Broker Regulation

West Virginia insurance officials told lawmakers Tuesday that partnering with the federal government is the state's best option for a new health coverage marketplace, but also cautioned that success is far from certain.

Utah's Gov. Gary Herbert is asking President Barack Obama to approve a health insurance exchange the state already has in place and declare that it meets the requirements of the federal health overhaul.

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter said Tuesday a state-built health insurance exchange is the best option for Idaho under the federal government's health care overhaul, but left the final decision up to lawmakers who return to Boise in January.

Despite an intensifying pace, little progress is being reported in talks on averting automatic spending cuts and tax increases that economists fear could send the U.S. economy off a "fiscal cliff."

Christmas is now only two weeks away with the new year lurking in the shadows a week later. Maybe its all this talk of the cliffand the impending doom it impliesbut flipping the calendar this year just doesnt seem to harbor the same batch of hope and jubilation.

A year-end deadline approaching, quiet negotiations to avoid an economy-rattling "fiscal cliff" yielded no tangible signs of progress on Monday as Republicans pressed President Barack Obama to volunteer spending cuts he will support while the White House insisted the GOP endorse higher tax rates on upper incomes.