An Associated Press article, under the header “Workers bear larger share of health premium costs,” reports that “workers are paying a larger portion of health insurance costs as businesses, trying to ride out the economic downturn, shift more of the burden to their employees.”

The September 2nd Tom Murphy article adds: “The average employee contribution toward premiums for family coverage climbed 14 percent this year to nearly $4,000, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust released Thursday. Contributions for single coverage grew 15 percent.”

But this study repeats the myth that there … Continue Reading

On December 29th, Mary Carmichael reported for News week on What Health-Care Reform Will Mean for You. She writes:

Two changes will affect people with current private insurance in 2010. One is that they won’t have to worry about maxing out their lifetime medical benefits, because as of six months after enactment, insurance companies won’t be allowed to impose those maximums on anyone. … A second is that people who are frustrated with their plans will have someone to gripe to other than their congressmen: the Senate bill calls for the immediate creation of new state offices that will handle

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The October 5th New York Times has an item by Reed Abelson titled “Health Insurance Exchanges: Will They Work?” Abelson reports:

Despite all the disagreement in Washington, every proposal now before Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system includes creation of an insurance “exchange” — a marketplace that would operate something like a Travelocity Web site for insurance policies.
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The risk is that many local markets could end up looking much as they do today — with small businesses and individuals at the mercy of too few insurers wielding too much power in their regions.
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A recent analysis by the Government

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