News

2012

June

30

• Health-care law’s impact: How Virginia, Maryland and D.C. are faring. Now that nearly all of the new national health-care law has been deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court, the question of what happens next could depend to a large extent on where you live.

28

• Supreme Court upholds health-care law, individual mandate. The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the individual health-insurance mandate that is at the heart of President Obama’s landmark health-care law, saying the mandate is permissible under Congress’s taxing authority. Chief Justice John

• What health reform could cost you. Among the promises of the health reform law -- now in the hands of the Supreme Court -- is affordable insurance for millions of low- and middle-income Americans. The federal government is set to spend

27

• On health care, the public doesn’t like its options. A majority of Americans view both the United States’ current health care system and the changes enacted in President Obama’s health care bill in an unfavorable light — a one-two punch of disillusionment that epitomizes

26

• How wider coverage affects health spending. In an article over the weekend, I took a close look at a continuing health study relevant to the Supreme Court ruling due Thursday on the federal health care law, the Affordable Care Act. The

23

• Getting lost in the labyrinth of medical bills. Ask Jean Poole, a medical billing advocate, about her work helping people navigate the bewildering world of medical bills and insurance claims, and the stories pour out. There’s the client who was billed almost $11,000

21

• Car survey shows fewer consumer complaints. Carmakers are doing a better job than ever eliminating nagging problems like wind noise, paint chips and balky engines. Now the auto industry has to figure out how to make similar improvements in technologies aimed

• Health insurance plans owe $1.1 billion in rebates. Millions of consumers and businesses will receive $1.1 billion in rebates this summer from health insurance plans that failed to meet a requirement of the new health-care law, according to the Health and Human Services Department.

19

• 3.1 million young people covered by health care law. More than 3.1 million Americans ages 19 through 25 are covered by their parents' medical insurance policies because of a provision in the 2010 health care law, the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to announce today.

17

• Washington state provides case study on effects of heath-care reform. If the Supreme Court overturns the health-care reform law’s individual mandate — a decision that could come as soon as Monday — it won’t be totally unknown territory. For Washington state, it would be quite

15

• Consumer watchdog scolds bankers for taking bad risks. It must be hard for the banking industry, which revels in indecipherable communication with customers, to actually be spoken to in plain English. It must be equally hard to be told that the industry's greedy,

12

• UnitedHealthcare to keep some health care mandates. The nation's largest health insurer promises to continue offering some key mandates of health care reform -- such as coverage of adult dependents up to age 26 -- regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on

11

• Largest health insurer to keep key parts of law regardless of court ruling. The nation’s largest health insurer will keep in place several key consumer provisions mandated by the 2010 health-care law regardless of whether the statute survives Supreme Court review.

09

• 6.6 million young adults on parents' health plans. The number, topping earlier estimates, shows the popularity of a provision of President Obama's healthcare law requiring health insurers to let parents enroll children under 26 on their plans.

May

29

• Insurers forcing patients to pay more for specialty drugs. Thousands of patients in California and across the nation who take expensive prescription drugs every month for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other ailments are facing sticker shock at the pharmacy. Until recently, most of these

• Many unemployed facing early end to benefits. More than 100,000 Americans out of work longer than a year in six states and Washington, D.C., are expected to lose their unemployment checks this summer, pushing the total cut off this year to more

24

• Individual health policies fall short. More than half of all medical insurance policies sold to individuals now fail to meet the standards of coverage set by the federal health care law under review by the Supreme Court, a new study

22

• N.Y. investigates insurer payments to banks. New York State regulators are investigating whether banks received improper payments from two insurance companies that write policies for financially troubled homeowners, as part of their examination of the unusual web of business relationships between

• Credit card perks could cut vacation costs. There are lots of ways to save money on your summer vacation. Go for one week instead of two. Drive instead of fly. Stay in a hotel with free breakfast and eat enough to last

21

• Employees use of cellphones while driving becomes a liability. One was a lumber salesman who crippled a 78-year-old woman. Another was driving a toy company’s van when he killed a college sophomore. When a cable company guy rammed a stopped car at 71 mph,