News

2012

September

22

• Medicare bills rise as records turn electronic. When the federal government began providing billions of dollars in incentives to push hospitals and physicians to use electronic medical and billing records, the goal was not only to improve efficiency and patient safety, but

• Is acupuncture essential health care? Weight-loss surgery? Under Obamacare, states choose.. It is among the health-care law’s most important — and most daunting — questions: What health-care benefits are absolutely essential? California legislators say acupuncture makes the cut. Michigan regulators would include chiropractic services. Oregon officials would

20

• Two million more to pay penalty under Obamacare. Congress' official scorekeeper said Wednesday that roughly two million more Americans will pay penalties under President Obama's health care law for lacking insurance than had previously been estimated. Under the law, Americans must be insured

16

• Sluggish economy forces Americans to cut corners to pay for medications. Two new Consumer Reports surveys suggest that difficulty paying for health care—including prescription drugs and other medical bills—remains the top financial problem for American households. In the last six months alone, many have

06

• Card companies dumping credit-protection plans. Credit card holders could soon be saying good-bye to some costly add-on products that promised peace-of-mind during a disaster, such as a job loss. And many consumer groups say good-riddance. Several consumer advocates lump credit-protection

August

28

• Employers try new ways to cut health costs. As health care costs continue to increase, employers are looking for ways to cut costs, such as reducing spouse and dependent coverage in 2013, says a study out today. While the total cost of health care

25

• How to know if you have enough auto insurance. There’s nothing like a good scare to send us all scurrying to our auto insurance policy to see what our coverage is. This month, those of us who have followed the story of Progressive

18

• Alternative to credit scores. Do you ever get the feeling that your credit score doesn’t adequately portray your true risk as an applicant for a home mortgage? If your FICO score is a subpar 690 but you know that

14

• Seniors pay the price of Ryan's Medicare overhaul plan. We've been hearing — and will continue to hear — a lot about how Paul Ryan's plan to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid would cripple the safety-net healthcare programs. Fair criticism? The answer, as Bill Clinton might say,

12

• Ambiguity in Health Law Could Make Family Coverage Too Costly for Many. The new health care law is known as the Affordable Care Act. But Democrats in Congress and advocates for low-income people say coverage may be unaffordable for millions of Americans because of a cramped reading

07

• Foes assail bill for low-income workers' retirement plan. State legislation to start a retirement plan for low-income workers who get no pensions and rely only on Social Security has run into a storm of opposition from business groups in Sacramento. The controversial proposal

04

• Generic medicines saved $193 billion in 2011. Growing use of generic medicines has reduced U.S. health care spending by more than $1 trillion over the past decade, according to an industry-funded study released Thursday.

July

26

• Former Citi chief backs breakup of bank giants. The crowd that wants to break up the biggest banks in the wake of the financial crisis has a new member: a former big banker. Sanford "Sandy" Weill, who helped buildCitigroup Inc.into one of

• Libor rate-rigging scandal intensifies. It's an obscure statistic with an unwieldy name, but the furor over alleged manipulation of a key global interest rate is mushrooming into one of the worst-ever scandals to hit Wall Street. The London Interbank

19

• On 1st birthday, consumer bureau flexes its muscle. One year after the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau began operating as an independent agency, Director Richard Cordray says it has achieved one of its chief goals: getting Wall Street to pay attention. “I

17

• Consumer watchdog to oversee credit bureaus. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced on Monday that it would begin supervising the leading credit bureaus, the companies that collect financial details of everyone’s life. The bureau will oversee and make rules covering

16

• CFPB to supervise credit reporting. WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) adopted a rule today to begin supervising larger consumer reporting agencies, which include what are popularly called credit bureaus or credit reporting companies. This is the

15

• Health care options for young, healthy and broke. They're young, healthy and flat broke — and now the government says they have to buy thousands of dollars' worth of medical insurance. What should tapped-out twenty-somethings do?

12

• House votes to repeal health-care law. The Republican-led House voted Wednesday to repeal President Obama’s health-care law, a symbolic gesture meant to highlight the GOP’s commitment to ending it despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it is

01

• I can't afford health insurance - how can the government make me buy it?. I can't afford afford health insurance now, so how am I expected to afford it in two years when, because of health-care reform, we will have to buy it? Is it government-subsidized or what?