Headline News Archive

2010

May

17

• Insurers try to shape details of health-care reform. Quick quiz: If you were a regulator interpreting the new requirement that health insurers use at least 80 or 85 percent of their premium dollars to pay

• Financial overhaul plans remain mostly intact. The Senate this week could hand President Obama his second major legislative victory of the year, both on administration priorities that seemed in doubt not

11

• Fixing Social Security: The 'low hanging fruit'. Reforming Social Security is still a hot-button issue. But relative to other measures needed to stabilize U.S. debt, it should be a snap. "They

10

• Health care law helps companies insure early retirees. The White House unveiled details last week of a $5 billion program to provide financial relief to companies that offer health coverage to early retirees. Officials

06

• Financial overhaul bill gets bipartisan push. In a rare show of bipartisanship, the Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the financial regulatory bill aimed at ensuring that taxpayers never

02

• Quiz: How close are you to the financial edge?. April was financial literacy month. Did you learn anything? The anecdotal evidence doesn't look good. Americans are falling deeper into debt, and they are increasingly

• Iceland volcano boosts awareness of travel insurance. Visions of the Iceland volcano spewing ash into the air and weary, grounded travelers waiting it out at airports are causing more people to consider

April

29

• Financial reform debate begins in full Senate. Ending three straight days of solid opposition, Senate Republicans agreed Wednesday to start a full-scale debate on the most far-reaching proposals to toughen regulation of

19

• 8 money missteps that can really hurt you. The road to financial hell is paved with alluring options: credit cards, payday loans, reverse mortgages, 401(k) raids and more. And even though parts of

18

• These financial blogs are worth your time. After spending the bulk of my career writing solely for newspapers, I stepped into the blogosphere a year ago and discovered a whole new world

• Buying a credit score?. Everyone's got your number — a credit score, that is — and as a savvy consumer, you might want to find out exactly what they've got. This

13

• Financial overhaul remains a pr battle. For the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the proposed financial regulations headed to the Senate floor would create sleepless nights and a lack of credit

12

• Jobless benefits bill faces Senate showdown. Congress is poised for another partisan showdown over extending unemployment insurance, as concerns about the growing budget deficit have complicated the path forward for an

11

• Test your knowledge of credit scores. Here's a quiz to test your knowledge of credit scores, that all-important number on which mortgage lenders and most other creditors base their decisions not

10

• Working financial literacy with the 3 Rs. Most Americans aren’t fluent in the language of money. Yet we’re expected to make big financial decisions as early as our teens — Should

08

• Stealing your identity for liposuction. Sierra Morgan, a 31-year-old respiratory therapist from Modesto, Calif., was billed $12,000 on her health-care credit card in November for liposuction, a procedure she never requested

• Long-term-care policies: Pouring money down a hole?. The saddest lesson of recent years for the American middle class is that those who "do the right thing" are first in line to get

07

• Free credit report no longer. The credit report you get from freecreditreport.com is no longer free, no matter what that Web address promises. In the face of a legislative

06

• Plastic pipe maker extends warranty amid claims of defects. M Eagle, fighting a whistle-blower's claim that it delivered defective PVC pipes to government utilities across the nation, said Monday that it would extend one-year

• Toyota faces fine for waiting to warn. Federal regulators are seeking to fine Toyota $16.4 million for waiting four months or more before notifying safety officials about vehicles with a "sticky pedal" defect.

05

• Health insurance reform profiles. Though debate raged for a year over the potential benefits and the estimated costs of the nation's health care overhaul, there is wide agreement that

04

• Health law preserves COBRA plan. If you’ve recently joined the ranks of the unemployed or are worried that you soon will, you may be wondering if the sweeping new

01

• Can't afford health care? Wait 'til June. For millions of uninsured or underinsured Americans, health reform legislation will soon remove some of the barriers preventing them from getting the coverage they need.

March

29

• Auto black boxes help recreate car crashes. When it comes to "black boxes" in cars, there's one thing everyone from regulators to automakers agrees upon: These onboard crash-data recorders have their limitations.

28

• Coverage now for sick children? Check fine print. Just days after President Obama signed the new health care law, insurance companies are already arguing that, at least for now, they do not have