After allowing expiration of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) on February 28, the U.S. Senate passed legislation on March 2 that includes another short-term extension of the program.

Extension of the program had been held up when Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) stalled voting on the spending bill from the House (H.R. 4691) in which funding for the NFIP and other expiring federal programs had been included.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) agrees with President Obama on a few health care reform goals: reigning in costs, improving quality, and expanding coverage to everyone.

But as to the best methods of achieving those goals, the BCBSA parts ways with the president, as it explains in a recent statement it issued regarding the president’s health care reform proposal.

Here’s a trusty indicator of the state of the U.S. economy: Medicaid has never been so popular.

In June 2009, nearly 3.3 million more people were enrolled in state Medicaid programs  compared with June 2008, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) has a message for lawmakers: don’t use the asset size of a financial institution as the primary measure of systemic risk.

And on a related note, PCI wants to remind lawmakers that property and casualty insurers were not the cause of the financial meltdown of 2008.