Core and Group Health

Employers in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri are looking to health insurers to control costs, and more employers are turning to high-deductible and self-insurance health plans to do so.

Stocks plunged worldwide Thursday as more signs of economic weakness revived investors' fears of another recession. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 400 points in a return to the wild swings in the market last week.

Gridlock, as much as it's derided, may be the best outcome for the elderly, health care providers and poor people in this fall's fight over further deficit cuts.

According to a new survey by the National Business Group on Health, large U.S. employers are planning to shift higher health care costs to workers next year, thanks largely to cost increases that are more than twice the rate of inflation.

A private research group forecast that the economy will grow slowly in the second half of the year because of the support it's gotten from the Federal Reserve.

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose back above 400,000 last week. Still, the four-week average, a more reliable gauge of the job market, fell to the lowest level since mid-April.