strapped WeWork, the office-sharing company that is trying to negotiate a financial lifeline, has a new problem that may prove costly. It has closed about 2,300 phone booths at some of its 223 sites in the United States and Canada aft... More »
MILAN (Reuters) – Mediobanca’s third-biggest investor Leonardo Del Vecchio called for it to get bigger through acquisition on Friday, stepping up his questioning of the Italian merchant bank’s strategy. The 84-year-old billionaire bought a 7% stake in Medioban... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation suspending entry of immigrants who will not be covered by health insurance within 30 days of entering the United States or do not have the means to pay for their healthcare cost... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) Just a few years ago, Democratic politicians were debating whether to accept cuts to Social Security benefits. No more: the only Social Security reform debate w... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A man who stole a Russian masterpiece worth about $1 million from a Moscow art gallery in broad daylight in January was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday. Police arrested Denis Chuprikov after he was caught on camera taking the... More »
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Former Vice President Joe Biden returned to the campaign trail on Friday after a Democratic debate that largely reinforced his front-runner status for the party’s presidential nomination, leaving his rivals searching for how to wrest away t... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – SoftBank-backed ride hailer Grab is in talks to merge OVO, an Indonesian digital payments firm in which it owns shares, with an Ant Financial-backed local peer to build heft and power ahead of archrival Gojek, people familiar with the matte... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Big insurance losses from hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters over the past two years are set to push reinsurance renewal rates higher in January, ratings agencies said. After falling for several years due to competition and fe... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two reinsurance firms backed by prominent hedge funds are considered good investments as their share price performance has yet to benefit from the sector’s improved pricing outlook, according to Barron’s. Both Greenlight Capital Re and Thi... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) Medicare experts often advise enrollees to re-shop their plan coverage during the annual fall open enrollment period. This is the time when you can make unlimit... More »
(Reuters) – Canadian property and casualty insurer Intact Financial Corp said on Thursday it agreed to buy The Guarantee Co of North America and Frank Cowan Co for C$1 billion ($750.6 million) in cash from Princeton Holdings Ltd. The deal, expected to close in... More »
(Reuters) – Canada’s largest insurer insurer Manulife Financial Corp on Wednesday edged past estimates for second-quarter profit, helped by strength in Asia unit, its biggest. Insurers in Canada have been increasingly pivoting toward Asia for growth, looking t... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Space Communication said on Wednesday its Amos-17 communications satellite was launched into space and was enroute to its orbital position after separating from its SpaceX rocket. The Israeli satellite operator is counting on Amos-17, whi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is considering unveiling, as early as September, his healthcare plan as part of his presidential re-election campaign strategy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The plan would lay... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority reminded consumers on Monday that they have only one month left to check if they were mis-sold loan insurance. Britain’s banks have already paid out more than 35 billion pounds ($43.2 billion) in compens... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner in the Democratic presidential race, unveiled a healthcare plan on Monday estimated to cost $750 billion and paid for partly by higher tax rates for the wealthy and doubled tax rates... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge fund Tangency Capital has raised a further $165 million to invest in the property reinsurance market, bringing its size to $265 million as the hurricane season gets under way, one of its co-founders told Reuters on Wednesday. Insured l... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Federal policy on retirement security is one chaotic mess right now. Just consider the contradictory state of affairs when it comes to pensions and retirement income. On the one hand, a bill called the Setting Every Community Up for Retirem... More »
(Reuters) – Collective Health, which makes software for companies to pay workers’ health costs directly, said on Monday it had raised $205 million in new funding led by SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund. The San Francisco, California-based company said it woul... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The days of guaranteed pensions from work are long gone, but can annuities make up the difference for millennials? Congress is on the cusp of passing retirement reform legislation that will open 401(k) plans to annuity products which guara... More »
(Reuters Health) – People with inflammatory bowel disease – either Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis – may incur health costs more than three times higher than individuals without these conditions, a U.S. study suggests. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in... More »
(Reuters Health) – With increased access to insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare, fewer middle-aged people are dying from heart disease, a U.S. study suggests. Under the ACA, some U.S. states expanded coverage through Medicaid – a ... More »
(Reuters Health) – Fewer and fewer psychiatrists are accepting Medicaid even as increasing numbers of patients have gained mental health coverage through expansion of the program, a new study suggests. The percentage of psychiatrists taking Medicaid fell from ... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. real estate title insurance company First American Financial Corp said on Friday it had learned of a design defect in one of its production applications that had made possible unauthorized access to customer data. The statement was sent in res... More »
(Reuters) – Some of the biggest, highest-profile U.S. hedge fund investors and money managers fell back in love with FAANGs in the first quarter, according to regulatory filings released on Wednesday. After dumping shares of Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com... More »
(Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc said it owned $860.6 million of Amazon.com Inc shares at the end of March, after the billionaire admitted to underestimating the online retailer and its Chief Executive Jeff Bezos. The size of the investment ... More »
INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) – Eli Lilly and Co has pulled ahead in a three-way race with Amgen Inc and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd in attracting new patients to a new class of migraine drugs, and seeks to build on that advantage by stressing that its therapy... More »
OMAHA, Neb. (Reuters) – Preventing injuries from running shoes is a science for Jim Weber, the chief executive of Brooks Running, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. “The worst nightmare is to get injured,” Weber said in an interview during Berk... More »
(Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Wednesday said a $377 million charge it incurred recently was tied to a solar generation company that U.S. authorities have linked to fraud. Berkshire said in its first-quarter report on Saturday it had in... More »
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) – An activist hedge fund on Tuesday nominated five directors and urged insurance company Argo Group International Holdings Ltd to cut $100 million in expenses, including corporate jets and housing for its chief executive. Voce C... More »
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – United Parcel Service Inc wants to get beyond U.S. doorsteps with a new push into healthcare. The world’s largest package delivery firm is preparing to test a U.S. service that dispatches nurses to vaccinate adults in their homes, Reuters has... More »
(Reuters) – Warren Buffett said on Monday his Berkshire Hathaway Inc overpaid in the 2015 merger that created Kraft Heinz Co, but he had no plans to flee the struggling packaged foods company. Buffett spoke four days after Kraft Heinz took a $15.4 billion writ... More »
(Reuters) – The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, admitted on Monday he knew less than he thought about Oracle Corp, the company overseen by fellow billionaire Larry Ellison. Investors were flummoxed earlier this month when Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Friday he was in talks with banks about their future and called reports of a merger of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank “speculation”. Media reports have said Germany would want a merger of its two ma... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – When Medicare prescription drug insurance was created in 2003, the idea that beneficiaries with very high drug costs should pick up 5 percent of the tab seemed reasonable – but that was well before specialty drugs were invented that carry p... More »
(Reuters) – A judge in California on Sunday partially blocked a set of Trump administration rules that allow employers to opt out of providing health insurance that covers women’s birth control from taking effect. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese conglomerate HNA Group [HNAIRC.UL] on Wednesday said it had sold a majority stake in a Manhattan building in a $422 million deal, the latest in a slew of asset disposals undertaken by the group to ease an intensifying cash crunch.... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City has launched a $100 million health insurance program to cover 600,000 uninsured residents, including those unable to afford coverage and those living in the United States illegally, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday. De Bl... More »
(Reuters) – Last March, a 103-year-old resident of a Sunrise Senior Living facility in Willowbrook, Illinois, went on a field trip to the movies. Ruth Smith, who used a walker, fell down two concrete steps in the theater and died about six weeks later. Now Smi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has decided it cannot authorize new flood insurance policies, citing the partial shutdown of the federal government due to a budget impasse in Congress and potentially putting thousands of home sales in limbo. Th... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Ai-jen Poo wants to transform caregiving into real work. By “real,” she does not mean more difficult. Rather, the activist and author is seeking recognition of the value of domestic work, and to raise its status and pay accordingly. “It’s t... More »
NAIROBI (Reuters) – A Kenyan court on Monday charged senior officials from the state-run oil pipeline and others from the state health insurance fund for abuse of office and economic crimes that led to the loss of billions of shillings from the two institution... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Ping An-backed Lufax has raised $1.33 billion in its latest funding round from a dozen investors, at a valuation below expectations of the financial technology company, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The fundrais... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Roberta Dell has worked for 46 years making lollipops, and she loves her job. But she worries that retirement may not be as sweet as the Dum Dum lollipops she bags. Dell works for the Spangler Candy Company in Bryan, Ohio – a family-owned b... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) Thinking of adding a Medigap supplemental policy to your Medicare coverage? Beware: you could be charged higher rates or be turned away completely if you have a... More »
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Health insurers warned that a move by the Trump administration on Saturday to temporarily suspend a program that was set to pay out $10.4 billion to insurers for covering high-risk individuals last year could drive up premium co... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration on Saturday halted billions of dollars in payments to health insurers under the Obamacare healthcare law, saying that a recent federal court ruling prevents the money from being disbursed. The Centers for Medicar... More »
