Wonkbook: Another state is at risk of having only one Obamacare health insurer

By Carolyn Y. Johnson Two insurers announced this week that... | Sponsored by Morgan Stanley   The latest economic and domestic policy from Wonkblog   (Jessica Hill/AP) By Carolyn Y. Johnson Two insurers announced this week that they would pull out of Iowa's Affordable Care Act exchanges next year, raising worries that the decisions could be the leading edge of a trend. Insurers face approaching deadlines and major uncertainties about the short-term viability of the exchanges, and beyond, because of politicians' inability thus far to move a specific repeal and replace plan forward. Aetna spokesman T.J. Crawford said that the company had informed federal and state regulators that it would not offer plans in Iowa's exchange because of "financial risk and an uncertain outlook for the marketplace" on Thursday. That followed the announcement Monday that Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield would also pull out of Iowa's marketplaces next year. The combination of the two exits will leave the vast majority of counties in the states with only one insurer, assuming that there are no other changes, according to Cynthia Cox of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "While we have seen signs that the market is moving toward stabilization, generally speaking, there are parts of the country that are likely fragile and at high risk of losing insurers or having premium increases," Cox said. Read the rest on Wonkblog. Number of the day 98,000. That is the net number of positions U.S. employers added to payrolls in March, according to the monthly survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Analysts had expected around 175,000 new positions. Ana Swanson has more. Top jobs tweets Goldman, yesterday: "We believe the early-month winter storms are likely to exert a meaningful drag on March payrolls growth" — James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) April 7, 2017 ADVERTISEMENT   Ignore the soft payroll gains. This is a quite good report. Solid wage gains, great news in household survey. — Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) April 7, 2017 Broader unemployment, U6, fell from 9.2% to 8.9%. That's the lowest it's been since Dec 2007—the start of the Great Recession. — Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) April 7, 2017 Drop in unemployment rate is for good reasons. More employed, fewer unemployed. Participation rate flat. — Ben Casselman (@bencasselman) April 7, 2017 Teen unemployment rate 13.7%, ~16 year low — Conor Sen (@conorsen) April 7, 2017 And overall EPOP up by 0.1 percentage points. — Nick Bunker (@nick_bunker) April 7, 2017 Of course the jobs number is below expectations (and a good reminder not to overweight ADP). But most have jobs--so focus on wages. — Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) April 7, 2017 Hourly earnings growth back to looking a bit weaker. Up only 2.7% over the past year. No threat to the Fed's inflation target. — Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) April 7, 2017 Most Recent Posts from Wonkblog U.S. hiring slowed in March as employers added only 98,000 jobs By Ana Swanson  •  Read more »   The GOP’s first step on health care is admitting it has a problem The deal Trump could make on health care By Steven Pearlstein  •  Read more »   Under Trump, more than 200,000 foreign spouses could lose their right to work These scientists and engineers moved to the U.S. for better career opportunities. Now their right to work may be revoked. By Tracy Jan  •  Read more »   The trade deficit with China is a problem — but not for the reason Trump thinks The key, one expert says, is that the trade deficit is due to a deeper problem. By Ana Swanson  •  Read more »   Preet Bharara on why he was fired: ‘Beats the hell out of me.’ Bharara was one of 46 U.S. attorneys asked to resign by the Trump administration. 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