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Survey: U.S. Employees Dread Talking About Employer Benefits

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A new survey finds U.S. employees tired of talking about their employer-provided benefits.

One-third of American workers would rather talk about their weight than their employee benefits, and nearly half dread the benefits enrollment process as much as asking for a raise, according to a new survey released today.

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The Senate will wait until after the August recess to vote on a health care bill that would require health benefits brokers to disclose their commissions, The Hill reported today. The Lower Health Care Costs Act was introduced by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Commissions are not the reason health care costs are so high, representatives of two health insurance agents groups told InsuranceNewsNet.

Health benefits brokers would be subject to disclosure requirements as part of a sweeping health care bill introduced in the U.S. Senate.

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Sep. 16– Independent pharmacists are urging residents to press state legislators to support several bills that would result in more oversight of companies that administer prescription drug plans for the state Medicaid program. The firms, known as pharmacy benefit mangers, or PBMs, operate in virtual secrecy, with no state oversight or control over their…

—When the Census Bureau reported an increase in the number of people without health insurance in America, it sent political partisans reaching for talking points on the Obama-era health law and its travails. But the new numbers suggest that fears of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown may be a more significant factor in the slippage.
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Data: U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Axios Visuals Health care expenses forced 8 million Americans into poverty in 2018, according to the Census Bureau. The big picture: That’s actually an improvement from the past several years, when an annual average of 11 million people fell into poverty because of medical costs — a reflection of the country’s expensive system. How it works:…

Medicare for All is a popular idea- 70 percent of Americans say they support it, including 52 percent of Republicans. The most recent hospital closure happened in Fentress County, a rural farming community with just under 20,000 people and a median household income around $20,000. In early June, its Jamestown Regional Hospital announced it was “temporarily…

Sep. 15– One of the most generous health insurance plans enjoyed by a California public servant last year– costing $80,665– went to a communications manager for the obscure Water Replenishment District of Southern California. At the embattled Los Angeles Department of Water and Power– raided by the FBI in July, and yet to produce documents detailing how a worker…

Sep. 14– Connecticut’s insurance commissioner said Friday that the department has scaled back requests for rate increases on the state’s health insurance exchange, which provides coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Connecticut consumers will save about $54 million, Mais said. The Insurance Department issued its final rulings on 14 health insurance…

Amy Klobuchar blasted “Medicare-for-all,” defended her record as a prosecutor in Minnesota and said she supports a voluntary gun buyback program during the third Democratic presidential debate in Houston on Thursday. Those three moments were reflective of a more aggressive approach from the Minnesota senator and presidential candidate in her latest…
The Trump administration made the Affordable Care Act one of its biggest targets.

For the first time in a decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen, by about 2 million people in 2018, according to the annual U.S. Census Bureau report released Tuesday. The Census found that 8.5% of the U.S. population went without medical insurance for all of 2018, up from 7.9% in 2017.

Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance Matt Rosendale issued the following news release:. If Montanans receive mail labeled with ” Health Insurance Innovations Restitution Fund” or ” Dahl Administration,” they should open the letter and follow the instructions contained in it. The restitution fund is being administered by Dahl Administration in…

While on a business trip, a technician for a French railway company died of a cardiac arrest after having sex with a woman he had met, BBC News reports. Appeal court judges in Paris ruled recently that because Xavier X– his name in court records– was in Meung-sur- Loire, France, on assignment for TSO, the death counts as a workplace accident and his company is liable and…

The U.S. Census Bureau today released 2018 data that show the number of children without health insurance in America rose to 5.5 percent, an increase of more than 10 percent. Children are not moving to private insurance, the data show, contrary to claims by the Trump Administration. *The chilling effect of the Trump Administration’s public charge rule and…

Americans have health on their minds. Nearly four in 10 voters think health care is the most important policy issue our country faces. Already, the United States is facing shortages in the supply of care.

New survey data from the Nationwide Retirement Institute ® reveals 63% of younger adults believe their health today will impact how much they need to save for retirement, and 69% of older adults note that one of their top fears in retirement is their health care costs going out of control. “Health care costs and related financial concerns are a common thread…

–Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which analyzes the 100 largest U.S. corporate pension plans. As a result, the funded status deficit ballooned from $219 billion at the end of July to $306 billion as of August 31, an $87 billion funding decrease for these plans.
A judge has completed his review of the blockbuster CVS-Aetna deal.

Shares of CVS Health started climbing early Thursday, a day after a federal judge finally completed his review of the company’s roughly $69 billion acquisition of the health insurer Aetna. CVS representatives have said for months that the two businesses were operating “as one company” while waiting to hear whether Leon would back the proposal.
A new LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute (SRI) study finds significant interest in pension risk transfer deals.

A new LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute (SRI) study finds 8 in 10 private-sector DB plan sponsors (who also offer a defined contribution plan) are at least somewhat interested in a pension risk transfer transaction (PRT). Four in 10 plan sponsors say they are “very” interested in PRT, marking a 12 percentage-point increase from plan sponsors surveyed in 2014.
The Affordable Care Act continues to draw fire from conservatives. Will Democrats be able to go further?

ConnectiCare Inc. and Anthem Health Plans Inc. told state insurance department officials that the elimination of the individual mandate, the policy enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, has led to fewer individuals buying insurance in the past year.

The Standard’ s focus on strengthening employees’ financial well-being is in alignment with the Oregon Healthiest State initiative, an Oregon Business Council program with a mission to foster a statewide culture of physical and financial health. The initiative was kicked off in 2013 with support of the Oregon Governor. “As a provider of employee benefits and…

Janet Mills announced on Thursday that she will lead a 2020 push for Maine to begin managing parts of its own health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act in what could be a step toward a fully state-run exchange. Mills, a Democrat, has increased Maine’s participation in the Affordable Care Act after succeeding Republican Paul LePage in January.

A Philadelphia- based health insurer plans to apply for an HMO license in Minnesota so it can compete for business in Minnesota’s public programs for lower-income residents. The plans were disclosed to the Star Tribune on Monday by AmeriHealth Caritas, a for-profit subsidiary of Independence Health Group, which is the parent company of the Blue Cross…
The Affordable Care Act continues to draw fire from conservatives. Will Democrats be able to go further?

The provision to ACA was sponsored by former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken and requires health insurers must spend most of the premium dollars collected on actual health care or return the money to plan participants. In 2018, insurers across the country paid out nearly $707 million in rebates to nearly 6 million consumers.

On Tuesday, August 20, the Shawnee County District Court in Topeka, Kansas, signed an order placing Physicians Standard Insurance Company in rehabilitation under the supervision of the Kansas Insurance Department. “A primary responsibility of the Kansas Insurance Department is protecting consumers by ensuring companies are financially solvent and…

—It’s the No. 1 reason patients don’t fill their prescriptions: sticker shock. While the price of almost any good or service can be found online, most Americans don’t know what they’ll owe for a prescription medication until they get it. “The best drug in the world isn’t going to be effective if the patient doesn’t take it,” said Dana Goldman, a health economist at the…

As President Donald Trump prepared to head off to the G-7 summit of the world’ s top economic powers, the man who hopes to replace him in the White House was just getting rolling in front of a crowd in Hanover. “As long as this man is president– and this is no hyperbole– we are in trouble,” former vice president Joe Biden said Friday. Biden– the front-runner right now in the…

Ever since the Democrats and President Barack Obama first advocated the national health care legislation plan that came to bear the ex-president’ s name, Republicans have made it their political target. Time and again, Grand Old Party efforts to hang Obamacare around the neck of the rival Democrats have failed in Congress. Since then, progressive Democrats led…

The new comer in the exchange next year is Bright Health Insurance, which will be available in several counties, including Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole. Also, Cigna, which only offered off-marketplace plans this year, has joined the mix for next year, offering Obamacare plans in Collier and Palm Beach counties. One company, AvMed, is offering…

—Democratic voters appear to be reassessing their approach to health care, a pragmatic shift on their party’s top 2020 issue. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. “We hear Medicare for All, but I’m not absolutely certain what that means and what that would then mean for me,” said Democrat Terrie Dietrich, who lives near Las Vegas.

Mr. Reid, who led Senate Democrats for more than a decade and was the key factor in passing Obamacare, told Vice News that there’s little chance of getting Medicare for All through Congress. “It should be way, way down at the bottom of the list,” Mr. Reid told the outlet in a phone interview. Mr. Reid, once a moderate Democrat who became more liberal as the party’s Senate…

TRENTON, N.J.— Drug companies are still raising prices for brand-name prescription medicines, just not as often or by as much as they used to, according to an Associated Press analysis. After years of frequent list price hikes, many drugmakers are showing some restraint, according to the analysis of drug prices provided by health information firm Elsevier.

They’re likely sniffing opportunity in Florida, said Allan Baumgarten, an independent health market analyst who publishes Florida Health Market Review every two years. In February, Florida had 1.67 million Obamacare enrollees– an increase of 73,329 over the previous year– while overall enrollment declined in the 38 other states that use the federal…

Some fear that as technology becomes more advanced, the need for benefits brokers will shrink, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, these technological advancements enable professionals to work more efficiently.

I retired in August 2018 and am a current enrollee in Medicare. The Republican Party is fixated on undoing the real gains made possible by implementation of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The Democratic Party, in turn, is polarized between a Medicare for All proposal that would shrink market and profit opportunities of private insurance…
A prominent investor says GE's books will not add up, especially when it comes to its LTCi liabilities. GE denies the allegations.

Investigator Harry Markopolos accused GE on Thursday of engaging in accounting fraud worth billions, saying the company is hiding massive losses and heading for bankruptcy. In his report, Markopolos suggests that an accounting rule change for insurance liabilities and a significant lack of reserves to cover long-term care liabilities will push GE to take a $29B hit.

A father and his son were sentenced on Wednesday to a combined 15 years in federal prison for submitting more than $27 million in fraudulent hearing aid claims through their businesses in Bedford and Arlington. The men were ordered to repay more than $22 million in restitution to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas.

A judge is urging CalPERS to settle a major lawsuit over price increases for its long-term care insurance policies, suggesting the system could have to pay a lot of money if the lawsuit goes to a jury trial. The lawsuit, filed in 2013, alleges CalPERS violated contracts when it hiked premiums by 85 percent for about 100,000 public employees after promising stable prices.

The Fairness Project, a Washington- based 501 (c) nonprofit that does not have to reveal its donors, has contributed $31,022 to the Healthcare for All political action committee since last month, according to the Missouri Ethics Commission. It had reported no major donations until The Fairness Project wrote a $7,500 check on July 24. Said Jonathan Schleifer,…

Aug. 14– Health insurance companies will have to cover life-saving EpiPens or similar devices for kids with allergies under a new state law that takes effect Jan. 1– but questions remain about whether the mandate will lead to lower costs for parents. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill last week requiring health insurance companies to cover epinephrine injectors for…
Many seniors are worried about running out of money in retirement. Annuities are one option to prevent that from happening.

New research finds pre-retirees and retirees are almost evenly aligned on how they anticipate entering into retirement: 56% said they plan to stop working entirely, 17% plan to gradually reduce their hours before stopping and 27% plan to work part-time with no plan to stop working, the LIMRA study finds.
Many seniors are not prepared for the cost of retirement.

Life insurance or annuity policies sold with a long-term care rider jumped from 228,000 in 2015 to 461,000 in 2018, LIMRA has found. Today, more than 40 carriers are selling these products with a long-term care element. State insurance regulators are hoping the hybrid products stabilize the LTC market while providing consumers with protection.

Elizabeth Warren was that any Democratic candidate who warned against taking away 160 million Americans’ option to continue with their current private insurance would be playing into the Republicans’ hands. Her opinion was if the candidates didn’t agree with her single-payer solution they are helping the Republicans’ position on healthcare, and she chided…

Aug. 13– Clayton- based Centene Corp. plans to expand its offerings in the 2020 health insurance marketplace in 10 states. Centene said Tuesday it plans to expand in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. Centene served 1.9 million exchange members in 20 states as of June 30.

Legal and General Group, a provider of insurance, savings and investment management products, issued the following news release:. MyFutureNow gives Legal& General an added benefit service for existing and potential customers across Legal& General’s Retail Retirement and defined contribution pensions business. The MyFutureNow platform will be offered to…
The Trump administration made the Affordable Care Act one of its biggest targets.

Surprise out-of-network medical bills are becoming more common and more expensive, according to new research out of Stanford University’s School of Medicine. Researchers estimated patients’ potential financial responsibility for hospital visits more than doubled between 2010 and 2016, to about $2,000 in 2016.

Bernie Sanders and other progressives seeking the Democratic presidential nomination are zeroing in on pharmaceutical and insurer profits, money they say would be better spent providing health care for everyone under “Medicare for All.” “My view is that we are having a debate in fantasy world,” said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director with the nonpartisan…

The Employee Benefit Research Institute issued the following news release:. A new study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute finds the percentage of all private-sector establishments offering at least one self-insured health plan has recently fallen–however drilling deeper into the data, EBRI finds mixed results by company size.

Which of these Democrats can insure more Americans? Though only two candidates referenced health care in their opening remarks– former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, who also served as the mayor of San Antonio, Texas; and New York Sen. For about 24 minutes, nearly a quarter of the debate, the 10 Democrats wrestled for control of the health…

Jul. 31– People who are Affordable Care Act participants in North Carolina could see a decrease in their insurance bills come January. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the only insurance company to provide Affordable Care Act coverage in all 100 N.C. counties, has requested an average ACA rate decrease of 5.2% for individuals. The ACA rates have to be…
The Trump administration made the Affordable Care Act one of its biggest targets.

Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris is cherry-picking statistics in declaring that millions have lost health insurance under President Donald Trump. Under Trump, the U.S. has not advanced in reducing the number of uninsured, but major studies differ on whether there’s been significant backsliding, as Harris asserts.

With the recent acquisition of a Texas- based company, UnitedHealth Group has waded deeper into the sale of “supplemental” health plans that consumer advocates say provide questionable value to subscribers. Earlier this year, Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group acquired a company called HealthMarkets Inc., which includes a division for supplemental…

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a coalition of Republican-run states last year in filing a lawsuit arguing that without the “individual mandate” penalty, which Congress stripped a year earlier, the rest of the Affordable Care Act couldn’t survive constitutional muster. A judge agreed and, though the case is on appeal and Obamacare remains in operation,…

The DOL issued a regulation expanding multi-employer retirement plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The rule is aimed at expanding access to saving options by clarifying the circumstances under which an employer group or association or professional employment organization may sponsor a multiple employer workplace retirement plan.

Leston Welsh has been promoted to head of Products for Prudential Group Insurance. Prudential Group Insurance is a unit of Prudential Financial, Inc.. Leston Welsh, head of Products for Prudential Group Insurance.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is making a big bet on expanding the Affordable Care Act, but the approach leaves him subject to attacks from the left, right and middle. Progressives are arguing to go well beyond Biden’s proposal for a “public option” insurance plan to be added alongside the private market. Republicans are hammering him as another liberal who wants to a “government takeover” of health care with benefits for abortion providers and immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

—America’s much-maligned health care system is covering 9 out of 10 people, a fact that hasn’t stopped the 2020 presidential candidates from refighting battles about how to provide coverage, from Bernie Sanders’ call for replacing private insurance with a government plan to President Donald Trump’s pledge to erase the Affordable Care Act and start over.

“We’ve been publishing the MMI for 15 years and we’ve always viewed healthcare costs in terms of a hypothetical family of four, but this year we decided to expand our approach,” said Chris Girod, co-author of the Milliman Medical Index. “What we’re most excited about this year is the ability to let people understand how different sorts of families face different…
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The Senate will wait until after the August recess to vote on a health care bill that would require health benefits brokers to disclose their commissions, The Hill reported today. The Lower Health Care Costs Act was introduced by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

the House of Representatives last week voted to repeal a tax that is not scheduled to take effect until 2022. The vote against the ” Cadillac tax” was 419-6, a reminder that “bipartisanship” often is the political class coming together to sacrifice the national interest to its own. Repeal of the promised tax of 40 percent on a portion of the most lavish…