Contributor Joel Kornblau; Forbes ~ Oct 28, 2013

In trading on Monday, shares of AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) crossed above their 200 day moving average of $35.53, changing hands as high as $35.57 per share. AT&T Inc shares are currently trading up about 1.1% on the day. The chart below shows the one year performance of T shares, versus its 200 day moving average:

Click here to find out which 9 other dividend stocks recently crossed above their 200 day moving average, at Dividend Channel »

From Associated Press; Anderson Independent-Mail News ~ Oct 25, 2013

Patients are being pushed to shop more for health care by insurance plans that require them to pay higher out-of-pocket costs. But finding the right deal is often no easy task. Here are five things to consider if you decide to shop around:

1 – Check with your insurer: Don’t make a big bill even larger by shopping for care outside your health insurer’s network of doctors. See if you can get better deals inside that network.

2 – Ask for help: Your insurer may offer an application or online tool that lets you compare prices you would pay based on your coverage

By Matt K. Lewis; The Daily Caller ~ Oct 23, 2013

In lieu of a functioning website, President Obama has begun hawking ObamaCare’s 1-800 number.

During a recent speech in the Rose Garden, he said: ”We’re also redoubling our efforts to make sure you can still buy the same quality affordable insurance plans available on the marketplace the old-fashioned way, offline — either over the phone or in person.”

This implies that if the website doesn’t work, you can still purchase health insurance over the phone. The problem is, you really can’t. At least, not easily. You have to wait (possibly months) to obtain eligibility. Then you have to call them back. And then…who knows?

By Bill Bischoff; MarketWatch ~ Oct 22, 2013

In this still-struggling economy, you may need to take an early IRA withdrawal to gain some needed cash. By early withdrawal, I mean one that occurs before you’ve reached age 59 1/2. Needless to say, there are tax implications, including the possibility of getting socked with the 10% premature withdrawal penalty tax. Here’s the scoop.

Withdrawals Are Usually Taxable, but 10% Penalty Tax Can Often Be Avoided

In most cases, all or part of any withdrawal from a traditional IRA will count as taxable income. The taxable percentage depends on whether you’ve made any nondeductible traditional IRA contributions over the years.

By Ross Douthat; The New York Times ~ Oct 19, 2013

THIS is not the column about the Obamacare rollout I expected to write.

If you had told me, months ago, that weeks after the health care law’s coverage expansion went into effect I would be writing about the problems its launch had exposed, I would have assumed I’d be writing about rate shock, rising premiums and the disappearance of many cheap insurance plans — basically, all the problems conservatives have worried will make Obamacare a ruinously expensive failure if they play out as we fear they might.

Fox News ~ Oct 18, 2013

New concerns are being raised about so-called ObamaCare “navigators” following a string of reports about the questionable backgrounds of those selected to guide Americans through what is shaping up to be a rocky roll-out of the health care law.

The concerns come on top of the drama over the HealthCare.gov site itself, which is the main federal hub for would-be participants and has been riddled with technical problems. The “navigators” are outreach workers, funded by federal taxpayer dollars, who are supposed to help people sign up for coverage.

By Heidi Przybyla & Mike Dorning; Bloomberg ~ Oct 18, 2013

Forget talk of a budgetary grand bargain when members of Congress sit down to meet a December deadline for progress on a revenue-and-spending plan.

Lawmakers say even a mini-bargain to carry the government through the next year or two would be difficult, never mind a breakthrough on entitlement spending limits and tax revenue that’s eluded negotiators for the past three years.

“It’s kind of hard to be positive about it, particularly when we’ve gone through what we’ve gone through recently,” said Senator Saxby Chambliss, a retiring Georgia Republican who anticipates what may be his final opportunity to put the nation’s fiscal house in order. Chambliss, 69, was co-chairman of a now-demobilized group of eight Senate negotiators.

By Beth Pinsker; Reuters ~ Oct 17, 2013

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Benefits consultant Aon Hewitt predicted that healthcare premium costs for large U.S. employers would rise about 6 percent in 2013, but when it tallied up its numbers for the year, the increase was only about 3.3 percent.

A similar shift happened in 2012. The forecast was 7 percent, and the actual rise in premiums turned out to be 4.9 percent.

The projection for 2014 costs is again in the 6-percent-to-7-percent range, Aon Hewitt said on Thursday. Based on actual tallies of healthcare usage, the forecast is on track, while the last two years are anomalies, the company says.

By Associated Press; The Washington Post ~ Oct 16, 2013

WASHINGTON — For the first month alone, the Obama administration projected that nearly a half million people would sign up for the new health insurance markets, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. But that was before the markets opened to a cascade of computer problems.

If the glitches persist and frustrated consumers give up trying, that initial goal, described as modest in the memo, could slip out of reach.

The Sept. 5 memo, for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, lists monthly enrollment targets for each state and Washington, D.C., through March 31, the last day of the initial open enrollment period under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

By Tom Cohen and Greg Botelho, CNN – Oct 16, 2013

Washington (CNN) — Weeks of bitter political fighting gave way to a frenzied night in Washington on Wednesday as Congress passed a bill that would end the partial government shutdown and prevent the country from crashing into the debt ceiling.
But it’s only a temporary fix, and there are signs of more fights to come.

The bill was on its way to President Barack Obama’s desk late Wednesday night.

“I will sign it immediately,” Obama said Wednesday night. “We’ll begin reopening our government immediately.”