Source: Bloomberg Business The head of the third-biggest U.S. health insurer said he has “serious concerns” about whether or not Obamacare’s new markets are sustainable, echoing criticism from other top for-profit insurers. “We continue to have serious concerns about the sustainability of the public exchanges,” Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini said on a […]
Read moreSource: Los Angeles Times Three weeks ago, Gov. Jerry Brown confidently predicted that the vexing question of how to extend a tax on healthcare plans in order to fund state medical coverage for the poor was well on its way to being solved. “We need the [managed care organization] tax now — this month,” Brown […]
Read moreSource: California Healthline Covered California, the state’s insurance exchange, announced Friday that it was extending its enrollment deadline until Feb. 6 for people who had officially begun the process of signing up by Sunday. Exchange officials said they extended the Sunday deadline to accommodate a surge in enrollment in the previous week involving “tens of […]
Read moreSource: California Healthline The wary and aggressive tenor of questions at a state hearing set a high bar for approval of the proposed $6.8 billion purchase of health insurance company HealthNet by Centene. The hearing Friday in the Capitol Building convened by the California Department of Insurance lasted six hours. It delved into the esoteric […]
Read moreSource: California Healthline Significantly fewer U.S. residents than previously expected will be enrolled in health coverage purchased through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges in 2016, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released Monday, Roll Call reports (Roll Call, 1/25). Last year, CBO estimated that about 21 million people would be enrolled in ACA plans […]
Read moreSource: The Los Angeles Times Reflecting slower than anticipated enrollment growth in health insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has lowered its estimate of how many people will get coverage through the law in 2016. In any given month this year, about 13 million people on average are now […]
Read moreSource: Forbes Consumerism in healthcare just can’t work. It can’t work because seriously ill patients are under incredible stress and can’t shop around for the best care. It can’t work because information on quality and cost isn’t easily accessible. It can’t work because healthcare spending is heavily concentrated–just 5% of the patients account for 50% […]
Read moreSource: California Healthline The Affordable Care Act has increased U.S. residents’ access to health coverage and reduced hospitals’ shares of uncompensated care, according to two research letters published Tuesday in theNew England Journal of Medicine, HealthDay/U.S. News & World Report reports. Study: ACA Has Reduced Share of Uncompensated Care One letter discussed a study for […]
Read moreSource: The Wall Street Journal The Obama administration will tighten the rules for people who enroll in insurance through HealthCare.gov outside of official enrollment periods, hoping to hold down costs that insurers blamed on late sign-ups. A top federal health official said Monday that the administration will eliminate some criteria for late sign-ups and make […]
Read moreSource: Kaiser Health News With full federal funding for expanding Medicaid set to expire at the end this year, President Barack Obama is proposing to indefinitely extend the health law provision for any of the 19 states that have not yet adopted the enhanced eligibility. But Obama would need the Republican-controlled Congress to approve the […]
Read more
