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I'm out'a the loop because I'm retired and on Medicare, but ...

You may want to be more careful on future trips to other EU countries. Today, parliament is expect to abolish the public travel insurance provided by the yellow health insurance card. According to DR Nyheder, a large majority will vote in favour of the bill, which then will come into effect by August. When the proposal is passed, Danish residents will no longer have all their medical expenses paid when visiting another EU country. Instead they will fall under the same regulations as citizens of the respective country. To avoid unexpected medical bills on your next holiday in Europe, it...

The administration’s rollout plans for their perfect ObamaCare timeline just keep getting punctuated with flaws and delays, from Sebelius oh-so-casually admitting that the overhaul is causing some insurance premiums to rise, to Congressional Democrats’ buyers’ remorse for the godawful medical device tax, to their recent decision to hold off on the promised small-business insurance-shopping option for a year. Whichever way you look at it, the telltale signs of bureaucratic incompetence are starting to peek through — and really, as Krauthammer outlined last night, how could it have gone otherwise? In a nutshell, ObamaCare basically dissolves the basic idea of insurance...

Spotlight back on healthcare lawBy Julian Pecquet and Sam Baker - 09/27/11 09:00 PM ET Health insurance premiums surged 9 percent in 2011, according to a report released Tuesday that raised new doubts about President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment. Republicans seized on the annual Kaiser Family Foundation survey, arguing it flew in the face of Obama’s campaign promise that healthcare reform would lead to lower insurance costs. Instead, the Senate Republican Policy Committee calculated, average family premiums have increased by $2,213 so far under the administration. The report was released a day after the Department of Justice decided against asking...

Henry Blodget | Mar. 29, 2010, 6:42 AM The White House has rushed to try to stop a wave of companies announcing that ObamaCare will cause their healthcare insurance costs to rise, causing them to cut benefits or fire people. At the end of last week, Secretary Gary Locke hit the WH blog to say, in effect, that these companies didn't know what they were talking about (which seems unlikely). Later, on CNBC, he suggested that they were acting unpatriotically. And now Henry Waxman is calling Congressional hearings to beat the companies up on live TV. For what it's worth,...

If you don't believe that insurance companies want this bill, then why are these politicians promoting it when they receive so much money from insurance companies? According to statistics maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics, in the 2010 mid-term elections, Democrats have drawn 55 percent of insurance-related contributions, compared with 45 percent for Republicans. The top three Senate recipients for insurance industry contributions – all Democrats – are Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., according to the Center's research. And in the House, it's another trio of Democrats: Reps. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., Earl Pomeroy,...

Insurance: Spiking premiums are telling us something important — about why costs are out of control and why ObamaCare won't work. It's time to listen to these price signals, not try to squelch them. True to form, Democrats were quick to jump on the recent flap in California over the request by Wellpoint Inc.'s Anthem-Blue Cross unit for a 39% increase in premiums for its individual health plans. Forget about the complexities of health economics. This was meant to be a populist morality play. The administration and its allies jumped on the story with a blast at insurance company greed...

Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) recently became the first presidential candidate in U.S. history to propose solving the problem of the uninsured by making health insurance mandatory. Although his proposed health-care mandate is limited to children and young people, all under age 21, it offers the most promising way forward for eventually covering all 41 million uninsured Americans, and it marks a major turning point in our nation's health-care debate. The United States spends more on health care per capita than any other nation, yet one in seven of our citizens, and 12 million children, still lack basic health insurance. There...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Report says higher premiums force more plan revisions As health care costs skyrocket and the economy lags, employers are shifting more of the burden to workers, requiring them to pay higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments while wages remain stagnant. One-third of companies responding to a local business survey said they substantially revised employee health care benefits as a result of increasing premiums in the past year. Nearly 70 percent said the probability was "somewhat likely" to "very likely" that they would substantially revise their coverage plan as premiums continue to rise....