Broker Regulation

State insurance regulators are wrestling with questions about whether the benefits insurance company employers have offered employees are promises or heartfelt wishes.

Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage in 2011 increased to $15,073, a 9 percent jump from 2010, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust 2011 Employer Health Benefits Survey.

Democrats are hitting the reset button on health care for next year's elections. Weary of getting pounded over the new health overhaul law, President Barack Obama and his party are changing the subject to Medicare.

A report that outlines an important component of health insurance reform in Maine, a health care exchange where people can shop for policies, was met with expressions of frustration by Democrats as it was presented Monday to a legislative committee.

The Obama administration has decided not to ask a federal appeals court in Atlanta for further review of a ruling striking down the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul.

The $8.3 billion shortfall predicted by the time the fiscal year ends in June includes $5.5 billion in unpaid bills and another $2.8 billion from a payment backlog for Medicaid, employee health insurance bills and business tax refunds, the report said.