The COVID-19 outbreak could cause premiums for individuals and employers to spike from 4% to 40% next year, a new analysis from California’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange found.

Top congressional and White House officials emerged from grueling negotiations at the Capitol over the nearly $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package saying they expected to reach a deal Tuesday.

As California braced for an onslaught of desperately ill coronavirus patients, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans over the weekend to open two new hospitals, and President Donald Trump said the federal government will ship a number of mobile hospital units to the state, pay for National Guard deployments and deploy the San Diego-based naval hospital ship Mercy to Los Angeles.

Coronavirus has drastically shifted the world's buying habits, and businesses are rapidly adjusting to the new pandemic reality. Many retailers are shut down, but consumers continue to flock to pharmacies, grocery stores and take-out restaurants. Demand for essential goods and food has skyrocketed and stores are hiring like crazy to keep up.

Early last year, as lawmakers vowed to curb rising drug prices, Sen. Thom Tillis was named chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on intellectual property rights, a committee that had not met since 2007.

A wave of layoffs at restaurants, bars and hotels, as efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic bring much of everyday American life to a halt, could drive new applications for U.S. unemployment benefits to a record 1.5 million or more next week, economists warned on Thursday.