health insurance

Stories 341 - 360 | << Prev   Next >>

Critics Rip Gender Gap in Health Insurance Charges

Advocates call for an end to higher premiums for women

(Newser) - Health advocates and some politicians are crying foul over the huge price difference between men's and women's health insurance, the New York Times reports. Healthy young women are regularly charged up to 50% more than their male counterparts, even when maternity care is excluded. The practice is prohibited under job-based...

Docs Stop Taking Insurance, Offer 'Boutique' Care

More doctors offer "boutique" care to make ends meet, provide better service

(Newser) - Increasing numbers of doctors are bagging the insurance model to offer much better service to fewer patients, at a much higher cost, the Baltimore Sun reports. Many doctors are struggling to pay their own bills, and the quality of service they offer patients is suffering. But such “boutique” care...

Tight Budgets Pinch Health Care Spending

As consumers prioritize, medical expenses lose out

(Newser) - Yet another casualty of the recession could wind up being an irreplaceable one: Americans' health. Consumers are increasingly skipping doctor visits and skimping on prescription meds, the Wall Street Journal reports. "It's hard to get people to follow up when they're having to decide between the gas bill, the...

Insurers Balk at Paying for Autism Therapy

Schools now foot the bill, but advocacy group pressing for change

(Newser) - A national autism advocacy group is pushing insurance companies to pick up the tab for intensive new therapies now footed by local school districts, the Boston Globe reports. They say the rising number of autism cases will swamp school budgets and make it unlikely that kids will get the help...

US Health Costs to Rise 5.7% in '09

Insurance costs go up for 4th straight year

(Newser) - Get ready for another increase in co-pays and deductibles. A survey being released today found that 59% of employers intend to keep down rising health care costs by sharing them with workers. Costs will go up by an average 5.7% for both parties next year, rising faster than inflation...

Ranks of Uninsured Drop by 1M
 Ranks of
 Uninsured
 Drop by 1M
Aug 26, 2008 1:11 PM CDT

Ranks of Uninsured Drop by 1M

Poverty rate unchanged, median incomes rise

(Newser) - There were a million fewer uninsured Americans last year, the first annual decrease under the Bush administration, according to Census Bureau data released today. Median household incomes also rose slightly for the third consecutive year, while the nation’s poverty rate held steady at just over 12%, AP reports. The...

Medicare Fudged Fraud Figures: Report

Claims to have cut bogus charges overstated

(Newser) - Medicare's boasts of having reduced fraud by billions are misleading, a draft report obtained by the New York Times finds. Auditors were told to ignore procedures that would have accurately measured fraudulent claims for medical equipment, the draft report says.   Proper methods would have revealed an estimated $2.8...

Mass. Trumpets Success of Health Mandate

Under new law, state says 75% of uninsured are now covered

(Newser) - About 75% of Massachusetts residents who had been uninsured now have health coverage, thanks to the state’s closely watched, near-universal health care mandate, says a new report from Gov. Deval Patrick. Nearly half of the 439,000 newly insured bought private insurance, rather than taxpayer-funded plans, the Boston Globe...

In Sickness and for Health Insurance

Health benefit concerns force couples into marriage and divorce

(Newser) - Health insurance worries are pushing a growing number of Americans both into and out of marriages, the New York Times reports. Couples in which one party has better health benefits are marrying hastily as medical needs outweigh any doubts about each other. One survey this year found health insurance was...

New Databases Share Test Results, Prescriptions

Info used to assemble health 'credit reports'

(Newser) - The prescriptions and medical test results of more than 200 million Americans are being assembled into commercial databases, the Washington Post reports, which then sell health "credit reports" to insurance companies trying to evaluate whether to accept an individual for coverage. The companies not only disclose drug and test...

McCain, Aides Often Part Ways on Policy
McCain, Aides Often
Part Ways on Policy
ANALYSIS
Jul 31, 2008 2:10 PM CDT

McCain, Aides Often Part Ways on Policy

Politico documents the differences

(Newser) - Much has been made recently of John McCain’s difficulty in driving a message from his “eclectic and occasionally politically inconvenient hodgepodge of policy positions,” Politico says, but little has been said about how often the candidate’s top aides disagree with him. And while fewer public disagreements...

Obama Health Care Cure May Prove Elusive

Quick reform isn't likely, say analysts

(Newser) - In a campaign that has made several big promises, perhaps Barack Obama's most ambitious vow is that he will bring down health care premiums by $2,500 by the end of his first term as president. But whether he can deliver that is an open question, writes the New York ...

Mac Speechless on Fiorina Birth Control Slip

Can't say how he thinks insurers should handle contraceptives

(Newser) - A full day after the blogosphere was lit up over Carly Fiorina’s decidedly un-conservative suggestion that health insurers should cover birth control, John McCain still had no comment when asked about it, the Wall Street Journal reports. And a decidedly awkward no-comment, at that:
  • McCain: “I certainly do
...

Employers Use Law to Withhold Benefits

Think you're covered? Not if your company decides you're not

(Newser) - Thomas Amschwand was dying, but made sure his wife would collect on his $426,000 life insurance policy. Yet when he died, his boss withheld the money, and his wife was powerless—because a federal law stops workers from suing employers for large sums of health, life, or retirement benefits....

US Insurers Warming to Medical Tourism

Sending patients to India, elsewhere could save $20B a year

(Newser) - If you’re in need of high-priced surgery, your insurance company might have a plane ticket for you. Insurers are starting to warm to “medical tourism” for the same reason uninsured Americans are: Surgery is significantly cheaper overseas. At least 150,000 Americans go abroad for medical procedures every...

Detente Mellows Wal-Mart's Once-Virulent Foes

Retailer finds middle ground with detractors

(Newser) - Wal-Mart, more accustomed to being lambasted than lauded by its critics, is seeing a shift in public opinion, reports the New York Times. The mega-retailer has reached accords with some of its most ardent detractors, even listening to their advice on issues like employee health care. The company, too, has...

More Say 'I Do' for Health Plans
 More Say 'I Do' for Health Plans 
Apr 29, 2008 10:12 AM CDT

More Say 'I Do' for Health Plans

About 7% marry to get coverage as costs soar

(Newser) - Health-insurance worries have gotten so serious they're pushing some Americans up the aisle, the Los Angeles Times reports. In a new survey, 7% of people said they or somebody in their household had married in the last year to get health benefits. The survey also found that health-care worries trumped...

Blogger Weighs Health Care Plans, Flunks McCain
Blogger Weighs Health Care Plans, Flunks McCain
OPINION
Apr 25, 2008 4:40 PM CDT

Blogger Weighs Health Care Plans, Flunks McCain

Clinton edges Obama in real-life take on insurance reform

(Newser) - Hacking through the forest of reporting on the presidential candidates' health care plans, Glamour blogger Megan Carpentier weighs in. Writing "as someone born with a birth defect who has been known to get sick," she bluntly begins, "I know enough about my own health insurance situation over...

Closet Smokers Might Get Canned
Closet Smokers Might Get Canned
Apr 23, 2008 4:42 PM CDT

Closet Smokers Might Get Canned

Factory workers who lied on insurance forms may lose jobs

(Newser) - A group of factory workers who lied about their smoking habits could be fired. The Whirlpool company charges lower premiums for health insurance to nonsmoking workers—and relies on the honor code when employees sign up. Now 39 workers at an Indiana factory have been suspended and face losing their...

Blood Test May Predict Dementia 6 Years Early

Some worry over boost in insurance costs; others want wider study

(Newser) - A new blood test can warn of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases six years before symptoms appear, its makers say. The assessment, set to launch this summer, could allow patients to begin fighting the ailments early with through dietary changes, exercise and drugs, the Daily Mail reports. But some...

Stories 341 - 360 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser