What if, instead of paying hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars each month for health insurance that you may not even be taking advantage of, you paid a retainer of somewhere between $39 to $79 a month to your primary care physician? Some doctors say this kind of service can work out to the benefit of both caregiver and patient. [More]
health insurance
26% Of Working-Age Americans Went Without Health Insurance In 2011
By 4.19.12
Having health insurance is not only too often tied to having a full-time job, it also usually requires that you be in that job for weeks or months before coverage kicks in. So with so many Americans either without staff jobs or starting work for a new employer, it’s perhaps not surprising that a new study claims that 26% of working-age people in the U.S. went without coverage at some point in 2011. [More]
Jury Awards $34 Million To Alzheimer's Patient After Insurance Company Cuts Off Care
By 4.10.12
A jury in Montana awarded a monster of a verdict to a 90-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s Disease after her insurance company cancelled her long-term care policy because it decided she didn’t actually need the level of medical care she was receiving. [More]
Aetna Hikes Health Insurance Rates For California Small Businesses
By 4.6.12
Health insurer Aetna has raised its rates for California small business clients considerably, making for an average increase of 8 percent, with some businesses seeing increases of as much as 21 percent. The California State Insurance Commissioner called the hikes “excessive.” [More]
House Votes To Cap Malpractice Damages
By 3.22.12
While the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next week over the constitutionality of the nearly two-year-old health-care reform package, members of Congress have been busy trying to chip away at the legislation. [More]
White House Tweaks Rule Requiring Employers To Cover Birth Control
By 2.10.12
Late last month, the Obama administration angered some people when it announced that all employers — regardless of their stance on birth control — would need to provide insurance that covers female preventative care. Today, the President said his people had come up with a compromise that he believes will provide birth control while allowing businesses to not be directly responsible for providing it. [More]
Here Is What The New Health Insurance Labels Will Look Like
By 2.9.12
Back in August, we told you about how the Dept. of Health & Human Services was finalizing a template for new health insurance labels that would attempt to make it clear what a potential customer was buying and what sort of coverage they would receive. [More]
New Legislation Would Pad Health Insurance Coffers While Screwing Over Consumers
By 2.3.12
As part of the Affordable Care Act, health insurers must spend at least 80% of the money they earn from premiums on actually providing health care, with the remaining cash used to cover all administrative, advertising and payroll costs. Those insurers with plans that don’t follow this ratio are soon supposed to start giving the extra money back in refunds and discounts. But new legislation introduced in the Senate this week could jeopardize this, while giving insurance companies even more money to stick in their dog pillows. [More]
Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield Thinks Smoking And Depression Are Basically The Same Thing
By 2.1.12
Wellbutrin is an atypical antidepressant used to treat patients with depression, but it’s also effective when used short-term to help people quit smoking. As far as Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield is concerned, then, if you’re using Wellbutrin, you’re a smoker. For people whose health insurance comes from their employers, this isn’t as much of a problem. But the individual health insurance market is a cruel, unforgiving place where smokers pay higher premiums. And so reader Elizabeth’s husband, who quit smoking more than four years ago, is slapped with the smoker’s rate because he has a prescription for Wellbutrin, which they consider an “atypical tobacco product.” [More]
Consumers Union To Government Agency: Don't Delay Consumer-Friendly Wisconsin Health Insurance Provision
By 1.20.12
Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of our benevolent benefactors at Consumer Reports, is urging the Department of Health and Human Services not to delay a consumer-friendly health insurance provision in Wisconsin. The delay could result in a loss of over $13 million rebates or lower insurance premiums to residents. [More]
How Going To HR Made A Health Insurance Co-Pay Hike Less Huge
By 1.13.12
The beginning of a new year often brings an unhappy change: rate and co-pay hikes for your health insurance. E’s insurer made a change to ER visit copays that, given that his daughter is being treated for cancer and makes more frequent emergency visits than most children, would have cost the family a lot more money. So he turned to his company’s HR department for help…and actually received it. [More]
Keep It In Your Pants Until You Double-Check Your Insurance
By 12.29.11
Maybe someday you’ll sit your future child on your knee and reassure him he was created with budgetary responsibility in mind. Those who check out the quirks of their health insurance policies beforehand and babymake accordingly will be able to do just that. [More]
Use Your Flexible Spending Account To Whip Medical Bills And Taxes
By 12.23.11
If you get heath insurance from your employer, you can probably take advantage of a flexible spending account (FSA) to cut your taxable income and lessen the impact of medical bills that sting you throughout the year. The way things usually work is to require you to commit a dollar figure to the account, then use the money to pay medical bills as they arise. Since the money comes out of your check, you’re never taxed on the amount. [More]
More Americans Getting Their Medical Care At Retail Locations
By 11.23.11
A growing number of supermarkets, drugstores and other retailers are opening in-store clinics offering everything from flu shots to dental, vision and general medical care. And the people aren’t shying away from using these services. [More]
Allstate Denied Man's Insurance Claim Because He Went To The Hospital 5 Hours Too Early
By 11.10.11
Usually you’re rewarded for showing up early. How could showing up 5 hours early cost you $10,000? [More]
Blue Cross Blue Shield Says Man Should Pay $2,306 To Avoid Dying In His Sleep
By 11.3.11
Jason has sleep apnea. When he sleeps, if it can be called that, he stops breathing up to twelve times per hour. His body’s reflexive response is that his jaw shoots around wildly, chipping and grinding his teeth, and then he wakes up for a second. A dozen times every hour, every night, he wakes up to his teeth clanging around his mouth. As if that wasn’t fun enough, of the $2,400 the mouth guard his doctor prescribed prescribed him, his insurance plan is only going to cover a max of $94. [More]
4 Out Of 5 Metropolitan Areas Lack Competitive Health Insurance Markets
By 10.25.11
If you’ve been thinking that your options for health insurance coverage have been dwindling in recent years, you’re probably correct. A new report from the American Medical Association found that 83% of metropolitan areas in the United States lack a competitive commercial health insurance market. [More]
Good Luck Trying To Find Out How Much A Medical Procedure Will Cost
By 10.24.11
A new report from the folks at the Government Accountability Office has confirmed what anyone who has ever tried to get a clear estimate on what a medical procedure already knows: There’s a good chance you can’t. [More]
