The best commercial health plan in the United States this year is Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, according to a ranking published in U.S. News & World Report.
An employee making $40,000 who receives an average pay raise will use 16 percent of that salary increase to pay for an increase in healthcare costs next year, according to a study by Hewitt Associates.
Premiums for employer-sponsored health coverage increased an average of 7.7 percent in 2006, down from the 9.2 percent increase recorded in 2005, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET).
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will veto legislation that would create a single-payer healthcare system for providing health insurance coverage to all California residents.
A couple aged 65 retiring today and living to average life expectancy would need $295,000 to cover premiums for health insurance and out-of-pocket expenses during retirement, according to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have issued final regulations on Health Savings Account (HSA) comparability rules, which require an employer contributing to one employee's HSA to contribute comparable amounts to all employees who have HSAs.
Fifty-three percent of adults in the United States think it is fair to ask those with unhealthy lifestyles to pay higher insurance premiums than individuals with healthy lifestyles, up from 37 percent in 2003, according to a survey by the Wall Street Journal Online and Harris Interactive. Thirty-two percent of respondents said it was unfair, down from 46 percent in 2003.
A federal judge has struck down a Maryland law that would have required Wal-Mart to pay at least 8 percent of its payroll on healthcare benefits, ruling that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) preempts the law.
