Author Archive
Sick children face higher premiums
The New York Times recently reported (10/14, Pear): “The Obama administration, aiming to encourage health insurance companies to offer child-only policies, said Wednesday that they could charge higher premiums for coverage of children with serious medical problems, if state law allowed it.” Many “major insurers, faced with an unprofitable business,” have “stopped issuing new child-only […]
Group plans to cost more in 2011
As reported by the American Medical News (10/11, Berry), “Workers are expected to pay more for health care coverage in 2011 than in 2010 as part of the steepening rise in premiums and employees’ share of the cost. Experts say that increase could keep workers from getting the care they need.” The “average cost of […]
HHS unable to waive high risk pool requirements
As posted on CQ.com, (10/9, Adams, subscription required) it is reported that HHS (US Department of Health and Human Services) “officials do not have the power to change a requirement that people who enroll in the high-risk pools created by the new health care law must have been uninsured for six months, an agency spokeswoman […]
Federal judge upholds health care reform
In what is determined to be the first ruling regarding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a Michigan federal judge ruled that Congress has the constitutional authority to require individuals to have health insurance or face penalties.
U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh said of his decision: “The minimum coverage provision, which […]
New Ruling on Child Only Policies
On Monday, September 27th, the Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI) released an emergency ruling related to the implementation of the new federal requirement, which determines that children under the age of 19 not be denied coverage or be subject to limitations or exclusions because of pre-existing health conditions. In an effort to encourage insurers to […]
Medical costs on the rise
Year after year it seems that healthcare related costs are on the rise. Some reasons for the increased spending includes: increased utilization of services, an aging population and the development of new drugs and technologies.
Recently, a number of stories have documented some reasons for rising premiums, including:
A recent report from AARP says that the retail prices […]
Medicare Advantage: Update for 2011
With individual and group health insurance rates on the rise, premiums for the average Medicare Advantage plan will actually drop by 1% for 2011. “Despite the claims of some, Medicare Advantage remains a strong, robust option for millions of seniors who choose to enroll or stay in a participating plan,” said Donald Berwick, the administrator […]
Cost of Healthcare Reform
A recent report that was released by the office of the chief Medicare actuary claims that healthcare reform will have a negligible effect on total national health care spending over the next decade. The report counters both the argument that reform will lead to explosive cost increases and the argument that it will slow these […]
Uninsured stats according to the US Census Bureau
During the week of September 13th, the US Census Bureau released their annual report that discloses poverty, income and the uninsured. As for those figures relating to health insurance, please see below:
The total number of uninsured increased to 50.6 million, up 4.3 million from last year.
That means the uninsured rate is now 16.7 percent.
The number […]
Healthcare Reform Changes and the Impact on Grandfathered Plans
Grandfathered plans are required to meet some, but not all, of the health insurance reform changes as described in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A “Grandfathered Health Plan” is defined as a group health plan or health insurance coverage in which an individual was enrolled on or before March 23, 2010. To learn […]
