Healthcare

The story of President Barack Obama's mother's fight with insurance companies as she suffered from cancer is still compelling, despite a recent book's suggestion it was embellished during the campaign, a White House spokesman said.

As major market changes loom, one report says health insurance providers that wish to access this giant pool of potential customers will need to shift toward a consumer-focused model.

Although the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on July 12 tabled their support of H.R. 1206, a bill that would exclude insurance agents’ compensation from the medical loss ratio equation, “there’s a lot of work still to be done on this issue and we look forward to our continuing work with the NAIC, HHS and Congress to find a suitable solution,” says Brianne Mallaghan, director of communications for The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers.

State insurance exchanges -- mandated to start operating in 2014 to offer one-stop health insurance shopping for individuals and small businesses --could sell up to $60 billion in policies during their first year and nearly $200 billion by 2019, according to estimates from consultancy/research firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A new report examines how states can create health insurance exchanges, mandated under the Affordable Care Act, to provide Web-based one-stop shopping to individuals and small businesses to compare health benefit plans and purchase coverage. The Center for American Progress, a Washington-based nonpartisan research and educational institute; and the Small Business Majority, a not-for-profit research and advocacy firm, developed the report. It lays out basic principals to consider when creating an exchange, five important decisions that…

When Americans think about retirement one of the main obligations they feel is the need to offer financial assistance to their adult children. More than 60% of respondents to a July 12 SunAmerica Financial Group survey expect that they will be helping their adult children as well as their spouse, grandchildren and siblings.

The Obama administration offered states more flexibility in setting up new health insurance exchanges, an apparent effort to bring local authorities on board with a key part of a health care overhaul.

U.S. deficit-reduction negotiators are looking at imposing new limits on existing tax breaks for employer-provided health insurance, a senior Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives said Friday.

American workers lapsed into investing inertia after the market collapsed in 2008, but standing still actually benefited many and helped their workplace retirement plan balances rebound by 31% between 2007 and 2010, Vanguard said this week.

Your participants want to sue you! Yep, that's right. Apparently there is a whole cottage industry springing up relating to participants suing for hidden fees.