Affordable Care Act

By Bob Herman, October 6, 2014 The world’s largest retailer is jumping into the health insurance game, unveiling a program that will help its customers find and compare health plans.Wal-Mart Stores said Monday that it is teaming with online health insurance brokerage DirectHealth.com. Wal-Mart shoppers will be able to sign up in … Read More

By Dan Verel, October 1, 2014 The world of health insurance is about to be turned on its head. Even with the well-known shifts brought on by the ACA, the fundamental business model for health insurers will change dramatically, shifting largely from serving employers and group business to serving individuals who demand a level of customer service not previously offered …

By Caitlin Bronson, August 18, 2014 More than 300 patient advocacy groups took to pen and paper this week to tell Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell health insurers are discriminating against the sick, despite the goals of the Affordable Care Act. Insurer tactics, which the industry defends as legitimate cost control measures, are “highly discriminatory against patients …

As financial professionals, if we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times: Boomers are turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day and will continue to do so through 2030.  But as I talk with independent producers across the country, the reality of this opportunity really hasn’t sunk in.  And for those who it has, they are …

By Diana Manos, August 20, 2014 Hold on to your seats and gear up for the most dramatic changes the health insurance industry has faced yet, says Aegis Health Group CEO Phil Suiter, in an interview with The Tennessean.  Suiter spoke with Tennessean reporter Shelley DuBois about the growing power of healthcare consumers and why insurance companies will look “radically …

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, August 17, 2014 WASHINGTON (AP) – Ending insurance discrimination against the sick was a central goal of the nation’s health care overhaul, but leading patient groups say that promise is being undermined by new barriers from insurers. The insurance industry responds that critics are confusing legitimate cost-control with bias. Some state regulators, however, say there’s reason to …

The Associated Press, July 23, 2014 BATON ROUGE, La. — Thousands of people who bought health insurance through the marketplace created by the federal health care overhaul face price hikes next year that could top 10 percent. More than 60,000 people who get health insurance through the individual marketplace — which was expanded by the federal Affordable Care Act — …

By Stuart Pfeifer, July 29, 2014 The cost of health insurance for individuals skyrocketed this year in California, with some paying almost twice what they did last year, the state’s insurance commissioner said. But Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones predicted that insurers will ease up in the coming year to prevent California voters from approving tough new rate controls on the …

By Jenna Levy, July 10, 2014 WASHINGTON, D.C.–The uninsured rate in the U.S. fell 2.2 percentage points to 13.4% in the second quarter of 2014. This is the lowest quarterly average recorded since Gallup and Healthways began tracking the percentage of uninsured Americans in 2008. The previous low point was 14.4% in the third quarter of 2008. The uninsured rate …

The Associated Press, June 26, 2014 More than 960,000 New York residents signed up for insurance under the state’s new health plan marketplace during its first enrollment period, according to a state report issued Wednesday. The analysis shows that 55 percent of the individuals enrolled in Medicaid and 38 percent — or 371,000 people — signed up for private insurances …