Sure, warehouse clubs are great for picking up pallets of bottled water and giant tubs of ranch dressing. But would you turn to one for your health insurance? Costco just announced a partnership with insurer Aetna that will let Costco members buy health insurance through the warehouse retailer in nine states, and it plans to roll out the program to other states in the future.
Most plastic surgery procedures are considered non-essential, or elective. When the economy’s shaky and money is tight, it makes sense that fewer people elect to spend out of pocket for boob jobs, facelifts, and the like, mostly because they don’t have the money to spend. The fact that elective cosmetic procedures rose by 5% last year could be viewed as an indication that the economy is recovering.
A new report estimates that the average American worker drops nearly $1,100 annually on coffee. That’s not much less than what the average worker spends to commute to the job.
Drug prices almost always fall after a manufacturer’s patent expires and generics hit the market. But with its blockbuster cholesterol-fighting drug Lipitor going off-patent this week, drug maker Pfizer has launched an all-out price war against generics manufacturers to hang onto market share. In fact, you can now buy Lipitor for about 80% off its original [...]
Last week, the Obama administration quietly abandoned the CLASS Act, a provision slipped into health care reform two years ago that would have ensured funding for assisted living for the frail and elderly before they went bankrupt.
Kaiser Permanente’s stand-out performance in Consumer Reports’ national rankings of some 830 insurance plans raises an obvious question: What makes Kaiser so different? In a word: collaboration.
Remember when your parents told you to finish the food on your plate because “people in China were starving?” Well, the Chinese might well be saying that about America these days.
Haven’t we all heard this one before? The average cost of health insurance premiums rose sharply this year: Family costs are up 9%, topping $15,000 annually for the first time. Over the last 10 years, family premiums have risen by 113%—exponentially faster than workers’ wages and inflation.
— VANESSA CULLINS, VP of medical affairs for Planned Parenthood of America, writing an op-ed arguing why birth control should be more affordable [via The New York Times]
Monica Vigna-Bony was at the drugstore picking up a prescription for Advair, an asthma inhaler, when she finally lost her cool over the astronomical price of being uninsured. Because she works part-time at a retail store, Vigna-Bony, 44, doesn’t have health insurance, and neither does her husband. But things changed after she sought advice from [...]
This year I’m turning 65 and signing up for Medicare, so brochures and “lead cards” for Medicare Advantage plans and Medigap policies began flooding my mailbox. I finally sat down and started sifting through it all.
