Advisor strategies

Brokers operating in the federally run exchange states remain frustrated with broker functions on the website, as the government announces lop-sided enrollment numbers for the state versus federal exchanges.

The lopsided enrollment between Medicaid, which is paid for with taxpayer money, and the private plans may boost criticism of the rising costs of the $1.4 trillion health law. High participation in the exchanges is critical to keeping the costs of medical coverage down.

One retirement expert says ACA is destined to fail and the answer lies in what the 401(k) industry has been preaching for years.

While confusion and acrimony dominate discussions over Healthcare.gov, HR sources are reporting few if any concerns from their workforce populations, most of whom are snug and secure in their employer-sponsored health care.

As the president directs aides to look for solutions to the health plan cancellations, the White House’s chief technology officer will appear before Congress this week after being subpoenaed to do so.

President Barack Obama said he’s sorry that thousands of Americans are losing their medical insurance as a result of his health care law, as his administration works to contain the political damage from the troubled roll-out of his signature domestic achievement.

Employee benefits attorneys share how employers facing Affordable Care Act reforms can think outside the box for health plan changes in 2014.

United Benefit Advisors is the latest group to launch private exchanges, though these are limited to brokers who are UBA members, there is one for small and one for large employers alike.

After Tuesday’s news that CMS wants to recruit more brokers to enroll consumers on Healthcare.gov, the group made the first public announcement Wednesday about a broker-focused website improvement.

Despite taking Healthcare.gov offline for hours a day to make technological fixes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Wednesday the site continued to experience multiple slowdowns and displayed error messages to numerous visitors throughout the day.

While the top exchange leader confirmed Tuesday that 70,000 agents have completed federal training, documents obtained by Republicans suggest CMS might begin outreach to get more professionals involved.

President Obama touted this state as exemplary Wednesday in his health care speech, but one broker says there was a loophole for those who were able to enroll.

While the thought may not have occurred to retirement and financial planners, one expert says that with the rising cost of health care, it’s a concept that could save their businesses.

Two days after the troubled online U.S. health exchange went live, just 248 people nationwide had successfully enrolled in insurance plans under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, documents show.

The White House calls the nationwide uptick in health plan cancellations a result of “substandard policies” being eliminated, but advisers express concern over resulting rate hikes.

A day after her deputy apologized for the failures with the Affordable Care Act insurance exchange, U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius followed suit and told Congress that she shoulders the blame for the botched rollout.

The Department of Labor is apparently close to finishing its controversial work on establishing a fiduciary standard.

CMS is communicating minimally with the thousands of insurance brokers who went through training for the 36 federally-run exchanges, while prominent ACA spokespeople — including the president — repeatedly fail to mention brokers as a viable exchange information source.

While the rest of the country was trying to access exchange websites on Oct. 1 and having no luck, something remarkable happened in Connecticut.

While the rest of the country was trying to access exchange websites on Oct. 1 and having no luck, something remarkable happened in Connecticut.