ACA – Page 3 – Healthcare-NOW

Some unions protest Obamacare’s impact on Multiemployer Health Plans

By Kay Tillow – The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, also known as Obamacare, presents challenges to the multi-employer plans through which some unions bargain collectively to provide health care insurance for their members. These plans, often called Taft Hartley Plans, currently cover about 26 million workers, families, and retirees. Unless there is a…

Unions break ranks on ObamaCare

By Kevin Bogardus for The Hill – Labor unions are breaking with President Obama on ObamaCare. Months after the president’s reelection, a variety of unions are publicly balking at how the administration plans to implement the landmark law. They warn that unless there are changes, the results could be catastrophic. The United Food and Commercial…

Health Insurers Warn on Premiums

From the Wall St. Journal – Health insurers are privately warning brokers that premiums for many individuals and small businesses could increase sharply next year because of the health-care overhaul law, with the nation’s biggest firm projecting that rates could more than double for some consumers buying their own plans. The projections, made in sessions…

A Cruel Blow to American Families

From the New York Times – The Internal Revenue Service has issued a hugely disappointing ruling on how to calculate the affordability of health insurance offered by employers. Its needlessly strict interpretation of the Affordable Care Act could leave millions of Americans with modest incomes unable to afford family coverage under their employers’ health insurance…

Health Insurers Raise Some Rates by Double Digits

By Reed Abelson for the New York Times – Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers. Particularly vulnerable to the…

Welcome to the Future of Your Health Insurance. It Sucks.

By Yves Smith for Naked Capitalism – There have been numerous reports about the shortcomings of Obamacare which its boosters have either ignored or shouted down. And troublingly, the attitude is often “I got mine” as in “My kids are now covered under my policy” without questioning what the narrow and broader issues are. Well,…

Health Changes Spur Test of More Part-Time Workers

By the Associated Press – The owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants is putting more workers on part-time status in a test aimed at limiting costs from President Barack Obama’s health care law. Darden Restaurants Inc. declined to give details but said the test is only in four markets across the country. The…

Worse Than War: Deaths from Uninsurance

‘We’re not done with health care reform yet’ By Johnathon Ross for Common Dreams – A recently released Census Bureau report reveals that 48.6 million Americans lack health insurance. We know that being uninsured is dangerous to your physical and fiscal health. Research has shown that for every million uninsured, 1,000 preventable deaths occur due…

Overhaul offers multi-billion dollar growth opportunity for health insurers

By the AP, Washington Post – The health care overhaul is poised to pour billions of dollars into an insurance industry thirsty for customers, according to health care consultant PwC. The massive federal law aims to cover millions of uninsured people and will take a major step toward that goal in 2014, when the government…

TX Gov. Rick Perry Pressured to Expand Medicaid

By Ken Kenegos, Healthcare for All – Texas – On Friday September 21st, advocates for healthcare rights brought together by The Texas Organizing Project, SEIU, Good Jobs = Great Houston, Mi Familia Vota, Health Care for All Texas and others converged on the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Buses from Houston, San Antonio and Dallas…