• Insurance for children with pre-existing conditions:  Beginning this year, the intention of the legislation is to forbid health insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Apparently the wording in the legislation on this subject, however, isn't crystal clear and could be interpreted to say that if health insurance is provided for a child, the insurance must cover pre-existing conditions, but that the law doesn't require insurers to actually provide insurance for a child.  After a dust-up between the Administration and AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans), insurers have agreed to comply with the intent of the new law, meaning that children cannot be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions effective September 23, 2010.
• Prescription drug subsidy:  When the Medicare prescription drug law passed in 2003, corporations that provided retirees with a prescription drug benefit received a 28% subsidy from Medicare funds.  The corporations received the subsidy tax free and were also allowed to deduct the subsidy from their taxable income.  Beginning in 2013, the new law will no longer allow the deduction for the subsidy.  Corporations are claiming its a tax hike, while the White House says a loophole that lets companies receive a tax-free subsidy and then take a deduction for it has been closed.

NEXT UP: FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM - It looks like financial regulatory reform will become the next Congressional battleground, with the unveiling of Senate Banking Committee legislation.  Click here for highlights of the proposed bill.

Reaction to the proposed legislation can be summed up by the 'pro and con' that follow:

Pro from the Seattle Times: A comprehensive package of financial regulatory reforms voted out of the Senate Banking Committee is fundamental to restoring the credibility of the U.S. financial system and rebuilding the strength of the economy. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has set out a bill with a key remedial step: creation of a consumer protection agency. American consumers suffered for lack of trustworthy information about a variety of financial products. The legislation would end "too big to fail" by imposing new capital and leverage requirements on financial firms. The bill also seeks to regulate and generally tighten rules on the most exotic investments. Transparency and accountability are words that get heavy use, whether the topic is investments or the practices of credit-rating agencies. Too much of the economy operated out of sight and in the shadows, until things went bad, and financial firms needed lucrative bailouts.

Con from the Heritage Organization: The Senate Banking Committee's plan would create a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would almost certainly work at cross-purposes with other regulators charged with ensuring the safety and soundness of institutions. The bill would establish a powerful Financial Stability Oversight Council; but none of the nine existing regulators foresaw the present crisis, so it's hard to see how this new council will prevent the next one. Regulators would have the power to seize and liquidate financial firms that they feel are in trouble, even if investors and board members didn't agree. The bill would create a $50 billion fund to be used to help finance these forced liquidations; this is nothing more than a permanent Troubled Asset Relief Program fund. This is the wrong approach to fixing our financial markets. The focus should be on establishing an effective bankruptcy system for large financial firms to allow failures to be addressed in the same way failure is addressed in other industries

REGULATORY REFORM SUPPORT - Industry representatives voiced strong support for a provision that asks the SEC for a study on whether investment advisers and broker-dealers should be held to a fiduciary standard when selling investment products. Consumer groups oppose the decision to remove language contained in an earlier version of the reform legislation imposing a blanket fiduciary standard for investment product sales, but support provisions in the bill strengthening government regulation of ratings agencies. On another issue, the American Council of Life Insurers was critical of Senator Dodd's decision to include life insurers among the financial services groups that will be forced to contribute in advance to a fund that will be used to resolve troubled large financial firms.

HAMP DIDN'T WORK - According to the Treasury's Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the  U.S. program intended to help homeowners avoid foreclosure - the Help for America's Homeowners Program - has been oversold by the Treasury Department and will likely be considered a failure when it ends in 2012. According to the report, even if the program finishes with 1.5 million to 2 million homeowners receiving new, favorable terms on their loans, "the program will not be a long-term success if large amounts of borrowers simply re-default and end up facing foreclosure anyway."

BUT TARP DID - According to an article in The Washington Post, "No one likes TARP, but it's working."  It looks like the $700 billion TARP program may end up costing taxpayers "just" 16% of that total ($109 billion), with AIG and the auto industry accounting for most of the loss.  It's starting to look like the government's investments in troubled banks may pay off, with Uncle Sam standing to make a $8 billion profit on its Citigroup investment.    

HARTFORD REPAYS - This week, The Hartford paid back the $3.4 billion that it received from TARP.  The company sold $2.4 billion in stock and debt and also used cash on hand to buy back the preferred shares that it had issued to the Treasury Department.  The Treasury also received a final dividend of about $21.7 million on the stock.

SOCIAL SECURITY, CASH BASIS – How quickly things change. This from an recent article, "By 2016, Social Security will begin paying more in benefits than it collects in payroll taxes, according to the annual report of government trustees; reserves in the form of government IOUs will be exhausted by 2037." Actually, the Social Security trust fund began paying out more than it receives this month.

STILL CAMPAIGNING – Charles Schumer of New York, former chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, attempted to close the sale on the newly enacted health care reform bill by predicting  that, "As people learn about the bill, it's going to be more and more popular. By November, those who voted for health care will find it an asset, those who voted against it will find it a liability."  However, a new Gallup Poll reveals that "Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the health care overhaul signed into law last week costs too much and expands the government's role in health care too far."  Time will tell!