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A court has scheduled a July 9 hearing on a Texas-based judge’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional.
Read moreSen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, discussed the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act during a briefing at the start of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors Congressional Conference. More than 600 NAIFA members are in Washington for this annual event.
The results of a study showed that a high percentage of workers are experiencing mental health issues in the workplace but are afraid to disclose them to their employers.
House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, announced their plan to shore up the Affordable Care Act one day after the Trump administration told a court to strike down the entire law.
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement (SECURE) Act is designed to expand access to workplace retirement plans, particularly for small businesses, and will improve the ability for employers to extend greater access to lifetime income options in those plans.
Although the government shutdown is a well-known example of a disruption in income, it’s more likely that Americans will see their income grind to a halt as a result of an illness or disability. So why aren’t they lining up to buy disability insurance?
A group annuity risk transfer product, such as a pension buy-out product, allows an employer to transfer all or a portion of its pension liability to an insurer. These product sales surpassed $4.7 billion in the first quarter 2019, an increase of 240% year-over-year.
–Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its Spring 2019 Multiemployer Pension Funding Study, which analyzes the funded status of all multiemployer pension plans in the United States. Between June 30, 2018, and December 31, 2018, the aggregate funded ratio of multiemployer plans dropped from 81% to 74%…
Insurance-quote websites designed to resemble the government-run marketplaces spend millions of dollars for top billing on Google when people search keywords like “Obamacare plans,” “ACA insurance,” and even “healthcare.gov.” Rather than selling insurance directly, they hand off consumers to agents.
Workers who are sidelined by illness or injury are often more worried about their financial health than they are about their physical health, a Cigna survey revealed. More than half (52%) of survey respondents who did not have DI said it took them more than two years to recover financially.
Fidelity Investments, for example, says a couple retiring in 2019 at age 65 will need $285,000 for health expenses, not including nursing home or other long-term care. The Employee Benefits Research Institute says some couples could need up to $400,000- again, not including long-term care. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College hasn’t updated its…
Employees are opening their wallets for voluntary benefits, with those sales increasing to $7.2 billion in 2018. According to LIMRA research, since 2010 the percent of employers offering voluntary benefits as part of their overall employee benefits package has increased 11 percent.
Hospital representatives say Medicare and Medicaid pay less than the cost of their services, so they have to charge employer-sponsored plans more in order to cover their costs. In Dayton, about 79 percent of Dayton-area hospital patients on an average day are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, according to the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association.
As the industry’s first-ever report that provides a macro snapshot of global trends, changes, and challenges facing individuals and businesses, the State of Health Insurance Report 2018-2019 seeks to simplify insurance for buyers so they can make more informed purchasing decisions. Pacific Prime’s latest global report utilizes insights from their team…
May 19– May 19– An Omaha man is accused of bilking Medicare of more than $674,000 in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and a dozen other states, allegedly throwing pizza parties at nursing homes and going to homeless shelters promising them all freebies in order to get Social Security information to further the scam. In a 19- page affidavit, Paul Vaccaro, a special…
Evidence from around the world demonstrates that publicly financed health care systems result in improved health outcomes, lower costs and greater equity, a group of economists say. As of 2017, the U.S. spent $3.3 trillion annually on health care. This equaled 17 percent of U.S. GDP, with average spending at about $10,000 per person.
TAMPA— A WellCare Health Plans stockholder has gone to court to try to stop the $15.3 billion sale of WellCare to Centene. Seabaugh contends that WellCare executives rushed the sale through, undervalued WellCare’s stock and did not build any protections into the deal to prevent WellCare shareholders if there’s a drop in the price of the Centene shares they…
LOS ANGELES, May 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — As Millennials overtake the Baby Boomers as the largest generation according to the…
“This is the first time the health plans see each others’ rates, which leads to some healthy negotiations,” CalPERS division chief Kim Malm told the board, suggesting companies might lower rates for competitive reasons after seeing the figures presented in public this week. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System provides health insurance to about…
May 15– May 15– Pennsylvania hospitals lost less money on uncompensated care, a mix of charity care and unpaid debt, for the fourth year in a row as the Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act subsidies allow more people to get insurance, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, discussed the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act during a briefing at the start of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors Congressional Conference. More than 600 NAIFA members are in Washington for this annual event.
Consumer complaints about surprise medical bills have fallen substantially in New York in the wake of a 2014 law that established a “baseball-style” arbitration protocol to address these situations, according to a new report.
In this first-ever survey to uncover regrets and learnings from those who have filed for Social Security retirement benefits, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company discovered that indeed there were. “When to retire and file for Social Security retirement benefits should be your choice, and this study underscores the need to plan ahead for the…
–Many of us may need long-term care at some point during our lives and hope to remain where we’re most comfortable should we ever need care. To help, Nationwide launched Nationwide CareMatters ® II today- a new linked benefit product that offers more accessibility, expanded features and more opportunities for advisors to help their clients receive care where…
Washington is set to become the first state in the nation to offer a universally available public health insurance option. A set of tiered public plans will cover standard services. They’re expected to be up to 10% cheaper than comparable private insurance, due in part to savings from a cap on rates paid to providers.
An examination of U.S. hospital prices covering 25 states shows that in 2017, the prices paid to hospitals for privately insured patients averaged 241% of what Medicare would have paid, with wide variation in prices among states, according to a new RAND Corporation study. The analysis was done in collaboration between RAND and the Employers’ Forum of Indiana.
Improved profitability for insurers selling Affordable Care Act coverage to individuals last year means health plans could be issuing a record $800 million in rebates to consumers– a national finding that fits with the financial results in Minnesota. The study from the California- based Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that insurers overshot their premium settings.
Maine legislative committees will hold Thursday hearings on several Democratic proposals aimed at ensuring universal health care coverage through a variety of different methods– from single-payer systems to public options. Universal coverage is something that Maine– one of at least 19 states considering single-payer bills this year– has discussed more…
President Donald Trump says it’s time to end “surprise medical bills,” which can leave insured patients facing sticker shock from charges submitted by doctors outside their insurers’ networks. Trump spoke at the White House on Thursday to lend his support to efforts by Republican and Democratic lawmakers. White House aides outlined a set of principles for legislation.
–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. In April, these pensions experienced a $29 billion increase in funded status thanks to healthy investment gains and an increase in the benchmark corporate bond interest…
Medicare Supplement Plan benefits are standardized by the Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services, however, when customers purchase Medicare Supplement Plan D through Bankers Life, they can receive free memberships to the fitness, social engagement and wellness programs SilverSneakers ® and WholeHealth Living Choices ®. “There are many expense…
Republican leadership blocked legislation that would extend health insurance coverage to an estimated 90,000 low-income adults and 40,000 children in Kansas, despite majority support in both the House and Senate. A last-ditch attempt to force a vote on Medicaid expansion by holding the budget hostage fell apart Saturday.
Among 1,315 U.S. adults ages 50 or older who are retired, or plan to retire in the next 10 years, finds that nearly half (44%) say Social Security will be their main source of retirement income, followed by just 23% of older adults relying on their pension. Many of those respondents believe they will be getting much more money than recipients receive today.
Not sure what to get Mom this Mother’ s Day? Instead of the usual chocolate, flowers or jewelry, Lincoln Financial Group’ s Love and Responsibility Survey found the gift that over half of all moms would prefer most is a contribution to their retirement account.
Insure.com, a comprehensive source for insurance information, today released its ninth annual Mother’s Day Index showing that the jobs many moms typically perform for their household would justify an income of $71,297 in 2019. Insure.com used federal wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find the financial value of 13 jobs that many moms…
A Westerly woman has filed a lawsuit against the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and the Hartford Insurance Co., claiming they violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act when they discontinued her long-term disability benefits last May. Nubia Mazzarese, the plaintiff, had worked for the tribe for 14 years, most recently as a dealer at Foxwoods…
The worst thing that Attorney General William P. Barr did last week arguably had nothing to do with possible contempt of Congress or the Mueller report. Their logic: When Congress, as part of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, set the penalty for not carrying health insurance to zero, that effectively made it no longer really a “tax,” and therefore made it…
May 07– May 7– RALEIGH– The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has failed to effectively monitor the performance of the managed-care organizations that handle behavioral health care for the state’s Medicaid recipients– increasing the risk that health care costs were unreasonable and that performance standards were not met, the state auditor’s…
Health insurance plans that do not meet the Affordable Care Act’ s coverage requirements have become more accessible as President Donald Trump and Republicans loosen federal restrictions on them. A handful of states have taken different approaches to establishing their own consumer protections.
–QuoteWizard ®, a LendingTree company, and one of the nation’s leading online insurance marketplaces, conducted a study that found the fittest and fattest states in America. By some estimations, obesity-related healthcare costs range from $147 billion to $210 billion per year. Hawaii, Montana, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Jersey are the five fittest states….
Any new health care program might be an improvement, but the only way to find out would be for people to give up something they know they like. That’s a big ask about something as important to people as their health insurance. That almost certainly rules out sweeping health-care reform.
In the United States social work services are provided by nursing homes and home health agencies. Likewise, therapeutics services are offered by mostly all home health agencies and nursing homes in the U.S. Majority of the adult day service centers in the U.S. are offered only therapeutic services. Pharmacy and pharmacist services are offered by nursing home…
–Sun Life U.S. is helping clients automatically enroll employees in disability coverage, increasing population coverage and income protection for workers. Disability coverage provides an extra layer of income protection that helps people maintain financial security when they have to go on leave from work, “said David Healy, senior vice president of Group…
The bill, SB 322, which the House approved by a 70-42 vote after the Senate passed it last week, would also expand short-term and association health plans and change requirements for “essential health benefits” covered by insurers, regardless of the status of the Affordable Care Act. It must be approved again by the Senate before it heads to Gov.
The Justice Department’s brief solidified President Trump’s support for a lawsuit that could decimate his predecessor’s signature health program, even though Republicans haven’t reached consensus on a replacement. Administration lawyers once took a limited view of the state-driven challenge, saying a narrow slice of Obamacare should be struck down.
Tammy Baldwin, D- Wisconsin, issued the following news release:. U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin today joined Senators Jeff Merkley and Chris Murphy at a press conference to introduce the Choose Medicare Act. The choice for the American people couldn’t be more clear- we want to make things better and he is doing everything he can to make things worse, “said Senator Baldwin.
This new survey of short-term or long-term disability insurance coverage was conducted among 1,017 U.S. adults ages 18 and older who are employed full-time or part-time. 1. The Harris Poll-OneAmerica survey was conducted April 18-22, 2019. “It is important to understand the current environment related to employee disability coverage,” said Nathan Queen,…
House Democrats kicked off a hearing on single-payer health care by downplaying Obamacare as an initial stop on the road to universal coverage, saying millions of Americans remain uninsured and a scary diagnosis can still mean bankruptcy.
Gina Raimondo, guaranteed annual COLAs had been relegated to history. In 2017, retirees received a small COLA that increased their base pensions by 0.74% on the first $31,318 in pension benefits, which equated to about $231. After reducing the assumed rate of return, a second time, to a “more realistic” 7% in 2017, the state employees retirement fund is currently…
America’s Health Insurance Plans submitted the following statement for a hearing in the House Rules Committee that focused on the…
The House Rules Committee on Tuesday will hold the first-ever hearing on the Medicare for All universal healthcare proposal. Pramila Jayapal, D- Wash., which proposes a single government insurance plan for all Americans. More than 100 members of Congress, including House Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern, have co-sponsored the bill.
–Today, AARP State Director Barbara A. Sykes announced AARP’s support of House Bill 177, designed to remove restrictive and outdated barriers that prevent Ohioans from accessing the full range of care provided by Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. “The Buckeye state has the opportunity to join 22 other states, the District of Columbia, and the Veteran’s…
The planned acquisition of Henrico County- based Genworth Financial Inc. by a China- based investment company has been delayed for a 10th time. Genworth and China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co. Ltd said Monday that they agreed to extend the merger deadline until June 30. Genworth- a seller of mortgage and long-term care insurance that has thousands of employees…
In 2020, a new rule for the ACA marketplace will reduce tax credits for 7.3 million people — a majority of those who receive them — resulting in higher premiums, analysts estimate. And 70,000 more people are expected to be pushed out of the marketplace when they are unable to afford the higher premiums, by the government’s own estimate.
WASHINGTON- Just for the record, we ought to note that trustees for Social Security and Medicare recently released their annual reports. The trustees issued their usual dire warnings that, absent congressional action, the trust funds that finance these programs will run out of cash: Medicare in 2026 and the Social Security in 2035.. The prospective cuts to…
April 28– Apr. 28– Congress consistently has punted on resolving long-term problems in the crucial retirement-related programs Social Security and Medicare. But it is moving in a bipartisan way to improve workers’ access to quality private sector retirement plans. The House Ways and Means Committee unanimously has approved the Setting Every Community up…
April 26– Apr. 26– Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is pushing the idea of a universal health care system in the United States. The U.S. already spends more of its GDP– 17 percent in 2017– on health care than any other nation. Question: Would a universal health care system benefit the U.S. economy in the long run?
Fifty-nine percent of those polled by AARP said it was only “somewhat likely” to “not at all likely” that the combination of their savings, investments and Social Security benefits would be sufficient to cover their financial needs throughout retirement. Only 41% of all respondents said their retirement assets are “very” or “extremely” likely to pay for their needs through retirement.
Voluntary benefits do more than fill in the gaps left by traditional health insurance. They can be part of a worker’s holistic protection plan. And with more workers facing higher out-of-pocket medical expenses, voluntary benefits can help cover those unexpected costs.
Bank of America, a financial institution, issued the following news release:. Bank of America today announced the launch of a digital platform for health savings accounts to make the tax-advantaged savings vehicle more accessible and easier to use. “As health care costs persist as one of the greatest financial concerns facing both individuals and companies,…
New York won’t be passing a state-level single-payer health care system this year, but that hasn’t kept the sparks from flying as proponents clash with industry critics who say such a proposal is unworkable. “Look no further than the VA system or the Canadian system, where there are significant wait times, and I don’t think that’s something that consumers want to…
The Kaiser Family Foundation poll found 68 percent said “no” to the high court dismissing the pre-existing coverage and 54 percent don’t want to see the entire law overturned. Although nearly three-quarters of Republicans said they want the ACA gone, 52 percent want coverage for pre-existing conditions. A federal judge in Texas ruled in December the ACA was…
More than 64 percent of agents reported increased or higher sales of Medigap insurance in 2018. Just over one-in-four (27.2%) indicated that their sales were about the same as the prior year, with only 8.7 percent reporting decreased or lower sales.
