Pennsylvania to answer consumer questions regarding state’s health insurance exchange

As Pennsylvania continues its slow and steady march toward building a health insurance exchange, residents of the state are coming to the Department of Insurance with questions about how the exchange will affect them. The state’s Department of Insurance has been awarded a $1 million grant from the federal government to help keep consumers informed over the matter. With the money, the department has hired additional staff, whose purpose it is to answer the questions consumers have about the exchange and the Affordable Care Act. Pennsylvania has stood in opposition…

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Freelancers Union to establish new insurance plans in New York, New Jersey, and Oregon

The Freelancers Union, a non-profit organization that represents freelance workers, has received a $341 million loan from the U.S. government. The money will help the organization set up health insurance plans in three states. New York, New Jersey, and Oregon are the states where the plans will take root once they have been finalized. The plans are meant to compete with those that come from for-profit insurance companies and may help lower coverage rates by bringing in more competition to the markets. The Freelancers Union owns its own insurance company…

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American consumers want experimental drugs covered by insurance

Insurance for Experimental procedures

Scientists from the School of Public Health at Harvard have recently asked Americans, as well as people in Italy, the U.K., and Germany, if they felt that decreasing the overall cost of healthcare was worth eliminating expensive experimental treatments. The results of this survey indicated that among Americans, 62 percent were opposed to “decisions by the government or health insurance plans” for denying care if they should decide that the cost are not justified by the benefits that the care provides. Each country’s participants in the survey provided comparable results.…

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Report shows that employees in California will be paying more for their health insurance coverage

InstantHealthInsuranceQuotes.com, a premium aggregation website, has released a new report that shows how employees in California are beginning to pay more for their insurance coverage. The report suggests that employers are trickling down the cost of coverage to their employees in an attempt to offset the cost of insurance. This is largely due to the rate at which health insurance premiums are rising. Some employers claim that rates are rising to levels that they can no longer support without more help from workers. The company’s report is based on a…

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Highmark announces the launch of new low premium and deductible individual health insurance coverage

Highmark has announced the availability of a new form of individual health insurance plan called the Simply Blue PPO, which is designed to provide policyholders with simple coverage at a low premium, with a predictable structure for copayments and with low deductibles. According to Highmark’s senior vice president of health services strategy, product and marketing, Steven Nelson, “We listened to our members’ feedback, and we’ve heard them say that they would like a more affordable plan without a large upfront deductible.” The new plan is medically underwritten and offers policyholders…

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