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New Straits Times
7 days ago
- Business
- New Straits Times
Palm rises on stronger Dalian oils, crude; weak Chicago soyoil caps gains
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures opened higher on Wednesday for a fourth session, buoyed by stronger rival Dalian oils and crude oil prices, though weaker Chicago soyoil limited gains. The benchmark palm oil contract for August delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained RM12, or 0.31 per cent, to RM3,880 (US$913.80) a metric ton in early trade. Dalian's most-active soyoil contract rose 0.23 per cent, while its palm oil contract added 1.05 per cent. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were down 0.14 per cent. Palm oil tracks price movements of rival edible oils, as it competes for a share of the global vegetable oils market. Oil prices edged higher in early trading as the US barred Chevron from exporting crude from Venezuela under a new authorization on its assets there, raising the prospect of tighter supply. Stronger crude oil futures make palm a more attractive option for biodiesel feedstock. The ringgit, palm's currency of trade, weakened 0.26 per cent against the dollar, making the commodity slightly cheaper for buyers holding foreign currencies. European Union soybean imports for the 2024/25 season, which began in July, reached 12.69 million metric tons by May 25, up 7 per cent from the same period a year earlier, while palm oil imports were at 2.57 million tons, down 19 per cent, data published by the European Commission stated. Palm oil may retrace into a range of RM3,814 to RM3,838 per metric ton, as it faces strong resistance at RM3,878, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said. Asian shares continued a rally from Wall Street and the dollar held gains on Wednesday on promising economic signs in the United States and speculation of strong tech earnings.
Malaysian Reserve
17-05-2025
- Business
- Malaysian Reserve
CPO futures to trade with upward bias on strong export demand next week
THE crude palm oil (CPO) futures market is expected to trade with a slight upward bias next week, supported by the recent strength in export demand, said palm oil trader David Ng. Ng told Bernama that prices are expected to range between RM3,700 and RM3,880 per tonne. Meanwhile, the Interband group of companies senior palm oil trader Jim Teh said next week's market is likely to be volatile, or a 'yo-yo' market, due to the high physical stock levels in Malaysia and Indonesia. 'The price range for CPO futures is expected to hover between RM3,700 and RM3,900 per tonne. 'At this price level, we anticipate strong interest from physical buyers in China, India, Pakistan, Middle Eastern countries, and the European Union,' he added. On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the new spot-month June 2025 increased RM26 to RM3,839 per tonne, July 2025 was RM14 higher at RM3,828 per tonne, and August 2025 fell RM12 to RM3,815 per tonne. September 2025 declined RM29 to RM3,808 per tonne, October 2025 slipped RM44 to RM3,809 per tonne, and November 2025 stood at RM3,818 per tonne. Weekly trading volume increased to 378,493 lots from 347,140 the previous week, while open interest declined to 239,366 contracts from 240,098. The physical CPO price for May South increased by RM60 to RM3,910 per tonne. — BERNAMA
CNBC
14-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Medicaid work requirements would 'kick a lot of people off' of health care coverage, Sen. Warnock says
Republican lawmakers may be looking at substantial cuts to Medicaid in upcoming reconciliation legislation. But one method of restricting access to coverage — work requirements — could have disastrous results for Americans, based on efforts in Arkansas and Georgia to implement such policies, according to a new report issued by Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. Those rules typically require people to meet certain thresholds, such as a set number of hours of work per month, to qualify for Medicaid coverage. While labeled as "work requirements," they would be more correctly called "work reporting requirements" because they involve so many rules, forms and other red tape that they can prevent working Americans from accessing coverage, according to Warnock. "These work reporting requirements are not incentivizing work; there's no evidence of that," Warnock said in an interview with "What we see is that this is a good way to kick a lot of people off of their health care — hardworking everyday Americans who are struggling," Warnock said. A Republican House budget resolution included about $880 billion in spending cuts through 2034 from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In a March report, the Congressional Budget Office found Republicans cannot achieve their budget goals without cutting Medicaid. House Republicans on Sunday released draft legislative language of the reconciliation bill. Work requirements are among the eligibility policies on the table. Based on the current proposal, 9.7 million to 14.4 million people would be at risk for losing Medicaid coverage in 2034 if they are unable to show they meet the work requirements, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., who is chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in support of the work hurdles. "When so many Americans who are truly in need rely on Medicaid for life-saving services, Washington can't afford to undermine the program further by subsidizing capable adults who choose not to work," Guthrie wrote in the op-ed published on Sunday. "That's why our bill would implement sensible work requirements," Guthrie wrote. Those requirements would be in line with current policies, according to Guthrie, where working adults, seniors on Medicare and veterans have all worked in exchange for health coverage eligibility. However, Warnock argues that thinking is backwards. By providing health care coverage without those requirements, that will then help encourage people to work because they are getting the care they need to be healthy, he said. "If you provide basic health care to the people who are eligible, you actually have more people working," Warnock said. "You have a stronger economy." Two states — Arkansas and Georgia — have tested work reporting requirements for Medicaid, with subpar results, according to Warnock's report. "These are two cautionary tales, and the idea of now expanding a failed experiment nationwide is a bad idea," Warnock said. Georgia, Warnock's home state, is currently the only one in the country that has Medicaid work reporting requirements in place. The state's program, Georgia Pathways to Coverage, lets adults qualify if they have 80 hours of qualifying work per month, have income below the federal poverty line and pay mandatory premiums. The program, which was implemented on July 1, 2023, has lackluster enrollment, according to Warnock's report. Twenty months in, the program has only enrolled around 7,000 people, while nearly 500,000 people need health care coverage in Georgia, according to Warnock. "It gets a big fat 'F,'" Warnock said of the program. "It's failed." Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and some other state Republicans have spoken about the program as a success. Georgia is among the states that opted not to expand Medicaid, and therefore make coverage more accessible, following the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Arkansas did implement Medicaid expansion in 2014 and subsequently put work requirements in place from 2018 to 2019. However, those efforts failed, with 18,000 people losing Medicaid coverage in the first seven months and only a small share of people able to get coverage back the following year, according to a 2023 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. More from Personal Finance:Two key issues to watch in House Republican tax debateAs student loan collections resume, credit scores tumbleStagflation is a looming economic risk. What it means for your money Low compliance with work requirements may come from a variety of factors that have nothing to do with employment, according to research from the Urban Institute. That may include limited access to the internet or transportation, health limitations or disabilities and low education levels. Others may simply not quite meet the requirements their states have set out. That is the case for Heather Payne, 52, of Dalton, Georgia, who suffered a series of strokes in 2022. As a result, Payne can no longer work as a traveling nurse and has opted to enroll in graduate school to become a nurse practitioner, a role that will be less physically grueling. "I really do love nursing so much, and I cannot continue to do it the same way that I used to do it since my strokes," Payne said. While Payne is considered a full-time student, she is just short of the hours to qualify for Medicaid under Georgia's work requirements. As a result, she is paying for private health care coverage with her tuition, which is adding to the debts she will have to pay off once she graduates. Because her health insurance plan doesn't cover all her care, she estimates she's incurred "tens of thousands of dollars" in medical debt. Payne, who said she is "not very savvy on politics," attended President Joe Biden's 2024 State of the Union Address in Washington, D.C., as Warnock's guest in an effort to draw attention to the coverage gap. The U.S. is one of the few industrialized countries without universal health coverage, which is "really kind of embarrassing," Payne said. "And instead of trying to go toward that, we're trying to yank it away from everyone possible," Payne said.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Republican Medicaid Cuts Could Force Many Hospitals to ‘Close Their Doors'
As Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers ponder how best to cut Medicaid in order to pay for new tax boons for the rich, doctors, hospital executives, and advocates are warning that changes to the nation's health insurance program for the poor could harm patients, quickly cause rural hospitals to close, and force essential programs to shut down. For months now, the Trump administration has been exploring ways to pay off the massive $4.5 trillion loss of tax revenue it would incur by making Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent. So far, House Republicans' initial reconciliation bill has demanded $1.7 trillion in spending cuts across a slew of committees and government sectors. The biggest concern for health care professionals is the $880 billion the House Energy and Commerce Committee has been instructed to slash from its budget. While Trump has repeatedly pledged not to cut Medicaid, there is virtually no way for Republican lawmakers to achieve their target without massive cuts to the program tens of millions of Americans rely on for health care. Conservatives appear ready to eliminate a key funding mechanism, called provider taxes, that have allowed states to provide supplemental payments to hospitals, doctors, and other providers in order to make up for lower reimbursements from Medicaid. According to an April report from The Wall Street Journal, delays in the processing of such payments by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have already forced hospitals in several states to lay off staff and pause payments to suppliers as the agency slow-walks supplemental funding approvals. Republicans are also reportedly pushing to impose work requirements on most able-bodied Medicaid beneficiaries without dependents — demanding they work, volunteer, or go to school for 80 hours a month — while checking recipients' income more frequently. The changes will add more bureaucratic bloat to a program riddled with it, and could lead to coverage losses. Democrats are warning that Republicans' proposed health care cuts will cause millions to lose their insurance coverage. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said Sunday that if Trump and Republican lawmakers cut Medicaid, 'People will die. Children will die.' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told Rolling Stone that Republicans are trying 'to gut what is left of the health care and social safety net in the United States,' in order to fund tax cuts for their donors. The health care industry is sounding the alarm about proposed Medicaid cuts, too. In an April letter to Republican and Democratic congressional leadership, the American Hospital Association — a health care lobby representing over 5,000 hospital networks and two million health care workers — urged Congress to 'refrain from considering disruptive policy changes to Medicaid and other health care coverage that could impact access to health care for tens of millions of Americans.' The AHA pointed to not just the sum total of proposed cuts, but specific policy changes Republicans are floating that could result in hospitals getting less money, fewer Americans qualifying for benefits, and some patients covering more of their health care costs. The association warned about 'harmful reductions to federal Medicaid spending' under consideration in Congress. 'These include changing the underlying finance structure to a per capita cap, reducing the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) for certain states, and placing new limits on provider taxes. Any of these changes would negatively impact state financing for their Medicaid programs, which in turn would harm hospitals and Medicaid beneficiaries,' the AHA wrote. 'Should states see reductions in federal support for their Medicaid programs, it could force them to further reduce provider payments to account for these losses.' The AHA further warned of policies 'that could result in the displacement of Medicaid coverage for millions of beneficiaries and could lead to additional uncompensated care for our facilities.' Proposals under consideration reportedly include making some Medicaid beneficiaries pay higher premiums or co-pays for medical visits. Republicans appear to have coalesced behind the idea of imposing work requirements for able-bodied adults under 65 years of age who do not have dependents. During the AHA's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last week, 'uncertainty' was the word of the moment. Amid the ever-shifting sands of the Trump administration — where policy is shaped less by legislation than by executive orders, televised declarations, and impulsive Truth Social posts — hospital executives, doctors, and industry lobbyists have struggled to get a handle on what the administration has planned for health care. One thing is abundantly clear: What seems to be on the table is bad for the nation's poor — and for its businesses. 'Hospitals go out of business when Medicare and Medicaid are cut. Period,' one attendee tells Rolling Stone. Troy Clark, president and CEO of the New Mexico Hospital Association, is worried about what cuts to Medicaid and Medicare could mean for rural hospitals in his state, which are often the only connection entire communities have to the nation's health care system. Cuts to funding and limitations on access to Medicaid would ripple throughout the entire state, where over 40 percent of the population is enrolled in the program. 'I have probably between six and eight hospitals in New Mexico that if the supplemental payments are cut, they will probably close in the next 12 to 18 months,' Clark tells Rolling Stone. 'They're rural, they're small, and they have a high percentage [of Medicaid patients]. I have several counties that are 80-percent-plus Medicaid, and so that means [the hospital is] probably 95-percent Medicaid plus Medicare. They're not vibrant economic communities that have employers, so they rely on this, and if they go back to where they were before the supplemental payments, they'll have to close their doors. They can't stay open.' 'Words matter when it comes to politicians, and they will say things [in a] very couched [way]. So, 'We're not going to touch the Medicaid program.' Well, does that mean to beneficiaries, or does that mean to the reimbursement to hospitals and doctors?' Clark adds of the messaging coming from Republicans. Dr. Michael Brown, the chief medical officer and a pulmonary specialist at Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Georgia, says that hospitals like his would be severely impacted by the proposed cuts. 'We would all agree that there are big problems in health care that need addressing,' he says. 'But you can't just cut the funding that these hospitals are dependent upon.' 'You have to be careful what you're going to compromise,' Brown adds. 'And loss of health care, particularly in rural societies that really depend on it — both for health care and for jobs — without those entities, without having solvent hospitals in rural communities, those communities are in peril.' Jessica Rivenbank, vice president of medical education at Colquitt Regional Medical Center, says the proposed cuts would also place critical programs, like those supporting obstetric and psychiatric programs at hospitals like theirs, at risk. Republicans have framed Medicaid work requirements as one way to slash costs without harming beneficiaries who need it. 'You don't want able-bodied workers on a program that is intended, for example, for single mothers with two small children who [are] just trying to make it,' House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said earlier this year. 'That is what Medicaid is for. Not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games.' Data indicates most Medicaid enrollees already do, in fact, work. Imposing work requirements would add extra layers of bureaucracy to a program that already sees many eligible beneficiaries lose their benefits for administrative reasons. Medicaid is aggressively means-tested; Americans are ineligible for the program if they earn near enough money to get by on their own. States are required to check beneficiaries' income annually to make sure they are still poor, and these checks frequently lead to eligible beneficiaries having their coverage terminated because they missed a phone call or failed to respond to a piece of mail. Given Medicaid's strict income limits, imposing work requirements would likely force people to toil in low-wage jobs, or apparently volunteer, if they want to maintain their health coverage — and it would certainly lead to more beneficiaries losing their coverage for bureaucratic reasons. When Arkansas attempted to impose similar work requirements during Trump's first term, it 'substantially exacerbated administrative hurdles to maintaining coverage,' according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Conducting more frequent checks on beneficiaries' income — another idea that Republicans have rallied behind — proved to be a disaster when Georgia tried it, according to reporting by ProPublica. Lost in the conversation about forcing supposedly able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work is the fact that many beneficiaries cannot work, but haven't been approved for disability, which is an arduous process. American Hospital Association attendees who spoke to Rolling Stone said they felt that the administration's focus on the imagined 29-year-old couch potato as the emblem of fraud, waste, and abuse in the medical system was misguided, and that work requirements would do little more than unnecessarily exclude people from the system. 'A lot of the patients who are on Medicaid can't work,' says Brown, the Colquitt Regional Medical Center chief medical officer. 'A lot of the people who are in a borderline poverty scenario, or are impoverished, or have health care conditions that do keep them from being able to work, many of them are dependent upon Medicaid.' Former Trump White House adviser and Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway spoke to the AHA last week and applauded Speaker Johnson's approach toward Medicaid and work requirements. Conway said onstage that Medicaid should be reserved for people like a 'single mom of two, who's doing everything she can to keep it together and keep those kids nourished, healthy, safe.' She explained, 'I was raised by that kind of mom.' The program shouldn't be for 'the 29-year-old on the sofa' who is able-bodied and refuses to find a job, she added. Based on Medicaid's income limits, an adult living in California without dependents cannot earn more than $21,597 — which is less than Conway's reported fee for speaking at events like the AHA conference. (Conway has spoken at several recent lobbying group events.) Clark, who leads the New Mexico Hospital Association, sees the talk about 29-year-old sofa surfers on Medicaid as a distraction. 'Get rid of the 29-year-old sitting on mom and dad's couch who has no interest in paying his own way. Get rid of the person who no longer is eligible and is still drawing on the system,' he says. Does fraud exist in the system? 'Clearly it does,' Clark concedes, but it's realistically 'a very small fraction that might cost us a lot more to go find' than what these cuts would truly eliminate. What is of bigger concern to people like Clark is the reality that a mass cut to Medicaid's already rickety funding system — flawed as it may be — could lead to catastrophic outcomes for patients throughout the country. If legislators want to cut Medicaid supplemental funding, and then 'stand there and present it as if we've done great eliminating waste. It's like, no, you haven't,' Clark said. 'You have eliminated the ability for access to care. Without the add-ons, doctors aren't going to supply the services, and hospitals can't afford to. They won't be able to stay open.' More from Rolling Stone John Oliver Takes Aim at Trump's 'Creepy' Comments About Dolls Elon Musk's Regulatory Woes Are Conveniently Vanishing Under Trump 'Children Will Die:' Democrats Raise Alarm About GOP Efforts to Cut Medicaid Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
I fought hard to expand Arizona's Medicaid program. We all pay if it's scaled back
Restoring health care coverage for Arizonans who lost it during the Great Recession stands out as one of my proudest moments as governor. It wasn't easy, but it was the right thing to do for the people of Arizona — and we got it done, despite a lot of people telling me I shouldn't, or couldn't. Now, more than a decade later, that same coverage is once again in jeopardy. And Arizona's members of Congress will play a critical role in determining whether folks can still count on that care. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, has been tasked with finding $880 billion in savings to help fund an extension of the 2017 tax cuts. That's a big number. And there's no question — Medicaid is on the table. Some of the proposals being floated would mean deep cuts to state Medicaid programs, including the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS). If these ideas move forward, our state could lose close to $2 billion in federal funding. That kind of shift would dump massive costs onto the state without a roadmap for how to cover them. And as every governor knows — Democrat or Republican — we can't just print more money. If the federal dollars disappear, the state is left with a handful of bad choices: cut eligibility, cut services, cut payments to providers or raise taxes. I've sat in that chair. I've faced those choices. I had to make all of them as governor during one of Arizona's hardest times. We were in the middle of a deep recession, and I inherited a budget crisis unlike our state had ever seen. Some in Washington say they don't want to hurt those who depend on Medicaid. They say they want to stop waste and fraud and make sure that people who can work, do. But here in Arizona, we've already done that. We already have work requirements — there has been a law on the books since 2015. And most AHCCCS recipients are working. In fact, more than 200,000 people left the program in 2023 — most because they got jobs. That's something to celebrate. Arizona voters made it clear nearly 25 years ago who should qualify for Medicaid in this state with the passage of Proposition 204. That wasn't a decision made by politicians — it was made by the people. So, regardless of what Congress does, Arizona is still required by law to cover this population. If Congress forces states to find savings, Arizona won't be trimming fat — it'll be cutting muscle. Tens of thousands of Arizonans will lose coverage. I've seen what happens when that lifeline disappears. It's not theoretical. It's real. In 2024, AHCCCS helped 64,000 Arizonans battling cancer. It treated 67,500 people fighting opioid addiction. It supported 180,000 residents managing diabetes. But sick people just don't disappear if they don't have coverage. They show up in emergency rooms, the most expensive place to get care. Under federal law, hospitals are required to treat them. Opinion: You'll pay more for health care if Republicans ax AHCCCS expansion Hospitals and the health care industry can't provide services for free, so they end up passing the costs on to health care insurance companies who end up raising all our premiums to cover the cost of service, something called the 'hidden health care tax,' which creates a drag on the whole economy. That's not just bad health policy. It's bad economics. Hospitals will struggle. Some may close. Health care workers like doctors and nurses will lose their jobs. Insurers will raise premiums to make up for the losses. Employers and families will pay more — and Arizona's economy will feel the strain. These cuts don't just hurt AHCCCS members. They ripple through every part of our state. I know what it's like to be a lawmaker faced with a tough vote. I know what it's like to stand up to your own party when it matters. And I know how hard it is to do the right thing — especially when it's not the popular thing. But I hope our delegation remembers what's at stake. This isn't about politics. It's about people. And it's about protecting something that works — for patients, providers and taxpayers. Because at the end of the day, leadership is about more than just holding the line — it's about doing what's right for Arizona. Jan Brewer, a Republican, is a former Arizona lawmaker and secretary of state who served as governor from 2009 to 2015. Reach her on X @GovBrewer. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jan Brewer: Scaling back AHCCCS hurts all of Arizona | Opinion
