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 »

Does your child need health insurance? Help may be around the corner for you and the parents of 4 million other uninsured children. This week the U.S. House of Representatives, including Congressman Neil Abercrombie and Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, voted 289 to 139 to approve the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act to renew and expand the State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) extending government funded health insurance Read the rest of this entry »

Michigan, longtime home of some of the best health benefits in the nation, has fallen below the national average of companies offering health insurance, a new report to be released today finds.
The number of people without insurance also grew, particularly among those ages 35 to 64 and those without a college education, the report found. Black and Hispanic people are disproportionally affected, the report said.
The number of uninsured people increased Read the rest of this entry »

show that 59% of Americans want single-payer health coverage, and by over a 2 to 1 margin they think that it is more important to provide universal health care than to avoid a tax increase for it. An overwhelming majority believe the present system to be seriously flawed.
This is one of those issues where Congress acts independently of the wishes of the people. Congress is not giving serious consideration to a single-payer plan. Instead what Read the rest of this entry »

Losing your job and starting a new business don’t share much in common.
But for both the newly unemployed and the budding entrepreneur, knowing where to get health insurance — and what kind you need — often poses a challenge.
With state jobless reports growing bleaker by the month and unemployment security officials in Keene reporting a troubling increase in unemployment in the Monadnock Region, the number of uninsured could Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare has quietly expanded its coverage for cancer drugs to include some treatments that haven’t gotten the Food and Drug Administration’s full seal of approval.
The change was announced last summer with little fanfare and took effect in the fall. It means that doctors and patients seeking Medicare reimbursement for certain novel treatments won’t have to negotiate with the billing department for payment. But it’s also Read the rest of this entry »

AUSTIN
— At least 36,000 children living in the areas affected by Hurricane Ike may not have health coverage next year because their families have not re-enrolled them in government health insurance programs for 2009, state officials said.
Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said more than half of the 72,000 children statewide who did not re-enroll in Medicaid are from the Houston and Beaumont Read the rest of this entry »

My company has been laying off people, and I’m worried that I may lose my job soon. If that happens, what will I be able to do about my health insurance?
If you lose or leave your job, you usually can continue coverage through your employer’s plan for up to 18 months through a federal program called COBRA. You can’t be rejected or charged more because of your health, but you may be flabbergasted by the price.
Your policy doesn’t change when you Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Friday that the number of U.S. employees who have health care coverage through its plans or another source has risen to 94.5 percent from 92.7 percent a year ago.
The world’s largest retailer said more than 733,000, or 51.8 percent of its U.S. employees, were covered by its own plans as of November 7, 2008, the end of its annual enrollment period.
Wal-Mart said that is up from 50.2 percent who were Read the rest of this entry »

Does your child need health insurance? Help may be around the corner for you and the parents of 4 million other uninsured children. This week the U.S. House of Representatives, including Congressman Neil Abercrombie and Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, voted 289 to 139 to approve the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act to renew and expand the State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) extending government funded health insurance Read the rest of this entry »