The coverage at issue was established in 1996 by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. A key goal was ensuring that people who lost their jobs were able to remain insured. HIPAA works in tandem with COBRA, a federal law that extends job-based group insurance coverage, entirely at the individual’s expense, for up to three years after a person leaves or loses a job. (COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Read the rest of this entry »

The coverage at issue was established in 1996 by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. A key goal was ensuring that people who lost their jobs were able to remain insured. HIPAA works in tandem with COBRA, a federal law that extends job-based group insurance coverage, entirely at the individual’s expense, for up to three years after a person leaves or loses a job. (COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Read the rest of this entry »

One in three insured people with cancer encounter serious financial hardships, or even forced to forgo care, because their health insurance does not fully pay for their treatments, says a report released today.
The report, from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the American Cancer Society, details the problems of the underinsured — some 43 million Americans with health coverage that doesn’t go far enough to pay medical bills.
“Spending to Survive: Read the rest of this entry »