health insurance
North Carolina Still Lacks Employee Health Plan Decision
The state legislature in North Carolina went home for the weekend last Thursday without coming to an agreement on the cost of health insurance for state employees, teachers, or retired persons. At that point they were already outside the deadline that had been given. Earlier last week, Governor Beverly Perdue vetoed a proposal that would […]
Read moreIn Brief: AZ Governor Vetoes Health Care Bill
Earlier this week Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona vetoed SB 1592, a bill which directed the Governor to form specific compacts with other states on behalf of Arizona, in order for citizens there to purchase health care insurance across state lines. Her, reason, she wrote in her veto letter, included the fact that directing the […]
Read moreExcerpts From President Obama’s Speech About the Budget
Yesterday, President Obama made a speech about his plan for sensible budget reform. As health care is one of his pet issues, and one we believe is vitally important, we were pleased to hear his views on that subject. What follows are a two numbered excerpts from the speech: 1. “Our approach lowers the government’s […]
Read moreFriday Film Strips: Government Shutdown Over Planned Parenthood
As you probably know, there’s a threat of a government shutdown if a budget isn’t agreed to by midnight tonight. One of the issues is funding for Planned Parenthood, but it’s NOT about abortion because there are already laws preventing Planned Parenthood from using government funds for such procedures. De-funding Planned Parenthood would remove access […]
Read moreRetiree Reinsurance Program Sent into Retirement
In all the talk of budget changes and healthcare reform, there are a number of health insurance-related programs not getting much media attention. ModernHealthcare.com recently reported on one of them: the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, a section of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that gives money to employers to assist in offsetting the […]
Read moreLouisiana Says No to Insurance Exchanges
Governor Bobby Jindal and the state legislature in Louisiana have decided to opt out of the creation of a state insurance exchange as outlined in the federal health insurance overhaul, choosing to let the federal government administer the program. Bruce Greenstein, Secretary of the State Department of Health and Hospitals, has confirmed this decision, and […]
Read moreTexas Says, “We’ll Help You Shop Around”
The Texas legislature recently filed two separate bills that would require insurance companies to be more forthcoming with customers with regard to rate increase information, and would also expand consumer resources for shopping the insurance market. In the words of Representative Armando Walle (Houston), House Bills 2723 and 2724 would, “…help consumers fully understand the […]
Read moreBlue Shield Cancels Rate Hikes
Blue Shield of California announced earlier this week that it has canceled health insurance premium increases that averaged 6.5 percent and went as high as 18 percent. The increase would have affected almost 200,000 Blue Shield customers, and would have been the insurer’s third such increase in recent months. The decision to cancel this increase […]
Read more52 Million American Adults Uninsured in 2010, Study Says
Want to hear something really scary? A new study says that roughly twenty percent – or nine million out of 43 million adults who lost jobs in the last two years – ended up without any health insurance, and that nine million represents 57 percent of everyone who lost their insurance when they lost their […]
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