There may not be a consensus in the nation’s capital on how to control the cost of health care, but businesses and their employees are not sitting around waiting for clarity. They are voting with their wallets for one approach that’s already available: Account-based health insurance plans, which offer lower premiums in exchange for high [...] [...more]
If the Supreme Court overturns President Obama’s health care reform law in June, Americans without health coverage may get some relief anyway – especially if they live in Rhode Island, Maryland or Oregon. These states are at the head of the pack in implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and they were working to expand [...] [...more]
Americans don’t like the individual mandate – the requirement that most of us buy health insurance under the Obama Administration’s health reform law. Most Americans also don’t like paying taxes, but they are the price we pay to live in a civil society. So, setting aside the Constitutional questions being argued before the Supreme Court this [...] [...more]
The federal government threw in the towel on creating a public option for long-term care coverage last week, and that would seem to be definitive for now. In defeat, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was doing the right thing in admitting the concept’s flaws and cutting the government’s losses of the proposal, [...] [...more]
My column this month at Registered Rep magazine’s website explains how the new health reform law impacts retirement planning. It’s mostly good news, although high-income retirees face higher Medicare premiums. The story explains improvements in Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, how pre-65 retirees will gain important new coverage options, how Health Savings Accounts figure in the [...] [...more]
