Latest Health Insurance Headlines
All the headlines from our Health Insurance Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Hospital Charges Vary Widely, Even Within Cities: U.S. Data
May 9 2013 // The Obama administration revealed what over 3,000 hospitals charge for common medical procedures in an early effort to challenge healthcare costs by showing consumers how prices for the same service can vary by tens of...
Indiana State May Charge Tobacco Users More for Insurance
May 8 2013 // Next year, Indiana State University employees who smoke or use other tobacco products could face a $1,200 per year surcharge if they have university health insurance. Also, employees who voluntarily agree to health...
Fundamental Changes Spur Health Spending Dip: Study
May 7 2013 // Slower growth in the pace of U.S. healthcare spending reflects a fundamental change in the use of medical services that could save the country nearly $800 billion in the next decade, according to two new studies released...
Health Insurers Cautious About Joining State Health Exchanges
May 6 2013 // The nation’s largest health insurers are far from leaping at the chance to join new state health insurance exchanges under President Barack Obama’s reform law, making it likely that some markets will have...
Administration Shortens Health Care Application
May 1 2013 // The first draft was as mind-numbing and complex as tax forms. Now the Obama administration is unveiling a simplified application for health insurance benefits under the federal health care overhaul. It now includes a...
Arkansas, Oklahoma: No Plans to Move State Workers to Health Exchanges
Apr 29 2013 // As lawmakers in the state of Washington consider moving some part-time government workers out of a state-sponsored health plan and into an insurance exchange developed under the nation’s new health care overhaul law,...
Supreme Court Will Not Hear Drugmaker’s Appeal of Insurer’s Medicare Reimbursement Claim
Apr 15 2013 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider whether private insurers can sue giant drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc over health costs incurred by its Avandia diabetes drug. Humana Inc.’s Humana Medical Plans...
Report: Fewer Californians Get Health Care At Work
Apr 12 2013 // Far fewer Californians are getting health insurance through their employers compared to a decade ago, a change that comes as the nation is about to undergo major reforms in the health care system, according to a report...
Study: Idaho Still Ranks Low For Employee Health Insurance
Apr 12 2013 // A new national study shows Idaho is again ranked among states with the lowest percentage of companies that offer workers employer-sponsored health insurance. Idaho ranks 4th nationally – trailing Alaska, Montana and...
Iowa Senate Panel OKs Small Business Health Coverage Tax Incentive
Apr 5 2013 // An Iowa Senate panel approved a bill that would give a new income tax break to small businesses if they cover part of their employees’ health insurance. The measure passed a Senate Ways and Means subcommittee with...
Health Insurance Subsidy Could Bring Tax Sting
Apr 4 2013 // Millions of people who take advantage of government subsidies to help buy health insurance next year could get stung by surprise tax bills if they don’t accurately project their income. President Barack Obama’s...
More than 500 to Guide Arkansas Residents on Health Insurance Options
Mar 26 2013 // Come summer, at least 535 trained guides will start fanning out across Arkansas, knocking on doors, setting up folding chairs in community centers and handing out brochures to spread the word across Arkansas about the...
Christian Health Insurer, Pension Liability Top Kentucky Legislature’s Closing Days
Mar 25 2013 // Lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday with two days remaining to pass legislation intended to shore up Kentucky’s pension plans for state and local government retirees. Restoring solvency to the pension system,...
Lobbyists Keep Battling As Obamacare Turns 3
Mar 25 2013 // Eight months before President Barack Obama’s health care law goes prime time, a confederation of industry and business groups is ramping up its lobbying apparatus for an 11th-hour assault on the web of new taxes and...
Health Cost Savings Innovations Need Time: Obama Official
Mar 21 2013 // The Obama administration on Wednesday said its experiments at controlling healthcare costs could need up to a year to produce results, frustrating congressional lawmakers eager to know if new innovations in care delivery...
Feds Would Set Florida Health Insurance Rates Under Senate Bill
Mar 21 2013 // A state Senate health committee recommended this week that the state suspend the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s power to set rates for insurers under the Affordable Care Act and instead let the federal...
Applying for Obama Health Care Plan Daunting Task
Mar 14 2013 // Applying for benefits under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul could be as daunting as doing taxes. The government’s draft application runs 15 pages for a three-person family. An outline of the...
Health Insurance Exchange Bill Clears New Mexico Senate
Mar 13 2013 // A proposal to establish a state-run health insurance exchange has passed the Senate with bipartisan support. A federal health care law calls for exchanges to serve as a marketplace for the uninsured to shop for medical...
Large Employers to Keep Health Insurance Benefit for Now: Survey
Mar 7 2013 // Most large employers don’t expect to send their full-time employees to government health exchanges for insurance during the next five years, but some retirees and part-time workers will end up there, a new survey has...
Minnesota House Passes Health Exchange Proposal
Mar 6 2013 // The Minnesota House passed a bill establishing the state’s health insurance exchange, the first step toward enactment of an online marketplace that aims to give more than a million Minnesotans a new place to purchase...
