Health Care Reform

 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as national health reform, or, perhaps derisively as ‘Obamacare’, will change the way hospitals are paid. Since hospitals are major employers in the Central Valley and are drivers of local economies, the question is what exactly will the new law mean? The short answer is no one really knows precisely

Sarah Rose Nordgren works 25 to 30 hours a week as a waitress at an upscale restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C. She also tutors high- schoolers on their college entrance essays and has an editorial internship at a book publisher. But if something were to go seriously wrong with her health, she'd be in trouble because none of her three jobs offers health insurance.

The Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury issued regulations to implement a new Patient’s Bill of Rights under the Affordable Care Act. These new protections apply to nearly all health insurance plans. Here’s how these new rules will help you.

Despite passage of the landmark healthcare overhaul this spring, the nation's existing health system is continuing to fray, raising the prospect that the country could experience a crisis before the law establishes a new safety net in 2014.

Small businesses that qualify for tax credits under the new federal health reform law might not experience immediate benefits because of recent rate increases by insurance companies...

Sometime after July 1, under the terms of the health care reform, California will establish a new, statewide insurance pool that will offer subsidized health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. Tens of thousands of Californians may participate.

What you need to know about how your family will benefit, what you'll really pay, whether you'll get better or worse care, and what could go wrong from here.

Public outrage over double-digit rate hikes for health insurance may have helped push President Obama's healthcare overhaul across the finish line, but the new law does not give regulators the power to block similar increases in the future.

And now, with some major companies already moving to boost premiums and others poised to follow suit, millions of Americans may feel an unexpected jolt in the pocketbook.

Although Democrats promised greater consumer protection, the overhaul does not give the federal government broad regulatory power to prevent increases.

Many state governments -- which traditionally had responsibility for regulating insurance companies -- also do not have such authority. And several that do are now being sued by insurance companies.

For the next phase of healthcare reform in the United States, leaders will place more emphasis on individualized care—people keeping themselves healthier and out of hospitals, and finding ways to help themselves better manage their own health, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) HealthCast survey report.