Carlos Ghosn sues Nissan for $1 billion, over finances and reputation
The lawsuit includes Ghosn’s plan to bring Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi Motors under a grand alliance with Fiat Chrysler, which he says fueled concerns within Nissan.
Hyundai aims for double-digit EV profit margins by 2030 with new platform
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Savvy Senior: Health insurance options after a spouse retires
Dear Savvy Senior,
My 63-year-old wife, who’s doesn’t work, is on my health insurance plan through my employer. When I retire next month and go on Medicare, what are our options for getting her health coverage until she turns 65? Is there some kind of Medicare coverage for dependent spouses?
Need Insurance
Dear Need,
Unfortunately, Medicare does not provide family coverage to younger spouses or dependent children when you qualify for Medicare. Nobody can obtain Medicare benefits before age 65, unless eligible at a younger age because of disability. With that said, here are your best options for covering your wife:
Affordable Care Act: In most cases, your best choice is to get your wife an individual health insurance policy through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance marketplace (a.k.a. Obamacare). The marketplace offers comprehensive health coverage, and she won’t be denied coverage or charged extra for preexisting health conditions.
And thanks to the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act, the marketplace now provides enhanced subsidies through 2025. If your income falls below the 400% poverty level after you retire — anything below $73,240 for a couple or $54,360 for a single in 2023 — your wife will be eligible for a tax credit that will reduce the amount you’ll have to pay for her policy. The marketplace also ensures that households with incomes above that 400% poverty level will not have to pay more than 8.5% of their income for a benchmark policy.
Looking for a housing price crash? That’s unlikely, real estate economists say
The nation‘s housing market is going through a correction, not a crash.
While sales are down and mortgage rates are up, home prices are still rising because there are so few homes for sale.
And after a decade of rising prices, commercial real estate values have been dropping steadily over the past 18 months, particularly for offices. It’s going to take two to nine years for building and warehouse values to get back to 2022 levels, creating some risk for banks holding real estate debt. Another 311 banks will likely fail in the near future — equivalent to three Silicon Valley Banks, but not enough to tank the banking system.
Those are among the conclusions from more than a dozen economists and analysts speaking at a gathering of real estate journalists in Las Vegas earlier this month.
“We don’t foresee home price declines on a year-over-year basis nationally,” Selma Hepp, CoreLogic chief economist, told the National Association of Real Estate Editors conference held in Las Vegas June 6-9. “We have had a lot of volatility on prices. … But in most markets, we are basically going back to long-term trends in terms of home price appreciation.”