Wellness

Equity Healthcare CEO Robert Galvin last week told the National Business Coalition on Health that Congress, even PPACA supporters, want employer-sponsored insurance in the game for the long haul.

States received an extra month from the Obama administration to decide whether to build online marketplaces for medical insurance after Republican governors pressed their resistant to the president’s health care law.

Several Republican leaders have either confirmed that they’ll be letting the federal government handle their states’ health care exchanges, or have yet to say, and the deadline is Friday.

In a letter to the nation’s governors, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius eased a tight deadline for the states to declare whether and how they will build health insurance exchanges mandated and funded under the Affordable Care Act.

More than half of American smokers tried to stop at some point in the past year, and the average number of cigarettes smoked per day dropped.

Starting next year, PPACA will lead to a 3.8% surtax on many people’s investment income, but there are ways around it.

President Obama’s re-election rallied shares for hospitals last week as the number of insured Americans is set to rise. Health insurance companies, however, face profit limits and new taxes.

The Congressional Budget Office said in a report that a Congressional fix to exclude broker commissions from medical loss ratio calculations will increase deficits by $531 million over the 2013-2017 period.

The president’s re-election probably spells doom for any short-term efforts to overturn PPACA, and industry professionals who waited to implement health care reform changes can wait no longer.

Health insurance company stocks fall Wednesday after Obama’s re-election affirms PPACA will move forward. Health reform’s product standardization and transparency will “pressure margins,” insurers say, offsetting any potential for increased profits from a larger client base.