Exchanges

The fight over the Affordable Care Act in Washington is as fierce as ever, with a Republican budget plan that would repeal the health care law Democrats passed five years ago. In the rest of the country, opposition to the law appears to be easing.

California's struggling to pay for health care for retired state employees, with an estimated $72 billion in medical costs coming in the next 30 years. Gov. Jerry Brown's solution: Make workers start contributing money to pay for the health care they'll need after retiring.

While the Affordable Care Act bans pre-existing condition exclusions, cherry picking and higher premiums for sicker individuals, a 2014 federal discrimination complaint and new study suggest that some public exchange plans have jacked up certain prescription drug prices.

Commentary: CMS has issued a special enrollment period for certain individuals to sign up for health care coverage on the exchanges. Blogger Craig Hasday wonders if the administration's leniency is also hurting its credibility.

Worksite clinics and private exchanges might appear to be mutually exclusive approaches to rising cost pressures, yet they can be integrated to achieve the same goal – improved health outcomes and lower health care cost trend.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is the latest big-name company to move its active employee base to a private exchange, joining other brand-name companies such as Time, Inc., Sears, Darden Restaurants and Walgreens.

As many as 90,000 Sears employees are finding it easier to shop for health care, are savvier about their coverage choices and finally understand the meaning of value since the 129-year-old retailer switched to a private health insurance exchange three years ago.

In a last-minute push before a special enrollment begins Sunday, officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Treasury Department Friday wanted to remind consumers to sign up for coverage and avoid noted fees seen in this year’s tax season.

Commentary: Three common employer concerns about exchanges and how to address them.

Illinois’s remedy for the state’s worst-in- the-nation $111 billion pension-funding shortfall was disliked by lawmakers who voted for it, the new governor who inherited it and public employee unions who sued to void it.