Will the healthcare overhaul be capable of keeping its promises of affordability?

The entire design of the healthcare reforms has been intended to make sure that Americans will be able to have access to an improved level of health care, but at an affordable price. What individuals are waiting to discover is whether or not it will be able to live up to its promises. The reason that this new healthcare system design was chosen was to make it significantly more efficient, so that its focus would be placed primarily on the patient’s health and the outcomes that are achieved, instead of…

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Vermont to begin working toward a health insurance exchange by the end of the year

Vermont lawmakers are expected to determine how the state will build its own health insurance exchange system by the end of this year. The state has been sluggish in its efforts to build an exchange due to some uncertainty and lack of guidance from the federal government. The Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that oversees the exchange effort throughout the country, has granted states with enough flexibility to establish an exchange in a way they see fit. Vermont’s slow pace may put the exchange effort at risk…

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Final simplification rules for insurance policies issued by the Obama administration this week

The Obama administration has issued the final rules regarding how insurance companies will make policies easier to understand this week. The government has been working on the rules since the passing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The endeavor aims to make the language of insurance policies more clear and straightforward. There have been some delays in the initiative as insurance groups asserted that some policies could not be simplified because they did not cover simple circumstances. Nonetheless, the final rules have been issued this week, requiring all insurers…

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Department of Health and Human Services issues legal briefing regarding Affordable Care Act

As the Affordable Care Act continues its slow march toward the Supreme Court, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued a legal brief regarding the matter. The federal health care law has come under fire largely due to one of its provisions. The provision requires all U.S. citizens to purchase some kind of health insurance. 26 states have come together to combat this provision, along with some of the other aspects of the law. The HHS claims that if the individual insurance mandate is declared unconstitutional, the Supreme…

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Minnesota lawmakers clash over recommendations from health insurance exchange advisory task force

Legislators are clashing in Minnesota over recommendations regarding a health insurance exchange program. The recommendations come from a task force that had been commissioned by Governor Mark Dayton. The task force’s goal was to determine the necessity of a health insurance exchange program for the state. According to the group’s recommendations, the program would bring significant benefits to residents and could help improve the economy of the state, which is why the task force is now supporting plans to build and exchange. The task force was comprised of some of…

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