The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) calls on the states to create health insurance exchanges – marketplaces where individuals and small businesses can shop for and compare health insurance plans. Beginning in 2014, insurers peddling policies on an exchange will have to meet the ACA’s standards by covering “essential benefits,” capping out-of-pocket expenses for individuals, and offering more transparent information about costs and benefits.
The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.
The Affordable Care Act leaves it to the states to decide whether they will allow insurers to charge older Americans more for coverage. If a state takes no action, a 64-year-old buying his own health insurance in the individual market will pay up to three times more than an 18-year-old.
The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.
When she thinks about health insurance, 60-year old Nancy Peterson fights panic. “You think that this could never happen to you. I’ve always had insurance; I’ve always had a good job.”
But not long ago, her job was eliminated. Now, she doesn’t know how she is going to afford insurance when the COBRA policy that extends her former employer’s group insurance expires next year.
The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.
The male body has long been considered the “standard” for health care coverage. Having a woman’s body is seen as an expensive anomaly, and women pay dearly for being different.
The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.
“Marvelous.” That’s the word Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney chose to describe Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) blueprint for the 2013 budget, shortly after it passed the Republican-controlled House, 228-191.
The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.
In 2009, when someone asked Nancy Pelosi a question implying that health reform legislation might be unconstitutional, she replied: “Are you serious?”
Pelosi wasn’t alone. At the outset, many legal scholars considered the challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) both “implausible” and “frivolous.”
The following post originally appeared on the null.com blog.
Today, the Supreme Court begins to hear three days of oral arguments on the legal challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care reform legislation brought by 26 states and one business organization (The National Federation of Independent Business). The case raises three issues:
The following post originally appeared on the TIME Moneyland blog.
Initially, the controversy over President Obama’s proposal that all insurers cover contraception focused on religious liberty. After polls revealed that 98% of sexually active Catholic women have used birth control, though, some who oppose Obamacare tried to shift the argument from religion to money: “If insurers are forced to offer contraception without co-pays,” they warn, “they’ll hike our insurance premiums.” But will that actually happen?
The following post originally appeared on the TIME Moneyland blog.
The nation’s health care bill rose by less than 4% in both 2009 and 2010. In 50 years, health care spending has never increased at such a slow pace. Could this mean that, after a half century of eye-popping inflation in health care expenditures, efforts to rein in costs are actually working?
The following post originally appeared on the TIME Moneyland blog.
Nobody would be surprised to hear that spending more on healthcare will result in new jobs. But a new program announced by the Obama administration last week seeks to create new healthcare jobs and at the same time reduce healthcare costs. Is such a trick possible?