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Trying to spur enrollment in a new health insurance program for uninsured people with pre-existing medical conditions, the federal government is doing something private insurers almost never do: slashing rates.
With major gains in Congress, in governors' races and in statehouses across the country, Republicans will continue to push for repeal or significant changes to the health care law. President Obama says while he is open to making some modifications, he and Democrats will resist major changes to the measure.
Though it seems like an idea that can be easily attacked as a way to ration care, so-called value-based insurance design couples GOP principles of market-based incentives and consumer choice with the Democratic reformers' goal of eliminating costly and unnecessary care.
In late September, led by Minority Leader John Boehner, some House Republicans released "A Pledge to America" -- an outline of their plan should they gain control of Congress. Here is the excerpt that deals with health care.
Open season begins Nov. 15 and beneficiaries need to check their options to make sure they are signed up for the plan that best meets their needs.
Voters don't give much thought to who runs their state department of insurance. And in many places no one can name the person holding this office. But as key provisions of the new federal health law begin to take effect, insurance commissioners will become paramount.
Voters in Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma will decide whether to accept constitutional amendments prohibiting the federal health law's keystone individual mandate - the provision to require everyone have health insurance beginning in 2014.
With the elections less than one week away, ads making claims about the health law are flooding the airwaves. Many Democrats, concerned that voters view the measure in a negative light, continue to not mention health reform. Republicans, predicted to take control of the House and increase their ranks in the Senate, continue to criticize the law as too large, too expensive and intrusive into Americans' lives. But President Barack Obama and some Democrats are promoting the law's immediate consumer benefits and say it will improve the quality of health care for all Americans.
Response has been modest and reviews are mixed for insurance plans set up by the federal health law for people with medical problems.
If certain steps are taken, the next round of reform could make health insurance portable, affordable and fair.
State insurance regulators have defined one of the thorniest provisions of the new health overhaul law: the requirement that insurers spend at least 80 percent of revenue on direct medical care.
One of the nation's largest health insurers said today it is testing a new way to pay for some cancer treatments, aiming to identify the best medicines
Some Democrats are talking about health care in their elections in a new way: send us to Washington to fix parts of the health care bill that you don't like. Meanwhile, oral arguments in a Virginia court case challenging the law's requirement that individuals purchase health care insurance are proceeding in court.
Health insurers can't have different rules for when individual policies for children with medical problems than for healthy kids are sold, the Department of Health and Human Services said today.
Planned Parenthood and other groups are launching a campaign to include prescription contraception as part of the preventive services required in the new health law.
Workers are likely to see increases in premiums, deductibles and co-payments, as well as changes in dependent coverage and wellness options.
The Department of Health and Human Services has granted approximately 30 waivers to employers, insurers and unions that will allow them to offer limited benefit, or "mini-med," health insurance plans.
It is no doubt useful politically for the administration to set up the private health insurance industry as its foil in this struggle. Many Americans have low regard for insurance companies. But this is largely a diversionary tactic on the part of [HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius].
Mark Rukavina of The Access Project and Neil Trautwein of the National Retail Federation discuss the Obama administration's relaxation of the health law's requirements for insurance plans for some employers.
It will take years to make the law's most important changes. But by the time they are in place, if all goes well, most Americans truly will be better off. The early stages are encouraging.
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