Industry Updates
This broad category includes articles concerning health insurance costs, carrier and health plan news, changing benefits technology, and surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation and others on employee benefits.
A U.S. appeals court decided Monday that the federal government wrongly approved California’s request to temporarily cut Medi-Cal reimbursement by 10% during the recession for hospital outpatient care.
Under preliminary Obamacare rates announced by Covered California, premiums on exchange plans will rise by an average of 5.7 percent in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties. That’s less than half of the statewide average of 12.5 percent, and consumers could virtually avoid an increase altogether if they shop around.
Obamacare remains the law of the land, for now, perhaps nowhere more securely than in California.
When Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) halted a measure to establish single-payer healthcare in California, the bill's most dedicated backers immediately called for him to be removed from office.
The Senate's top Democrat accused President Donald Trump on Tuesday of childish behavior by threatening to halt federal payments that help millions afford health coverage, saying such a move would impose a "Trump premium tax" by forcing consumers' insurance costs upward.
A Republican, Heller had opposed the original draft legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare but he hadn’t declared how he’d vote on a straight repeal of the health care law.
In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the governors write that the “skinny” repeal is “expected to accelerate health plans leaving the individual market, increase premiums, and result in fewer Americans having access to coverage.”
Nevadans who receive medical insurance through the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange could see the average proposed rate increase 38 percent for the individual market by 2018, according to a press release.
California’s Obamacare exchange scrubbed its annual rate announcement this week, the latest sign of how the ongoing political drama over the Affordable Care Act is roiling insurance markets nationwide.
For businesses with up to 100 employees, many of which lean heavily on the advice of their broker, technology can transform an adviser from a once a year sales person into an invaluable, year-round business consultant. Those who are reluctant to jump on the technology train must adapt or die off, as they live in a world and work in an industry that is increasingly taking advantage of online tools and resources.