Health

By Jason Alderman, April 22, 2014 Most people understand why having life insurance is a good idea: Nobody wants to leave their survivors in a financial lurch if they were to die suddenly. But what if you suffer an accident or illness and don’t die, but rather, become severely disabled? Could you or your family make ends meet without your …

Now that the initial dust has settled on the first round of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) enrollment, and the “who won and lost” discussions have gotten their requisite belaboring by the punditry, the real answers (and additional questions begged by those answers) may lie in the more complicated details: How many have enrolled? The Obama administration …

By Wesley Lowery, April 7, 2014 Later today, the Senate will vote along party lines to pass an extension to federally provided long-term unemployment benefits — legislation that, once it’s passed, will have taken four Senate votes to get passed. While Democrats will trumpet this evening’s Senate vote as a triumph, the legislation seems to face an implausible pathway to …

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, April 7, 2014 WASHINGTON — A growing share of Americans got health insurance as sign-up season for President Barack Obama’s health care law came to a close last month, a major survey released Monday has found. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index provides independent validation for White House claims that the law is expanding access, particularly for working people …

By Rick Moran, March 19, 2014 According to the Hill, many insurance companies are contradicting HHS Secretary Sebelius’s rosy predictions about modest increases in Obamacare premiums next year. Some of the increases will be “significant.” How significant? In some states, the increase may be as much as 300%. The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid …

In the first part of this series, we broke down the basics of health plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA also known as ObamaCare). This time, we are going to focus on some of the terminology that is wreaking havoc on employers, employees, and agents alike in determining compliance under the ACA. Three definitions come up on a recurring …

By Ramit Plushnick-Masti, March 17, 2014 HOUSTON (AP) — Sara Rodriguez recently received a $4,000 bill for a six-hour emergency room visit to treat a fever. She says she can’t pay, but she’s also not planning to buy health insurance through the new federal marketplace. Rodriguez, like others gathered in a Houston gymnasium listening to a presentation about the health …

By Alex Wayne, March 16, 2014 WASHINGTON — In Maine, the insurer that has enrolled the most Affordable Care Act customers isn’t the state’s well-established Blue Cross Blue Shield plan, owned by WellPoint Inc. It’s WellPoint’s only rival: Maine Community Health Options, a startup that didn’t exist three years ago. The newcomer, funded primarily by taxpayer money lent under the …

By Chacour Koop, March 6, 2014 SPRINGFIELD — While a child advocacy group’s report shows that more Illinois kids now have health insurance, it also warns that health disparities related to income and race could intensify if there are program cuts to Medicaid and social services as the state faces a large dip in revenues next year. The yearly report …

By Robert J. Elisberg, March 6, 2014 The other day, I went into my doctor for an appointment. With my new Affordable Care Act provider, the co-pay I had to make at the front window was…$5. Even the receptionist had to double-check to make sure that was right, and then she started laughing. I don’t know what the regular cost …