Broker Regulation

One crisis averted, on to the next. The day after Congress managed to avoid a government shutdown again Republicans and Democrats stared ahead Tuesday at major fights over spending that underscore a deep divide that's sure to define the fast-approaching national elections.

This pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer approach might look like some kind of threat to the traditional broker role, and I wonder if maybe, just maybe, carriers really are trying to circumvent brokers altogether.

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.