Employer-Paid

Wal-Mart, America's single-biggest employer outside of the U.S. federal government, has announced that in 2014 it will begin offering health care benefits to employees' domestic partners.

The Seattle-based caffeine vendor, which employs 150,000 full-time workers worldwide and many thousands more in part-time positions, says it will not try to shift full-time workers to part-time status in order to avoid paying healthcare costs as required by the PPACA.

Some political conservatives are sure to balk, but according to these economists, the PPACA has had little or no real impact on the relatively high percentage of part-time workers seen today.

Gap or bridge insurance covers some of the out-of-pocket health care costs that are increasingly difficult for employees to shoulder, including deductibles that can go as high as $10,000.

In the run-up to the Oct. 1 launch of the state insurance exchanges, the National Journal asked how important the first days of the exchanges would prove to be. The answer: Not at all.

That whole health insurance crisis weve been trying to fix? Thats nothing compared to what were all about to face.