Good. COVID is a virus that will be with us forevermore. It is time to treat it like we would any other malady.

In 2020, as the pandemic took hold, U.S. health insurance companies declared they would cover 100% of the costs for covid treatment, waiving co-pays and expensive deductibles for hospital stays that frequently range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

But this year, most insurers have reinstated co-pays and deductibles for covid patients, in many cases even before vaccines became widely available. The companies imposed the costs as industry profits remained strong or grew in 2020, with insurers paying out less to cover elective procedures that hospitals suspended during the crisis.

Remember that whenever insurance covers anything 100%, all that means is that all premium payers are picking up the full bill.

There’s a lot to unpack in this editorial paragraph that pretends to be news.

Americans are going to have to live with this new pandemic normal as the stilts the government built to prop Americans up during the pandemic come down, even though Democrats are simultaneously pushing forward with longer-term agenda items that would remake the economy to better support low-income workers.

Remember that had the government not stepped in, many of these people would have been evicted as a matter of routine. The fact that there are so many of them being evicted at once is the result of government action.

Facing a staggering amount of back rent, hundreds of thousands of individuals and families may be put out of their homes this year as the eviction moratorium comes to an end, according to research from Goldman Sachs.

 

Following the Supreme Court’s decision last week to strike down the pandemic-era policy that kept renters in their homes despite being unable to pay, economists at the investment bank said on Monday that about 750,000 US households will ultimately be evicted later this year, barring action by Congress.

 

Crunching data from the Census Bureau and landlord trade groups, Goldman estimated that roughly 2.5 to 3.5 million American households are behind on rent, with landlords owed as much as $17 billion.

 

Delinquent renters appeared to be safe from eviction until at least October. However, the high court’s decision to lift the federal ban on evictions indicates that further action may need to be taken from Congress, which the justices cited as having ultimate authority on the matter.

The long term impact of this is going to be a severe shortage in affordable rental properties as small and medium property owners decide that it isn’t worth the risk to rent their properties. The larger property owners will jack up rates to build a financial hedge against government intervention.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a new eviction moratorium that would last until Oct. 3, as the Biden administration sought to quell intensifying criticism from progressives that it was allowing vulnerable renters to lose their homes during a pandemic.

 

The ban announced Tuesday could help keep millions in their homes as the coronavirus’ delta variant has spread and states have been slow to release federal rental aid. It would temporarily halt evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions and would cover areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.

 

The announcement was a reversal for the Biden administration, which allowed an earlier moratorium to lapse over the weekend after saying a Supreme Court ruling prevented an extension. That ripped open a dramatic split between the White House and progressive Democrats who insisted the administration do more to prevent some 3.6 million Americans from losing their homes during the COVID-19 crisis.

Beyond the real impact, this is flatly immoral. We, the taxpayers, are already providing massive amounts of financial relief to people impacted by the pandemic. It is not unreasonable to expect that they will pay their rent with it. Why are the taxpayers and property owners bearing the burden for people who can, and should be working and paying their bills? If they can’t work, there are ample programs to help them. Either way, people need to pay their rent or move to somewhere they can afford.

If you aren’t paying rent, can you really be called a “renter?”

While many landlords say they can only go so long without being paid, some tenants are left worried about what their next move will be.

 

“The moratorium ending, it basically means that at any moment I could end up on the street,” said Heather Waller, a renter who has benefited from the eviction moratorium for months.

 

“I don’t know what tomorrow looks like. So, my anxiety has been really severely bad just thinking about how I might not have a roof over my head.”

In light of the inflation pressures the economy is experiencing, the Congress is making a bipartisan effort to make it worse.

Senators voted 66-28 on a motion to proceed, a vote that will open up the legislative package to potential changes through the amendment process.

Ouch

Wholesale prices for June rose more than expected in another sign that inflation is moving at a faster pace than markets had anticipated.

 

The producer price index, which measures what companies get for the goods they produce, increased 1% from May and jumped 7.3% on a year over year basis. That marked the second month in a row that the PPI set a record for a data series that goes back to 2010.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 0.6% monthly increase.

 

Stripping out volatile food, energy and trade prices, the core PPI increased 0.5%, in line with estimates.

 

The PPI headline surge comes a day after the Labor Department reported a 5.4% year over year jump in the consumer price index, the biggest move for that measure since 2008.

 

The producer price index differs from the CPI in that it measures final demand prices that companies get for their goods. The CPI tracks what consumers actually pay at the register.