News tagged with 'Insurance Companies'

Washington wants to know why the five largest health insurance companies racked up record profits last year - $12.2 billion – up 56 percent over 2008 numbers.

Medical health insurance premiums are supposed to go primarily to pay medical claims, but a Senate Committee inquiry finds that a larger chunk, than previously suspected, of what you pay for medical insurance, returns to the insurer as profit.

A national trade association representing 1,300 member companies such as WellPoint Inc., United Health Group Inc., Humana Inc. and Aetna Inc., has spent more than $1.6 million on lobbying efforts in the third-quarter. Meanwhile Big Insurance and Pharma as well as AMA doctors are expected to show up at meet and greet gatherings with the incoming president.

What consumers need to watch out for is contained in this, the fourth in a series of reports on the "Tricks of the Trade" behind the multi-trillion dollar insurance industry. The sick and vulnerable are often the victims of denied or cancelled policies.

With 9 million children without health care coverage, the children's SCHIP coverage program is at the top of an agenda of the new Obama White House. Also included is more affordable coverage, and increasing stem cell research.

Six days and counting and a brief overview is presented here on both candidates health care plans.  Health care and the economy are the top issues. Elizabeth Edwards, who has made health care her top priority, says neither plan offers universal coverage, the cheapest way to go.

Whoever is elected president in two weeks will have to face the realities of "Three Inconvenient Truths" about health care. The current delivery of the least health care for the highest dollar is not sustainable and will impact all other sectors, this Stanford professor of economics explains in a very understandable way. 

Having employer-sponsored health coverage does not necessarily extend to the children in the family, this published study finds. Millions of children are going without insurance, even when one parent is covered.

A hospital in Palm Beach County, Florida  has medical residents in training seeing patients for up to an hour at a time at a low cost. It seems to be working for everyone.

Obama and McCain are looking for a solution to our health care crisis, and now with a $10 million prize, private citizens are being incentivized to do the same. The X PRIZE Foundation along with WellPoint want the public to compete to "make health care available to everybody." 

The National Transportation Safety Board confirms today that the train engineer of a Metrolink commuter train sent his last text message 22 seconds before he ran head-on into a freight train, killing 25 passengers aboard. 

A mental health parity bill passes Congress with strong bi-partisan suppport.  It puts mental health services on a par with other health care services, eliminating a higher deductible or cost. Now can Congress work out a final form the president will sign? 

Internal medicine is the specialty of last choice among medical students a survey of more than 1,000 finds. Money is the reason. Internists make the least, while specialists can collect a seven-figure salary. Expect the income gap to lead to a health care "crisis" as fewer doctors try to see a doubling of the patient population by 2030.

Homeowners trying to collect from big insurance companies are still having trouble, three years after Hurricane Katrina. Increasingly, on appeal, the Times-Picayune newspaper finds that Big Insurance is winning over homeowners.

While the U.S. Census Bureau in its August report finds that slightly more Americans have health insurance, that is largely due to increasing enrollments from the state and federal government.  As the troubled economy forces employers and states to cut costs further, many fear our insurance crisis is not over.