Search results for

Until a national health insurance mandate takes effect in 2014, states run stopgap pools to cover people with pre-existing conditions. The federal funds to pay for the coverage are being stretched thin in many states.

The California health exchange has focused on drumming up interest in coverage during the first month of operation. Certified enrollment counselors can barely keep up with the requests for assistance that are rolling in.

Some brokers and insurers are selling policies approved for the new exchanges along with traditional health coverage. Subsidies will be available only for the plans that got the OK for sale on exchanges. Sorting through the options won't be simple.

Though the Obama administration says that the nation is entering a new era of lower health care spending, an analysis from the agency that oversees Medicare says probably not. Those economists say that health spending will escalate as the economy improves, as it has in past economic recoveries.

Many laid-off workers continue the insurance they got on the job by paying for it themselves through an expensive option known as COBRA. The health insurance exchanges that open in October are likely to be a cheaper source for health coverage.

Maryland-based Evergreen Health Co-op is one of nearly two dozen nonprofit insurers created by the health act. They will be owned by the policyholders and are supposed to add competition and lower prices for coverage. they're supposed to add competition and lower prices for medical coverage. But they can't do either without customers.

There was a party atmosphere at Affordable Care Act events both in California, where the law has been embraced by the state government, and in Virginia, where it has been resisted. But consumers will have very different experiences in the two states.

In October, online health insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, will open for business. As the start date nears, people's questions about the particulars of buying insurance on the exchanges are streaming in.

Almost anyone can buy a plan on the health insurance marketplace, sometimes called an exchange. But tax credits that reduce the premium are only available to people who don't have access to other coverage that meets the law's standards for affordability and adequacy.

Rusty Lovell was diagnosed with leukemia eight years ago. Luckily, through his wife's plan he has "gold-plated" insurance that has paid millions of dollars for his care since then, at a low monthly cost to them.