Healthcare reform

Commentary: Sebelius was in an “unwinnable position," according to the former head of sales and marketing at Covered California, Michael Lujan. The former insurance agent writes that more engagement with the benefits industry would have behooved the troubled health secretary.

Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. health secretary who steered the troubled rollout of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, will resign just as the program topped its first-year enrollment goal, according to two people familiar with the decision.

Legal analysis: Are employees hired through a staffing firm or professional employer organization considered full-time employees under the ACA? Answering this question wrong could cost your clients a great deal.

About 400,000 people signed up for private health insurance under Obamacare since a deadline passed that was initially supposed to end enrollment, the U.S. health secretary said Thursday.

At a legislative conference for the Big “I” agent advocacy group in Washington on Thursday, the ACA was noticeably missing from everything from legislators’ talks to the group’s lobbying agenda for the year.

While all eyes had been on HIX enrollment numbers during the ACA’s first open-enrollment period, millions of Americans also chose health insurance options off the exchange. What does this mean for adverse selection and future premium pricing?

House Republicans are delaying the rollout of their alternative proposal to Obamacare, according to lawmakers and aides involved in the process.

The ACA's first open enrollment period presented some expected — and some out-of-the-blue — challenges for carriers, agents and others tasked with enrolling millions of individuals on the health insurance exchanges. Those challenges should serve as lessons and preparation exercises for the next open enrollment, several industry experts advise.

The number of uninsured Americans has dropped to its lowest level recorded since 2008, a new Gallup poll finds, attributing the decrease to ACA successes.

Commentary: More DOL audits are conducted around wage and hour issues than any other topic. Be careful to not dismiss this matter, as there could be major benefits-related consequences for employers if problems are found, writes columnist Craig Davidson.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Congress and a new president could still repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law after 2016, rejecting Democratic arguments that the measure is irreversible.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation that would modify the Affordable Care Act’s definition of a full-time employee from one who works 30-hours a week to one who works 40-hours a week.

While it’s not surprising that in 2013 the trend of employers shifting rising health care costs to employees continued to grow, it also appears employers have begun to design health care plans with looming Affordable Care Act provisions in mind.

An adviser in Connecticut who re-focused her group benefits business towards enrolling consumers on the state-run exchange says carrier appointment fees, and an exchange policy, are burning a hole in her pocket.

Employers have always been concerned about the potential for worker reclassification, but health care reform and a recent National Labor Relations Board decision take this issue to an entirely new level.

Yes, the ACA open-enrollment deadline has passed. No, that doesn’t mean employers cannot terminate or change their health plan — because employees can still enroll on the exchange.

Administering the 2010 health care law is just like municipal snow shoveling — a top priority that’s non-negotiable, John Koskinen, the commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, said Wednesday.

More than 1 million people waited until the last five days to sign up for 2014 health coverage under Obamacare, and early indications are that many were young minorities, insurance analysts and enrollment groups said.

The latest ACA enrollment extension could mean big losses for insurers and higher premiums for everyone in 2015, Moody’s predicts.

President Barack Obama’s declaration that 7.1 million health-plan enrollments serve as a rebuke to critics of his signature law won’t diminish the opposition nor stop the scrutiny of the overhaul’s effect.