Today on Newsmakers at Noon, TJ Sullivan of Hagan Hamilton Insurance joined us for our monthly Community Champions conversation, along with his guest Beth Black, past president of the National Association of Benefits & Insurance Professionals.
With changes underway in Oregon’s health-insurance market, Beth helped us sort through what’s happening, why some carriers are leaving or changing their participation, and, most importantly, what it means for consumers trying to make the most of increasingly expensive health-care dollars. We also talked about the broader debate over the role insurance companies play in rising health-care costs and why the reality is more complicated than simply assigning blame to one part of the system.
That conversation dovetailed with another big health-insurance story: federal officials say they canceled 315,000 ACA policies covering roughly 760,000 people in August over citizenship or immigration verification issues and suspected fraudulent enrollment. CMS estimates improper activity could cost taxpayers as much as $6.6 billion for the 2026 plan year, while industry representatives have cautioned that enforcement needs to distinguish fraudulent actors from legitimate brokers and consumers.
Back in Salem, data centers remain front and center. The City Council is scheduled tonight to review public input gathered as its Data Center Task Force develops recommendations. Feedback thus far has leaned heavily toward restricting or prohibiting new facilities and requiring stronger protections for water, power and other infrastructure. With Salem already under a 120-day moratorium, our question is becoming less “Are you for or against data centers?” and more: What would a data center have to bring to Salem for the city to say yes? What are the measurable expectations for power, water, infrastructure, tax revenue and permanent jobs?
And we turned to the national political picture, where cost of living continues to loom large. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week put President Donald Trump’s overall approval at 32%, with just 17% approving of his handling of cost-of-living issues. Rather than treating that simply as another horse-race number, we talked about the practical political question: If voters aren’t feeling improvement at the grocery store, gas pump and mortgage desk, how much do other economic indicators matter to them? And what could voter dissatisfaction over affordability mean for Oregon’s midterm campaigns, including the governor’s race? That impact nationally and here in Oregon remains uncertain this far from Election Day.
Links from Today’s Show
NABIP – National Association of Benefits & Insurance Professionals
Salem Reporter — City Council Reviews Data Center Public Input
Oregon Capital Chronicle — Data Centers Become an Oregon Election Issue
Reuters — U.S. Cancels 315,000 ACA Policies Amid Fraud Crackdown
Reuters — Trump Approval and Cost-of-Living Concerns
