The health insurance industry and business allies are stepping up their campaign to repeal another new Obamacare tax this fall — one that they argue will hit consumers smack in the health care part of their wallet. As Congress returns from recess, expect to hear more about the health insurance tax, or HIT, as it's known, a levy in the health care law to raise $116 billion through 2023. That money, in turn, is supposed to help finance expanded coverage. America's Health Insurance Plans, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an insurance brokers association and other groups launched a digital advertising and social media campaign last month to stir opposition to the tax, especially in states of the lawmakers who might do something about it.
International Business Machines Corp. plans to move about 110,000 retirees off its company-sponsored health plan and instead give them a payment to buy coverage on a health-insurance exchange, in a sign that even big, well-capitalized employers aren't likely to keep providing the once-common benefits as medical costs continue to rise. The move, which will affect all IBM retirees once they become eligible for Medicare, will relieve the technology company of the responsibility of managing retirement health-care benefits. IBM said the growing cost of care makes its current plan unsustainable without big premium increases. [Subscription Required]
Insurance exchanges are the health-care experiment du jour. Retirees are the test case. The latest indication: Media-company Time Warner Inc. plans to move its U.S. retirees from company-administered health plans to private exchanges, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company will allocate funds in special accounts that retirees can use to go shop for coverage, the person said. The news comes as International Business Machines Corp. also plans to move about 110,000 of its own retirees off its company-sponsored health plan to a Medicare insurance exchange. [Subscription Required]
The long years of Republican obstruction and obfuscation on health care reform have taken their toll. More than half of Americans still say they don't know how they and their families will be affected by the Affordable Care Act, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, about the same percentage as in 2010. More Americans have a negative view of the act than a positive one. But now the Obama administration, which has been outshouted by its opponents, is fighting back.
PHILADELPHIA — Neshoba County General Hospital and Nursing Home generated a profit of $3.5 million profit during fiscal 2012 after a $213,575 profit the previous year, according to audited financial statements.The Neshoba Democrat reports the hospital had a loss of $1.9 million in 2010. Hospital administrator Lonnie Graeber said overall expenses were reduced by about $2 million while revenue remained steady, leading to the 2012 profit. Graeber said that for the first eight months of operations in fiscal 2013, the facility has shown a profit of $3.5 million. "Our inpatient volume has increased about 40 percent this year," he said.
During the 2012 presidential elections, the predictions of one shy outsider with a love for baseball statistics outperformed those of hundreds of campaign veterans and beltway insiders. How did he do it? Instead of gut feelings and anecdotes, Nate Silver and his blog FiveThirtyEight used "big data" to correctly predict the outcome of every single state and the District of Columbia. But Silver was not the only person to use data in that election; the Obama campaign also famously employed big data to help them win votes, using it to do everything from tracking the effectiveness of door-to-door canvasing to determining the contents of ads.