The Political Page, T+69 -- March 31, 2017

Updates

April 4, 2017: Knoxville could be first US city where ObamaCare fails. CNN reports that Humana, the only insurer left on the Affordable Care exchange in the Knoxville area, is set to exit the market in 2018.

Original Post

 

Penal shock! Maybe it's just me but I find it amazing/striking/depressing/surprising (all of the above) that more than 20% of federal prisoners are non-citizens.  Link here.

Health Shock! ObamaCare stalwart Anthem seen likely to retreat for 2018. Data points from Bloombergsupports Trump's narrative -- Bloomberg:

• Anthem likely to "pull back"
• Anthem is "leaning toward exiting a high percentage of the 144 rating regions in which it currently participates"
• Anthem was one of the few big insurers that stuck with ACA
• UnitedHealth Group and Aetna Inc. have already exited most states
• Humana planning to stop offering individual ACA plans entirely for 2018

Surrendering! Fox Business News hypes fight between Trump and the GOP faction that killed the Ryan-TrumpCare bill. Spokesman for the latter appears to have gotten the message. Says new bill will be passed before Easter. If that happens, speaks volumes about presidential tweets.

ND Budget. UND may cut women's hockey, and both men's and women's swimming programs in response to "state's bleak financial picture." I think Rob Port over at SayAnythingBlog will discuss this at length. It's only a matter of time before the state legislature taps the untappable Legacy Fund.

Legacy Fund. Through March, 2017, total deposits to the Legacy Fund were $3,833,534,676. Deposits to the fund do not equal value of assets in the Legacy Fund. According to the state's annual budget report released June 30, 2016, data points for the Legacy Fund (and this is why the fund's investment strategy is not talked about much):

• fair value: $3,809,485,184
• rates of return (for fiscal year ending 6/30):
• 2016: 1.06%
• 2015: 3.31%
• 2014: 6.64%
• 2013: 1.15%
• 2012: --